Ah Q. First the constable came to see him and took away the curtain; he ignored Ah Q's professions of innocence and said that he was going to speak to him later on about hush money. Then there was a noticeable change in the attitude of the villagers toward him. It was true that they were still wary of him and did not dare to take any liberties with him, but it was also clear that the reason back of this wariness was different from that which kept them at a distance after he "zipped" the Beard's head.
The interest of the idlers in his exploits persisted, however, and Ah Q was not reluctant to satisfy their curiosity. They learned then that Ah Q played only a minor role in these exploits; he climbed no walls, crawled through no breaches, but only stood on the outside and waited for things to be passed to him. One night as he was waiting expectantly after he had already received one bundle, he heard a commotion inside the house. Thereupon he ran away as fast as he could, climbed over the city wall and fled back to Wei, and had not dared to venture forth again. This confession hurt Ah Q's prestige even more than Sister Tsou's revelations. The villagers had been wary of him because they were afraid of antagonizing a dangerous character; they had not expected to find that he was not only a petty thief but a reformed one at that. Of such a person one needs to have no fear.
On the fourteenth day of the ninth month, the third year of the reign of Hsuan T'ung—that is, the day on which Ah Q sold his wallet to Chao the white-eyed—at the fourth beat of the third watch, a big, covered boat stopped at the Chaos' landing. In the darkness of the night while the villagers were sound asleep, its arrival had not been noticed; but as it was
