Old Iron Anchor returned to his home, which was full of liquor bottles.
With his foot, he casually cleared out a bit of space on the floor and lay down comfortably amid the stench-filled garbage, as though he were lying on the fragrant grass of a flower garden. No one had entered this house for more than three hundred years. Ever since the one-armed female soldier who had wanted to marry Old Iron Anchor left in a fit of despair over his cold attitude, no one had ever entered his room again.
Before Old Iron Anchor could fall asleep, several rats crawled out through a hole in the corner of the wall and scurried everywhere, knocking several liquor bottles into one another with loud bangs.
Yet Old Iron Anchor turned a blind eye.
It was as though those rats wandering before him were not rats at all, but invisible air.
Outside the window, Gan Quan, the immigrant merchant who had rented Old Iron Anchor's ancestral plot and built the Whale-Drink Tavern there, was instructing Xi Jiu, a waiter he had recruited not long ago. "Brother Iron Anchor is used to sleeping early. Don't knock on the door. Just toss the food directly through the window and onto that highest iron hook. Remember to throw accurately. The rope must be hung on the hook, or the rats will steal the food. Oh, and Brother Iron Anchor runs out of liquor every three days. You must place the liquor at his door in time. He can go without food, but there must always be enough liquor!"
"Understood. Don't worry, Boss." The newly hired waiter, Xi Jiu, was a clever fellow who remembered many things after hearing them only once.
Smack!
He went to the window and peered inside.
Slowly reaching his hand