| In which an introductory...: |
During this conversation the magistrate's chair had come up. Bailiff Zhai knelt before the chair and said, 「I asked for Wang Mian and found he is not at home. Won't Your Honour go to the local office to rest for a little, while I make further inquiries?」 Then he escorted the chair past the back of Wang Mian's cottage.
Behind the cottage were a few strips of arable land and a big lake, its banks thickly grown with elms and mulberry trees. Then more fields could be seen, stretching to the horizon. There was a hill too, covered with fresh green trees, only a few hundred yards away. If you shouted, your voice would carry there. And round the foot of this hill, as the magistrate's chair advanced, came a little cowherd riding back to front on a water buffalo. |
