Mrs. Qu had just crossed the river and got into a sedan chair right off the boat. The sedan chair bearers grumbled, "This place is so big, how do we know where the master is? Where should we ask?" Mrs. Qu, ever the decisive one, told one of her attendants to go to the Xiakou Magistrate's Office, saying that she was from the Provincial Government and was looking for Mr. Qu, asking Magistrate Ma to send someone to help find him. The attendant quickly went off. Mrs. Qu did not get off the sedan chair but instructed the bearers to carry it to a place near Xiakou Magistrate's Office to wait for a reply.
Magistrate Ma of Xiakou was a smooth operator; good with his superiors, he'd even gotten away with a couple of screw-ups. Although he was a local official, he often wandered around theaters and brothels, under the guise of night inspections, he was really out having a good time. Qu Nai'an, Da Xuandong, and a few others had recently been partying with him. He also knew about Qu Nai'an's marriage to Aizhu, and they had even been drinking together last night.
One day, someone suddenly came to report at the office, "Someone from the Provincial Government is looking for Mr. Qu, asking us to send someone to help find him." Magistrate Ma nearly jumped out of his skin and told the gatekeeper, "Mr. Qu's new place is in the second alley west of Yang Street – it's the third door on the right." He also sent two bailiffs to guide them. Then he asked, "Who from the Provincial Government is looking for him? What is it about?" The messenger mumbled something vague and left with the bailiffs. Not long after, they ran into Mrs. Qu's sedan chair. The attendant stepped forward and said, "He's at the new house."
Mrs. Qu immediately understood that the master had found a lover outside and rented a new house when she heard the words "new house," and she was furious. She urged the sedan chair bearers to follow the constables and arrived at the west end of the town. Following the address given by Master Ma, she entered an alley, counted to the third gate, and knocked on the door. Mrs. Qu asked from the sedan chair, "Does someone surnamed Qu live here?" An old man came out and said, "I'm afraid you have the wrong address; it's Xu. Who are you?" Before the old man finished speaking, Mrs. Qu got off the sedan chair and shouted, "Call that scoundrel out! I have something to say to him! What a good deed! He's been sweet-talking me at the yamen, and now it seems he's moved his 'office' here! Come out and go with me to see the magistrate!" While scolding, she ordered her men, "Attack them!" The people she brought were all rough guys; without hesitation, they smashed things downstairs to pieces. The old man was furious and kept shouting, "Thieves! What are you doing here?!"
Amidst the commotion, Mrs. Qu had already searched upstairs. Realizing something was wrong, she hurried downstairs and asked the constable who led the way, "Isn't this the place? What's wrong?" The homeowner also protested, "Who are you looking for? You didn't even ask clearly before attacking people? How is this reasonable?" Mrs. Qu then realized her mistake, quickly got back on the sedan chair, and scolded her men for being confused and barging in without asking. The old man, seeing his things smashed, was speechless with rage. As he was about to go out, he lunged for the sedan chair pole, ready to fight. Fortunately, two constables helped, shouting and even raising their whips to scare him back.
In the sedan chair, Mrs. Qu was still scolding her subordinates and the constables. One of the constables, a bit brighter than the others, said, "Did we go the wrong way? Let's check the third house across the street." Just as they reached the door of the third house, they saw another steward of the mansion knocking on the door. Mrs. Qu, seeing it was one of her own, said, "This must be it!" When the steward saw Mrs. Qu had arrived, he knew the game's up, so he hurried forward and said, "Mrs. Qu! I was just coming to see the master myself." Mrs. Qu replied, "You two are in cahoots and did a good job! Did you really think I wouldn't find out? And now you pretend nothing's wrong!" With that, she pushed the door open. Unexpectedly, Mr. Qu was not there; only his newly-wedded Aizhu and an old servant were upstairs. Seeing the crowd downstairs, they knew they were in trouble, so they sat upstairs without making a sound. Mrs. Qu, having just wrongly accused someone, didn't dare to act rashly. After asking twice without getting a response, she went upstairs. Seeing only two women, she couldn't be sure if they were the master's mistresses, so she asked, "Is this Mr. Qu's new place?" Aizhu looked at her without answering. Mrs. Qu asked again. After a while, Aizhu finally said, "Who are you? Why are you here?" Mrs. Qu was frozen, stuck at the bottom of the stairs, not knowing what to do.
