Liu Chishui was a native of Pingle. As a youth he was quick and gifted, and at fifteen he entered the prefectural school. But his parents died early, and after that he drifted about and let himself go to waste. His family was not well off, yet he loved fine things by nature, and his bedding and bed were all exquisite. One evening he was invited out to drink and left without putting out the candle. Only after several rounds of wine did he remember, and he hurried home. He heard low voices inside the room, crouched down to peep in, and saw a young man lying on his bed with a beautiful woman in his arms. The house stood next to the ruined mansion of a great family, where strange things often happened, so he knew they must be foxes and was not afraid. He walked in and shouted, "Nobody snores in my bed but me!" The pair scrambled up in a panic, grabbed their clothes and fled naked. They left behind a pair of purple silk trousers, with a little sewing pouch tied to the sash. Liu was delighted. Afraid they would steal it back, he hid it under his quilt and slept hugging it.
Soon a maid with tousled hair slipped in through a crack in the door and asked Liu for the trousers. Liu laughed and demanded something in exchange. She offered to bring him wine; he refused. She offered gold; he refused again. The maid laughed and went away. She came straight back and said, "My eldest young mistress says that if you'll kindly return them, she will repay you with a fine bride." "Who?" asked Liu. "Our family name is Pi," said the maid. "The eldest daughter is called Baxian, and the man who was sleeping with her is Master Hu. The second daughter, Shuixian, is married to Master Ding of Fuchuan. The third daughter, Fengxian, is even lovelier than her two sisters; there's no one she wouldn't please." Afraid they would not keep their word, Liu said he would sit and wait for the good news. The maid went off and came back again. "My eldest mistress sends word to you, sir: how can such a happy match be made in a moment? She has just raised it with her sister and got a scolding for her pains. Only give it a little time and wait. Ours is not a family that makes promises lightly and breaks them." So Liu handed the trousers over.
Several days went by without a word. One evening at dusk, he came home, shut the door and had just sat down when the double doors swung open by themselves. Two people came in carrying a girl in a quilt, each holding its corners. "Here's the bride!" they said, set her on the bed laughing, and left. He looked closely: she was fast asleep, her breath still sweet with wine, her cheeks flushed and her drowsy tipsiness more beautiful than anything in the world. Overjoyed, he took her feet and drew off her stockings, held her and loosened her clothes. By then the girl was half awake. She opened her eyes and saw Liu, but she could not control her limbs, and only said bitterly, "That shameless Baxian has sold me!" Liu took her fondly in his arms. She found his skin cold, and said with a faint smile, "What night is this, that I meet such a cold man?" "Oh you, oh you," said Liu, "what will you do with such a cold man?" And so they made love. Afterwards she said, "That shameless girl dirties other people's beds, and then trades me for a pair of trousers! I'll pay her back a little for this!" From then on she came every night, and they were deeply devoted to each other.
She drew a gold bracelet from her sleeve and said, "This belongs to Baxian." A few days later she brought a pair of embroidered slippers tucked in her bosom, set with pearls and stitched with gold, of extraordinary workmanship, and told Liu to show them off far and wide. Liu brought them out and boasted of them to his friends and relatives. Everyone who asked to see them had to bring money or wine as a gift, and so he kept them as a rare treasure. Then one night she came and spoke as if to say goodbye. Surprised, he asked why. She answered, "My sister hates me because of the slippers, and means to move the whole family far away to cut us off from each other." Liu was frightened and offered to give them back. "There's no need," she said. "She's using them to put pressure on me. If you give them back, you'll fall right into her trap." "Then why not stay here on your own?" asked Liu. "My parents are going far away," she said, "and the whole family of more than ten has been put in Master Hu's care. If I don't go with them, I'm afraid that long-tongued woman will twist black into white." After that she came no more.
Two years passed, and he missed her terribly. Once, by chance, on the road, he met a young woman riding a slow-paced horse with an old servant holding the bridle. She brushed past him, then turned, lifted her veil and looked at him: she was dazzlingly beautiful. A moment later a young man came up behind. "Who is that lady? She seems very pretty." Liu praised her warmly. The young man cupped his hands and laughed. "You flatter her too much! That's my humble wife." Liu was flustered and apologized. "No harm done," said the young man. "Still, of the three Zhuge brothers of Nanyang, you got the dragon. What is mine worth beside her?" Liu was puzzled by this. "Don't you recognize the man who stole a nap in your bed?" said the young man. Only then did Liu realize he was Hu. They spoke of their bond as husbands of sisters and joked together very merrily.
