One early spring morn ing, Xu Xuan, a young sales clerk in a drug store in the sub urbs of Hangzhou, went to visit a Buddhist ab bot named Fahai in the Tem ple of Golden Hill at the West Lake. A bene fac tor of the tem ple, Xu Xuan was a frequent guest of the ab bot. Antic i pating wet weather, which was a com mon oc cur rence in that re gion during the spring sea son, Xu Xuan brought with him an um brella.

Sure enough, it be gan to drizzle as Xu Xuan reached the West Lake and was ready to cross the Bro ken Bridge, so called be cause of its con junc tion with a dike that ended abruptly. He was se cretly re joic ing at his foresight when he en coun tered two beauti ful young women, stag ger ing head-on into the rain. Too late to dodge them, he had to shake his own hands to greet them awk wardly as he was holding the um brella. You see, in an cient China, men and women were not sup posed to touch each other un less they were hus band and wife. The two seemingly em bar rassed young women responded with a bow. Of fering his um brella to them, Xu Xuan ven tured to ask who they were and where they were going.

The women were, in fact, the in car na tions of snakes. Now that they could as sume the form of hu mans af ter years of stren u ous self-cul ti va tion, they had given up their se cluded ser pen tine lives and come out of hid ing to see the world. Grate ful as they were to Xu Xuan, they would not give away their iden tity to a stranger.

“My name is Suzhen White,” the woman in white an swered, blush ing. Point ing to her youn ger com pan ion in blue, she con tin ued, “This is Xiao Qing, my maid and friend.”

“We’ve been to the grave of Lady White’s hus band, who passed away a few days ago.” Xiao Qing re sponded, se cretly feel ing pleased with her quick wit.

As their eyes met, Xu Xuan and Lady White im me di ately felt drawn to each other. Be fore Xu Xuan could ask where she lived, Lady White of fered to meet him the next day at the same lo ca tion so that she could re turn the um brella. Xu Xuan was only too glad to ac cept the of fer of a date from such a beau ti ful young woman.

Their meet ing the next day and sub se quent meet ings even tually led to marriage. Xu Xuan quit his job and opened a drug store of his own with the help of Lady White and Xiao Qing. The me dic i nal herbs, blessed by Lady White’s magic power, were mi rac u lously ef fec tive. As a re sult, their busi ness boomed. Their drug store attracted a lot of people who would oth er wise have gone to the Tem ple of Golden Hill to pray for a cure. How ever, their suc cess se ri ously af fected the tem ple’s do na tions—an im pact that Xu Xuan and Lady White did not mean to cre ate, nor were they aware of it. Soon they be -gan to suf fer conse quences.

Pretending to be a cus tomer, Fahai, the ab bot of the Tem ple of Golden Hill, paid a visit to Xu Xuan’s drug store. With his magic in sight, Fahai knew Lady White and her maid to be the in car na -tions of su per nat u ral snakes, and he im me di ately re al ized who had caused his loss of rev enue. He made plans to get rid of Lady White and her maid.

The next time Xu Xuan vis ited his tem ple, Fahai re vealed Lady White’s ser pen tine or i gin. Dumb founded and shak ing his head in dis be lief, Xu Xuan said, more to him self than to the ab bot, “It can’t be true. She is as good a hu man be ing as any body!”

“Well, be lieve me or not, you’re go ing to suf fer in the end.” Us ing a scare tac tic, the vi cious ab -bot con tin ued, “She may love you enough not to hurt you in tention ally, but you will surely get poi -soned through close con tact with her in the long run.”

“No, you are lying!” Xu Xuan tried not to believe the ab bot.

Fahai’s pa tience was wear ing thin. “Well, see ing is be liev ing,” he said. “Fol low my in struc -tions and you’ll find out for your self.” Cast ing a spell upon Xu Xuan to make him credu lous, the dev -

il ish Fahai told Xu Xuan what to do.