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Updated: May 7, 2025
But to his surprise the White River shrank just as rapidly as the Blue River into a tiny rippling brook, with some wee wriggling eels at the bottom. Pei-Hang leaped lightly over it, and walked a long way before he came in sight of the Red River. This was three-quarters of a mile wide, and bright scarlet.
It was a quarter of a mile wide, and as blue as the sky of midsummer, and fishes were popping their heads out of the water in every direction. The head of every fish was twice as large as a football, and had two rows of teeth. But Pei-Hang threw a red seed into the waves which were lapping the shore, and in a moment, instead of the wide blue river, a little brook lay at his feet.
The old dame told her daughter to fill their best goblet with fresh spring water, and bring it out to the stranger; and when the daughter appeared, it was none other than Yun-Ying herself. "Oh!" cried Pei-Hang, "I thought perhaps I should never see you again, and I have found you almost directly." "And what is my name?" asked the girl, laughing. "Yun-Ying," replied Pei-Hang.
Pei-Hang showed him the round white seeds in his other box. "It is all right," he said, "I can make them as large as they were before, on my way back. But first I must find the home of the Genii, and get a pestle and mortar of jade for my future mother-in-law to pound her magic drugs in." "First you must cross the Black River," replied the Geni, with rather a scornful laugh.
It looked like a flood of melted sealing-wax, and a row of alligators, with their mouths wide open, stretched right across it like a bridge. "Now for my little red seed!" said Pei-Hang, opening his box quite cheerfully.
In an instant, to the Geni's astonishment, the river dried up, leaving only a shallow stream running through the grass at their feet. The Geni was not altogether a bad-hearted fellow, and he was also much impressed by the wonderful things Pei-Hang seemed able to do; so he offered to show him the nearest way to the home of the Genii, on the top of Mount Sumi.
"You would be devoured in a moment. Take this box with you. In it you will find six red seeds. Throw one into each river as you come to it, and it will shrink into a little brook, over which you can jump." Pei-Hang opened the box, and saw inside six round, red seeds, each about the size of a pea; and he agreed to use them as Yun-Ying directed.
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.
"No; for it is a pestle and mortar of jade, and you can only get one like it by going to the home of the Genii, which is on a mountain above the Lake of Gems. If you will do that, and bring it back to me, you shall marry Yun-Ying." "Yes, I will do that," said Pei-Hang, after a moment's thought. "But I must see my parents first."
And Yun-Ying lived quite close to the city, and had often seen Pei-Hang walking through the streets with his books. When Pei-Hang awoke, he found, as she had said, that there was no red cord around his foot, and no fair maiden looking down at him, either. "I wonder if she is real, or only a dream-maiden, after all," he said to himself.
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