Then Wang Lung would not think further what he did, but he said quickly,
“I will take six ounces of it.”
28
Then after the second daughter was sent away and Wang Lung was free of his anxiety about her, he said to his uncle one day,
“Since you are my father’s brother, here is a little better tobacco for you.”
And he opened the jar of opium and the stuff was sticky and sweet smelling and Wang Lung’s uncle took it and smelled of it, and he laughed and was pleased and he said,
“Well now, I have smoked it a little but not often before this, for it is too dear, but I like it well enough.”
And Wang Lung answered him, pretending to be careless,
“It is only a little I bought once for my father when he grew old and could not sleep at night and I found it today unused and I thought, ‘There is my father’s brother, and why should he not have it before me, who am younger and do not need it yet?’ Take it then, and smoke it when you wish or when you have a little pain.”
Then Wang Lung’s uncle took it greedily, for it was sweet to smell and a thing that only rich men used, and he took it and bought a pipe and he smoked the opium, lying all day upon his bed to do it. Then Wang Lung saw to it that there were pipes bought and left here and there and he pretended to smoke himself, but he only took a pipe to his room and left it there cold. And his two sons in the house and Lotus he would not allow to touch the opium, saying as his excuse that it was too dear, but he urged it upon his uncle and upon his uncle’s wife and son, and the courts were filled with the sweetish smell of the smoke, and the silver for this Wang Lung did not begrudge because it bought him peace.
Now as the winter wore away and the waters began to recede so that Wang Lung could walk abroad over his land it happened one day that his eldest son followed him and said to him proudly,
“Well, and there will soon be another mouth in the house and it will be the mouth of your grandson.”
Then Wang Lung, when he heard this, turned himself about and he laughed and he rubbed his hands together and said,
“Here is a good day, indeed!”
And he laughed again, and went to find Ching and tell him to go to the town to buy fish and good food and he sent it in to his son’s wife and said,
“Eat, make strong the body of my grandson.”
Then all during the spring Wang Lung had the knowledge of this birth to come for his comfort. And when he was busy about other things he thought of it, and when he was troubled he thought of it and it was a comfort to him.
And as the spring grew into summer, the people who had gone away from the floods came back again, one by one and group by group, spent and weary with the winter and glad to be back, although where their houses had been there was nothing now but the yellow mud of the water-soaked land. But out of this mud houses could be fashioned again, and mats bought to roof them, and many came to Wang Lung to borrow money, and he loaned it at high interest, seeing how greatly it was in demand, and the security he always said must be land. And with the money they borrowed they planted seed upon the earth that was fat with the richness of the dried water, and when they needed oxen and seed and plows and when they could borrow no more money, some sold land and part of their fields that they might plant what was left. And of these Wang Lung bought land and much land, and he bought it cheaply, since money men must have.
But there were some who would not sell their land, and when they had nothing wherewith to buy seed and plow and oxen, they sold their daughters, and there were those who came to Wang Lung to sell, because it was known he was rich and powerful and a man of good heart.
And he, thinking constantly of the child to come and of others to come from his sons when they were all wed, bought five slaves, two about twelve years of age with big feet and strong bodies, and two younger to wait upon them all and fetch and carry, and one to wait on the person of Lotus, for Cuckoo grew old and since the second girl was gone there had been none other to work in the house. And the five he bought in one day, for he was a man rich enough to do quickly what he decided upon.
Then one day many days later a man came bearing a small delicate maid of seven years or so, wanting to sell her, and Wang Lung said he would not have her at first, for she was so small and weak. But Lotus saw her and fancied her and she said pettishly,
“Now this one I will have because she is so pretty and the other one is coarse and smells like goat’s meat and I do not like her.”
And Wang Lung looked at the child and saw her pretty frightened eyes and her piteous thinness and he said partly to humor Lotus and partly that he might see the child fed and fattened,
“Well, and let it be so if you wish it.”
So he bought the child for twenty pieces of silver and she lived in the inner courts and slept on the foot of the bed where Lotus slept.
Now it seemed to Wang Lung that he could have peace in his house. When the waters receded and summer came and the land was to be planted to good seed, he walked hither and thither and looked at every piece and he discussed with Ching the quality of each piece of soil and what change there should be of crops for the fertility of the land. And whenever he went he took with him his youngest son, who was to be on the land after him, that the lad might learn. And Wang Lung never looked to see how the lad listened and whether he listened or not, for the lad walked with his head downcast and he had a sullen look on his face, and no one knew what he thought.
But Wang Lung did not see what the lad did, only that he walked there in silence behind his father. And when everything was planned Wang Lung went back to his house well content and he said to his own heart,
“I am no longer young and it is not necessary for me to work any more with my hands since I have men on my land and my sons and peace in my house.”
Yet when he went into his house there was no peace. Although he had given his son a wife and although he had bought slaves enough to serve them all, and although his uncle and his uncle’s wife were given enough of opium for their pleasure all day, still there was no peace. And again it was because of his uncle’s son and his own eldest son.
It seemed as though Wang Lung’s eldest son could never give over his hatred of his cousin or his deep suspicion of his cousin’s evil. He had seen well enough with his own eyes in his youth that the man, his cousin, was full of all sorts of evil, and things had come to pass where Wang Lung’s son would not even leave the house to go to the tea shop unless the cousin went also, and he watched the cousin and left only when he left. And he suspected the man of evil with the slaves and even of evil in the inner court with Lotus, although this was idle, for Lotus grew fatter and older every day and had long since given over caring for anything except her foods and her wines and would not have troubled to look at the man had he come near, and she was even glad when Wang Lung came to her less and less with his age.
Now when Wang Lung entered with his youngest son from the fields, his eldest son drew his father aside and he said,
“I will not endure that fellow my cousin in the house any more with his peepings and his lounging about with his robes unbuttoned and his eyes on the slaves.” He did not dare to say further what he thought, “And even he dares to peep into the inner courts at your own woman,” because he remembered with a sickness in his vitals that he himself had once hung about this woman of his father’s, and now seeing her fat and older as she was, he could not dream that he had ever done this thing and he was bitterly ashamed of it and would not for anything have recalled it to his father’s memory. So he was silent of that, and mentioned only the slaves.