Eternal Life was puzzled, and looked at him earnestly.  He repeated: 

“Is it I?  Dear heart, speak quickly!”

“He who came,” she said at last, “was perhaps bigger.  But it was always dark, and how can I be sure?  But I remember that on your left shoulder you have a scar as big as a copper piece.”

The bystanders at once exclaimed: 

“That is easy to verify.  There can be no further mistake.  Uncle, unclothe yourself quickly.  If there is nothing there, we shall inform the Governor.”

Chang immediately uncovered his shoulder, and the white flesh was as smooth as marble.  Eternal Life could not believe her eyes.  When the young man had gone back, filled full of hope, to his prison, the gaolers made their report to the Governor, who had already summoned ma-ma Lu.

In the audience chamber the old woman knelt down and was quite overcome.  The judge began by ordering her forty strokes for having acted as an abettor of corruption.  The flesh of her thighs was nothing but a bloody paste.  She told the whole story.

After coming back from Chang’s house without having seen him, old Lu had found her son Wu-han in their little food shop.  He had said to her: 

“You come at the right time.  I must kill a pig this morning, and our assistant has gone out for the day.”

The old woman did not like this work.  But she was very much afraid of her son, and did not dare to refuse.

“Wait till I have changed my clothes!” was all she said.

While she was taking off her outer garment, a parcel fell from the sleeve of it.  Thinking that it was money, Wu-han quickly picked it up and opened it.  It was the pair of embroidered slippers.  He said: 

“Oh!  Oh!  Who is the little girl who has such feet?  She must be of a very loving nature.  If I could hold her to my heart for a whole night, I should not have lived in vain.  But how do these slippers come here, for they have already been worn?”

“Give them back to me!” she cried.  “There is much money in them, which I will hand to you.”  And she told him the whole matter.  But he objected: 

“It has been a common saying from the earliest times that acts not committed can alone remain unknown.  This P’an is a bravo.  If he learns of the matter, all the silver which you receive will be too little to buy his silence.  Our whole shop would fall into his hands.”

In dismay the old woman replied: 

“Your words are full of reason.  I am going to give back the silver and the slippers.  I am going to let it be understood that I refuse to embroil myself with curtain affairs.”

“Where is the silver?” he asked.

The old woman took it from her sleeve, and he put it into his, saying: 

“Leave all to me.  If they should happen to come and seek a quarrel with us, we shall have proofs against them.  And, if nothing comes of it, no one will dare to reclaim the money.”