Chapter 7

Chapter 7

(Zhang Sheng’s Monologue)

My surname is Zhang. I hail from the capital region, and everyone calls me either Zhang Sheng or Scholar Zhang.

As a child, I was known throughout the village as a prodigy.

I began my studies at three, read the classics at six, learned poetry and prose at nine, passed the county exam and became a child student at twelve, then passed the prefectural exam at eighteen and became a xiucai.

The provincial exam was held once every three years. Once I passed it, I would become a juren, smoothly enter the waiting list for an official post, and leap the dragon gate like a carp becoming a dragon.

But I had troubles of my own.

In all eighteen years I had lived in this world, I had never touched a woman.

The Master said, “Women and petty men are the hardest to raise. Keep them close, and they grow insolent; keep them at a distance, and they grow resentful.”

The sage was right. Once a woman was involved, nothing delayed a scholar’s future more.

My ambitions had always been lofty. I wanted to ride in triumph through Changtai, to grasp power enough to sway the world. How could I stop so easily for the scent of rouge and powder?

Thus, when I was fifteen and my classmates invited me to a brothel for wine and courtesans, I refused.

Women from pleasure houses came from the dust and wind, ridden by thousands and pillowed by tens of thousands. I found them filthy.

When I was sixteen, a matchmaker came to my door with a proposal from the county lieutenant’s daughter. I refused.

A county lieutenant was nothing more than a lowly minor functionary in the county office. He could help me for a time, but not for a lifetime.

His daughter was diligent enough, but she knew only a handful of characters and had no understanding of poetry or the classics. I found her stupid.

At eighteen, after I passed the exam and became a xiucai, a wealthy merchant tried to snatch me up as a son-in-law the moment the results were posted. I refused.

What good could a merchant’s daughter possibly be?

She might bring a great deal of silver, but she would reek of copper from head to toe, enough to choke a man to death. I found it revolting.

My neighbors laughed at me for having a heart higher than the heavens. I ignored them.

My parents urged me to marry and establish a household. I did not listen.

So long as a true man achieved merit and made his name, why would he worry about not finding a wife?

After I became a juren, then a jinshi, what sort of woman would not be mine to choose?

Until that day, when I happened to meet Cui Yingying and Hongniang.

For the sake of peace and quiet, and to make preparing for the exam more convenient, I paid fifteen hundred copper coins each month to live in an empty meditation room behind a temple on the mountain.

I was reading when I suddenly caught wave after wave of fragrance in the air. Without thinking, I raised my head.

I saw two young women walking together along the mountain path behind the temple.

The one in front wore gauze robes layered like snow, her jeweled coiffure piled like clouds. Her delicate posture gave rise to charm, her autumn-bright eyes flowed with intelligence, and she naturally possessed the bearing of an immortal maiden untouched by the mortal world.

The one behind her wore a red skirt brighter than fire, her hanging locks glossy as green jade. Her face was apricot-shaped, her cheeks peach-pink, and her brows and eyes held a smile. Though she was dressed as a maidservant, she could not hide the quick wit about her.

I stared, entranced, and followed the two of them without realizing it.

The woman dressed as a maidservant soon noticed me and angrily scolded me as a lecherous libertine.

But the young lady stopped her.

That young lady spoke with refinement. She introduced herself as Cui Yingying, then introduced the maid beside her as Hongniang.

When she learned that I was preparing for the prefectural exam but, with empty pockets, had no choice but to lodge in a bleak meditation room, she even took out a large sum of silver and intended to support me.

I was deeply moved, but I still refused Cui Yingying’s money.

No matter how much silver there was, there would come a day when it was spent.

The Cui Yingying before me, gentle in manner, peerless in beauty, and able to casually produce such a large sum of silver, was the truly rare commodity worth securing.

Moreover, that Hongniang by her side was not bad-looking either…

With such a fine buy-one-get-one bargain descending upon me, how could I possibly let it pass?

When Heaven offers a gift and you do not take it, you suffer the blame instead.

Very soon, Yingying bowed before my character and talent, and under the moonlight, she pledged herself to me for three lifetimes.

I married Cui Yingying.

They say good things come one after another, and sure enough, the second and third good things soon followed.

Before half a year had passed, Cui Yingying was with child.

A year and a half after my son was born, the prefectural exam arrived. I passed without a hitch and became a juren.

At that, Hongniang, who had once found fault with me at every turn, finally shut her mouth completely.

But our days of family joy did not last long. One month after I became a juren, misfortunes came one after another.

First, my father suddenly fell gravely ill. No doctor could help him, and in a few short days, he passed away.

Then my mother slipped, fell, and injured the bone in her leg, leaving her bedridden.