Madam Qu was in a bit of a pickle when Hu Fu came to report, "Madam, it's here. Huang Sheng, who went out with the master, came to deliver a message." Knowing he was here, Madam Qu's spirits rose, and she said sternly, "Send him up!" Huang Sheng came upstairs to see her, knelt down, and kowtowed, saying he came to deliver good news. She angrily replied, "My husband takes a concubine, he's thrilled, but what's there for me to be happy about? Don't bother with the flattery, I'm not impressed." Huang Sheng said, "I'm here to report good news to you, it's not about that; the master has been promoted." When Madam Qu heard the word "promoted," she was very surprised and hurriedly asked, "Where has he been promoted to?" Huang Sheng said, "The acting governor of Xingguo." Madam Qu replied, "That's not so bad, but it's still not what I wanted. No matter what position he gets, he's always a bumbling official. Just look at his track record. He says he's old, worries about not having a son, wants to take a concubine—am I not afraid of being childless? My heart is even more anxious than his! I never said he couldn't take a concubine. But he did it behind my back! Of course I'm angry!"
They all saw Mrs. Qu; although she was still panting, her face looked a lot better than it had upstairs. Mrs. Qu originally wanted to make them pay, but as soon as she heard that the master had been promoted and knew that Miss Gan had helped, she felt happy and most of her anger was gone. However, she still had to save face, so she pretended and said, "I worked hard, begging and pleading with people everywhere, just to get him this official position. But he hid it from me and is enjoying himself outside. What did I ever do to deserve this? He is about to take office soon, will have money in his hands, and will definitely ignore me even more. I might as well just fight him now! I have no luck being the legitimate wife; after I die, someone else will get it easy!" Saying this, she wanted to find a rope and scissors to commit suicide. The maids rushed to stop her. Aizhu, the new concubine, just sat by the window, crying silently. The maids had heard about the promotion and weren't about to get involved. Mrs. Qu became even angrier when she saw this and said, "You all work for him, and you won't help me, his wife? The master has been promoted, and you all want to get rich. Don't you know I got him this job all by myself? Since you have no conscience, I might as well go to the government office and return this official position, letting him assign someone else! It's supposed to be a team effort; I'm not your servant!" After speaking, she burst into tears.
Just then, someone announced Master Ma's arrival; Madam Qu had gone upstairs, and Mr. Qu had just returned home. As soon as he entered the gate and heard that his wife was upstairs, he was scared stiff. He knew things were not good and thought to himself: "Other friends are unreliable; only Master Ma from Xiaokou Hall is quick-witted and resourceful, a real problem-solver. I should ask him to help with this issue. Otherwise, it will be big trouble!" He figured that out and, as he left, he bumped into the old Mr. Xu, who grabbed him, saying, "Your wife broke my things; you have to compensate! If you don't, I will find a foreigner and go to the consulate to sue you!" Mr. Qu was speechless. His quick-thinking butler managed to apologize and compensate, finally getting rid of the old man. Mr. Qu hurried to the Xiaokou Hall magistrate's office and told Master Ma about the situation. Master Ma was forced to come running. Although Madam Qu had never met Master Ma, in this situation, it was the least of her worries.
After Mr. Ma went upstairs, without a word, he just kept thumping his feet and saying, "You can't just impersonate anyone. They made Nai'an take on this name, and I felt it was wrong. Now something has indeed happened. Mistaking one Chinese person for another is one thing, but how did they end up attacking the comprador's house? They immediately told the foreign owner, the foreign owner told the consul, and the consul called right away, not only demanding compensation but also wanting to arrest someone. We're all friends, what am I supposed to do?" Although what he said was a bit disjointed, Madam Qu understood it roughly. She was originally sitting down, but now she stood up. Mr. Ma pretended not to know and asked, "Which one is Madam Qu?" The stewards pointed her out, and Mr. Ma came over to bow, and Madam Qu returned the gesture. Mr. Ma continued, "It's my friend's fault, causing my sister-in-law to suffer. She was a prostitute, but because the madam was too harsh, a few of us friends pooled money to redeem her. An official can't marry a prostitute! My friends are all righteous; no one wanted her, so we wanted to find a suitable person and give her as a concubine. At that time, someone recommended her to Nai'an. I knew Nai'an's temper; he's henpecked, he wouldn't dare take another wife, so I strongly advised him not to take her. We decided to support her, give her a place to live, and look after her, and hang a 'mansion' sign at the door to prevent toughs from barging in. Madam, you know, Hankou's not like the provincial capital. It's full of thugs and bandits, always causing trouble. With the 'mansion' sign, they wouldn't dare to come in. Someone joked at the time, 'Nai'an's henpecked, he wouldn't dare take another wife. I want to play a trick on him, I'll write "Qu Mansion" at the door, so when the sister-in-law finds out, let him suffer a bit.' Before the sign was even hung, this joke spread, and it really tricked you, Madam, into coming here. Can you believe it?!"
