Chinese Literature

here! If it is really Hsiu-hsiu, I shall cut her head off! If it isn’t, you shall take the punishment instead.” Then Kuo and the two bearers went to fetch Hsiu-hsiu.

Kuo was from the northwest. He was a simple fellow, and did not realize that one cannot sign documents like that. He went with the two bearers straight to Tsui’s shop, and found Hsiu-hsiu sitting behind the counter. She saw Kuo burst in, but did not know that he had bet his life that she was a ghost and come to arrest her.

‘Vadam!” eried Kuo. “The prince has ordered us to take you to the palace.”

‘Wait a minute, then,” said Hsiu-hsiu, “while I have a wash and comb my hair.’ Having washed and changed her clothes she came out, got into the sedan-chair and said goodbye to her husband.

When the bearers had carried her to the palace, Sergeant Kuo went in first to the prince who was waiting in the hall. With a salute, Kuo said: “I have brought Hsiu-hsiu here.”

“Petch her in!” ordered the prince.

Kuo went out and said: ‘Madam, the prince asks you to go in.”

But when he lifted the chair curtain, he felt as if a barrel of cold water had been poured over him. His jaw dropped and he stood there gaping, for Hsiu-hsiu had vanished!

‘We don’t know what can have happened,” said the two bearers when questioned. “We saw her get into the chair, we carried her here, and we haven’t left the chair.”

The sergeant was called back into the palace. “Your Highness!” he shouted. “It really was a ghost!”

The prince swore: “This is too much!” and ordered: “Seize this fellow! Let me fetch that wager, and I shall cut off his head.” He took down the “small blue” sword from the wall.

Sergeant Kuo had served the prince for many years during which period the prince had been promoted a dozen times; but because Kuo was a rough fellow he had never risen higher than the rank of sergeant. Now he was panic-stricken, and said: “I have two bearers as witnesses. Please call them in and question them.”

Immediately the two chair-bearers were sent for, and they said: “We saw her get into the sedan-chair, and we carried her here. But then she disappeared.” Since their stories tallied, it seemed that Hsiu-

hsiu really must have been a ghost. Then the prince sent for Tsui, who

told him all that had happened. “Apparently Tsui is not to blame,” said the prince. “Let him go.”

But when Tsui had left, the enraged prince gave the sergeant fifty strokes on the back.

When Tsui learned that his wife was a ghost, he went home to

- question her parents; but the two old people just looked at each other,

then walked out of the door and jumped with a splash into the river.

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