At this time, it was getting warmer outside. Mengmei felt a little bored sitting idly all the time. He wanted to go out to breathe in some fresh air. The nun advised him to have a stroll in the garden at the back of the nunnery. Following her directions, Mengmei found his way to the exquisite garden. In the deserted garden, his steps seemed drawn to the lakeside and there, to his excitement, he found a sandalwood box in the crevice of one of the lakeside rocks. Opening the box with trembling hands, he found a picture of a young woman of extraordinary beauty. He thought it had to be a portrait of the Bodhisattva Guanyin and he took it back to his room.
With great respect, he took the picture from the box and hung it on the wall. Mengmei had a close look at the beautiful woman in the picture, seeing now that it was not in fact Bodhisattva Guanin, but someone that he was convinced he had met before. At that moment he noticed the poem written beside the portrait, which mentioned both Mei and Liu. Could it be that this wondrous goddess was actually referring to him? He thought for a while and then composed another poem and wrote it on the other side of the picture and signed his words verse “by Liu Mengmei from Lingnan”. Every night afterwards, Mengmei stared at the portrait and admired the woman’s beauty. Once he was so carried away he even cried out, “Fair Lady, fair Lady! My darling, my darling!” To his surprise, this passion called back from the dead the soul of Liniang.
After Liniang’s death, the Judge of the Underworld thought she should not have died and ordered that she be given a second life three years later. Hence, her soul was allowed to tarry awaiting its new destination. Liniang returned to the garden. Seeing the crumbled Peony Pavilion and the withered flowers, she felt sorely sick at heart. In the moonlight, she saw the Meihua Nunnery that her parents had built in her memory, which added to her sorrow. At this time, she heard someone calling in a soft tone, “ Fair Lady, fair Lady!!” And then a poem was sung – the one written beside her portrait.
Liniang came to the window. She saw a young scholar gazing with great love at her own portrait with a burning joss stick while mumbling, “My beauty! My little sister!” Liniang saw to her shock that he was the young scholar from her dream, and that there was the picture she had drawn hanging on the wall. She noted the extra poem in reply that had been added by Liu the Dreamer of Willow. Her heart was strongly stirred when she saw the scholar calling her with such passionate intensity every night. One night, she entered the scholar’s room.
Liu Mengmei was thrown into confusion when the beauty in the picture appeared in front of him. He thought he had fallen into a dream, but Liniang’s smile dispelled his doubts. They soon fell in love. Every day at dusk, Mengmei would wait impatiently for his love to appear. When night fell, Liniang would appear without fail. Before either realized it, a blissful month of passionate love had passed.
Mengmei knew nothing about this fairy beauty, not even her name. As his love deepened, Mengmei wanted to know more about her and to ask her to marry him. But Liniang hesitated to say anything about herself as she was afraid that telling the truth would scare her lov away. One day, Mengmei, once again expressed his love to Liniang and vowed that he would marry her and love her forever. Liniang was finally moved and told Mengmei that she had only her soul.
Mengmei was nearly scared to death. But he recovered his senses and said, “I will stay with you always even if you were only a thousandth of a soul!”
Liniang wept, “Thank you for your sweet love! Honey, for me to be brought back to life and serve as your wife, my body must be dug up from its grave. It has not decayed at all even though it has been in the earth for three years. This will allow my soul to return to its body and I will live and breathe again.” Just as she finished speaking, Liniang floated away.
Next day, Mengmei related what Liniang’s soul had said to the nun, who was very skeptical. But she finally agreed to open up the grave to check after Mengmei gave a precise description of Liniang’s appearance.
The nun and Mengmei went to the garden. Mengmei dug Liniang’s coffin up from beneath the plum tree. He was stunned at the weak groans he began to hear from inside the coffin. He strained every straining sinew to prise open its cover, and there he found his lover lying in the coffin with rosy cheeks, as if she had merely dozed off in the afternoon sun. It was Liniang! Mengmei tried to touch her body and felt that her engine was still warm, as warm as any living person. Liniang opened her eyes just as Mengmei lifted her up. The stunned nun closed her gaping mouth and helped Mengmei to bring Liniang back to the Meihua Nunnery.
Only a few days later, Liniang was miraculously as good as new again. One day when Mengmei was about to speak with her about their marriage, Chen Zuiliang came to see Mengmei and to attend to Liniang’s tomb. Liniang had to hide herself in a hurry. After Chen Zuiliang had left, the nun told her, “Tomorrow, he will visit your tomb. If what we have done becomes known to the public, you will be accused of witchcraft. Mengmei will be ridiculed. And I will be accused of grave-robbing. As Mengmei is going to Lin’an to take the imperial examination, why don’t you just get married and leave together? No one can be blamed if you are not here.”
Liniang saw she had no choice but to agree. With the nun as the sole witness of their wedding, Mengmei and Liniang kowtowed to heaven and the earth. That very night, the couple and the nun sailed off.
On arriving in Lin’an, they got the news that all the candidates had already entered the examination hall. Mengmei hurried to the venue, but he was too late to enter the examination. He burst into tears as he was on the point of losing the opportunity the examination could afford him for a better life. Remember the examinations were only held every three years.
