Through the long mountain summer, all was quiet and uneventful. Birds called at dawn and dusk, but the most enduring sound was the chorus of cicadas rising and falling, their cries growing more vigorous as the sunlight grew fiercer. Meanwhile, the round fortress of Chen Family Cove sat like a great beast beneath Nine Luminaries Mountain, silently breathing in and out the cool, moist air from distant Mingsheng Lake.
With the clear, ringing sound of reading aloud, the fortress of Chen Family Cove seemed to have acquired a spirit of its own.
The cicadas clamored in a boiling chorus, then suddenly fell silent together as though by agreement. Amid these cries and shifting sunlight, the Chen uncle and his young nephew and niece in the West Tower read and practiced writing. The tall, strapping young Ran Sheng was also struggling to learn his characters. Run'er was responsible for his first lessons. Amusingly, she had even found a bamboo ruler somewhere and used it to point at the characters in the book as she taught him to read. Whenever Ran Sheng read one incorrectly, Run'er made as if to strike his palm, looking every inch the stern teacher.
Being disciplined by a six-year-old girl struck twelve-year-old Ran Sheng as deeply humiliating, but he also understood that he should respect his teacher and her teachings, and never dared utter a word of complaint. Outside the study, where he could not avoid her, his response whenever he saw Run'er could be summed up in one word-hide.
The sixth month quickly passed. On the second day of the seventh month, Lai Fu returned from the county seat with news: the Household Registration Inspection order had been issued. Starting on the third, County Office runners and clerks would go out in batches to the county's various settlements to begin inspecting household registers. The fifty Foot Archers under the county commandant had also stepped up checks along the roads. Unregistered refugees were detained at the post station, then escorted together to the commandery, which would send them to the various Qiao Provinces for resettlement according to their places of origin. The entire inspection was said to last until the end of the eighth month.
Although Immortal Elder Ge had spoken to County Magistrate Wang on their behalf, Lai Fu and his family remained somewhat uneasy, afraid that a band of runners and clerks might burst in one day and haul the entire family off to the county seat. That would be disastrous. After all, their status as a protected household was illegal. Why had Immortal Elder Ge not asked County Magistrate Wang to give Lai Fu's family household registration in the first place?
Ran Sheng and Uncle Jing prepared to flee to Kuaiji Commandery, whose counties were not conducting Household Registration Inspections. The fierce-looking, one-armed old man Jing Nu said to Mother Chen Lady Li, "Mistress, Jing Nu and Xiao Sheng will take shelter in the neighboring commandery for now and return to Chen Family Cove in the ninth month. In our five years wandering Jiangdong, we have never met a household as kind as the Chen Clan. We will certainly return. Xiao Sheng still needs to continue learning to read and write from Young Master Caozhi and Young Mistress Run'er."
Although Ran Sheng dreaded learning his characters, he did not want to leave Chen Family Cove. He looked tall and sturdy, as though possessed of boundless strength, but he was still only a twelve-year-old boy, and tears were on the verge of spilling from his eyes.
Chen Caozhi said, "Why hide in the neighboring commandery? I spoke to Master Ge several days ago about letting Uncle Jing and Ran Sheng take temporary shelter at Chuyangtai Taoist Monastery. Ran Sheng can help Master Ge gather herbs and refine elixirs. Just be diligent about your work. Who would dare go up to Chuyang Terrace to arrest you?"
Jing Nu and Ran Sheng were overjoyed. They immediately packed their belongings, kowtowed to Mother Chen Lady Li, and accompanied Chen Caozhi to Chuyangtai Taoist Monastery. Upon seeing them, Ge Hong arranged lodgings for the two, then discussed the subtle principles of the golden elixir in the Baopuzi with Chen Caozhi. Before leaving, Chen Caozhi also borrowed Ge Hong's eight-volume medical work, Emergency Prescriptions Kept up One’s Sleeve, to copy at home. Ge Hong also had the expansive hundred-volume Jade Casket Prescriptions and Golden Coffer Medicinal Prescriptions, but these were far too voluminous. He advised Chen Caozhi against copying and studying them, saying that it would consume too much energy. Since Chen Caozhi did not intend to practice medicine to help the world, the concise eight-volume Emergency Prescriptions Kept up One’s Sleeve would suffice.
