When the wife of Liu received Sun’s proposal from the mouth of the go-between, she hesitated for a moment.  But then she reflected on the false situation in which she would be placed by refusing.  So, masking her thoughts beneath a smile, she agreed to the arrangement.

On the day fixed for the marriage, Yu-lang was constrained to disguise himself.  But two grave difficulties presented themselves.  First with regard to his feet:  how was it possible for him to imitate his sister’s ravishing golden lotuses, so like to sphinx heads, and the balancing of her light steps, a swaying of flowers in the soft breeze?  They gave him a petticoat which reached to the ground, and he practised his sister’s gait, at which she laughed until she cried.  The next question was his ear-rings.  It so happened that his left lobe had been pierced; for in his childhood they had made him wear one ring, in order to persuade the evil spirits that he was a girl, whose death would be of no importance.  Everybody knows that the Jinn always endeavor to rob us of that which is truly dear to us, and leave untouched that which is of no value.

So Yu-lang hung a jewel in his left lobe, and stuck a small piece of plaster over his right ear, so that it might seem it had suffered a slight wound.  His great pearl-decorated headdress concealed his head, brow and shoulders.  His scarlet robes, embroidered with gold and silver, helped to disguise his figure, and the transformation was complete by rouge on his lips and cheeks.

When evening at length drew near, drums and flutes were sounded, the flowered palankeen entered the courtyard, and the hoodwinked go-between, admiring the beauty of the bogus bride, herself opened the scarlet curtains.  Not seeing Yu-lang; she remarked upon this circumstance, and they answered carelessly that he was indisposed and kept to his bed.  Actually at that moment he was taking leave of his parents and imitating to the best of his ability the sobs which were fitting to the occasion.

The procession at last set out and all the bride’s equipment was a little leather trunk.  At the house of Liu there was considerable discussion: 

“When the bride arrives, our son will be unable to cross the threshold as ritual demands, and the marriage will not be accomplished.  The bride will be left alone to salute the ancestors, and this is impossible.  What shall we do?”

“It cannot be helped,” answered the mother.  “So much the worse!  Our daughter must make it known that she will take her brother’s place.  She shall recite the poem of the threshold in his name, and the rites will be thus observed.”

And Prudence, in her graceful girl’s garments, did in fact receive the false Pearl as she got out of the palankeen, pronounced the sacred formulas, and led the new bride before the tablets.  The two seeming sisters-in-law knelt down, and several of the bystanders laughed inwardly to see two women perform the marriage ceremony, and then kneel for the purpose of the grand prostration.