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The faithless widow
Mr. Niu was a Kiangsi man who traded in piece goods. He
married a wife from the Cheng family, by whom he had two
children, a boy and a girl. When thirty-three years of age he fell
ill and died, his son Chung being then only twelve and his little
girl eight or nine. His wife did not remain faithful to his memory,
but, selling off all the property, pocketed the proceeds and
married another man, leaving her two children almost in a state
of destitution with their aunt, Niu's sister-in-law, an old lady of
sixty, who had lived with them previously, and had now nowhere
to seek a shelter.
A few years later this aunt died, and the family fortunes began
to sink even lower than before. Chung, however, was now grown
up, and determined to carry on his father's trade, only he had no
capital to start with. His sister marrying a rich trader named
Mao, she begged her husband to lend Chung ten ounces of silver,
which he did, and Chung immediately started for Nanking.
On the road he fell in with some bandits, who robbed him of
all he had, and consequently he was unable to return; but one day
when he was at a pawnshop he noticed that the master of the
shop was wonderfully like his late father, and on going out and
making inquiries he found that this pawnbroker bore precisely
the same names. In great astonishment, he forthwith proceeded
to frequent the place with no other object than to watch this man,
who, on the other hand, took no notice of Chung; and by the end
of three days, having satisfied himself that the man really was his
own father, and yet not daring to disclose his own identity, he
made application through one of the assistants, on the score of
being himself a Kiangsi man, to be employed in the shop.
Accordingly, an indenture was drawn up; and when the master
noticed Chung's name and place of residence he started, and
asked him whence he came. With tears in his eyes Chung addressed
him by his father's name, and then the pawnbroker became lost
in a deep reverie, by-and-by asking Chung how his mother was.
Now Chung did not like to allude to his father's death, and
turned the question by saying, "My father went away on business
six years ago, and never came back; my mother married again
and left us, and had it not been for my aunt our corpses would
long ago have been cast out in the kennel." Then the pawnbroker
was much moved, and cried out, "I am your father!" seizing his
son's hand and leading him within to see his step-mother.
This lady was about twenty-two, and having no children of her
own, was delighted with Chung, and prepared a banquet for him
in the inner apartments. Mr. Niu himself was, however, some-
what melancholy, and wished to return to his old home; but his
wife, fearing that there would be no one to manage the business,
persuaded him to remain; so he taught his son the trade, and in
three months was able to leave it all to him.
He then prepared for his journey, whereupon Chung informed
his step-mother that his father was really dead, to which she re-
plied in great consternation that she knew him only as a trader to
the place, and that six years previously he had married her, which
proved conclusively that he couldn't be dead. He then recounted
the whole story, which was a perfect mystery to both of them;
and twenty-four hours afterwards in walked his father, leading a
woman whose hair was all disheveled. Chung looked at her, and
saw that she was his own mother; and Niu took her by the ear and
began to revile her, saying, "Why did you desert my children?"
to which the wretched woman made no reply. He then bit her
across the neck, at which she screamed to Chung for assistance,
and he, not being able to bear the sight, stepped in between them.
His father was more than ever enraged at this, when, lo! Chung's
mother had disappeared.
While they were still lost in astonishment at this strange scene, Mr. Niu's colour changed; in another moment his empty clothes
had dropped upon the ground, and he himself became a black
vapour and also vanished from their sight. The step-mother and
son were much overcome; they took Niu's clothes and buried
them, and after that Chung continued his father's business, and
soon amassed great wealth.
On returning to his native place he found that his mother had
actually died on the very day of the above occurrence, and that
his father had been seen by the whole family.
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