For the next several days, all remained peaceful at Chen Family Cove. No officials came to conduct the Household Registration Inspection, and Lai Fu's family felt reassured. Nor did anyone mention the proposed grading of their farmland again. Only on the sixth day of the seventh month did two county runners arrive at Chen Family Cove. Chen Xian, Clan Chief, received them and brought out the Qiantang Chen Clan's household registers to check the population person by person.
The two runners showed no arrogance and made no attempt to cause trouble. When they saw Lai Fu's family listed as a protected household in the Chen Clan registers, they showed no surprise either. Clearly, County Magistrate Wang had given them instructions.
The seventh-month Household Registration Inspection, which the Chens of the West Tower had expected to bring an approaching storm, thus passed with neither wind nor waves. It was so easy that they could scarcely believe it and wondered whether they were dreaming, but that was indeed what happened.
Ever since his expulsion from the clan, Chen Liu had remained in the county seat. At first, he had not dared show his face. Only recently had he recovered his nerve and become a willing beast of burden in Lu Clerk's service.
During the hour of the Dog on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, Chen Liu went to the Lu residence at Lu Clerk's command, bearing costly gifts. Yet Lu Clerk did not come out to see him for a long time. This left Chen Liu on tenterhooks, turning matters over in his mind without knowing how he might have offended Lu Clerk. While he was still trembling with apprehension, he saw Lu Clerk emerge from the inner hall beside a middle-aged man wearing face powder and scented with incense. Lu Clerk's manner was quite respectful.
Chen Liu hurried forward, hunching his shoulders and smiling ingratiatingly. "Lu Clerk, you have an honored guest-"
Lu Clerk gave a slight nod, then said to the powdered man, "Master Chu, this is Chen Liu, courtesy name Ziquan, whom I mentioned just now."
The powdered, incense-scented man was Chu Wenqian. He glanced indifferently at Chen Liu and asked a pointless question. "You are Chen Liu?"
Keeping his waist bent and his head raised, Chen Liu replied humbly, "This lowly fool is indeed Chen Liu, courtesy name Ziquan."
Chu Wenqian looked not at Chen Liu but at the double-fish lamp on the hall wall. "I hear you were driven out of the Chen Family fortress?"
In an instant, blood rushed to Chen Liu's head-not from anger, but from intense shame. His face swelled purplish red, and for a moment he could not speak.
Lu Clerk said, "Ziquan, sit down. Master Chu has some questions for you."
Chu Wenqian, however, wore an expression of disgust. "There is no need. Lu Clerk can tell him about those matters. I shall take my leave."
After seeing Chu Wenqian out, Lu Clerk returned and sat before Chen Liu with his legs spread. It looked casual, but was in fact discourteous. "Ziquan, do you know who that honored guest was?"
Chen Liu knew that he must be a member of the Qiantang Chu Clan, very likely the man who had lost to Chen Caozhi in the calligraphy contest. Aloud, however, he claimed ignorance and asked Lu Clerk to enlighten him.
The fair, plump Lu Clerk smiled smugly. "A scion of the Qiantang Chu Clan, of course. He and I are close friends-"
Naturally, Chen Liu lavished flattery on him, saying that the Qiantang Lu Clan associated only with distinguished families, that the Lu Clan truly had the bearing of an aristocratic house, and so forth.
Lu Clerk was quite carried away, but then his face grew solemn. "Do you know why I summoned you?"
Of course Chen Liu did not, and he inquired with great caution.
