And so in the dead of night Hu Yong'r untied the hemp string around that sheer purple wrapper, nervously removed the little book and walked out of the beggars' shelter. She looked closely at its cover. "Ruyi Baoce" it said at the top, "Treasure Book of Blessings". And upon opening the front cover for a peek inside she was startled to see the very first words: "Charms for Transforming Money"! Naturally she read on.

"Take a length of string and tie a bronze coin to the end, then whirl it around. Then toss it on the ground and cover it with something. Scoop up some water in a hand-held bowl and chant your wishes seven times, then hold the water in your mouth and spit it out shouting 'Live!' When the cover is removed the coin will have been changed into an entire string of coins."

"So that's the way it's done!" exclaimed Yong'r. And so she reached into her pouch and removed the coin that the old woman had given her during the day and fastened it though its hole to the string that she had just untied, whirled it around and cast it down, covering it with a small washbucket. Then with a bowl she ladelled up some water from the tank, chanted her wish seven times and held the water in her mouth, eventually spitting it onto the bucket and shouting "Live!" as instructed. She then put down the bowl and removed the pail for a look, and what did she see but a pile of coins just like a coiled up green snake! Yong'r was overcome with fright, totally unprepared for this. She then carefully considered what to do.

If I just give this money to mom and dad they'll surely ask where it came from! What can I say?"

Yong'r suddenly thought of a plan. Ever so lightly opening the back door of that ruined sideroom she stepped out into the garden and scattered the coins on the snow inside the bamboo fence around their own garden plot. She would simply say that someone had quietly come out of true charity to help out a poor family. She then shut the door, returned to her room and hid the book. "Still got that bellyache?" called Mama.

It's stopped OK!" answered Yong'r. She then climbed back into bed and went to sleep.

Come sunrise the three arose and boiled water for washing. Mama later opened the back door and was casting out the dirty water when suddenly she spotted a string of cash lying in the snow. Truly shocked, she snatched it up and hurriedly gave it to Squire Hu.

"I found this string of cash that somebody dropped in the snow out back!"

"You're being naive, Mama, thinking like a pauper already!" said the Squire. "Our daughter is grown up and some bold youth no doubt came to seduce her and brought that cash as little inducement! Now with me down on my luck like this if I go and use the cash there'll be a stream of young men calling to flirt, with no way to hold them off."

"How stupid you are!" scolded Mama. "Dongjing has a lot of wealthy men who do good deeds like helping the poor and suffering folks, and who seeing a blizzard like this would feel some pity for people in the poorhouse with nothing to eat. Who's to say that money wasn't cast to other families as well?"

"Nonsense! Where did you ever hear a thing like that?" scoffed the Squire, gesticulating as he spoke. "Did I ever do anything like that when I was a wealthy man?"

Mama rose to her feet, agitated. "You old ignoramous!" she scolded. "Stupid and poor! It's always been said that some folks just weren't around when brains were handed out! Why do you think that you alone were stricken by Heaven with that fire, and none of the other wealthy men? Good deeds really do matter! And you've got the gall to doubt your own daughter's morality! My girl would never run around, and who says men are coming here? It's all in your imagination!"

The Squire was silenced by her continued sobbing and just nodded in agreement. "What you say is true," he then said. "I can't go out again and get another two or three hundred like I was able to do yesterday. With a string of cash like we've just got, why, we can buy five hundred in rice, three hundred worth of fuel and and still have a couple of hundred left for salt, soy sauce and vegetables to go with meals so we won't have to worry about the snowy weather."

And so the three passed a happy day together. But when they were in bed around midnight that evening Yong'r had a thought. The previous night she had been able to make a string of a thousand coins, so why not try it again? She's already had that notion during the day and had the length string all ready next to her body. Slowly she got out of bed and dressed.

"What are you doing, child?" asked Mama.

"I've got cramps again so I'm going to the toilet, that's all."

"Poor girl!" Till yesterday we were going hungry every other day and now we're eating our fill, so you've gone and got constipated! Tomorrow I'll have daddy get some medicine for you to take!"

