Episode
Four: Resurrection In Huaiyang
Du
Bao collects money from businessmen to build a new wall
outside the city to fend off attacks by the rebel Bandit
Li Quan. The following night, Du Liniang returns to Liu?s
studio and after making love, she persuades him to marry
her. Then she tells him that she is the girl in the portrait
and is indeed a ghost. Although she has been dead three
years, she says her body is still in good form, and she
begs him to dig her up so she can return to the world to
be with him. Liu Mengmei turns to Sister Stone for help.
Risking the penalty for a capital crime, Sister Stone and
her nephew, Scabby Turtle, open up Du Liniang?s coffin.
With the aid of a magic potion ? a piece of a potent man?s
underwear mixed with ashes in sweet wine ? obtained by deceit
from Chen Zuiliang, Du Liniang gradually regains her consciousness
and returns to the world. Fearing that the empty tomb will
be discovered, Du, Liu and Sister Stone leave together for
Hangzhou. Chen Zuiliang finds the tomb ransacked and Du?s
body gone. He assumes that it must be Liu and hurries to
tell Du Bao. In Hangzhou, Du, Liu, and Sister Stone rent
a small house so that Liu can prepare for the Confucian
exam. After she tells him the details of her sweet dream
and how they met, Du sends him to the capital for the exam.
|