Lu Clerk knew that Chen Liu, now deprived of his clan's protection, could only throw himself wholeheartedly upon his patronage. He therefore concealed nothing, explaining how Chen Caozhi had offended Chu Wenqian and how Chu Wenqian was seeking an opportunity to humiliate him. He asked whether Chen Liu had any good ideas.
Only then did Chen Liu understand why Lu Clerk had been so intent on squeezing Chen Caozhi dry: it was because of the Chu Clan. A surge of excitement rose within him, but he said, "Chen Caozhi has Ge Zhichuan speaking on his behalf. It seems it would be difficult to scheme against his farmland again-"
"We are not discussing farmland now," Lu Clerk interrupted. "Chen Caozhi prides himself on his talent. He will certainly want to show off at the ninth month's heights-climbing literary gathering, hoping to win a reputation and attract the attention of the ranking official coming from the commandery to make inquiries. Chen Liu, you must understand: if Chen Caozhi manages to obtain even a minor official post, as his father and elder brother did, you will truly have reached a dead end in Qiantang. You had better flee elsewhere at once."
Cold sweat streamed from Chen Liu. His voice was dry and strained. "Whatever you need done, Lu Clerk, just give the word. I, Chen Liu, am no longer a member of the Qiantang Chen Clan. I will have no scruples about anything."
Lu Clerk nodded and asked, "Besides calligraphy and music, what other talents does Chen Caozhi possess?"
Chen Liu knew very little about Chen Caozhi. He knew only that Chen Caozhi had formerly been a dull, inarticulate youth with nothing worth praising beyond his filial devotion to his widowed mother. But he had suffered badly at Chen Caozhi's hands in the ancestral hall this time, and had no choice but to see him in a new light. After some thought, he said, "Chen Caozhi has quite a good memory. At ten, he could already recite the Analects and Mao Poetry."
Lu Clerk said dismissively, "Rote memorization hardly counts as a talent. I am asking about his understanding of their principles. Can he expound upon Mao Poetry and the Analects?"
Chen Liu said, "He probably only half understands them. The West Tower has just those few books, and his father and elder brother died early. There is no one to teach him at all. What principles could he understand from muddling through recitations on his own?"
Clerk Lu was quite satisfied with this answer and nodded repeatedly, but then added, "Still, we must devise a foolproof plan. We absolutely cannot let Chen Caozhi make a name for himself at the ninth-month gathering. Best of all would be to sweep his scholarly dignity into the dust."
Mediocre men fretted and petty men grubbed, knowing nothing all day but scheming and strife. How could they appreciate the beauty of life?
At Chen Family Fortress, meanwhile, Chen Caozhi's family of four, together with Yinggu, Xiao Chan, and Qingzhi, sat on mats spread across the third-floor terrace. Plums, grapes, and sweet cakes were set out on a low table. Today was the seventh day of the seventh month, the Qiqiao Festival, when people ate fruit and sweets, and young women knelt to the Heavenly Granddaughter, the Weaver Girl, to beg for skill in needlework.
Stars filled the sky, and the Milky Way seemed about to flow. Chen Caozhi told Zongzhi and Run'er the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Xiao Chan and Qingzhi both found it new and asked where Young Master Caozhi had heard such an interesting story.
Chen Caozhi thought that perhaps the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl had not yet spread widely at this time, so he said, "I read it in a book in Master Ge's collection."
Zongzhi and Run'er tipped their little faces upward, their bright eyes wide as they searched for Altair and the Weaver Girl Star-
As Chen Caozhi pointed the stars out to them, he taught them to recite:
"Far, far away shines Altair; bright, bright is the maiden of the River of Heaven.
Slender, slender, she raises her white hands; clack, clack, she works her loom.
All day she weaves no patterned cloth; her tears fall down like rain.
The River of Heaven is clear and shallow; how great can the distance between them be?
A gleaming stretch of water lies between; their gazes brim with feeling, yet they cannot speak."
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