By the twenty-ninth of the fourth month, Chen Family Cove had selected its twelve recruited protected households: a blacksmith, a weaver, a potter, a brewer, a tea farmer, a papermaker, a medicinal herb farmer, a fishing household, an orchardist, a carpenter, and merchants. Together with the eight protected households belonging to the East, South, West, and North Towers, twenty households in all were entered into the Qiantang Chen Clan's household register. These twenty protected households left their former fields and property to their married sons and nephews and brought their wives, young children, and a few simple household utensils to Chen Family Cove, seeking shelter under the Chen Clan's wing and a stable living through their respective crafts. At the end of the year, the Chen Clan would award them varying amounts of money and silk according to their ability and achievements, while covering all their everyday expenses. Becoming a protected household of the Chen Clan therefore meant having security for the days ahead; all that was required was to demonstrate one's skill and fulfill one's duties.
The Qiantang Chen Clan could hardly be called wealthy. Its communal fields amounted to only a few qing, and the twelve qing newly allotted to the clan had yet to yield a harvest. With twelve additional protected households arriving all at once, houses had to be built for them and the appropriate farming tools provided, all at the clan's expense. Chen Man, who managed the clan's property, immediately found himself pulling at his lapels only to expose his elbows-
Old Clan Chief Chen Xian led the way by donating twenty taels of gold toward the clan's expenses. Lady Zhou, the adoptive mother of the East Tower's Chen Mo, also donated twenty taels of gold. Even the habitually stingy Chen Man showed unprecedented generosity,