Yong'r left her chamber and went to that ruined anteroom to fix things exactly as before. She tied a coin onto the string and swung it, then covered it with the pail as the magic formula had said to do. Next she recited the charm and spit out the mouthful of water and when she lifted the pail there was another string of cash, same as the previous night. Yong'r opened the back door and once again cast it down onto the snow, then closed the door and went back to sleep in her room.

Now at sunrise Mama got up as always to boil the washwater. When she later opened the back door to toss it out she once again saw a string of cash and happily brought it right in.

"There's something strange about all this money just showing up!" said Squire Hu.

"Now, don't jump to conclusions!" said Mama. "Anyway, I'm not afraid!" This help was the work of some blessed person who can't bear to watch the three of us starve! Now he's left yet another string of cash for us!"

Squire Hu remembered how agitated his wife had been the day before, so this time he held his piece and just dumbly agreed. "You're right Mama," he said, nodding, "we'll just spend it carefully at home."

Several days later the snow had melted and the sky was bright and clear. "We're down to a few days' supply of rice again," Mama told her husband. "Why don't you go out and make the rounds once more? It sure would be nice if you could run into a friend and get another one or two hundred!" The Squire just obeyed and promptly set out to try again. Mama felt at ease and went next door for tea and chat with a neighbor.

Yong'r realized that Mama had gone out and that she was home alone. Closing the front door she took out the little book and opened it to the second part, entitled Charms for Transforming Rice. "Thank Heaven and Earth!" she exclaimed. "Just the thing for folks facing starvation!" Now there were two containers of rice under Mama's bed, a wooden pail and a large jar, and Yong'r saw that they were full. She paused to think for a moment, then poured the contents of the pail into the crock. She caught the excess in the lap of her skirt and spread it out onto the earthen floor, then stepped aside leaving a paper charm slip for ten times the amount of rice in the empty bucket. She then took it out into the middle of the room and covered it with a garment, uttered the charm and spit out a mouthful of water, crying out "live!". Suddenly she saw only rice, rice and more rice gushing forth continuously from the bucket, frightening her all the more because she didn't know the charm to stop it. What was more, the slats of the rice pail were old and rotten and under such pressure it burst with a loud "c-r-a-c-k!" and rice went all over the floor. And later folks have created this poem to dramatize Yong's transformation of money and rice:

Yong'r was overwhelmed and screamed out. From nextdoor Mama hear her daughter's cries of distress and came running to look. Enough rice had surged out to bury a person in, although it had now stopped. The entire floor was covered with it. "Where did all this rice come from?" asked Mama, in great shock and surprise. Mei'r quickly thought of a ruse.

"Mom, I'm happy to tell you that a strong fellow just brought over a sack of rice. He forced open the back door and dumped it in here. I was frightened when I saw him and that's when I screamed out."

Mama noticed the broken slats of the bucket. "This bucket was in my room. What did you take it out for, and where's the rice that was in it?"

"I took it to carry some of this rice over to my room but I didn't see how old it was..."

"Just who was that big fellow and what was he up to?"

Suddenly amidst the jabbering the voice of sister Zhang next door could be heard drifting over the wall, strangely muted. "Mama Hu! You were right the first time. It's that anonymous rich squire out there who felt sorry for you in all the rain and snow. He can't let anybody find out because of all the tens of thousands of other starving folks in the poorhouses and shelters. There'd have been a riot if he helped you openly! This was the only way!"

Sister Zhang's words helped put Mama's doubts to rest. She told her daughter to clean up and she herself joined in the work. The two of them were just finishing sweeping up when Squire Hu returned. Seeing his wife and daughter sweeping rice off the floor angered him. "What are you doing!" he shouted. "How did you two women manage to break the barrel and waste what little rice we've got left?"

"How could I have wasted rice?" asked Mama. "Why, look, it's all over! Crocks, jars, barrells, basins, tubs, all overflowing. There's nowhere to sit down for all of it!"

