In ancient times, there was a Fuyang man named Dong Zhaozhi who once crossed the Qiantang River by boat. When the boat reached the center of the river, it suddenly found a three-foot-long reed floating in the river. On the reed, an ant crawled around in a hurry, constantly crawling from one end to the other, and was about to fall into the river and drown.

Dong Zhaozhi was a kind-hearted person. He let the boat approach the reed and wanted to pick up the reed and the ants on the boat, but the people on the boat objected: "This is a stinging poisonous insect, if you dare to take it on the boat, we will trample it to death!" Dong Zhaozhi had no choice but to tie the reed with a rope and tie the other end to the side of the boat, dragging the ants to the shore. The ants escaped and climbed to the land and ran away quickly.

That night, Dong Zhaozhi had a dream in which hundreds of people dressed in black came to him. A man in black saluted him and said to him, "I am the king of ants. I accidentally fell into the river today. Fortunately, you saved my life. If you need anything in the future, please let me know and I will try my best to help you."

After Dong Zhaozhi woke up, he felt that the dream was absurd and ignored it.

A few years later, Dong Zhaozhi offended the government for defending his rights everywhere and was arrested in prison. He had no way to appeal and couldn't get out. In desperation, he remembered that absurd dream and thought it might be better to try it, maybe there is a way. He found a few ants in the prison and said to them, "I am Dong Zhaozhi of Fuyang, I am locked in prison, go and tell your king, let him find a way to save me!"

The ants froze for a moment, then hurriedly crawled away.

However, there was no movement for the next three days. Dong Zhaozhi was a little desperate, and even felt that he was too bored to talk to the ants stupidly.

Three days later, in the middle of the night, it was raining heavily, and lightning flashed and thundered. In his sleep, Dong Zhaozhi dreamed of the ant king in black again, and the ant king shouted loudly: "Get up! Get up!" Dong Zhaozhi suddenly woke up and looked around. Suddenly, the wall in the corner of the cell collapsed into a hole, and thousands of ants crawled out of the hole. Dong Zhaozhi knew that this was the escape route that the ant king led the ants out to eat. He bowed gratefully to the ants and escaped while the thunderstorm night.

Later, Dong Zhaozhi always warned his descendants that accumulating virtue and doing good deeds should start bit by bit, and not do it with kindness.