The scholar Qiao Yu roamed the world in search of fragrant grass.

Qiao Yu was a native of Wukang County, Zhejiang Province, during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. When he was 25, he was engaged to a girl from the Bai family. Unfortunately, the girl died before she could go through the door. Qiao Yu was very sad and lonely, and planned to go far away to find a good mate who could be with him for life.

Qiao Yu walked to Fenghuang, Anhui Province, and met a Taoist priest on the way. The Taoist asked him where he was going, and Qiao Yu told him his intentions. The Taoist looked at Qiao Yu and said, "Do you want to find a beautiful daughter-in-law? This is really a sesame seed falling into the eye of a needle - it's a coincidence. If you go 15 miles southeast from here, there is a small town. If you go there, you will definitely gain something."

When Qiao Yu came there, on the eighth day of the third month of the ancient calendar, there was a Huangmei opera class setting up a stage in the wilderness to perform "Chuntai Opera", which was very lively. The men and women watching the play were crowded together, like a nest of bees or a group of ants, with almost no place to intervene. Qiao Yu had no intention of watching the play, so he just jumped up and down in the crowd under the stage, and saw that the many women were very ordinary, and none of them he liked. He walked out of the crowd, and suddenly found a corner of the small red building exposed by the top of the weeping willow tree. There was a woman leaning against the window watching the play. The woman had pink cheeks and eyebrows, and was graceful and beautiful, like a budding peach blossom. Qiao Yu's eyes lit up and he was pleasantly surprised. Until the audience had dispersed after the play, Qiao Yu still stood there obsessively staring at the window of the Little Red House. Suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder and shouted, "Hey! Where did this womanizer come from?

Qiao Yu turned around and saw a broad and fat man with a cold face. He was so scared that his legs trembled and he wanted to escape. The strong man grabbed Qiao Yu's arm and showed a strange smile on his face. "You are so timid, you still want to mess with flowers?" Don't be afraid, to tell you the truth, you just saw the woman in the red building named Qian Niang, she is my oldest daughter. If you don't have a daughter-in-law, I would like to marry her to you!Joe Yu never dreamed of encountering such a beautiful thing, so excited that he was about to kneel down to the strong man, and the strong man said, "Don't worry, it's not time yet!"

The strong man dragged Qiao Yu to his house, and it was already time to light the lights. He asked the woman to dress up and marry Qiao Yu, and then pushed the two into a spare room. There were a pair of red candles lit in the room, and the double happiness characters were pasted on the windows. The bedding was also gorgeous, as if everything had been prepared. Before Qiao Yu could talk to the woman about love, the woman was called away by her mother. Qiao Yu sat alone and was very bored. It was not until the second watch of the night that he saw the woman walk into the house around the screen in the hall. The woman unhurriedly removed her makeup and took off her skirt, then smiled at Qiao Yu, and entered the bed curtain. Qiao Yu was burning with desire and couldn't help it, so he went to bed to hug the bride. Who knew that he lifted the curtain, but no one was there. Only a pair of embroidered pillows were placed on the head of the bed, and the brocade quilt was folded there yet to be spread out. Qiao Yu was taken aback and couldn't figure out what was going on, so he had to sleep alone. When it was dawn, the woman walked into the house again, and Qiao Yu asked her where she had been last night? The woman didn't say a word.

The next night, Qiao Yu hid in the tent first, trying to get rid of the woman when she was caught off guard. It was not until the middle of the night that the woman walked into the house. As soon as she went to bed, Qiao Yu hurriedly grabbed the woman's wrist and wanted to press her under him. Unexpectedly, the woman was like a cloud and drifted into the valley without a trace. Qiao Yu was very scared and couldn't guess whether the woman was a human or a ghost? Until the sun rose three poles, he didn't wait for the woman.

The woman's sister Ying Gu passed by the window and saw Qiao Yu writing alone in the room. She asked with beautiful eyes, "Qiao Xiucai, what are you writing?" Qiao Yu said, "It's nothing, I'm just scribbling and killing time." Ying Gu sighed and said, "I pity you, a scholar in your youth, your death is just around the corner, and you are still in the dark and unaware!Joe Yu was puzzled and at a loss. Ying Gu continued, "My parents are demons who use crooked ways to rob other people's property. They often use my sister as bait to attract people into marriage, but in fact no one has ever touched my sister's body. Since I was sensible, I have seen many young men who became the ghosts of my parents' swords because of their lust for my sister's beauty. When the stars shine tonight, it's probably your turn! Qiao Yu was terrified and begged for Yinggu's help. Yinggu said: I have no ability to save you, and to get out of danger, I have to rely on my sister. However, I can remind you that the reason why my sister was able to escape when she went to bed two nights ago was because there was a six-tiered talisman wrapped with 36 red and green silk threads under the mattress. If you find that talisman and throw it away, then my sister will definitely not be able to get out after going to bed. After you and her turn the raw rice into wine and become husband and wife, you can plead with tenderness and honey, and she will naturally help you escape the disaster. "

