Chinese Literature

did anything wrong. If Heaven is all-knowing, he ought to have escaped from the tiger’s jaw; and though we are like floating weeds in the ocean, who knows but what we may some day meet again? I would like to live as a Taoist priestess at home and serve you both. I do not mind remaining a widow all my life; but rather than insist that I marry again, you had better let me commit suicide to preserve my chastity.” Since she had reason on her side, her father did not insist.

Time flew like an arrow until it was the twelfth year of the Shao Hsing period and Feng had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in command of the garrison troops at Fengchow. One day the garrison commander of Kuangchow sent his lieutenant Ho Cheng-hsin with a despatch to Feng. Feng received Ho in his hall, questioned him about the situation in Kuangchow and spoke with him for a long time before letting him go.

Yu-mei had been peeping at them from behind a screen in the back room, and when her father came in she asked: “Who is the man who brought that despatch?”

“Lieutenant Ho Cheng-hsin from Kuangchow,” her father told her.

“That is strange!” said Yu-mei. “For he spoke and walked just like my husband in Chienchow.”

Feng laughed and said: ‘When Chienchow was taken by storm, all the Fans were put to death. Some innocent people may have been killed, but not one of that clan was spared. This lieutenant from Kuangchow is called Ho and he is a government officer. What connection can there possibly be? You are letting your imagination run away with you. Take care not to let your maids hear you talk like this, or you will make yourself ridiculous!’ Rebuked by her father, Yu-mei blushed for shame and dared say no more.

Because she loved her husband well, Her father’s blame upon her fell!

Six months later Ho Cheng-hsin was sent again with a despatch to Feng’s office; and once again Yu-mei, who was watching from behind the sereen, was amazed by his resemblance to her husband.

“T am a priestess,” she told her father, “so I care no more for earthly things, and I am not being sentimental. But I have watched him carefully, and I swear that lieutenant from Kuangchow is the image of my husband. Why don’t you invite him into the inner hall and entertain him to a meal, then ask him? My husband used to be nicknamed the Hel. When Chienchow was besieged and we knew that the city was about to fall, we each kept one half of a double mirror as a keepsake. If you call him by his nickname and try him with this mirror, you will find out the truth.” Her father agreed.

The next day when Lieutenant Ho came to Fene’s office again for his

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