The Tavern Chalkboard

In Lu Xun’s story Kong Yiji, the narrator says that in the tavern, Kong Yiji behaved better than others. “He never left a debt unpaid.” When he had no cash, his drinks were “written on the chalkboard for the time being, but within a month he always paid, and Kong Yiji’s name was wiped off the board.”

Then Kong Yiji stops coming. Two or three days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the tavern keeper takes down the board. “Kong Yiji hasn’t been here for a long time. He still owes nineteen coins!” He says it again at the end of the year, and again at the Dragon Boat Festival the next year.

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