A dilemma

By the time Lai Fu returned from Qiantang County town to Chen Family Cove, dusk had fallen. The two tenant households, seven people in all, children in tow, had already been settled in the farmhouse at the northern foot of Nine Luminaries Mountain. An old man and a boy also followed Lai Fu into the Fortified Manor. The old man had only one arm and a face crisscrossed with scars. The boy was about twelve or thirteen, yet as tall and broad as a grown man.

Lai Fu's heart was heavy, but he had attended to every task Young Master Caozhi had entrusted to him, without the slightest neglect.

Mother Chen Lady Li stood with Zongzhi and Run'er at the third-floor railing, gazing north and hoping for Chen Caozhi's return. They had waited a long time without seeing any sign of him. The sun sank westward, weary birds returned to the woods, and their eyes ached from watching. Yet she kept thinking that perhaps, in the next moment, Caozhi would emerge from behind that Willow Grove in his small cap and hempen robe and stride toward the Fortified Manor. So they waited and waited, only to see Lai Fu return with two strangers. She went downstairs to ask what had happened, then said, "Very well, let them stay." She asked the one-armed old man's name and learned that he was called Jing Nu. The boy was only twelve, and his name was Ran Sheng.

Seeing no sign of Chen Caozhi, Lai Fu asked Mother Chen Lady Li about him. She frowned. "He went to Precious Stone Mountain with a Daoist in a black robe and still hasn't returned. He really has this old woman worried."

Lai Fu had something urgent to tell Chen Caozhi. Disregarding the exhaustion of a day's travel, he said, "Rest easy, mistress. I'll go and meet the young master now. Perhaps I'll run into him very soon."

The boy Ran Sheng knew no one in Chen Family Cove except Lai Fu, so he said he wanted to go along. The one-armed old man Jing Nu seemed to follow Ran Sheng's lead in everything; since Ran Sheng wanted to go, naturally he would go too.

Lai Fu fetched three bamboo tubes of water and a dozen or so wheat cakes from the kitchen, then set off for Precious Stone Mountain with Ran Sheng and Jing Nu, eating as they walked.

After they had gone five or six li north, darkness had fallen completely. It was the night of the seventh day of the fifth month. The waxing moon had not yet risen, and clouds obscured the stars. Everything ahead was dim and black; they could barely make out the road beneath their feet.

Lai Fu was regretting not bringing a lantern when he heard Ran Sheng say, "Uncle Lai Fu, someone's coming over there."

Lai Fu peered closely and faintly discerned a tiny light moving slowly in the distance, like a firefly. Without looking carefully, he really would not have been able to spot it. "Young eyes really are sharper," he said approvingly, quickening his pace to meet them.

The tiny light soon grew into the shape of a lantern. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Lai Fu called loudly, "Is that Young Master Caozhi?"

An answer came at once from beside the lantern. "Yes, the young master's back." It was Lai Zhen's voice.

The two parties soon met. Before Lai Fu could speak, the burly Great Han carrying the lantern beside Chen Caozhi thrust its long handle into his hands, turned, and strode away, vanishing into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

Lai Fu was baffled, but since the young master, Lai Zhen, and Lai De were all there, he thought no more of it. He carried the lantern on the way back, lighting only the ground ahead of Chen Caozhi.

Uneasy, Chen Caozhi said, "Lai Fu, Mother sent you to meet me, didn't she? I stayed too late at Immortal Elder Ge's and made her worry!" Then he looked closely at the two people Lai Fu had brought, and his face brightened. "You've brought them-oh, Jing Nu, Ran Sheng, good. You two can live in Chen Family Cove from now on. If you wish to leave someday, just say the word, and I'll provide money for your journey."

"Huh?" Ran Sheng remembered Chen Caozhi from the West Market that day. Puzzled, he asked, "You-you, young master, why do you say we're going to leave? If that's so, why take us in?"

"You're both unregistered refugees from the north, aren't you?" Chen Caozhi said. "Our Chen Clan isn't a gentry clan, so it would be difficult for us to shelter you. Once the authorities conduct the Household Registration Inspection, they'll seize you. Your only option would be to leave beforehand."

Ran Sheng gave an "Oh" and said nothing more. This twelve-year-old boy possessed an unusual steadiness.

As they walked, Lai Fu reported to Chen Caozhi on the matters he had attended to in Qiantang County town. Finally, when he came to his visit to Feng Mengxiong's residence to inquire about household registration, he faltered, so troubled that he did not know how to begin-

Chen Caozhi asked, "Uncle Feng couldn't arrange your household registration?"

"That's right," Lai Fu replied. "County Magistrate Feng was furious. He said arranging household registration wasn't difficult in itself, but Lu Clerk was deliberately making trouble, insisting that everything had to be done according to the law, and that Protected Households people had no right to retain must be removed and sent to Qiao Province for resettlement."