After that, the superior in the Ministry of Personnel who oversaw the placements of officials on the waiting list hinted to me again and again that I should use silver to pave the way.

I did not have much money with which to bribe him.

I watched as my classmates and fellow graduates were all assigned official posts, while I alone was left empty-handed, with nothing to show for it.

Fortunately, I had a virtuous wife in Yingying, who never abandoned me.

When Father was laid to rest, there were countless complicated matters to handle. I knew nothing of household affairs, so it was Yingying who ran herself ragged taking care of everything.

When Mother could no longer get out of bed, I was no good at caring for the sick, so it was Yingying and Hongniang who tended to her with meticulous care.

Trivial, grinding matters can wear many things away. But the one thing they could not wear away was Yingying’s sincerity toward me.

Only this time, Yingying lost her temper with me.

I had no money to smooth the way, so my file remained stuck at the Ministry of Personnel. With no assignment, I could not take office. Yingying, meanwhile, was busy caring for Mother and had no time to return to her maiden home to ask for money to help me.

So I turned my thoughts to Hongniang.

A maid with skin like snow and a face like a flower could fetch at least five hundred taels of silver…

It took no end of coaxing and persuasion before I tricked Hongniang into being sold. Yet somehow, she escaped from the human trafficker and came crying back to our door.

Yingying was furious. She took Hongniang and left for more than ten days.

During those ten days, I had to care for my bedridden mother by myself. It was misery beyond words.

Ah, I had been muddleheaded…

For a mere five hundred taels of silver, I had actually offended my own wife.

But on second thought, I felt Yingying was being far too unreasonable to hold a grudge against me.

If I could not enter officialdom for so long and no money came into the household, were Mother and Yingying not the ones who would suffer? Hongniang was only a maid. How could she possibly compare to me, her husband?

Fortunately, Yingying soon brought Hongniang home again.

She even produced a large sum of silver, saying she had borrowed it from her maiden family.

Once a hefty pile of silver had been thrown in, the Ministry of Personnel did indeed assign me a fine post.

Though it was only an eighth-rank position, it was already a better starting point than most of my fellow graduates had received.

Yingying truly was my lucky star.

Holding my official seal and freshly made official robes, I rushed into the kitchen I had once found greasy and filthy. I wrapped my arms around Yingying from behind as she cooked and impatiently told her the good news.

Startled by me, Yingying accidentally cut her hand with the kitchen knife.

I was about to step forward in concern, but Yingying frantically hid her injured hand. In the confusion, I caught only a glimpse of a smear of black left on the blade.

Black blood?

Could it be that I had buried myself in books for so long that my eyes had grown dim?

Once my salary was paid, I would buy a pair of Western crystal lenses from one of the merchant ships returning from overseas and wear them…

But later, while passing a temple by chance, I encountered a wandering monk.

He called himself Pujiu and said I was plagued by ill fortune, with yin energy hanging over my head. He insisted some demon or ghost must have unknowingly entered my home and, day by day, drained me through its cultivation.

“Benefactor, if you remain stubborn and continue shielding that demon, I fear you will not live past three months.”

I thought of the black blood that had flowed from Yingying’s wounded hand. My hair stood on end, and I dropped to my knees.

After handing over all the silver I had on me to Pujiu, I received a Golden Alms Bowl from him.

If Yingying was innocent, then this object could simply serve to ward the house.

But if Yingying truly was some demon or ghost…

Then she could not blame me for being ruthless! I would no longer concern myself with the bond between husband and wife!

A man’s life and career were what mattered most.

Once I subdued Yingying and Hongniang and handed them over to Pujiu to deal with, as long as I covered things up properly, given my present prospects, even if I were “widowed and remarried,” I could at least marry some official’s daughter!

Even if she was only a concubine-born daughter, so long as she was beautiful and her family was willing to support me, I would still come out ahead!

When I returned home, I hid the Golden Alms Bowl in the wardrobe.

After Yingying entered the master bedroom, I silently concealed myself behind the screen in the outer room and waited.

Sure enough, a cry of alarm came from inside.

The Golden Alms Bowl burst with radiant light. Yingying collapsed to the floor and turned into a lifelike paper figure!

She was a demon!

She really was a demon!

Before Father suddenly fell gravely ill, he had eaten food Yingying had prepared with her own hands!

And Mother had fallen because she had gone to fetch the fabric Yingying had prepared for her!

I hated her so much!

Since childhood, I had been bright and gifted, well read in the classics-yet I had been deceived by a demon into sharing my bed with her, begetting a cursed child, and seeing my family ruined…

Hongniang heard the commotion and burst into the bedroom, her face changing with shock.

Seeing that she was about to move to rescue Yingying, I was filled with righteous fury. I snatched up the Golden Alms Bowl and smashed it toward the two demons!