“Do not forget that it is written: ‘Though you set a monkey on horseback yet will his hands and feet remain hairy,’” he remarked. “The one whose conduct we are discussing may well be aware of his own deficiencies, and know that if he adopted such a course a humiliating exposure would await him. Do not have any fear for the future, however: thus protected, this person is inspired to prophesy that you will certainly take a high place in the examinations.... Indeed,” he added thoughtfully, “it might be prudent to venture a string of cash upon your lucky number.”
With this auspicious leave-taking Tzu-lu dismissed him, and Lao Ting returned to the city greatly refreshed in spirit by the encounter. Instead of retiring to his home he continued into the more reputable ways beyond, it then being about the hour at which the affixers of official notices were wont to display their energies.
So it chanced indeed, but walking with his feet off the ground, owing to the obliging solitary’s encouragement, Lao Ting forgot his usual caution, and came suddenly into the midst of a band of these men at an angle of the paths.
“Honourable greetings,” he exclaimed, feeling that if he passed them by unregarded his purpose might be suspected. “Have you eaten your rice?”
“How is your warmth and cold?” they replied courteously. “Yet why do you arrest your dignified footsteps to converse with outcasts so illiterate as ourselves?”
“The reason,” admitted Lao Ting frankly, “need not be buried in a well. Had I avoided the encounter you might have said among yourselves: ‘Here is one who shuns our gaze. This, perchance, is he who of late has lurked within the shadow of our backs to bear away our labour.’ Not to create this unworthy suspicion I freely came among you, for, as the Ancient Wisdom says: ‘Do not adjust your sandals while passing through a melon-field, nor yet arrange your hat beneath an orange-tree.’”
“Yet,” said the leader of the band, “we were waiting thus in expectation of the one whom you describe. The incredible leper who rules our goings has, even at this hour and notwithstanding that now is the appointed day and time for the gathering together of the Harmonious Constellation of Paste Appliers and Long Brush Wielders, thrust within our hands a double task.”
“May bats defile his Ancestral Tablets and goats propagate within his neglected tomb!” chanted the band in unison. “May the sinews of his hams snap suddenly in moments of achievement! May the principles of his warmth and cold never be properly adjusted but—”
“Thus positioned,” continued the leader, indicating by a gesture that while he agreed with these sentiments the moment was not opportune for their full recital, “we await. If he who lurks in our past draws near he will doubtless accept from our hands that which he will assuredly possess behind our backs. Thus mutual help will lighten the toil of all.”
“The one whom you require dwells beneath my scanty roof,” said the youth. “He is now, however, absent on a secret mission. Entrust to me the burden of your harassment and I will answer, by the sanctity of the Four-eyed Image, that it shall reach his speedy hand.”