Chapter 44

The jeering from the crowd grew louder, and the spectators’ eagerness to see a spectacle was written plainly on their faces. The square-faced man in particular was especially conspicuous, which made Zhao Yan find him even more grating. Seeing that the older woman tasting the food refused to answer the leading questions he had deliberately set, the man became all the more determined to blow the situation out of proportion. Since this father and son had the misfortune of running into him, they would just have to accept their bad luck. This square-faced man was fittingly named Fang Ming—"Ming," as in the *Book of Documents*: "After three years, examine the achievements; after three examinations, demote or promote based on the performance." It was a name chosen with the hope that he would become a man of talent, virtue, and insight.