took from his pocket a set of flint and steel, lighted the tinder, and held it to the bowl.
"Thank you, thank you," Mu-san said, nodding.
"Although this is our first meeting. I've known Uncle Mu's name for a long time," the fat man said deferentially. "Yes, who in these three-six-eighteen[1] villages by the sea does not know all about the affair? We all know that that Shih family's son is carrying on with a widow. When Uncle Mu and his six sons went to their house and tore up their stove last year, was there any one who did not say that it served them right? You, sir, are one who can walk through the tallest gates and into the biggest houses with the greatest ease and confidence. You need have no fear of them!"
"Uncle, you are surely an understanding one," Ai-ku said, pleased, "though I do not know who you are."
"My name is Wang Te-kuei," the fat man said eagerly. Ai-ku continued, "It just won't do to cast me aside. I do not care whether it is His Honor Seven or His Honor Eight. I'll keep them going until their home is destroyed and their people dead! Didn't His Honor Wei beg me four times to give them peace? Father got dizzy from counting the money they had to pay . . . "
"Keep quiet, your mother's!" Mu-san muttered to his daughter.
"I was told that the Shihs presented His Honor Wei with a complete banquet[2] at the last year-end," said the man with the crab-shell face.
"That doesn't make any difference," said Wang Te-kuei.
