Chapter Twelve: Teacher Su Falls into the River and Meets an Old Acquaintance — Young Master Hou Journeys South to Keep His Promise

It is told that Gao Jie had been lured to his death by Xu Dingguo, who took his head and went to submit to the Northern Court in surrender. Along the banks of the Yellow River, a stream of fleeing soldiers ran in every direction. At that time, Su Kunsheng, entrusted with Xianggun's errand, had set his heart on finding Chaozong at Gao Jie's encampment. He carried his bundle on his back and hired a donkey to ride, pressing forward in haste. But as ill luck would have it, the fleeing remnants of Gao Jie's routed force were swarming along the riverbank in full flight. Just as Kunsheng was riding along, several dozen of these fugitive soldiers caught up with him, shoved him off his donkey and into the river, and made off with the animal. Fortunately, Kunsheng had fallen in a shallow place where the current was not particularly swift. He stood in the water with his bundle balanced on his head, calling out at the top of his voice: "Help! Someone help!"

He was in dire straits when a small boat appeared ahead, a man poling it, just coming in to moor. On board, a poor woman called out: "Boatman, look — there is a man shouting for help in that shallow water over there. He must have fallen in and be in trouble. What say we pole over and save his life — accumulate a little merit?" The boatman said: "The Yellow River current is fierce — it is not a thing to play at lightly!" The woman said: "When a person does good, the River Dragon himself will surely give his protection." The boatman, persuaded by her words, quickly poled the boat to the shallow water and called out: "Come aboard quickly — it is your good fortune not to have died!" Kunsheng, seeing the boatman extend his pole, grabbed hold and climbed onto the boat, dripping from head to toe, shaking with cold at the bow. "So cold, so cold!" The boatman said: "Wait while I find a dry set of clothes for you to change into." Kunsheng said: "Many thanks." The boatman fetched dry clothes, and after Kunsheng had stripped off his wet garments and changed, he bowed his head to the ground in gratitude: "It is your great mercy that has fished me out and saved my life — you are truly my parents in a second birth." He kept bowing his head. The boatman said: "It has nothing to do with me — it is this lady here who called me to save you." On hearing this, Kunsheng bowed in thanks toward the cabin, and looked up — and was thunderstruck. "You are Li Zhenli! How did you come to be on this boat?" The woman was equally startled. She looked at him closely and said: "Is that not Master Su? Where have you come from, to end up in the water?" The two of them shed tears at the recognition and sat together in the cabin.

Kunsheng explained that Xianggun had entrusted him with a fan to carry as a letter in her stead, to go and find Chaozong; hearing that Chaozong was at Gao Jie's encampment, he had made his way there, only to have the donkey seized by routed soldiers who threw him into the river. It was no small thing to have met Madam and been saved! He then asked: "Madam Zhenli, you entered Tian's household — how did you come to be here?" Zhenli's face colored with shame. "That night I was carried by Ma Shiying's servants to Tian Yang's boat. Who could have known that Tian Yang's wife was extremely jealous? The moment she saw me board the boat, she set upon Tian Yang in a rage and would not allow me to stay. Tian Yang was afraid of his wife and dared not defy her, so he passed me along to this boatman as his wife. We get on well enough together — only I worry day and night about Xianggun, not knowing how things are with her." The boatman, standing nearby, heard that the two of them were old acquaintances who had reached the point of sorrow in their conversation. He said to Zhenli: "Madam, why not bring over a brazier and let this elderly gentleman warm and dry his clothes, and then you two can go on talking. I am going to sleep." And with that the boatman went off to doze in the stern. Indeed:

Shutting the door, he paid no heed to the moon beyond the window —

He told the plum blossoms to manage their own affairs.

Now, as the two of them were sitting in the cabin warming the clothes and talking, they heard a boatman on the river say to a passenger in the cabin: "We've reached Lüliang, sir — let me put up the sail and get an early start. We'll want to set off early tomorrow." The boatman said: "Sir, don't be so impatient! The wind and waves are too rough to make headway. Look over there — there is a boat moored at anchor; let us pull alongside and moor here for the night as well, and wait until the wind drops and the waves calm before going on." From inside the cabin came the reply: "Whatever you think best." So the boat was moored alongside Zhenli's vessel. The voice from the cabin said: "My startled soul has settled a little — I may as well doze for a bit." And the man lay down on the boat to sleep.

