The aftermath of the incident was felt more poignantly in the house of His Honor the graduate; the loot had not been recovered and his household was rent with lamentations. Next in order came the house of Chao, for not only was the licentiate's queue cut off by the more radical element of the revolutionaries, when he went into the city to report the case, but they had to pay the twenty-thousand cash reward. That household was, therefore, also rent with lamentations. From that time on they gradually began to manifest the symptoms of a man who has seen better days.
As to public opinion in Wei, there was no dissent from the natural conclusion that Ah Q must have been a bad character: the fact that he was shot was proof enough for anyone—otherwise, how could he have been shot? Public opinion in the city, however, was outraged and dissatisfied; most people contended that shooting was not as good a spectacle as beheading. And what a stupid and spiritless prisoner—not a single tune out of him all the time he was being paraded through the street! They had followed the procession for nothing.
