"Fatsai, fatsai.[1] Where . . . ?"
"I have been to the city."
By the following day the news had spread through the entire village and had become a matter of absorbing interest. Every scrap of information that could be gathered in the tavern and teahouse and under the gate of the temple was sifted and pieced together, and as a result of this coöperative effort the history of the renascence of Ah Q with his heavy wallet and new coat came to be known in detail and gave Ah Q a new prestige.
According to his own story Ah Q had worked in the house of His Honor the provincial graduate. This announcement immediately raised his status in the villagers' eyes. His Honor's patronymic was Pai, but as he was the only graduate in the whole district, it was unnecessary to prefix his name to the title. This was not only true in Wei but true everywhere within a radius of a hundred li from the city, so much so that people almost began to think that His Honor the Graduate was the man's name. It was naturally a great honor to work in such a man's house. But Ah Q had quit his job because he said the graduate was entirely too much his mother's such and such. The announcement brought forth a general sigh of regret and satisfaction; satisfaction because after all Ah Q was hardly worthy of the honor and regret because it was a great pity to throw up such a fine job.
Another reason why Ah Q had returned to Wei was because he had become dissatisfied with city people's ways. The first complaint he had against them was an old one: they called a bench t'iao teng instead of ch'ang teng and used shredded onion instead of big sections of it in frying fish.
- ↑ May you grow rich.