Mrs. Qu listened, lowered her head, and thought, "Whew, glad I didn't jump to conclusions; I nearly messed up again." She pondered, "If this isn't the place, how did Master Ma's messenger find me? And why is Huang Sheng here looking for him?" So she asked him. Master Ma replied, "I had nothing to do with that. If Nai'an really took a concubine and kept it from you, why would I have someone bring you here? It's probably just some gossip spreading around from the gate. Please don't believe it." Mrs. Qu asked Huang Sheng again. Huang Sheng was quick on his feet and said, "I heard the same thing from outside, so I thought I'd check it out, but I'm not sure if Master is actually here."
Mrs. Qu told Mr. Ma again that her husband hadn't come home for a few days. Mr. Ma said, "Official business, of course there is official business." Then he leaned close to Mrs. Qu and whispered, "Recently, a few revolutionaries came to Hankou. I don't know where they are staying, so the authorities have sent Nai'an to catch them. Afraid of causing trouble, those revolutionaries ran away, so they said they went out to play, but actually they were acting in secret. Ma'am, you don't know, the revolutionaries are planning a rebellion, and if caught, they will be executed. In recent years, hundreds have been executed for this. I didn't expect such bold people to come here now, and I don't know what they want to do. When Nai'an catches them, he might even get promoted!" Mrs. Qu said, "Now that he's got the job, can he still handle this?" Mr. Ma replied, "The official appointment is the responsibility of the provincial governor, while catching the revolutionaries is the responsibility of the district governor—two different things. I estimate that this matter must be resolved before he can take office." Mrs. Qu said, "The revolutionaries are planning a rebellion; it's not good to provoke them. It's better to take office with an official position as soon as possible. I'll talk to the provincial governor and have someone else handle this. Trading lives for a promotion is too risky, and the official position won't be secure." Mr. Ma said, "Just talk to the governor, I'm sure she'll understand." Mrs. Qu then anxiously asked, "How do we remedy the situation of wrongfully accusing someone?" Mr. Ma furrowed his brow and said, "This is a difficult problem. Now that it involves foreign merchants and has alarmed the consul, we could have an international incident on our hands." Mrs. Qu also became anxious, "What should we do? Mr. Ma, I'm counting on you!" With that, she bowed to Mr. Ma.
Seeing Mrs. Qu's attitude soften, Mr. Ma agreed. "Think of it as a friend doing a friend a solid; I'll take care of this matter for you. Ma'am, you shouldn't stay here for long; head back across the river. Once the matter is resolved, I will write to Nai'an." Mrs. Qu thanked him profusely and quietly returned to the province with her people.
Master Ma returned to the yamen and saw Qu Nai'an still waiting for news. Master Ma first told him about his acting magistrate position and urged him to return to the province to show his appreciation. He also shared the lies he had just cooked up with Mrs. Qu, so that they would be on the same page. At the same time, he sent someone to comfort Mr. Xu, make good the losses, and apologize with incense. Then he discussed with Qu Nai'an, "Given your wife's situation, it's better not to bring her to Hankou for now. Wait a couple of months after you take office, and then see the situation before bringing her over. There are friends here looking after her, so you can rest assured to take office." Qu Nai'an saw that everything was taken care of and was very grateful. He took his leave of Master Ma, crossed the river back to the province, and returned home.
When he got home, although Master Ma had taught him a set of words to say, he still felt uneasy in his heart. He was tongue-tied when he saw his wife. Fortunately, his wife had misjudged the situation and wasn't so worried, so she was not in good spirits. When she saw him, she only said, "Hurry up and go give thanks!" She also said, "Pass the job of arresting those revolutionaries to someone else quickly, don't take it upon yourself." Qu Nai'an saw that Master Ma's plan had succeeded and said, "I'll talk to the magistrate about giving the job of arresting the revolutionaries to someone else. We can start our new post immediately." Mrs. Qu said, "It'd be best if you resigned. If not, I'll go again to the magistrate's office for you." Qu Nai'an said, "It's easy, I'll resign right away, you don't have to worry." With that, he changed his clothes and went to the various yamens to give thanks.
