Old man Feng of Guangpingfu, Hebei Province had a son named Feng Xiangru. Both father and son were scholars. The old man is nearly sixty years old, the character of the square and straight but often poor family. In a few years, his partner and daughter-in-law died one after another, and he had to do all the housework by himself.
One night, Feng Xiangru was sitting in the moonlight when he suddenly saw a woman peeping over the wall from the next door to the east. At a closer look, she was very pretty; when she approached, she smiled faintly; when she beckoned to her, she didn't come over, but she didn't go away either. Feng Xiangru repeatedly invited her, she stepped on the ladder to come over, the two then share the same bed. When Feng Xiangru asked her name, she said, "I am Hongyu, the neighbor's girl." Feng Xiangru liked her very much and promised to be together forever. Hongyu agreed. She came and went every night for about half a year.
One day the old man got up at night, heard his son's house with the sound of women talking and laughing, went over to see, saw the red jade. The old man was on fire, called his son out and scolded: "What have you done this beast, so down and out, not hard work, but also learn to be frivolous and debauched? If people know, it will disgrace you; even if others do not know, it will break your life!" Feng Xiangru knelt down and confessed his fault, weeping and expressing repentance. The old man chided Hongyu again, saying, "A woman who does not abide by the rules of the boudoir dishonors both herself and others. Once the incident occurs, the one who suffers humiliation should not only be our family!" After scolding, angrily went back to sleep. Hongyu said with tears in her eyes, "Your father's blame scolding, really make people ashamed of shame! Our destiny is at an end!" Feng Xiangru said, "Father is here, I can't make up my own mind. If you are in love, you should still bear the shame and humiliation and continue to love each other." Hong Yu did not want to continue like this, her words were very firm, Feng Xiangru then shed tears. Hongyu advised him, "I have no matchmaker's words with you, parents' orders, climbing walls and drilling holes in fornication, how can we grow old together? There is a good girl in this place, you can go and marry her." Feng Xiangru said he was poor. Hongyu said, "Wait for me tomorrow night, I will think of a way for you." The next night, Hong Yu really came, took out forty taels of silver and gave it to Feng Xiangru, saying, "Sixty miles from here, there is a woman in the Wei family of the Wu village who is eighteen years old, and has not yet married because her family has raised her price. If you pay a lot of money, you will surely succeed." He said goodbye and left.
Feng Xiangru found a chance to talk to his father about his plan to go to Wu Village for a blind date. However, he hid the fact that Hong Yu had sent silver from him and did not dare to talk about it. The old man thought that his family did not have money and stopped him for this reason. Feng Xiangru added politely, "Try it, if it doesn't work, leave it." The old man nodded. Feng Xiangru then borrowed servants and horses and went to Wei's house. Wei was an old man who farmed. Feng Xiangru called him out and found a place to talk to him privately. Knowing that Feng's family was a prestigious one and that he was handsome, Wei had already agreed in his heart, but he was worried that he would be stingy with his money. When Feng Xiangru heard him stammering, he understood what he was thinking, so he poured out all the silver in his pocket and laid it on the table. Wei was so happy that he asked a neighboring scholar to be his mediator and wrote a marriage contract on red paper. Feng Xiangru entered Wei's house to meet his mother-in-law. The Wei family's residence is narrow, the girl snuggled up to her mother, letting her mother cover herself. Feng Xiangru slightly peeped, see her although dressed in poor, but bright and beautiful, heart secretly happy. Wei borrowed a room from someone to entertain his son-in-law, and said, "Your Excellency need not come to welcome us. When we have made some clothes and dowry, we will send the bride in a sedan chair." Feng Xiangru fixed a date with him and went home. He made up a set of words and told his father that the Wei family loved the humble disciples and did not care about money. The old man was also very happy. On that day, the Wei family did send their daughter. The daughter-in-law was thrifty and docile, and the couple had a very good relationship. After two years, they gave birth to a boy and named him "Fu'er".
