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When he awoke, the sun was blazing down upon the streets of Chang-ngan, and making the town like a furnace. However, Pei-Hang took up his stick and set off, because he had promised his father and mother to start that day. "I will rest a little at the Indigo Bridge, and walk on again in the cool of the evening," he said to himself.
Then he kissed her, and set out on his journey to Mount Sumi. But on his way across the plain he passed through the town where his parents lived, and he went to see them, and told them all that had happened since he left Chang-ngan.
The inside of the hut was fragrant with the scent of herbs which were strewn all over the floor, and on a wooden stool in the middle lay a broken pestle and mortar. "Now," said Yun-Ying's mother, "on this stool I pound magic drugs given to me by the Genii; but my pestle and mortar is broken. I want a new one." "That I can easily buy in Chang-ngan," replied Pei-Hang.
He had not studied three years with the wisest man in Chang-ngan for nothing, and, besides, he was determined to marry Yun-Ying, and when young men are very much in love, they sometimes accomplish things which their friends and enemies think are impossible.
This was exactly what he wanted; for he knew that the yellow-faced mandarin was only the richest man in Chang-ngan, and that the richest man in China would have a far greater chance of marrying Yun-Ying. "Well, what next?" cried the eight Genii, when he had finished. "Will you take it on your shoulder or on your head?" "I will just carry it under my arm," replied Pei-Hang, easily.
Or perhaps he really preferred the three great rubies to Yun-Ying. At any rate, he went back to Chang-ngan, and Pei-Hang married Yun Ying, and took her away to the city where his father and mother lived; and they were as happy as two young people deserve to be when they love each other dearly.
For Pei-Hang was not by any means a bad match. His parents were well off, and he was their only child. But Yun-Ying was a very pretty girl, and a mandarin of Chang-ngan was anxious to make her his wife. "He is four times her age, it is true," said her mother, explaining this to Pei-Hang; "but he is very rich.
"He must go to Chang-ngan, and study under the wise men there, and find out what the world is thinking about." Chang-ngan was the old capital of China, a very great city indeed, and Pin-Too, the master to whom Pei-Hang was sent was the wisest man in it. And there Pei-Hang soon learned what the world was thinking about, and many things besides.
Pei-Hang, when he had finished staring at the Lake of Gems, walked round it, and wondered how he was to carry it down the mountain and across the plains to Chang-ngan. Then he sat down on the ground to think the matter over, and the Genii, even his own good-natured Geni, laughed at him again. "Come!" they said. "If you like to fill the mortar with precious stones, you may do it.
"And I will tell you mine," began Pei-Hang, but Yun-Ying stopped him, smiling. "Ah, I know yours, and all about you," she said. This surprised Pei-Hang very much; but he need not have been greatly astonished, for everyone in Chang-ngan knew that Pei-Hang was the handsomest and wisest and best loved pupil the wise Pin-Too had ever had.
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