| Examiner Zhou picks out...: |
Fan Jin gave the silver to his wife. When she opened it, and they saw the white ingots with their fine markings, he asked Butcher Hu to come in and gave him two ingots, saying, 「Just now I troubled you for five thousand coppers. Please accept these six taels of silver.」
Butcher Hu gripped the silver tight, but thrust out his clenched fist, saying, 「You keep this. I gave you that money to congratulate you, so how can I take it back?」
「I have some more silver here,」 said Fan Jin. 「When it is spent, I will ask you for more.」
Butcher Hu immediately drew back his fist, stuffed the silver into his pocket and said, 「All right. Now that you are on good terms with that Mr. Zhang, you needn't be afraid of going short. His family has more silver than the emperor, and they are my best customers. Every year, even if they have no particular occasions to celebrate, they still buy four or five thousand catties of meat. Silver is nothing to him.」
Then he turned to his daughter and said, 「Your rascally brother didn't want me to bring that money this morning. I told him, 'Now my honourable son-in-law is not the man he was. There will be lots of people sending him presents of money. I am only afraid he may refuse my gift.' Wasn't I right? Now I shall take this silver home and curse that dirty scoundrel.」 After a thousand thanks he made off, his head thrust forward and a broad grin on his face. |