This year's Ching Ming Festival, couples holding son to go to the grave, met the county a gentry surnamed Song. Song was a royal historian, but was dismissed from his post because he had committed bribery. He had retired to the countryside, but was still a bully. That day, he also went to his grave and came back. When he saw Wei, he fell in love with her. He asked people in the village and realized that she was Feng Xiangru's daughter-in-law. He thought that Feng Xiangru was a poor scholar, and that he would be tempted if he was offered a large sum of money, so he asked his family to hint to Feng Xiangru. Feng Xiangru just heard, angry face; later thought he could not defeat his power, so he collected the anger, put on a smile. He went home and told his father, the old man was furious, rushed out to the family of the Song family pointing at the sky and cursing. That family members scurried away with their heads in their hands. Song also angry, even sent a few people broke into the Feng family, beating Feng old man and Feng Xiangru, raging, the family made a pot of trouble. Wei heard, threw her son on the bed, cloaked and shouted for help. The assailants lifted her up by force and left in a flurry. Feng's father and son were injured and lay on the ground wailing, and the child wailed in the house. Neighbors have pity on them, help them to bed. After a day, Feng Xiangru was able to get up on his crutches. The old man was so angry that he couldn't eat, and soon he spat blood and died. Feng Xiangru cried, holding his son to sue, has been sued to the governor, the governor, almost all sued, but always can not redress the grievances. Later, he heard that his wife died without giving in, and he was even more grieved. Injustice and hatred, but there is no way to avenge. He wanted to stop the road a few times to assassinate Song, but he was concerned about his entourage of many, not easy to get, but also consider that the child has no place to send. Day and night grief, thinking, can not sleep peacefully.
Suddenly there is a big man came to the Feng family condolences, curly beard, wide chin, Feng Xiangru and he has never met. Feng pulled him to sit down and wanted to ask him about his place of origin and family name. The guest suddenly said, "You have a father's murder and wife's hatred, but forget to revenge?" Feng Xiangru suspected that he was a spy sent by Song, so he used false words to deal with him. The guest's eyes widened in anger, and he got up violently and walked out, saying, "I took you for a man, but now I realize that you are an inadequate fellow!" Feng Xiangru saw that this person's ability is extraordinary, kneeled down to pull him, said: "I am really afraid of the Song family to test me. Now I tell you the truth: I am lying down, want to take revenge, in fact, for many days, but I pity the child in swaddling clothes, for fear of extinguishing the offspring of the Feng family. You are a righteous man, can you raise this orphan on my behalf?" The guest said, "This is the business of women and girls, I can't do it. What you wish to entrust to someone, please undertake yourself; what you wish to undertake yourself, I am willing to do it on your behalf." Feng Xiangru heard this and kowtowed straight to the ground. The guest left without looking back. Feng Xiangru chased after him and asked for his name, he said: "If things don't work out, don't blame me; if things work out, don't be grateful to me." He said, "Don't blame me if it doesn't work out; don't thank me if it does. Feng Xiangru was afraid of being implicated in a big trouble, so he fled with his child in his arms.
At night, Song's family was asleep, someone went in over a few walls and killed Song's father and son, three people and a daughter-in-law and a maid. Song's family wrote a complaint to the government, the officials were shocked. When the Song family insisted that Feng Xiangru had done it, the government sent government officials to arrest him, but he had already fled to an unknown destination, so they felt that the signs of his murder were even more obvious. The servants of the Song family, together with the government officials, searched for him everywhere, and at night they searched on the southern mountain, heard the sound of a baby crying, and followed the sound and caught Feng Xiangru. When he was tied up and escorted to the government office, the baby cried even harder, so the men took the baby and threw it away in the wilderness. Feng Xiangru was so angry that he could not bear to live. When he saw the magistrate, he asked, "Why did you kill?" Feng Xiangru said, "I was wronged! Song died at night, I left during the day, and holding a croaking child, how can I climb over the wall and kill someone?" The magistrate said, "Why did you run away if you didn't kill anyone?" Feng Xiangru had nothing to say and could not defend himself, so the magistrate put him in jail. Feng Xiangru cried and said, "It is not a pity for me to die, what is the crime of my child?" The magistrate said, "You have killed many other people's sons; what is there to complain about if others kill your son?" Feng Xiangru was dismissed from his title of Xiucai, and was tortured many times, but he always refused to confess.
