Don't worry, I'll spare you
At his wooden house in the hills, old man Wang and his sixteen-year-old daughter draw water together for the vegetable garden, and between the buckets he tells her that once her brother, the hunter the village calls Second brother Wang, settles down from his restless ambitions, he means to retire from hunting and see her married and settled with children of her own. ch. 67
Fang Yuan breaks through the bamboo fence gate carrying a ball of moonlight in his hand, tells old man Wang that his son offended him and has already been executed, and has the two hunters who accompanied him carry the corpse in before him, then orders the old man, the best hunter among the nearby villages, to draw out every trap and every wild beast’s territory he knows from his years of hunting, promising to spare the family the clan’s punishment for Wang Er’s offense if he complies honestly. ch. 67
When old man Wang’s daughter recognizes her brother’s corpse she screams that she will avenge him and rushes at Fang Yuan, only for her father to intercept her and strike her to the ground rather than let her die alongside her brother, then prostrate himself before Fang Yuan and swear to draw the map faithfully, and Fang Yuan warns him that any dishonesty will cost the family their lives. ch. 67
Fang Yuan sends the two hunters into the house for paper and brush, and old man Wang kneels and draws out over ten sheets of bamboo paper marking trap locations and beast territories, which Fang Yuan splits between the two hunters to check for errors, promising to pay one primeval stone for every mistake they find. ch. 67