"My father-in-law has just come home," said the young man, "and I'm on my way to pay my respects. Will you come along?" Liu gladly followed him up Mount Ying. (On the mountain there had long been a house where the people of the county took refuge in times of trouble.) The lady dismounted and went in. Soon several people came out to look and said, "Master Liu has come too!" He went in and paid his respects to the old man and old woman. Another young man was already there, in splendid boots and robe. "This is my son-in-law Ding of Fuchuan," said the old man. They all bowed and took their seats. Before long wine and roast meats came in profusion, and the talk and laughter were most congenial. "Today all three of my sons-in-law are here together," said the old man. "It's a fine gathering. And since there are no outsiders, we can call the girls in and make it a real family reunion." Presently the sisters all came out. The old man had seats set for them, each beside her husband. Baxian, seeing Liu, only covered her mouth and laughed; Fengxian kept teasing him; Shuixian was a little less beautiful, but grave and gentle, and while the whole table chattered away she only held her cup and smiled. And so, with slippers and shoes jumbled together and the scent of orchid and musk heavy in the air, they drank with great enjoyment.
Liu noticed that every kind of musical instrument was laid out at the head of the couch, so he picked up a jade flute and asked to play in honour of the old man. The old man was delighted and told all who could play to take an instrument, and the whole company scrambled for them; only Ding and Fengxian took none. "Ding may be excused because he can't play," said Baxian, "but are your fingers too stiff to straighten?" And she tossed the clappers into Fengxian's lap, and the music rang out in full. "This is the height of family happiness!" said the old man, pleased. "You children can all sing and dance. Why not each show what you do best?" Baxian got up and took Shuixian by the hand. "Fengxian's voice has always been gold and jade; we wouldn't dare trouble her. Let the two of us sing 'The Goddess of the Luo.'" They had just finished singing and dancing when a maid brought in fruit on a gold platter. No one knew what it was called. "These were brought back from Cambodia," said the old man. "They're called tianpoluo." And he scooped up several and set them in front of Ding. Fengxian said crossly, "Are sons-in-law to be loved or slighted according to how rich or poor they are?" The old man smiled slightly and said nothing. "Father treats Ding as a guest because he's from another county," said Baxian. "If it came to order of age, you're hardly the only one with a fist-sized sour scholar for a husband, Little Sister Feng." Fengxian stayed upset. She took off her fine ornaments, handed the drum and clappers to a maid, and sang a scene from 'The Ruined Kiln,' her tears falling as she sang. When the song was over she shook out her sleeves and walked straight out, and the whole party was spoiled.
"The girl's as stubborn as ever," said Baxian, and went after her, but no one knew where she had gone. Liu felt he had lost face, so he too took his leave and set off home. Halfway there, he found Fengxian sitting by the roadside. She called him to sit beside her and said, "You're a grown man. Can't you win some pride back for the woman who shares your bed? 'Houses of gold are to be found in books.' I want you to work hard!" She lifted her foot. "I left in such a hurry that the thorns tore through my shoes. Have you got the things I gave you?" Liu brought them out. She took the slippers and changed into them. Liu begged her for the torn ones. She laughed. "You really are shameless! Who ever heard of a man hiding his own bedroom things in his bosom? If you truly love me, there's one thing I can give you." She took out a mirror and handed it to him. "If you want to see me, look for me in your books. Otherwise we'll never meet again." With that, she vanished. He went home forlorn.
When he looked in the mirror, there was Fengxian standing with her back to him, like someone gazing after a person leaving, a hundred paces off. Remembering what she had told him, he turned away visitors and shut himself in with his books. One day he saw the figure in the mirror suddenly turn to face him, about to break into a sweet smile, and he loved it more than ever. Whenever no one was around, he would sit face to face with her. After a month or so his resolve gradually slackened, and he often went out and forgot to come home. When he came back and looked at the image, she looked miserable, as if about to cry; a day later, when he looked again, she was standing with her back to him as before. Only then did he understand that it was because he had neglected his studies. So he shut his door and studied hard, day and night without stopping; after a month or so, the image turned to face outward again. From then on he tested it: whenever something distracted him from his work, her face was sad; after a few days of hard study, her face was smiling. So he hung the mirror up morning and night, as if facing a stern tutor.
After two years of this, he passed the examination at his first attempt. "Now I can face my Fengxian!" he cried happily. He picked up the mirror and looked: her painted brows curved long, her white teeth just showing, her face brimming with joy, as if she were right before his eyes. Lost in love, he could not stop gazing. Suddenly the woman in the mirror laughed and said, "'A lover in a reflection, a darling in a picture': that describes us now." Startled and delighted, he looked round, and there was Fengxian already sitting beside him. He took her hand and asked after her parents. "Since we parted I haven't gone home," she said. "I've been hiding in a cave in the hills, just to share your hardship a little."