That night, the magistrate was lying in bed, when he heard something hit the bed, clanking, he was so frightened that he cried out. The whole family was alarmed, lit up the lamp to see, found a short knife, sharp, snow-white, into the bed wood more than an inch deep, strong enough to pull out. The magistrate looked at it, and his soul was scattered. The crowd took the weapon to search all over, but did not see the assassin a little trace. The magistrate's heart is weak, but also because the Song imperial historian is dead, do not have to be afraid of him, so they wrote a report to their superiors, exonerated Feng Xiangru, and finally released him.
Feng Xiangru returned home, not a liter and a half bucket of grain in the rice jar, a man alone, staring at the wall. Fortunately, the neighbors took pity on him and gave him food and drink, so he could barely survive. When he thought of his revenge, he was full of joy; when he thought of the tragedy that almost wiped out his whole family, his tears fell; when he remembered that he had been poor for half of his life and could not carry on his family's legacy, he cried out loud in a deserted place, and he could no longer restrain himself.
After half a year like this, the lawsuit was getting looser and looser. Feng Xiangru then went to ask the magistrate to sentence Wei's corpse back. When he came back from burying his wife, he was so grief-stricken that he tossed and turned in his bed and could not sleep, thinking that there was no way to live. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and when he listened, he heard someone mumbling to a child outside the door. Feng Xiangru hurriedly got up to watch, seems to be a woman. He just opened the door, the woman asked: "The great injustice has been cleared, are you okay?" Feng Xiangru listen to this voice is very familiar, but can not think of who in a hurry. Light up the lamp to see, but it is Hongyu. She led a child, laughing under her legs. Feng Xiangru too late to ask more questions, embraced Hongyu and sobbed. Hongyu was also very sad. Later she pushed the child over and said, "Have you forgotten your father?" The child pulled on Hong Yu's clothes and looked at Feng Xiangru with shining eyes. Feng Xiangru scrutinized it carefully, and it was actually Fu'er. He was shocked and asked with tears in his eyes, "Where did the child find it?" Hongyu said: "To tell you the truth: once upon a time I said I was a neighbor's girl, that was a lie. I am actually a fox fairy. Once when I was walking at night, I saw the child crying at the mouth of the valley, so I carried him to Shaanxi to raise him. I heard that your great calamity had subsided, so I brought it to reunite with you." Feng Xiangru wiped tears from his eyes and bowed to her. Fu'er was in Hongyu's arms as if he were clinging to his mother, and surprisingly, he could not recognize his father.
Before dawn the next day, Hong Yu hurriedly got up. Feng Xiangru asked her and she replied, "I'm leaving." Feng Xiangru knelt naked at the foot of the bed, crying so hard that she could not lift her head, Hongyu laughed and said, "I am just coaxing you. Now to rebuild the family business, you must get up early and sleep late." So she cut the weeds, cleaned the house, and worked like a man. Feng Xiangru was worried that the family was too poor to support the family. Hongyu said, "Please put down the tent curtains and study without worrying about how much money and food the family has, and you probably won't starve to death." She then took out silver to buy spinning and weaving utensils; she rented dozens of acres of fields and hired people to plow them. She herself carried a hoe and shoveled thatch, pulled up the rooftop to repair the roof, and did this every day, as a matter of course. When the neighbors heard that Feng Xiangru's wife was very virtuous, they were more than happy to help them.
After about half a year, the Feng family prospered as a large family. Feng Xiangru said, "The Feng family has been revitalized after the robbery, and has been started up again by you from nothing. But there is one thing that has not yet been done, what should we do?" Hong Yu asked him and he replied, "The exam date is approaching and my Xiu Cai merit has not yet been restored." Hongyu laughed: "I sent four taels of silver to the school officials a few days ago, and have restored your Xiucai qualification. If I had waited for you to come and say it, I would have delayed it long ago." Feng Xiangru felt that she was working like a god. This time he won the examination. When he was thirty-six years old, the family has a good piece of land, the building is vast. Hongyu body light and delicate, as if it will float away with the wind, but dry work better than peasant women; even in the harsh winter work very hard, hands are as tender as grease. She said herself that she was twenty-eight years old, but to others, she always looked like someone in her twenties.