Chapter 13: Pi Baozhang

That day, the servant ate Meng Xiao's pig's trotter meat. After returning from Qiongzhou, the servant stopped eating meat as before. The servant said, "Those who eat meat are vulgar," and said that the master should eat meat. In the winter of the year of Ji Chou, Meng Xiao moved to a separate courtyard. The servant took charge of the three meals a day. He no longer used pork as a side dish and removed the braised and fried pork from the dinner. The birds that Meng Xiao used to eat were also removed from the menu. Meng Xiao went out to buy cooked meat and quail. The maid of the third aunt Ma ran into Meng Xiao buying quail on the street and came back to tell Ma. Ma glared at him and said, "I heard that our ancestors liked this. The old Meng family is returning to its roots." The fourth aunt Luo said, "I just don't know if he is a wild cat or a domestic bird." The servants parroted and said, "Shi Lang is having an affair with a man." The fifth aunt Tian said, "It's a rumor."

Fifth Aunt Tian and Sixth Aunt Hu thought that the person who said this was underestimating the servant. The servant's ambition was to become the head of the courtyard. How could he be willing to be a catamite? People in Chengdu said that the Meng family's scandal was all due to women. Now that Meng Xiao is not interested in women, he should consider it a blessing. Third Aunt Ma said that the cook in the other courtyard testified that Meng Xiao got up early every day to practice martial arts, and after practicing, he would take a bath, and the servant would serve him. The servant was short and thin, how many buckets could he carry? If it wasn't for sexual intercourse, why should he serve?

Fifth Aunt Tian said that Third Aunt was so vicious because she was jealous of Meng Xiao's trust in Shu Tong. But that was not the case. The hatred between Third Aunt and Shu Tong started in the winter of the year Jichou. At that time, Da Lang distributed spices, quilts and jewelry to the aunts according to the rules set by Meng Jian when he was alive. After the winter solstice, a burning smell wafted from the yards of Third Aunt Ma and Fourth Aunt Luo. Fifth Aunt's maid said to Da Lang, where are they scheming against people again? Da Lang ignored it at first. Fifth Aunt's maid went to complain to Shu Tong. Meng Xiao didn't understand and didn't want to intervene, but he heard Shu Tong say that whoever can be the master of the family is the master. Meng Xiao knew that this was a matter that his eldest brother didn't want to intervene, so he wanted to intervene again. So he asked Shu Tong to take the maid to Third Aunt's room and asked her what she was burning. Third Aunt said she was burning paper for the official Meng Jian. Among the two maids, the fifth aunt's maid, Bi, dragged a chamber pot from under the third aunt's bed. Seeing paper ash soaked in urine, she said she would take it away for inspection. Three days later, after the maid Bi finished the inspection, she said that the ash was made from burning cinnabar yellow paper. It was not ordinary paper. The yellow paper pulp was mixed with willow bark pulp. The yellow was dyed by soaking rotten coffins in water. The ash had a bad smell, bitterer than ordinary paper. Next, the book boy presided over the family meeting, and the family rules and evidence of guilt were presented on the table. The book boy wrote the punishment and gave it to Meng Xiao to read. When Meng Xiao read the sentence "According to the fifteenth article of the family rules, 'Witchcraft and Spells' are prohibited, Ma is punished to burn yellow talismans and soak them in urine, and pay fifty coins", the third aunt Ma suddenly screamed. Ma said, "May I ask how Shilang knew it was a talisman and not silk money? Why did he listen to what the peasant woman said? She tasted it as a talisman, but I tasted it as silk paper!" As she spoke, she took a handful of the evidence on the table, put it in her mouth, tasted it, and said, "No, it's just the ash of burnt silk paper."

Meng Xiao was stunned. He looked at his fifth aunt's maid, who kept her head down and said nothing. He then looked at the servant, who avoided his gaze and looked unhappy. Third aunt Ma said, "Why don't you try it yourself to see if it's the ash from the burnt talisman?" Before the eyes of his third and fourth aunts, Meng Xiao's face turned into a piece of pig liver.

After this incident, the aunts all said that Shilang was not good at managing the household. It would be fine if he was not good, but he had to pretend to be good, which was like looking at a pockmarked face in the mirror, embarrassing himself. In the following month, Meng Xiao curled up and no longer asked about the affairs of the family. The food, drink and compradors were all controlled by the servant. But he still did not give up and still wanted to be the master of the Meng family. The servant also advised him: "Anyway, between you and your elder brother, it's either him or you. Now you live in the yard of your father (Meng Xian), and your elder brother lives in your father's house. Go and change rooms with him. If he agrees, it means he agrees to let you be the master. If he disagrees, it means he wants to be the master behind closed doors. Don't argue. Come back and find a way."

Meng Xiao thought the servant was right, so he took the box, which symbolized the family rules, to his eldest brother and asked to change rooms. Dalang disagreed at first, saying that everything outside was his, so why bother fighting with me for this one? Meng Xiao said, "The family rules stipulate that only one son can inherit. My ancestors and my father let me take charge. I don't want to argue, but I don't want to violate the family rules and give the women in this courtyard a handle on me." After hearing this, the eldest brother had no choice but to agree to change rooms.

