Wang Daxia rode off, leaving Chen Jingji planning to find Wang Qianhu to file a complaint. However, that fall had hurt considerably—his hands and face were covered with dust and willow fluff, making him unfit to see anyone. Supporting his waist, he slowly shuffled to a well at the end of the lane.
This well’s water was sweet and clear, giving Sweet Water Lane its name. All residents of the lane came here for their daily water needs.
The sun had already set in the west. A group of women were drawing water around the well platform, washing bowls and clothes. Chen Jingji asked the women for a bucket of water to wash his face and hands.
They were all acquaintances. The women laughingly handed Chen Jingji an empty bucket while teasing:
“Wang Qianhu’s stepmother and stepson don’t get along—they quarrel every few days. Who among those in the know would dare rent that residence?”
“Exactly. You’d only invite trouble. The house has been empty for years, and you tricked an outsider into renting it. How could Second Young Master Wang let this go?”
“Getting a beating from Wang Yanei—regretting it now, aren’t you?”
Chen Jingji worked the pulley over the well, drawing up a bucket of water. “If a man doesn’t get tough, his wife won’t have jewelry. I need to earn money to marry and support a family.”
A woman poured a basin of greasy dishwater into the roadside drainage ditch. “You’re like a preserved duck boiled in a pot—your body’s all rotten, but your mouth’s still hard! Wang Yanei will surely beat you every time he sees you from now on.”
Having borrowed their water bucket, Chen Jingji couldn’t argue back and buried his head washing his hands and face.
Once clean, he brushed the dust and willow fluff from his round-collared robe and checked his reflection in the water bucket. Looking presentable enough to see people, Chen Jingji thanked the women and went to seek help from Wang Qianhu.
Who could control Wang Yanei’s misbehavior? Only the young master’s father.
The Wang family had a side gate in Sweet Water Lane. It was already completely dark, and the gatekeeper said Wang Qianhu hadn’t returned from the office yet.
Wang Qianhu was the Commander of the Northern District Military Commissioner’s Office.
The capital had five Military Commissioner’s Offices—East, South, West, North, and Central—specifically managing security, crime prevention, fire prevention, and road cleaning in their respective districts (equivalent to a combined police station, urban management, and fire department, with Wang Qianhu as the chief).
Chen Jingji waited at the gate, left and right, but saw no sign of Wang Qianhu returning home. Instead, he heard the rattling sound of a tiger support’s rolling bells.
By the dim moonlight and the lantern hanging at Wang Qianhu’s side gate, Chen Jingji saw the traveling physician shaking the tiger support—it was the tenant Wei Caiwei returning from practicing medicine.
Terrible! She couldn’t get into her house at all! That key hadn’t been retrieved yet!
Chen Jingji hurried over to greet Wei Caiwei. “Doctor Wei, there’s something I need to explain to you…”
Every family has its difficult scriptures to recite. Second Young Master Wang Daxia’s mother, Qian Shi, had died early, and he refused to submit to his stepmother Wu Shi’s discipline. He was an unlearned, extravagant wastrel known as Wang Yanei.
Wang Qianhu, worried that the wastrel would squander all of Lady Qian’s dowry, entrusted the dowry to his second wife, Lady Wu, to manage—including the small building Wei Caiwei had rented.
Wang Yanei was the type of wastrel who would fish money out of a frying pan to spend. How could he let this go?
Whenever Chen Jingji brought clients to view the house, he would come make trouble and scare them away. Thus, despite this excellent location in the Northern District, such a well-maintained residence with complete furnishings had remained vacant for half a year without being rented.
Today Chen Jingji had been lucky—Wang Yanei had left early in the morning for unknown business, allowing Chen Jingji to succeed through half-coaxing, half-deceiving the unsuspecting traveling physician into renting the house.
“…That’s how things stand,” Chen Jingji explained. “Doctor Wei, please rest assured. No matter how much the Monkey King causes trouble, he cannot escape Buddha’s Five-Finger Mountain. When Wang Qianhu intervenes to discipline his son, the key will naturally be returned. Wang Qianhu is Wang Yanei’s golden headband.”
Unexpectedly, Wei Caiwei didn’t fly into a rage or curse Chen Jingji as a crooked merchant. Instead, she listened with interest to his account of the Wang family gossip and said:
“So that’s how it is. I’m very satisfied with this house. As for the key—I’d like to meet this Wang Yanei first and reason with him, courtesy before force. If I go directly to Wang Qianhu to complain, Wang Yanei will inevitably get a beating, damaging his self-respect. The more he’s pressured, the more desperate he’ll become. Even if tonight he gives up the key under Wang Qianhu’s forceful pressure, he might come trouble my household again in a couple of days, disturbing my peace forever.”
Chen Jingji quickly said, “A physician’s heart is like a parent’s—Doctor Wei is truly a living Bodhisattva. However, you must not harbor any illusions about Wang Yanei. He’s a famous young wastrel throughout the Northern District. Even his stepmother Lady Wu can’t handle him. Filial sons emerge from under the rod—only Wang Qianhu can control him.”
For some reason, no matter how Chen Jingji warned her, this young widow insisted on meeting Wang Daxia, saying, “I still decide to talk with Wang Yanei first.”
Chen Jingji had no choice but to ask the gatekeeper again, “Is Second Young Master Wang at home?”
The servant boy still shook his head. “Our Second Young Master left early this morning and hasn’t returned home yet.”
Chen Jingji reported back to Wei Caiwei, who calmly pointed to a night market across the street. “I haven’t had dinner yet—no rush. I’ll eat while waiting.”
Chen Jingji was also hungry and said, “It’s my poor handling of affairs. This meal is on me—an apology to Doctor Wei.”
Chen Jingji was quite cunning. Once someone ate his food, if problems arose with the house, this traveling physician couldn’t simply say she wanted to move out.
Everything could still be salvaged.
Being stingy, Chen Jingji chose the cheapest wontons in the night market, making excuses: “This stall is closest to the Wang residence—convenient for surveillance. Once we see Wang Yanei return, we’ll go talk to him.”
Wei Caiwei smiled without exposing his lie. “Manager Chen is still so thoughtful.”
This outsider is so easy to fool! After all, she’s still young and inexperienced. Chen Jingji sat down and ordered a bowl of mustard greens and pork wontons.
Wei Caiwei said, “Boss, two bowls of three-delicacies wontons, one without cilantro.”
Chen Jingji, concerned about money, said, “Cough, cough, Doctor Wei, this place gives generous portions—one bowl has fifteen large wontons. I’m afraid you’ll get too full.”
Wei Caiwei smiled. “I’m not eating alone.”
Chen Jingji looked around. “Ah? Does Doctor Wei have an attendant?”
Wei Caiwei said, “It’s for my late husband—I’ll pay for my late husband’s bowl of wontons.”
When a husband dies, the wife must provide meals for her husband for three years.
Since she’d already ordered, right? Not lacking the money for one bowl of wontons. Chen Jingji quickly said, “Let me, let me—just a few small coins.”
During their conversation, three bowls of wontons were served. Chen Jingji began eating while Wei Caiwei placed the bowl without cilantro on the west side of the table, sprinkled some pepper, set out a pair of chopsticks, and spoke to the air:
“Erlang, time to eat. Today I… was busy until now. Business was quite good—the capital is really different. Dinner is too late—you must be hungry.”
So considerate of her dead husband, even remembering he didn’t eat cilantro but liked pepper!
Chen Jingji thought to himself: If I marry a wife who treats me this well in the future, I might die of happiness!
“You two had deep conjugal love,” Chen Jingji never imagined he’d one day envy a dead man.