Chen Sanli finally arrived.

I told Cang Shu to stay in the shop and took Feng Chunsheng and him outside.

“Mr. Chen.” I gave him a cigarette.

Chen Sanli took the cigarette happily, saying that he was always fined when he smoked in Hong Kong, and he had to give up smoking gradually. Now he had this chance, and he could smoke as much as he wanted.

He dragged on the cigarette and said: “I know what you want to ask.. Well, let’s pick a place and I will treat you to lunch. Then I’ll tell you the story.”

“All right.”

I agreed right away, and found us a good restaurant. After we made our order, we sat down, drank, and chatted.

Chen Sanli ordered a big bottle of beer. After a big gulp, he said: “It is all because of me that the weasel and the ghost house are giving you trouble. There are so many origins; let me tell you everything.”

He firstly told us: “’Huang Erlang requited the favors of the Chen Family. He brought wealth from far away to show his appreciation, but the Chen family is very greedy and they framed Huang Erlang to death.’ Actually, this ragged verse is about that story.

“And this matter.. killed all three hundred members of the Chen family, except me.”

“What?”

Chen Sanli told me: “This all started when Huang Erlang wanted to show his gratitude.”

He told me that about eighty years ago, the Chen family lived at the Dragon Wall. There were not so many family members, but there was a big family cloth-dyeing business, and their skill was even compared to the dye shops of Su Zhou.

Su Zhou embroidery and cloth dyeing was considered excellent in the world, and it was great to be comparable to it.

At the time, the oldest daughter of the Chen family was called Chen Xian’er

Though the Chens had good skills in cloth-dyeing, their business was not doing great, and it kept declining.

Anyway, at the time, there was great turmoil and war in the country and people didn’t have so much money... People would only buy simple linens for clothes, since they couldn’t afford to buy good cloth.

And that’s why the Chens’ fine cloth-dyeing industry declined.

As a result, Chen Xian’er went to the Northeast to sell ginseng with some of her young family members.

It was rather expensive during that period, and there were rich businessmen who made a fortune off the medicine business.

Therefore, she went to Harbin and began selling ginseng.

It was a strenuous trip, but they arrived in Harbin safely. Then, they hired a local ginseng digger paidand went to the hills to dig up the ginseng.

When they reached the foothills of the mountains, Chen Sanli saw a big weasel, its legs broken by a hunter’s trap. She felt pity for that weasel and wanted to get some medicine for it.

But the ginseng man stopped her and said: “Just stop there.. This is not a common trap, it was put there by ghost people to catch wild spirits.. This is not a good weasel at all; it is a wild spirit.”

But Chen Xian’er was such a stubborn girl, she ignored what that man said and helped the weasel with some medicine. Then she got some food for that weasel, which was as big as a dog, and told it to leave.

The weasel limped away. It turned around to look at her after a while, as if it wanted to remember her so that it could repay her one day.

That ginseng man was not happy at all; he didn’t even want to take them to dig up the ginseng.

Chen Xian’er finally persuaded him to go on and paid him ten more Yuan.

Chen Xian’er had dug up three thousand jin of ginseng in that field. It was cheap, but she had to spend all of her savings to get that ginseng.

To her, it was all or nothing.

However, things weren’t so easy. It was a good beginning, but she didn’t know whether her luck would last.. Chen Xian’er gambled on this.

The road to the mountains was smooth, but very rough on the way down.

They met a gang of ruffians from Zhang Jiashan before long. But those ruffians were not so bad, and they took only a fifth of her ginseng.

She thought she could still earn some money with the rest of the ginseng, so she wasn’t worried.

But then, they met soldiers of the Republic of China as they crossed the border of Hunan.

Those soldiers took all of her ginseng right away.

Chen Xian’er protested, and the leader took out his gun and pointed it at her head. He said: “In such times of war, you have to give these medicines to the government, since the soldiers need them so much.. You are very lucky that I didn’t kill you.”