Meng Xiao immediately moved into his father's room, replaced everything there with new ones, hired new servants, and bought sixteen flower panels to install above and below the door. The bookboy was placed in the outer bedroom. As a reward for his admonition, Meng Xiao gave him a cypress-framed bed, a mattress, and a four-season quilt. From then on, the two of them no longer huddled together, and their food, drink, and comprador life became extravagant. Locals rumored that Meng Lang loved lotus seed and silverfish soup. Silverfish were harvested in Dongting Lake and transported from Jiujiang to Chengdu, requiring a large amount of ice to preserve their freshness. After becoming the head of the household, Meng Xiao continued to eat birds, but the area from which he ate them expanded from Western Sichuan to Yunnan, Kuizhou, Jinghu, Ezhou, and Ganpo. Li Di's painting of a ring-necked pheasant and Zhao Ji's painting of a mandarin duck both landed on Meng Lang's silver plate. Locals said Meng Lang loved to eat alone, and out of four meals a day, he didn't share three with his family. Meng Lang loved jewelry, jade, gold, silver, glass, giant clams, agate, pearls, amber, and more. The pearl curtain hanging by his window was worth ten thousand strings of cash, and the coral mountain at the head of his bed was worth ten ounces of pure gold. Of course, this was small change, a luxurious life fabricated by the imaginary imaginations of the unskilled natives. They said the real Meng Lang had everything he wanted, but that was all. Luxurious food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were not true wealth, and Meng Lang wasn't necessarily seeking it.

However, both Meng Xiao's real life and his rumored extravagance came to an end after seven months. It was Pi Baochang who drove him out of Meng Jian's room—and out of the main courtyard of the Meng residence. In the Dinghai year (main road), Pi Baochang began to cause trouble, though there were signs beforehand. He suffered from rheumatism and amnesia. After the Renwu year of Shaoxing, Pi Baochang developed a tremor. Whenever he had an attack, his entire body trembled, a wry smile crossed his face, his hands and feet were numb, and his solar plexus pulsated constantly. Han had invited many doctors to visit him, but they all declared it insanity. They prescribed numerous remedies, but to no avail. A few months ago, Han had invited a renowned doctor of the warming and nourishing school from Renshou County, who diagnosed the tremor as a symptom. He explained that kidney and liver deficiency had led to malnutrition of the tendons and veins, disturbed wind and yang, and insufficient qi and blood. He needed to replenish his qi and blood. He prescribed a decoction of codonopsis, white peony root, tortoise shell, and wolfberry. After three months of taking it, Pi Baochang's tremors were relieved. But after a few days, Captain Pi started talking nonsense again.

The Guanyuan residence was southwest of the master's, separated from Meng Xiao's by a wall. Chief Pi often rambled in the middle of the night, and in the morning, instead of talking to himself in the room, he would go outside and talk to the walls and stones. He liked to talk to the cows, horses, and figurines on the sixteen latticework Meng Xiao had bought from Huizhou, recounting the humiliating experiences he had encountered as a chief. For example, he had a child who died from prolonged sleep. On the day of his death, the head money collector still took his son's share. The Sun family gave birth to a two-headed baby, so they had to collect head money from both. Li Shichang colluded with bandits, and seven families were implicated. These seven families pawned their children and daughters, and outsiders collected the money, two strings of cash for the daughters and ten strings of cash for the sons. It was also said that there was a widow named Chen in the village who picked up rotten oranges to eat and stole feces from the pigpen to sell. She was caught and blinded. Three months later, she and her daughter starved to death in a dilapidated nunnery, and their bodies were fed to stray dogs... The servant couldn't hear him clearly, but Meng Xiao was often harassed. Meng Xiao asked the servant to chase Pi Baochang away. The servant went out and said to Pi Baochang, "Go away." Pi Baochang said, "There are figures walking on the south wall of this courtyard. It's a woman and her daughter." The servant said, "I'm from Fengxiang, how can you fool me?" Pi Baochang smiled but said nothing. His hands and feet trembled, and he shook his head. He left the courtyard and came back the next day. On the third day, Meng Xiao locked the gate. But that night, Pi Baochang appeared outside the door again. The servant came out and said, "Why are you not sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you doing?" Pi Baochang turned his head to look at him and smiled, but scared the servant. Later, the servant said that he saw two Pi Baochangs that night, his body from one place and his shadow from another. While Pi Baochang was laughing, Pi Baochang's shadow was talking to the two figures, one big and one small, on the south wall. The next day, Pi Baochang did not wake up again and died in the evening. He was put into the prepared coffin by the courtyard workers and sent to the village for burial. After that day, the situation changed drastically. The servant, who originally said that everything was a conspiracy of the aunts, is now afraid at night and can't sleep. Meng Xiao, who originally said that Pi Baochang was causing trouble, now says that everything is a conspiracy of the aunts. Meng Xiao said that now that I live in this courtyard, there are seven aunts between me and the world. So, in October of that year, Meng Xiao packed up his bedding and left the main courtyard, moving back to the side courtyard, leaving behind his newly purchased belongings, the flower board, and the bunk bed. The aunts came to see him and his servant, with all sorts of motives. Meng Xiao remained resolute, ignoring their ridicule and mockery, refusing to return to the main courtyard. Even after committing a serious crime and leaving Chengdu, he never returned to the main courtyard of the Meng residence.