WSMTATMC C8

Chapter 8

“It’s this late at night and you’ve come borrowing silver?”

As they walked, Chen Qingyun said, “Second Uncle claims that Eldest Cousin lost money gambling outside. The gambling house detained him, and if they don’t get silver to ransom him soon, they’ll cut his hand off!”

Wang Ying stopped in his tracks. “Wait here a moment.” He turned back into the bedchamber, and emerged again in short order, striding briskly.

“Let’s go.”

“What did you just do, Sister-in-law?”

A sly grin curved Wang Ying’s lips. “You’ll see a good show soon enough.”

In the main hall, Chen Biao was already bawling and wailing at the top of his voice. “Sister-in-law, this time you must help me! Qingfeng is being held at the gambling house — if we don’t ransom him now, his hand will be ruined!”

“But… but where am I supposed to find that much silver…”

“Don’t you have a dowry? You’re the daughter of Li of Tianyang, your family produced several officials, your dowry must be substantial — you can come up with a bit of silver.”

Li, flustered and at a loss, looked up when her second daughter and son-in-law appeared at the doorway. Relief flashed over her face as if she’d just found a backbone to lean on.

“Yun’er, Ying’er — come in quickly.”

The moment Chen Biao’s gaze lit on Wang Ying, his expression soured. The events of the wedding day still stung; his dislike for this nephew-in-law was obvious.

“So late at night — what’s Second Uncle here for?”

“Hmph! When elders are speaking, it’s not your turn to butt in.”

Wang Ying didn’t even glance at him, going straight to help his mother-in-law sit down, secretly giving her arm a reassuring squeeze.

Li understood at once. She might be soft in nature but she wasn’t stupid; knowing she couldn’t handle this herself, she chose to let her son-in-law take the lead.

Chen Biao coughed. At the sound, the second son standing behind him, Chen Qingling, dropped to his knees with a thump.

“Grand-Aunt, please save my big brother. I’ll kowtow to you right now.” He knocked his forehead to the floor again and again, his mother, Madam Zhang, squatting and weeping beside him.

“Sister-in-law, you can’t just watch him die — he’s your own nephew!”

This whole family knew Li’s nature by heart. Asking for money directly was risky; softening her up with sentimental pleas — that always worked.

“Get up now… Xiao Ling, stop kowtowing…” Li, face full of compassion, turned to her daughter, about to tell her to fetch silver.

Just as the scene was about to repeat itself, Wang Ying’s voice rang out: “Who’s mourning here?!”

Everyone froze. The hall went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“All you do is cry. If you’re here to borrow, Second Uncle, then name a number. If we can help, we will.”

Chen Biao held up one hand.

“Five strings⁽¹⁾ of coins?”

“Five hundred taels of silver. The gambling house is giving us three days to pay — otherwise they’ll cut off Qingfeng’s hand.”

Wang Ying laughed in disbelief. “Five hundred taels? Are you crazy? You think our home’s a bank?”

Li’s head swam at the number. Even if she emptied her entire dowry, she still couldn’t make up that much — it was impossible.

The Chen family’s annual income didn’t reach a hundred taels; after daily expenses and social obligations, very little remained. And here this old fox demanded five hundred in a breath!

“What’s with that attitude? We’re family — in times of trouble, it’s only right to help!”

“Pah! And who do you think you are? Out of respect for you as Second Uncle to Chen Qingyan I’m even talking to you — otherwise, any other man making demands here would’ve been beaten out with a stick already!”

“You—! Skies above, have you no manners!”

“What, you want to hit me now? This isn’t your house! If you want to throw your weight around, go beat your own son, and stop coming here to play the elder.”

“With Big Brother gone, I’ll play his part and teach you a lesson!” Chen Biao rolled up his sleeves and surged forward to strike.

But Wang Ying wasn’t one to back down. He had both the strength and the skill; blocking with one arm, he kicked out with a foot and bellowed, “Quick, send for the magistrate! Second Uncle’s come to bully the widowed sister-in-law! No law under heaven, no decency under men~!”

Hearing the commotion, Chen Bo rushed in from outside to hold them apart. Chen Biao, thwarted, could only spit curses.

“You low-born brat — once Chen Qingyan’s dead, you’ll see no good days! I’ll have you sold to a brothel so you’ll never rise again!”

“Who’s dying? You’ll die first — your whole family will!” The moment Qingyun heard that threat, she was on the warpath, snatching a feather duster from the wall and joining in the melee.

Madam Zhang leapt up to claw at them, and Wang Ying, shielding his sister-in-law, fought two-on-one without losing ground, until the other side was shrieking.

“Stop it! Stop!” Li was pressed to her chest in fright, nearly fainting. The scene was chaos.

Servants ran to report to the officials. The Chen family was known in town, and soon four bailiffs arrived.

Faced with the yamen runners, Chen Biao’s family instantly quieted, standing meekly to the side without even breathing hard.

On Wang Ying’s side, however — in some mysterious turn of events — his hair was mussed, his clothing torn, and there was even a striking purple bruise on his cheek, though he hadn’t been on the receiving end of the blows.

Where had that come from? Chen Biao’s mind spun.

