During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a young man named Han in Xiashi Town, Haichang County. He was a weak man, born with a face like a crown jade, and his eyebrows were beautiful. Because his family was poor, his parents asked him to go to Chongming and follow his distant cousin, wealthy businessperson Li Yuanwai, to learn how to do business.

Li Yuanwai let Han live in the outer courtyard, and his family lived in the inner courtyard. Han usually had no hobbies, but he was born to like watching the moon. Whenever the moon was full, he would wander in the courtyard, looking at the bright moon in the sky, and refuse to go to bed until late at night.

Coincidentally, Li Yuanwai had an 18-year-old beautiful daughter named Li Laner. She was knowledgeable and reasonable, and had not yet said that she was a good husband, so she still liked to be a boudoir. Lan'er and Han also liked to look at the moon overnight, often leaning on the railing and looking at the moon in the sky thoughtfully.

One night, Li Lan'er's personal servant, Little Red, accidentally went out to the outer courtyard to get something and saw Han standing in the courtyard. Little Red felt very strange and asked Han, "Young Master Han, why are you standing in the courtyard so late?"

Han answered, "Raise your head to look at the bright moon and bow your head to think about your hometown. I'm homesick." Xiao Hong smiled and said, "You don't need to be so late to look at the moon when you're homesick." Han smiled sheepishly and said, "To be honest, in fact, I like to enjoy the moon late at night."

Xiaohong stopped talking and got up to go back to Li Laner's boudoir in the inner courtyard. Xiaohong smiled and said to Li Laner, "Miss, I only now believe that there are really people with the same temperament as you in this world." Li Laner asked what was going on, and Xiaohong told Li Laner about Han looking at the moon outside.

Li Lan'er lowered her head and smiled, and her face flushed. Seeing that Li Lan'er was so shy, Xiaohong knew that she was interested in Han, so she said to Xiaohong, "Miss, I think it is better for you to marry into a rich family than an ordinary family. Because the rich son can't marry only one wife, he will also marry many concubines, so it is naturally impossible to love only you; while ordinary men are different, he can only marry one wife, and he will naturally be single-minded towards his wife."

Xiao Hong glanced at Li Lan'er and saw that she was not angry, so she continued to say, "I think Young Master Han is a lover, why don't you get along with him?" Li Lan'er couldn't help but be moved by it and nodded.

The next day, Xiaohong told Han the secret of Li Laner's love for Han, and Han was overjoyed. It turned out that he also secretly liked Li Laner. In this way, the two used Xiaohong as an intermediary and made an appointment to meet at midnight that night.

In the evening, Han put on a woman's clothes and sneaked into Li Laner's boudoir. After the two met, they admired each other, exchanged hearts, and spent a beautiful night together, but they did not do anything too out of line.

When Han was about to leave, Li Laner opened the box and gave Han a silver ticket of one thousand taels, telling Han, "After Lang Jun goes back, use the silver to renovate the house, and then entrust a matchmaker to matchmaker, and I can marry you." Han agreed.

The next morning, Han told Li Yuanwai that he was sick and would go home to recuperate and come back when he was well. Li Yuanwai believed this and agreed to Han's request. After Han went home, he told his parents that he and Miss Li had privately agreed for life.

Han's parents were taken aback when they heard it, and the two discussed: "The Li family is a rich and wealthy family, and our family is poor, so he will definitely not agree to this marriage. And once the marriage fails, the 1,000 taels of silver that the Li family girl gave to the child will definitely be demanded back, and then the money will be empty. We might as well let our son cheat to death and stop the Li family girl's idea, and we can keep the 1,000 taels of silver."

After the husband and wife discussed it, they comforted Young Master Han with a few kind words, and then tricked Han to go to other places to do business. After they released their son, they wrote to rich merchant Li Yuanwai to report his funeral: "Our son died of illness, thank you for teaching him."

Li Yuanwai felt very sorry when he heard this, and told his family about it during dinner. Li Laner heard that his beloved Young Master Han had passed away, and he was in pain and hanged himself in his boudoir that night. Li Yuanwai and his wife did not know why their daughter was short-sighted and cried to death.

Han did not know about Li Laner hanging himself. But since that day, he has been suffering from a strange disease. He is listless every day, dumbfounded, and will mutter to himself, crying and laughing.

Han's parents felt sorry for their son, asked for a doctor and bought medicine, but Han's illness never recovered. Later, they suspected that Li Laner's soul was haunting their son, so the son was like this.

In order to save their son's life, they decided to go to Li Yuanwai's house to tell the truth and pray for Li Laner's forgiveness. The couple took Han in a carriage and went to Li Yuanwai's house to apologize and tell Li Yuanwai the truth.

They told Li Yuanwai that they were willing to welcome Li Laner's coffin back to their hometown and bury it in the ancestral grave, so that Li Laner would become the daughter-in-law of the Han family. In the future, if Han married a daughter-in-law, he would also kowtow to Li Laner's spiritual throne and respect Li Laner as the eldest sister.

Li Yuanwai and his wife were reasonable and agreed to the request of Han's parents, and then Han's parents transported Li Laner's coffin back and buried it in the Han family's ancestral grave. That night, Young Master Han returned to normal.

For a thousand taels of silver, Han's parents lied and killed Li Lan'er, which indirectly caused their son to go crazy. Although they buried Li Lan'er's coffin, it was only to save their son, not to sincerely repent to Li Lan'er. Li Lan'er knows that such in-laws will not like it.