Now Chen Xian’re was angry. Why were those soldiers so rude, and even worse than the bandits?

Chen Xian’er unhappily returned to the Chen family.

She used up all of the money she took from home. Now she had nothing at all. She only had a few clothes, but there was no money, and no ginseng at all.

The clan patriarch worried so much his hair went white.

The next day after her return, most of the business associates of the family came to their house to end their cooperation, as they had heard that Chen Xiao’er had failed in her ginseng venture.

At the same time, the Chen family’s workers demanded their pay, declaring that the Chens should sell their house if they cannot afford their salaries.

As the saying goes, everyone hits a person when they’re down. Now, the Chen family was on the brink of dissolution.

At last, the patriarch came out and said he needed three days to collect the money for his creditors.

Hearing that they could get the money after three days, the creditors went back home.

But that clan head was very worried. How could he get the money in such a short time..? There was barely anything in his home.

Chen Xian’er and the patriarch sat all day long in the house while the elder members went out to borrow the money.

However, it was impossible for them to borrow the money, since everyone knew the Chens failed in their ginseng venture.

As a result, their so-called friends denied them and said they also had difficulties, or they refused because the Chens didn’t treat them so well in the past and it was impossible to lend them the money at that moment.

When the three days passed, the patriarch said: “Well.. the only way is to sell the house and its contents.”

As the old saying went, tit for tat.

Chen Xian’er burst into laughter. She felt regretful and said she shouldn’t have bought so much ginseng, or else, everything would be better.

But in this world, you have no chance for regret. It was no use.. Those soldiers would never return her ginseng.

Then, someone knocked on the door.

It was a quick knocking.

Mr. Chen didn’t know what happened. When he opened the door.. he got a big surprise.

He saw many rows of weasels outside the house.

A weasel rushed in as soon as the door opened. It jumped on the table and spit in the bowl on the tabletop.

Ding!

One silver bead loudly rolled around in the bowl.

Then, the rest of the weasels followed the first one and spit out the beads in their mouths.

After one round, the bowl was filled with silver beads.

Mr. Chen and Chen Xian’er didn’t know what was happening.

Then, a weasel in the front row spoke: “I am Huang Erlang, of the Huangs of the Northeast. I was saved by Chen Xian’er on the hill in Harbin; now I have come to help you out with these silver beads when I heard that you were in trouble.”

Well, paper money was not valuable at all at the time, and only real gold and silver were used as currency.

Chen Xian’er was overjoyed to see such a big bowl full of silver. That money was absolutely enough to pay off the debt.

But that was not the end of the story.

The first weasel shouted again: “Those silver beads are only an advance.. I will come by myself after you pay off the debt tomorrow, and I will bring Chen Xian’er a big gift.”

With these words, the weasels scattered in all directions and disappeared.

Early the next morning, the creditors came to collect the debt.

Now, Mr. Chen wasn’t worried at all. He took out the silver beads the weasels brought him and said: “Come and count them. We’re a rich family.”

The silver beads gave those stuck-up creditors a very good impression.

Suddenly.. another person appeared in the crowd.

He was noble and dignified, but with small, squinted eyes. He looked like a weasel.

This was Huang Erlang, the weasel who’d been saved by Chen Xian’er and took on a human form.

Huang Erlang carried a box and told those creditors to make way for him.

He went inside and threw the box on the floor with all his strength.

The box was smashed to smithereens.

Inside was a pile of gold.

Then those creditors shook their heads and said: “Well.. we never knew.. Mr. Chen isn’t in decline, but is so well-off.”

They all regretted how they treated the Chens.

The creditors didn’t want their money back anymore, and wanted to cooperate with Mr. Chen. They showered him with all manner of apologies. On that day, Mr. Chen and his family earned a very good reputation.

“Huang Erlang wanted to show his gratitude. He brought great wealth from far away, but also caused trouble.” Chen Sanli shook his head: “It was a fairy-tale start, but not a fairy-tale start ending.. The three hundred people of the Chen family all died because of the weasel.”