After the Yongjia Southern Migration, the lands north of the Jiang and Huai rivers had fallen beneath the iron hooves of the Hu tribes. Vast numbers of refugees moved south, often migrating by entire clans or entire counties. Over a million northern refugees came to Jiangnan. To administer them, the Eastern Jin court established corresponding overseas provinces and commanderies in the sparsely populated expanses of Jiangnan, naming them after the provinces and counties the refugees had originally come from. Refugees from the same province or commandery continued to live together for ease of administration. Lai Fu was from Yan Province. He did not even know where Overseas Yan Province was, but it certainly was no good place, and life would be very hard if he were moved there.

"Arranging a household registration hardly counts as breaking the law," Chen Caozhi said. "By rights, Lu Clerk wouldn't slight County Magistrate Feng like this-"

"Then why?" Lai Fu asked, his face creased with worry.

Chen Caozhi did not answer. "Don't worry, Lai Fu. There will be a way."

Ran Sheng, who had been trudging along in silence, said, "Don't worry, Uncle Lai Fu. If nothing else works, your family can just flee with Uncle Jing and me, then return to Chen Family Cove after the Household Registration Inspection ends in the seventh month. Surely that Clerk Lu fellow from the county can't wait here all day!"

Refugees, refugees-they kept moving from place to place, and there was nothing the authorities could do about them.

Lai Fu was thinking of more than his own family. "I'm afraid the county officers will make trouble for Young Master Caozhi. My family is a Protected Household entered in the Chen Clan's household register."

"There are still two months until the Household Registration Inspection in the seventh month," Chen Caozhi said. "We still have time to prepare a response. Since Lu Clerk is using public office to serve his private ends and make trouble for our Qiantang Chen Clan, I'll make sure his Qiantang Lu Clan sinks all the way to the bottom!" Softening his tone, he continued, "Let's not speak of that now. Set your mind at ease, Lai Fu. The West Tower Chen Clan and your family will never be separated. Chen Family Cove is our home."

Chen Caozhi always spoke with gentle refinement. This was the first time Lai Fu had heard such fierce words from him, and he knew the young master was angry. But did the young master truly have a way to deal with Lu Clerk? Whatever the case, his words left Lai Fu far more reassured than before.

Mother Chen Lady Li, Zongzhi, Run'er, Xiao Chan, Qingzhi, Zeng Yuhuan, Lai Gui, and Lai Gui's wife, Lady Zhao, were all waiting outside the gate. Seeing a lantern round the willow grove in the distance, Xiao Chan, Qingzhi, and the others cheered together, "Young Master Caozhi is back! He's back!"

Chen Caozhi quickened his steps and came before his mother. Looking at her aged face and delighted eyes, he knelt upright. "Mother, I've made you worry. I won't come home late again."

Mother Chen Lady Li hurried to help him up. "It's enough that you're back. Precious Stone Mountain is a forty-li round trip. Your legs must ache from all that walking?"

"I'm all right," Chen Caozhi said. "I'm much stronger than I used to be."

Delighted to hear this, Mother Chen Lady Li took her son's hand and entered the Fortified Manor's gate. Just then, a man sauntered over from the ancestral hall. His very gait marked him as a frivolous fellow. This was Chen Liu, the second son of Chen Caozhi's elder paternal cousin-uncle, Chen Man. He worked as an unranked petty clerk in the county office, grubbing like a fly and skulking like a dog for gain, and had quite a foul reputation.

Grinning, Chen Liu said, "Seventh Aunt, you've found Sixteenth Brother? Sixteenth Brother is nearly old enough to be registered as an adult male, yet he still makes you worry so. That's really not-"

"It was I who sent my son to Precious Stone Mountain to seek the Dao. What harm is there in his returning a little late!"

How could Mother Chen Lady Li tolerate even half a word against Caozhi from someone of Chen Liu's rotten character? She cut him off coldly and swept past, holding her son's hand.

Thoroughly annoyed, Chen Liu called after Chen Caozhi, "In a few days, the county will send someone to reassess the grades of the Chen Clan's land. Aren't you and Seventh Aunt worried?"

In the Eastern Jin, anything that could be compared was divided into grades. Farmland, too, was divided into nine grades according to its fertility or barrenness. For all these years, the West Tower Chen Clan's twenty qing of land had always been rated low-grade. Taxes on low-grade land were much lower than those on high-grade land. If it were all reclassified as high-grade land, the West Tower Chen Clan's tenants would be unable to bear the taxes, and Chen Caozhi's family would also have to pay an enormous levy.

Mother Chen Lady Li's steps paused briefly, and she hesitated.

Supporting his mother, Chen Caozhi said softly, "Mother, let's go. Pay him no mind. He's threatening us."

I've been writing right up until now. Here is another chapter, and I earnestly ask for your votes of support.