In the old city of Zhuge there lived a scholar named Shang Shiyu. A drunken joke of his offended the local bully, who set his house slaves on him to beat him senseless. He was carried home and died. Shiyu had two sons, the elder named Chen and the younger Li, and a daughter named Sanguan. Sanguan was sixteen, and a date had been set for her wedding, but because of her father it did not take place. Her two brothers went to law, and a whole year passed without a verdict. The groom's family sent someone to call on her mother and ask that, under the circumstances, the wedding go ahead anyway. Her mother was about to agree when Sanguan stepped forward: "Who holds a wedding while her father's body is not yet cold? Don't they have parents of their own?" When the groom's family heard this, they were ashamed and dropped the matter. Before long her brothers lost the lawsuit and came home nursing their injustice. The whole family was grief-stricken and furious. The brothers planned to keep their father unburied, as grounds for another suit. Sanguan said, "A man is murdered and left unburied—that tells you all you need to know about the times. Do you think Heaven is going to produce a Judge Bao just for the two of you? To leave his bones exposed—how can you bear it?" Her brothers saw she was right and buried their father. After the burial, Sanguan left in the night, and no one knew where she had gone. Her mother was ashamed and afraid the groom's family would find out, so she dared not tell the clan, but quietly told her sons to search for her in secret. Nearly half a year went by without a trace of her.
It so happened that the bully was celebrating his birthday and hired actors for a show. The actor Sun Chun brought two apprentices to serve. One, Wang Cheng, was plain-looking but had a clear, ringing voice, and everyone praised him. The other, Li Yu, was as fine-featured as a pretty girl. When he was told to sing, he begged off, saying he didn't know the songs well; when they insisted, half of what he sang was mixed with lovers' ditties from the street, and the whole company clapped for him. Sun was deeply embarrassed and said to the host, "This boy hasn't been with me long. All he can do is pour the wine. Please don't hold it against him." And he set him to pouring wine. Li Yu went back and forth serving, skilled at reading what the host wanted. The bully was taken with him, and when the drinking ended and the guests left, he kept him to sleep with him. Li Yu made up the bed and took off the host's shoes for him, attentive in every way. When the drunken man flirted with him, he only smiled. More and more infatuated, the bully sent all his servants away and kept Li Yu alone. Li Yu waited until the servants had gone, then shut the door and slid the bolt. The servants went to drink in another room. After a while they heard a grating sound in the hall. One went to look: the room was pitch-dark and utterly silent. He was turning to go when there was a loud crack, like a heavy hanging weight snapping its rope. He called out urgently, but no one answered. He called the others, they broke the door down and went in: their master's head was severed from his body, and Li Yu had hanged himself; the rope had broken and he had fallen to the floor, with a stub of cord still plainly hanging from the beam and around his neck. Everyone was horrified. They sent word to the inner quarters, and the household gathered, but no one could make sense of it.
They carried Li Yu's body into the courtyard and noticed that his socks and shoes felt empty, as if there were no feet in them. When they took them off, they found small bound feet curved like hooks in plain white slippers: it was a woman. Even more alarmed, they called Sun Chun and questioned him. Sun was terrified and did not know what to say, except: "Li Yu came to me a month ago to be my apprentice and asked to come along to the master's birthday. I truly don't know where he came from." Because she was dressed in mourning, they suspected she was an assassin from the Shang family. For the time being they set two men to guard the body. The girl looked as if she were alive; when they touched her, her limbs were warm and soft, and the two men secretly plotted to violate her. One of them took the body in his arms and turned it over, and was just loosening her clothes when his head was struck as if by something heavy; blood gushed from his mouth and he died on the spot. The other, terrified, told everyone. They all revered her as if she were a goddess. The matter was reported to the prefecture. The prefect questioned Chen and Li, and both said, "We know nothing about it. Only that our sister ran away half a year ago." He had them go and view the body: it was indeed Sanguan. The prefect marveled at her, ruled that her brothers should take her home for burial, and ordered the bully's family not to seek revenge.