Liu went to a banquet in the prefectural city, and she asked to come along. They rode together in one carriage, yet people standing face to face with her could not see her. When it was time to go home, she secretly arranged with Liu to pretend he had married her in the prefectural city. Once they were home, she began to come out and meet guests and to run the household. Everyone marvelled at her beauty, but no one knew she was a fox.
Liu was a protégé of the magistrate of Fuchuan and went to call on him. There he ran into Ding, who warmly invited him to his house and entertained him lavishly. "My wife's parents have recently moved again," Ding said. "My wife has gone home to visit them and will be back soon. I'll send word to them, and we'll all come to congratulate you." At first Liu suspected that Ding was a fox too, but when he looked carefully into Ding's home and family, he found he was the son of a great merchant of Fuchuan. It turned out that one evening, on his way home from his country villa, Ding had met Shuixian walking alone, and, struck by her beauty, had stolen a glance at her. She had asked to ride along with him. Ding was delighted, took her back to his study, and they lived together. When he saw that she could pass through the gaps in the window lattice, he realized she was a fox. "Don't be suspicious of me," she said. "I chose to entrust myself to you because you are sincere and honest." Ding doted on her and never took another wife.
When Liu got home he borrowed a great house from a wealthy family, made ready guest rooms and bedrooms, and had everything swept spotless. But he had no hangings or furnishings to put in them, which worried him; when he looked the next morning, the rooms had been splendidly furnished. A few days later, sure enough, more than thirty people arrived with banners, wine and gifts, their carriages and horses filling the steps and the lane. Liu bowed his father-in-law, Ding and Hu into the guest hall; Fengxian welcomed her mother and her two sisters into the inner rooms.
"Now that you're a fine lady, you don't resent your matchmaker any more, do you?" said Baxian. "Do you still have the bracelet and the slippers?" Fengxian found them and handed them over. "The slippers are the same slippers," she said, "but a thousand people have seen right through them." Baxian struck her on the back with the slippers. "Take this beating and pass it on to Master Liu." Then she threw them into the fire and chanted: "New, they were like flowers in bloom; old, they are like flowers that fade. Treasured, and never once worn, till the Moon Goddess came to borrow them." Shuixian chanted in turn for her: "Once they sheathed a pair of jade-shoot feet, and when they were worn, ten thousand praised them; if the Moon Goddess saw them, she would pity them for being far too slender." Fengxian stirred the fire and said: "Night after night they climbed the blue sky, then one morning left the one who loved them, leaving only their slender shape for all the world to see." Then she pinched the ashes into a tray and heaped them into a dozen or more little piles, and when she saw Liu coming, she held it out to give to him: the tray was full of embroidered slippers, every one just like the old pair. Baxian rushed out and knocked the tray to the ground; one or two slippers still lay on the floor, so she crouched down and blew on them, and only then did every trace vanish.
The next day Ding and his wife went home first because they had far to go. Baxian loved playing with her sister so much that, though her father and Hu kept hurrying her, she did not come out until noon, and then she left with the others. When they had arrived, their retinue had been so grand that crowds gathered to watch, as thick as a market. Two bandits caught sight of the beauties and lost their heads over them, so they plotted to waylay them on the road. They watched for the party to leave the village and followed. They were never more than a bowshot behind, but however hard they galloped they could not catch up. They came to a place where the road ran between two cliffs, and the sedans slowed a little; the bandits caught up, brandished their swords and roared, and everyone fled. One of them dismounted and lifted the curtain, and found an old woman sitting there. He was just thinking he must have snatched the girls' mother by mistake, when, as he glanced away, a weapon slashed his right arm, and in a moment he was tied up. He stared about him: the cliffs were not cliffs at all, but the city gate of Pingle, and the woman in the sedan was the mother of Li, a palace graduate, on her way home from the countryside. The other bandit arrived after him, and he too had his horse's legs cut from under him and was tied up. The gatekeepers took them to the prefect, and at the first questioning they confessed. At that time a notorious robber was still at large; when they were interrogated, it turned out these were the very men. The next spring, Liu passed the palace examination. Because their visit had brought on such trouble, Fengxian declined all congratulations from her relatives. Nor did Liu ever take another wife. When he became a ministry secretary, he took a concubine, and had two sons.
