In the Qing Dynasty, Xianfeng Gengshen (ten years of Xianfeng, 1860 AD), Zhu, a merchant in Huzhou, Zhejiang, moved his family to Xinta Town, Wujiang County, Suzhou to escape the war.

One day, he went out for a walk and saw a teahouse, so he sat down to drink tea. Just after drinking half a cup of tea, he saw a man in his thirties, with his wife and children, begging an old man in his sixties.

The man said while crying, his tears were full, and he looked very excited. The old man completely ignored the man's pleas and wanted to leave, but the man grabbed his clothes and couldn't get away for a while.

Zhu felt very strange and asked the tea drinkers around: "Why did that man beg the old man so humbly?" A middle-aged man drinking tea said: "You are a foreigner, right?" Zhu said: "Yes, I am from Huzhou."

The middle-aged man took a sip of tea, looked at Zhu, and continued, It's no wonder, this kneeling man's name is Li, his family, and the old man is all from Yancheng.

Last year, Li and his family came here in a small boat and opened a shop selling pickled fish, but they encountered thieves and all their property was robbed. Fortunately, their family of seven lived a lot and were not killed by thieves, but were reduced to beggars, and they couldn't go back home if they wanted to.

Now the old man was a boatman, and tomorrow the old man would sail back to Yancheng. Li wanted to take the old man's boat back to his hometown with his family, but he couldn't afford the boat, so the old man naturally refused to let them board the boat. Li was afraid that the family would starve to death here, so he pestered the old man and did not let go.

Only then did Zhu understand the cause and effect. At this time, the old man said to Li, who was kneeling, "If you want to get on my boat, you can, but I don't need your travel expenses. But returning to your hometown from here is a thousand miles away. Your family of seven needs at least seven or eight taels of silver to eat and wear on my boat. I am also a small business, so I can't afford such two taels of silver. If you want to get on the boat, take out seven taels of silver as soon as possible, otherwise let go, I don't have time to entangle you like this."

The old man said this, and Li was too embarrassed to beg again. He let go of his hands and prepared to leave with a disappointed look on his face. At this time, Zhu in the teahouse was moved with compassion, he took out a ingot of about seven or eight pieces of silver, walked to Li, and said to him: "Brother, a man has gold under his knees, how can he kneel casually. I have a few taels of silver here, enough for you to pay the boatman for the boat."

Li took the money, thanked Zhu, and then left with the old man. Zhu was very relieved to see this, so he returned to the teahouse to continue drinking tea. After taking a seat, he found that the middle-aged man who was talking to him just now had left at an unknown time.

At that time, the others in the teahouse smiled and said to him: "This friend, you have been deceived by this group. Li's family of seven, as well as the old man, and the middle-aged man who talked to you just now, are all in the same group. They often act together to deceive good-hearted people from other places."

Zhu thought these people were joking with him and didn't believe them. A few days later, Zhu went to the river and found that there were several boats moored by the river. The windows of the boats were all open, and they were full of people drinking and laughing.

Zhu approached and found Li's family of seven, as well as the old boatman, chatting and laughing together, drinking and eating meat. At this time, Zhu believed that the people in the teahouse did not lie to him, but Li and others set up a scam, using his sympathy to cheat him of seven taels of silver.

Seven taels of silver was not a small amount. Li, who had been deceived, was very angry. He wanted to go in and discuss with a few people to get the silver back, but then he thought about it and smiled to comfort himself: "They are lying about it.

Five months later, a group of thieves arrived in Wujiang County, burning and looting. Local residents fled in panic, but due to too many people fleeing and not enough boats, many people were killed by thieves on the shore because they could not wait for the boat.

At that time, Zhu was wandering along the bank with his wife and children, hoping to wait for a boat to cross the river to escape. Suddenly, a small boat came to the other side. Zhu saw that the person rowing the boat was Li, who he had helped, so he shouted to Li, "Brother, do you still remember me?"

Hearing the sound, Li looked at Zhu and said happily, "Why don't you remember, you are my benefactor." After saying this, he punted the boat and picked up Li's family on the boat and carried them to the opposite bank. Zhu's family was able to escape.

Afterwards, Zhu took out thirty taels of silver and said to Li, "Thanks to my brother's saving grace, this is your shipping fee." Li pushed the silver back and said, "You gave it five months ago, so you forgot it so quickly?" After saying that, the two looked at each other and smiled, everything was silent.