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A woman is not easily deceived--a jealous woman especially;

Peaceful-union soon discovered the whole truth. She had the girl brought

before her and took advantage of an impertinent answer to have her

beaten a hundred blows; after that, she turned on her husband and drove

him nearly mad with reproaches. What could the poor man do? He sold his

concubine to a neighbouring family named Liu, and peace was restored in

the house.



The days and years passed on without any change in the situation; the

nephews of Correct-happiness, seeing that he was old already and had no

son, began to fawn upon him, each of them trying to be the one that

would be elected as an adopted son to continue the family cult, as is

the custom.



Peaceful-union at last began to see her error and regretted bitterly

what she had done.



"You are only sixty years old," said she to her husband. "Is it too

late? Let us buy two chosen girls who will be your second wives; maybe

one of them will give you a son."



The old man smiled sadly; he did not entertain any great hope;

nevertheless, the concubines were bought. After a year, to the great

surprise and joy of everybody, both gave birth--one to a girl, the other

to a boy. But both children died a few months after.



Correct-happiness, when winter set in, caught a cold and was soon in a

desperate state of health. His nephews were always beside him; but,

seeing he would adopt neither of them, they began looting the house;

they found at last the treasure and took it away openly.



The moribund was too ill even to know what they did. Peaceful-union

tried in vain to stop them.



"Will you leave me to die of hunger? I am the wife of your uncle. I am

entitled to a part of his riches."



But they would not hear her.



"If you had borne a son to our uncle, or if he had adopted one of us, we

would not have touched a single copper cash of his treasure; but,

through your own fault, he has nobody to maintain his rights; we take

what is our own."



When the day ended, the widow found herself alone in the deserted and

emptied house, crying over the body of her dead husband.



Suddenly she heard steps outside the door; a young man appeared on the

threshold, his eyes full of tears, covered with the white dress of

mourning. He entered, kneeled beside the corpse, and, knocking the

ground with his forehead, he began the ritual lamentations.



Peaceful-union stopped crying and looked at him with astonishment; she

did not know him.



"May I ask your noble name? Who are you to cry over my husband's death?"



"I am the deceased's only son."



The widow started with surprise and a pang of her old jealousy; would

her husband have had a son without her knowing it? But the next words

of the young man explained everything.



Twenty years ago, when she had beaten and sold away the first concubine

of her husband, she did not know the girl bore already the fruit of this

short union. Six months later she had a son, to whom she gave the name

of Correct-sadness; but, bearing in mind the bad treatment she had

received, she asked the Liu family to keep the child as one of their

own. They consented and sent the boy to school with their children.



When Correct-sadness was eighteen, the chief of the Liu family died; the

family dispersed, and only a small legacy was left to the young man.

Believing he was a member of the family, he could not understand what

happened, and asked his mother; she told him the truth. Resenting the

hard treatment inflicted on his mother, he awaited the death of his

father to make his own identity known.



Peaceful-union was very happy to hear this story.



"I am no more without a son," said she. "All that my nephews have taken

away, treasure and furniture, they must bring back again. If not, the

magistrate will send them to die in jail."



In fact, the nephews refused to give back anything. The widow began a

lawsuit; everything at last was restored to the legal heir.



Peaceful-union hastened to choose him a wife, and as soon as the

matrimonial festivities were ended she told her daughter-in-law:



"My dear child, if I were you, I would ask Correct-sadness to buy

immediately one or two good concubines; if you have a son and they have

also, so much the better, but you can't realise how difficult to bear it

is to be childless."