Qiao Yu got up and put on the mattress. Sure enough, he found the talisman mentioned by Ying Gu, so he secretly threw it away. At night, Qiao Yu got into the quilt naked and waited for the woman. As soon as the woman took off her clothes and went to bed, she was hugged tightly by Qiao Yu and couldn't get out. She realized that the situation had changed, and sighed helplessly: "It must be the little sister who talked too much, which destroyed the plan of the parents. Since it was like this, it was probably God's will." So she simply threw herself into Qiao Yu's arms and let him do whatever he wanted. After the matter, Qiao Yu knelt on the bed naked and asked the woman for help. The woman said emotionally: "Since we are married, I will save you without you saying it." She got up and got out of bed, grabbed a rooster from the yard and tied it to the top of the stick and handed it to Qiao Yu, telling her, "You carry this rooster, go out and walk north. After walking about 30 miles, the rooster will cry. You have to throw it away immediately, and then continue to walk forward.

The woman estimated that Qiao Yu had walked 30 miles away before she got up from the bed bleary-eyed and went to tell her father that Qiao Yu had escaped. The father was furious and was about to chase him on horseback. The woman said, "He has gone far, probably can't catch up, so it is better to kill him with a flying sword." The father listened to the woman's words and stood in the courtyard and threw a sharp sword, which flew away like white silk. After a short time, I saw a flash of lightning, and the sword flew back. It fell to the ground with a "jingle" sound, and the blood on the sword stained the ground red.

At that time, according to the woman's instructions, Qiao Yu, a scholar, ran in the direction pointed by the Big Dipper as soon as he left the house. After running for about 30 miles, the rooster tied to the top of the stick stretched out its neck and cried "ooh ooh." Qiao Yu hurriedly threw away the stick over his shoulder, and suddenly, a white light flashed behind him, and the rooster's neck was cut off. It was so dangerous. Qiao Yu was extremely shocked, if it had been a little later, he would have died by the sword.

Qiao Yu ran for more than 20 miles and was exhausted, so he had to sit under a big tree by the road to rest. The sky gradually dawned, and when he looked up, he saw a white crane flying in the morning clouds. The woman rode on the crane's back and landed on the ground slowly, then put away the white crane, which was surprisingly just a white crane folded with paper. The woman smiled and said to Qiao Yu, "The disaster is over, you can take me back to your hometown!" Qiao Yu asked worriedly, "What if your father comes after you again?" The woman said, "His kind of bypassing magic is limited, and it doesn't work beyond 50 miles."

After the scholar Qiao Yu brought the woman back to his hometown of Wukang, Zhejiang, he studied with peace of mind behind closed doors. In his spare time, he would draw lots with the woman to guess riddles for fun. After a month, one day, the two were playing happily at home when suddenly there was a knock on the door, and when they opened the door, they found that it was Ying Gu. The two quickly asked what had happened. Ying Gu said: "Since my sister escaped, my parents forced me to act as bait to seduce men. I refused to do it, and my father was very angry, so he often beat me with a whip. I found an opportunity to sneak out of the house, thinking that I was a lonely and weak woman with no relatives to rely on, so I came all the way to my brother-in-law's house." Qiao Yu was very happy and asked, "It's good that my aunt is here, but what kind of status should I use to settle you down?" The woman said, "Why don't you let little sister marry you too? I wonder if little sister is willing?" Ying Gu's cheeks flushed and she politely declined: "The girl came here, but she is just a lone swallow living under the eaves for the time being. I think it is better to find another confidant in the future!" The woman knew her sister's personality very well, so she no longer forced herself.

Not long after, the Daoist priest that Qiao Yu had met on Phoenix Road also came. When he met him, he said happily, "I'm glad you got out of danger and got a beautiful bride!" Qiao Yu expressed his deep gratitude and respectfully let the Daoist into the house, planning to treat him warmly. When the woman and Ying Gu came out to visit the Daoist priest, they were very surprised and immediately cried out, "This Daoist master, you seem to be my father's master, right?" The Daoist priest said, "Yes! Your father's heart was not right, and he failed to learn immortals and fell into the left path of the evil sect. He was keen to use the flying talisman to escape the armor and do things to kill people. Although I have advised him many times, he has no regrets. I couldn't bear for his two innocent daughters to suffer the same bad luck, so I deliberately guided Qiao Xiucai to your house to help you two sisters out of the disaster. "The woman and Ying Gu asked," How are my parents now? "The Taoist priest said," When we said this, probably your parents were captured. "The two sisters burst into tears when they heard this. The Taoist priest said angrily," Why are you crying? This is the retribution for their evil deeds! "Then he walked away angrily.

Later, Qiao Yu secretly heard the exact news: on the day the Taoist priest arrived, the parents of the woman and Ying Gu were arrested by the government and taken to the western suburbs of the county seat to be beheaded.