I was born to a family of high honour, holders of an estate given us by the Emperor himself a dozen generations ago. And it was understood that I would assume control of it all upon my maturity. But there were two things in particular, one I did not want, another I desperately did. The one I would have abandoned by the side of the road was a rooster, a loud, annoying animal who pecked at my shins and ankles and then ran away before my sword could slice it in two, all the while crowing at its success n tormenting me. Truth be told, it was a mighty bird, one that, despite its age, took on any and all who would challenge its place with the hens. Many a young cock went down in defeat at its spurs, then to suffer its abrasive caterwauls of victory, and it wandered the lands of my father without care or caution. I hated that bird. I hated it for its presumption, its arrogance. Were it not for my father, I would have dispatched its head from its body long ago. It almost seemed to delight in following me about, beating its wings and crowing as loudly as possible when finding me. But the thing I did want, I dared not dream of having. My father's estate was huge, with twenty oxen and a thousand acres of rice fields, with a house of teakwood columns and red tiled shingles. But _his_ was a simple hut, walled with bamboo and thatched with waterpalm leaves. He had no land and kept only a few chickens. He was eighteen. I was a year older. We were in love, and our love was all the stronger because it was so hopeless. We met in secret, away from the eyes of my family. But not, it seemed, from the eyes of a certain rooster.  My farmer and I had found a trysting place at the foot of a large straw-stack, from which we could see the endless reaches of my father's rice fields. And somehow that accursed bird came and perched atop the stack and, finding us, beat its wings and crowed loudly enough to call the entire world to be a scandalized witness: "Oo-oo-oo-roh!" In trying to chase the damn thing away, we lost all sense of caution, and soon the entire village was tongues a-wagging, buzzing with gossip about us.  My grandparents were summoned, and my aunts and uncles. I was locked in my room while they held a family caucus before the altar of my ancestors. I knew this was my last hour, that I could expect the saber and the red silk cord. And yet — whether it was because of my parents' love or fear of an even larger scandal — the family council decided I should be sent in exile, to a distant province where I and my family name were not known... and that my seducer should be forced to accompany me. I agreed without murmur. The day of our departure, we set out on our journey on a barge my parents had loaded with rice, salt fish and piastres. We were accompanied by two servants... and the rooster, who followed us into exile with his little harem.  It has been five years, five blissful years, and the old cock still snipes at my shins and pecks my ankles. But he shall have all the white rice he shall ever want, for all the remaining days of his life.