Kunsheng was in his boat warming his clothes and talking with Zhenli. Seeing a passenger boat come to moor alongside them, and noticing in the vessel a young gentleman-scholar whose face was hard to make out clearly in the darkness, though the sound of his voice seemed somehow familiar, he set down the damp clothing he was drying, came out of the cabin, and asked the boatman: "Where is your vessel bound, that you also moor here?" The boatman said: "I am taking a gentleman to Guidé." Kunsheng said: "I am also bound for Guidé. What manner of man is your passenger?"

Before the boatman could reply, Chaozong had already been startled awake. He called to the boatman: "Who are you talking to, to wake me from my dream?" The boatman said: "An elderly traveler also bound for Guidé." Hou Chaozong came out of the cabin and looked — and was astonished. "Is that not Su Kunsheng standing on that boat?" Kunsheng looked back: "Is that not Young Master Hou? I have searched everywhere and could not find you — and here you are!" "Madam Zhenli, come quickly — Hou Lang is here!" Zhenli came out of the cabin and looked, then said: "Hou Lang, how faithless you are! You abandoned my daughter in her room above the old courtyard without once going back to see her. How could you?" Hou Chaozong said: "I was seeking shelter from danger by travelling with Gao Jie to guard the river — that is why I did not return. Since you two are both here, Xianggun must surely be on the boat with you as well. Please call her out so I may see her!" Zhenli said: "If Xianggun were here, would that not be the greatest joy under heaven? Only — after you fled to escape disaster, Xianggun pined for you day and night and never set foot outside the tower room. Just recently, a great official had Elder Yang Longyou bring three hundred taels of silver, time and again, to take Xianggun as a concubine."

Hou Chaozong, before she had even finished, stamped his foot in agitation: "My Xianggun — has she remarried another?" Zhenli said: "She has done no such thing. Xianggun was determined to keep faith for you — she dashed her head against the floor of the tower room and nearly died." Hou Chaozong wept aloud: "My Xianggun! Why did she have to dash herself to death?" Zhenli said: "She did not die. She struck herself until blood ran down her whole face and she could not move. But still they kept calling for someone downstairs, and in that moment of desperation, I stepped in for the child and went to marry Tian Yang in her place." Hou Chaozong, relieved, said: "Good, good — so you have married Tian Yang then. And today you are in a boat — where are you bound?" Zhenli averted her eyes in embarrassment and said nothing. Kunsheng said: "She was driven out by Tian Yang's jealous wife, and is now remarried to this boat's captain." Hou Chaozong gave a slight smile: "What a great many turbulent waves to have lived through — how pitiable, how pitiable!" He then asked Kunsheng: "And how did you come to be here?" Kunsheng said: "Xianggun sat in the courtyard day after day waiting for you to return, and never saw you come. She specially entrusted me to carry a letter to find you." Hou Chaozong asked: "Where is the letter?" Kunsheng opened the bundle and took out the fan, handing it to Hou Chaozong.

Hou Chaozong took it and looked: "This is the poem-fan I gave her as a pledge of our love — how does it come to serve as a letter?" He turned it over and looked again: "Who painted these peach blossoms?" Kunsheng then told the whole story — how Xianggun had dashed her face and the blood had spattered the fan, and how Longyou had added stems and leaves so that it became a spray of broken peach blossoms. Hou Chaozong looked closely and saw that they were indeed blood spots, and his eyes filled with tears. "My Xianggun has been driven to this desperate condition! This peach blossom fan is my most precious treasure — I shall bow before it morning and evening. But how is it that it ended up in your hands?" Kunsheng told the story once more of how she had sent the fan in lieu of a letter. Hou Chaozong broke into open weeping: "Xianggun, Xianggun — how shall I ever repay what you have done for me?" He then asked: "How did you end up on the same boat as Madam Zhenli?" Kunsheng told the whole account of how on the banks of the Yellow River he had been shoved into the water by the routed soldiers, and how it was Madam Zhenli who had told the boatman to rescue him.

Hou Chaozong also recounted from beginning to end how he had remonstrated with Gao Jie, who would not listen; how he had left Gao Jie's service; how afterwards Gao Jie had been assassinated by Xu Dingguo's men; and how, fearing to be caught up in the affair, he had bought passage on a boat and crossed the river heading south. Kunsheng said: "That being the case, let us go south to Nanjing and see Xianggun, and then decide what to do next." Hou Chaozong said with relief: "That is sound counsel! There may be people watching for us right now — let us quickly change clothes and all set sail together!" So he bid farewell to Madam Zhenli, and together with Kunsheng set sail for Nanjing.

Whether they would find Xianggun — listen to the following chapter for the telling.