Pages 126-143 Summary

As Part Two opens, the brothers are walking away from the home where they have been staying as Landlord Ma rides beside them pleading with Chen to stay and marry his daughter. He offers more and more land to entice him, but when Chen keeps refusing, he stops and begins calling out insults to him.

The brothers reach Chongqing, a large town on the Yangtze River, where they purchase passage on a sailing ship down the river to Wuhan. Hong makes certain that Chen is charged the special reduced rate for scholars. On the ship, Hong meets an old merchant named Lin Shi who tells him about his years traveling the Yangtze and points out features of the landscape as they pass. He tells Hong about the dangers of the river, and of pirates. Lin Shi refuses to believe Hong and...