When Lao Ting awoke it was still night, but the room was no longer entirely devoid of light.  As his custom was, an open page lay on the floor beside him, ready to be caught up eagerly with the first gleam of day; above this a faint but sufficient radiance now hung, enabling him to read the written signs.  At first the student regarded the surroundings with some awe, not doubting that this was in the nature of a visitation, but presently he discovered that the light was provided by a living creature, winged but docile, which carried a glowing lustre in its tail.  When he had read to the end, Lao Ting endeavoured to indicate by a sign that he wished to turn the page.  To his delight he found that the winged creature intelligently grasped the requirement and at once transferred its presence to the required spot.  All through the night the youth eagerly read on, nor did this miraculously endowed visitor ever fail him.  By dawn he had more than made up the time in which the admiration of Hoa-mi had involved him.  If such a state of things could be assured for the future, the vista would stretch like a sunlit glade before his feet.

Early in the day he set out to visit an elderly monk, who lived in a cave on the mountain above.  Before he went, however, he did not fail to procure a variety of leaves and herbs, and to display them about the room in order to indicate to his unassuming companion that he had a continued interest in his welfare.  The venerable hermit received him hospitably, and after inviting him to sit upon the floor and to partake of such food as he had brought with him, listened attentively to his story.

“Your fear that in this manifestation you may be the sport of a malicious Force, conspiring to some secret ill, is merely superstition,” remarked Tzu-lu when Lao Ting had reached an end.  “Although creatures such as you describe are unknown in this province, they undoubtedly exist in outer barbarian lands, as do apes with the tails of peacocks, ducks with their bones outside their skins, beings whose pale green eyes can discover the precious hidden things of the earth, and men with a hole through their chests so that they require no chair to carry them, but are transposed from spot to spot by means of poles.”

“Your mind is widely opened, esteemed,” replied Lao Ting respectfully.  “Yet the omen must surely tend towards a definite course?”

“Be guided by the mature philosophy of the resolute Heng-ki, who, after an unfortunate augury, exclaimed to his desponding warriors:  ’Do your best and let the Omens do their worst!’ What has happened is as clear as the iridescence of a dragon’s eye.  In the past you have lent a sum of money to a friend who has thereupon passed into the Upper Air, leaving you unrequited.”

“A friend receiving a sum of money from this person would have every excuse for passing away suddenly.”

“Or,” continued the accommodating recluse, “you have in some other way placed so formidable an obligation upon one now in the Beyond that his disturbed spirit can no longer endure the burden.  For this reason it has taken the form of a luminous insect, and has thus returned to earth in order that it may assist you and thereby discharge the debt.”