Chinese Literature

“So the landlords did it! Why do you copy their methods then? Why don’t you copy good people!”

Goateed Yang Yung-huai was timid. Fearing that his bold young grand-nephew might go wild, he stole away. Li-chia also thought his friend looked dangerous, and he quickly took hold of him.

Meanwhile, Chun-mei’s uncle Li-ho leaned across the table to address Yang the Hider.

“You must admit, old grandfather, that my sister should never have been tormented into killing herself! I’ve got an old-fashioned brain too, but I think it’s time we stopped following those old landlord laws. We don’t want to cause any more deaths!”

On all sides, people began talking among themselves. Yang the Elder felt as though his heart was being hacked by a knife. The clear voice of a woman rose above the clamour.

“Since the time our clan was founded, the tears the girls and wives of the Yang family have shed could drown under this whole ancestral temple!”

From the doorway came the retort, “Where would you get that much tears? Are you sure it’s not piss you’re talking about!” The sceptic was Loudmouth. She had more to say, but the clear voice over-rode her.

“Who’s talking to you? None of us can compare with you—you picked on your mother-in-law when you were a bride, and now you pick on the girl your son’s married! The way you live, nobody’s ever seen the like!”

A man’s hoarse tones were heard on the left. “Nothing good ever came out of this lousy temple! They want Ching Ming Festival money, money for a reserve fund, incense and lamp fees, a fee for installing your ancestral tablet, you have to pay fines. ... Son ofa bitch! One-third of the money the damn landlords sweated out of us they got through the temple!”

Many men went into action, and a row of ancestral tablets on the left side of the room came clattering to the floor. Li-ho picked up the two tablets belonging to his family.

‘Pm going to take them home,” he said. “It’s wrong to keep them

here. Before they were used to terrorize people; now, they get knoeked .

around!”

Another row of tablets crashed to earth on the right.

Now tablets were being destroyed indiscriminately, and Li-chia was rather worried. Hadn’t they been urged not to let the meeting get out of hand? He looked around for Chun-mei’s Aunt Li and saw her talking to a group outside the doorway. Her face was serious and she was gesticulating, evidently in the middle of an argument. It didn’t seem as though he could get to her right away. In several places, people were

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