Before he could puzzle it out, Wang Ying pressed a handkerchief to his eye, voice quavering in pitiful appeal: “Officer, you must stand up for us~!”

“What’s going on here?” the lead bailiff demanded.

“Misunderstanding — Sir, we’re one family. The master of this house is my elder brother—”

“You hush. You — speak.” The officer pointed at Wang Ying, who was sniffling and teary.

“Indeed, we were one family — but our households parted years ago. I married in later, so I don’t know all the past, only that from the day of my wedding, this man has been coming to bully this widow and her orphans, always whining about poverty and borrowing money.

“My mother-in-law is too kind to refuse, so bit by bit he’s conned her out of a few taels each time. All told, it’s no less than a hundred taels — never once repaid.”

“Utter nonsense!” Chen Biao tried to cut in.

The officer gave him a look. “Go on.”

Wang Ying sobbed: “And today, they came again, wanting money. My husband is gravely ill in bed, my in-laws still young — the mouths to feed in our household number more than a dozen. We live solely off what we can grow. There’s simply nothing to lend.

“But this Second Uncle demanded my mother-in-law’s dowry to bail his lot out — opening his mouth for five hundred taels! Heaven help us, even if we sold the house we couldn’t raise that. And when we refused, he started a fight — look what he did to me.”

“Lies, all lies!”

“If I’ve spoken a single false word, may lightning strike me dead on my way out the door!”

By now the bailiffs had the picture — these were shameless moochers. Disgust glinted in the officer’s eye as he turned to Chen Biao’s family. “Is this true?”

“N-no, not exactly like that—”

“Then what’s the reason for your crying and shouting here?”

“We only wanted to borrow some silver—”

“Five hundred taels? You think money grows on trees in other people’s yards?”

Chen Biao hung his head, silent. He might throw his weight at Wang Ying and Li, but under an official’s glare he didn’t dare fart.

“Get out. Leave now or we’ll haul you to the yamen.”

Chen Biao stamped a foot. “Sister-in-law, Feng’er’s still being held — are you truly not going to help?”

Li turned her face away. Whatever pity she might have had died with his earlier words.

“Fine. Fine. Fine!” He spat the word three times, glaring, then flung his sleeves and stalked out, his wife and younger son trailing.

Once they were gone, Wang Ying sent Qingyun to fetch two strings of cash⁽²⁾, which he offered with both hands to the lead runner. “Sorry to trouble you so late — here’s something for a meal.”

Two hundred copper coins — not a fortune, but enough for a fine dinner. The officer rubbed his nose and accepted it. “My surname’s Huang — call me Huang San. Next time something like this happens, just send word to us.”

“Many thanks, Lord Huang.”

By the time they saw the lawmen off, darkness had fallen completely and candles were lit indoors.

“Ying’er, once again we owe it to you — otherwise…” Li broke off, choked, then reached up to touch the bruise on his face. “Child, does it hurt? Qingyun, fetch the medicine.”

“It doesn’t — it’s fake.” Wang Ying wiped at it, and most of the mark vanished.

“Before coming, I’d cut a piece of blue pigment from Qingyan’s paints. Just now, in the scuffle, I dabbed it on.”

Li couldn’t help laughing. “You do have a head for tricks.”

“To deal with shameless people, you need shameless methods. Trying to reason with them is pointless.”

But Li’s face grew uncertain. “What if… what if Chen Biao was telling the truth, and Qingfeng really loses a hand…”

Qingyun huffed. “That would be his own fault! Who does he have to blame but himself for gambling? Even if we lent them silver, Second Uncle wouldn’t be grateful.”

“Qingyun’s right. When you gift a peck of rice, they thank you; when you give a bushel, they hate you. By lending so much before, you made them think it was their due. Now you refuse, and they resent you. People like that are the worst — ungrateful wolves you can’t feed.”

“Ah… you’re right. I’ve been too soft-hearted, and they’ve grown bolder by the day.” Li called for the servant woman to bring the storeroom keys.

“From now on, you’ll manage this household.”

Wang Ying froze. “I — how could I?”

Li had no other great talents, but she had self-awareness. She knew she wasn’t suited to run the family; keep on like this, and the house would collapse.

Qingyun could help, but she was still young, shy of certain dealings, and too often tricked by the old retainers.

Wang Ying was different — bold, honest, shrewd. He was the right one to manage things.

Li pressed the keys into his hand. “You’re a good child — these days, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Since you came, Yan’er’s health improves by the day — I heard he even went outside today?”

“Mhm.”

“Amitabha — then the Daoist priest was right after all. The

<span class=”tooltip”>chongxi

<span class=”tooltiptext”>A marriage arranged to bring good fortune or health to an ill person, in hopes the wedding joy will fend off misfortune.</span>

</span>

really works!”

Wang Ying almost choked — Amitabha has nothing to do with Daoism!

In his own time, this mother-in-law would have been first in line to be scammed into buying “miracle health supplements.”

notes:

1. String of cash / guàn (贯) – A currency unit in pre-modern China: 1 string was usually 1,000 copper coins.
2. 2 strings of cash – Roughly two thousand copper coins; around 2 taels of silver, depending on exchange rate.