And where is all this rice from?"

"Well, when you were out and I was next door having tea I heard Yong'r scream. And when I ran back over here I saw the floor of my room all covered with rice."

"Now, if I'm not to believe this is some sort of witchcraft, just tell me where the rice came from!"

"Yong'r said she saw a big fellow lugging a sack of rice in through the back door and dumping it out in here..."

Now the Squire knew the ways of the world. Upon opening the back door for a look round he could see no trace of anybody having been there recently. Heart full of doubt he came in, closed the door and found a stick that he took in hand. "Yong'r!" he bellowed angrily. The girl knew it didn't look too good so she hid in her room, but the Squire went in and dragged her out.

"It isn't enough to hit her on account of!" shouted Mama.

"And you shut your mouth, cause this stuff is serious! In the past days two strings of cash just show up so mysteriously and now all that rice comes out of nowhere! Tell this little nun of yours if she comes clean with the truth I won't hit her, but if one line is false I'll beat her to death with one blow! Now, I ask her: How did the two strings of cash end up in the snow and how did all that rice get into the room, and just who was that big fellow? If it really was a rich family's charity it's hard to imagine why they would help us of all people! There must be a reason for all this!"

Now from the very beginning Yong'r had denied everything but now faced with a beating she confessed to having made up the big fellow's visit. But she didn't relish admitting to those false accusations so she told only the truth.

"Daddy, I'm hiding nothing from you! Oh, Mama! It all started on that day when the blizzard began and daddy went away. Mom sent me over to buy some wheatcakes and on the way back I ran into an old woman who said she was hungry and asked me for one of the cakes. I couldn't bear the pathetic sight of her and so I gave her one. But then she said she wasn't really hungry and didn't really want my food, that she'd only been playing with me, getting to know my mind, and she gave it back to me. What a kind, filial and obedient girl I was she told me. Then she gave me a little sack of purple cloth with a book inside. She said if I wanted money or rice I should learn the charms in it and then I'd be able to change things into them."

Squire Hu listened to her words and then fell to the earthen floor. "The officials have just posted signs calling for the arrest of witches and sorcerers!" he cried. "If you're tried for witchcraft I'll be implicated too so it's better I kill you myself and not bring collective guilt down on us!" He then raised the stick and began striking her.

"H-e-l-p!" screamed Yong'r. Now Sister Zhang next door heard Yong'r being beaten and came over to protect her but found the door bolted.

"Now Squire Hu!" she shouted from outside. "You stop hitting that child at once! What ever she's done it doesn't give you the right to disturb the peace with that kind of outburst! Mama, how come you aren't stopping him?"

The Squire held his breath for a long moment. "Would sister be so kind if she knew that my girl's hiding a book..." His lips froze in mid-sentence.

"And what does that book say in it?" shouted Sister Zhang.

"It's all idle talk!" he answered.

Now the old neighbor woman naturally misunderstood, taking it for an ordinary book of pornographic love stories. "Your daughter's still too young to know right from wrong. Better be careful or those smooth-talking young men in the streets will take advantage of her! If I were you I'd burn that book without even looking inside. It's better you don't know. Then forbid her from ever doing it again! And if she continues to arouse herself, take that child and beat the daylights out of her!"

The Squire knelt and helped the girl up. "What Sister is telling us is right!" he said, looking at Yong'r. "Let me see that book of yours."

Yong'r took the book out of her tunic and gave it to her father. "Do you remember what it says on the cover?" he asked.

"Honest, daddy, I don't. I didn't really study it deeply."

The Squire then told Mama to bring a flaming stick, which he used to burn the book together with its purple sack. "You've been spared this one time for the sake of that guardian angel of yours from next door, but if I catch you doing this again I'll beat you to death!"

"Honest, daddy, I won't, ever!"

"And if the God of Fortune is ever to visit our family again, nobody else is to know of this! If any word leaks out there will be terrible consequences for us!"

Mama was frightened and confused and only agreed, for better or worse. And here's a poem: