For his household registration, Liu the shopkeeper certainly didn't spare any silver or favors...,He gently pushed open the rickety wooden gate, made of pieces held together with twigs. Just as he was about to speak, he saw a thin, wiry old man with sparse whiskers and wearing patched-up shorts, sitting cross-legged in the courtyard. He skillfully mended a tattered fishing net with a shuttle.,The old man sighed, one hand smoothing his back and the other supporting him as they sat down.。