Chunxiang was worried about her mistress. One day, she said to Liniang, “Since you returned from the garden, you have lost your appetite and lost far too much weight. You will lose your stunning looks if you persist with this depression.”
Liniang was shocked and she looked into the mirror. Her haggard look startled her. She sighed, “I used to be such a pretty girl, but now, I have pined away so much. I must draw a picture of my appearance. Otherwise, if someday I pass away, who will be able to recall my beauty?”
Liniang ordered Chuanxiang to prepare silk paper, a painting brush and ink stick, and then drew a portrait of herself as she looked in the mirror. When the painting was completed, Chunxiang was full of praise, “How pretty it is! Looking at the painting is just like looking at you. But, it is a pity that you don’t have a husband by your side. If you become marry early, you may add him to the picture here.”
Liniang smiled and said, “To tell you the truth, Chunxiang, I met a man during my garden stroll!”
Surprised, Chunxiang said, “Oh? How was that possible, mistress?”
“It was a dream.”
“So, what did he look like?”
Liniang described her dream to Chunxiang in detail. She said, “He had a willow-twig in his hand, and he wanted me to sing a poem for it. Is it an omen that my future husband could be a Mr. Liu, because that name means willow (which pronounces “Liu” in Chinese)? I didn’t have time to compose the poem in my dream. What about if I inscribe it at the top of the picture?”
“Good idea!” Chunxiang said.
After thinking for a moment, Liniang composed a poem and inscribed it in the picture. She couldn’t help shedding a few sad tears when she thought about how her portrait and poem couldn’t be seen by her lover.
From that time, Liniang fell ill. Her mother was very concerned. She learnt from Chunxiang that Liniang had fallen ill after her dream in the garden. She believed that her daughter had been possessed by demons, and thus invited a Taoist nun from the Ziyang Nunnery to exorcise the evil demons. But Prefect Du thought it was nothing serious and asked Pharmacist Chen to prescribe some herbs. The parents couldn’t convince each other and decided to invite both the pharmacist and the Taoist nun to prescribe herbs as well as carry out an exorcism. But unfortunately, all these methods failed to have the desired effect. Liniang didn’t recover. Instead, her health got even worse.
Mid-autumn Day came. The wind was whistling outside. Liniang had now been unwell since spring. The thought that she would never see her dream lover again made her feel even more desolate. She realized that she had little time left, and so she told Chunxiang to put the portrait she had drawn into a sandalwood box and to hide it in a rock by the lake. Then, she asked a last favor of her mother. She asked that she be buried beneath her beloved plum tree in the back garden after she died. Weeping profusely, her mother agreed. That night, Liniang passed away.
The parents cried their hearts out after Liniang’s death, as did all the other members of the prefect’s family. At this time, the imperial edict arrived, saying that Du Bao had been promoted to station master of Huangyang in the face of invasion by the troops of Jin, and that he had to set out immediately to fight. Du Bao hurriedly buried his daughter Liniang beneath the plum tree, and asked the tutor and the Taoist nun to build a nunnery in the garden. This nunnery would eventually be named “Meihua Nunnery” (Plum Nunnery). A Memorial tablet to Liniang was set up inside. The nun and the tutor both took charge of the management of the nunnery and the old courtyard. After all was arranged, Du Bao hurried to Huaiyang with his wife and a small retinue.
The handsome scholar who had appeared in Liniang’s dream was in fact a real person.
He was a 20-year-old man named Liu Mengmei . He was born in Lingnan to a poor family. The lad was smart and intelligent and he managed to pass the imperial examination at county level. Liu Mengmei was not his real name. Not long before, he had had a strange dream, in which he had been standing under a plum tree in a beautiful garden. A beautiful girl appeared and said to him, “Mr. Liu, only by meeting me can you have a happy marriage and good luck.” He pondered over the dream for a long time. He hoped that this dream would bring good luck, and thus he changed his name to Liu Mengmei, which meant dreams of the plum tree.
Although learned and talented, Mengmei had to eke out a meagre existence planting trees. In the hope of improving his lot, he was advised to meet Miao Shunbin, an imperial commissioner who had a reputation for respecting intelligence and talent. He was skilled at identifying artistic treasures and was sent by the emperor to Guangzhou, a trading port, to collect things that caught his eye.
Mengmei met Miao Shunbin and shared with him his ideas about the country’s development. Miao nodded at him and advised him about how he might make a petition to the imperial court. Mengmei sadly pointed out that he didn’t have any imperial connections and couldn’t even afford the journey to the capital, to say nothing of getting an interview with the Emperor. Miao sent for some money to allow Mengmei to go to the capital. Mengmei bowed his sincere thanks to Miao and left.
Mengmei had never traveled far from home before. In the cold winter, he fell ill before he had covered even a fraction of the trip. He was also stranded in Nan’an in Jiangxi Province due to heavy snowfall. To make matters worse, he slipped and fell into the river one day while walking on a bridge. The river was not deep but the water was icy. It almost drained the life out of Mengmei before he managed to climb out. He thought he would freeze to death. An old man sitting on a donkey passed by. He helped Mengmei out of the chilly river. This old man was Liniang’s tutor, Chen Zuiliang. Finding the shivering Mengmei in such bad health, he immediately insisted on bringing him to the Meihua Nunnery to let him recover and take some medicines.
The Meihua Nunnery was the very one built by Du Bao for her daughter Liniang. Here, Mengmei was nursed back to full health within a month.
