Not so long ago a student named Zhang lived, a young man of rare virtues, with a refined soul. He was already thirty-three years old, and he still did not have a lover. When friends marveled at his modesty, he said in response that he simply did not meet until one that responded to his feelings.

Once in the city of Pu, he accidentally met with his distant relative. It turned out that she and her son and daughter fled from the soldier riot that happened in their area, and took refuge in Pu. Zhang managed through his friends to ensure that near the house of the unfortunate fugitives they put up a guard - his relatives were afraid to lose their goods. In gratitude, the aunt arranged a reception for Zhang at which she introduced her children.

Only seventeen springs are past for the girl. She was so unusually good, good-natured, and in modest clothes, without a magnificent hairstyle, she wounded the heart of a young man. Zhang thought for a long time how to reveal her feelings to her, and decided to trust the handmaid Hong-nyan, but she was embarrassed and just babbling about the matchmaking. And Zhang, at the thought of how long the matchmaking would last, went crazy right away. Then, on the advice of the maidservant, he wrote poetry to the girl. Soon the answer came, which seemed to be in love as an invitation to a date.At night, he crept into the girl’s peace, but met with her sharp rebuke.

For several days he walked like a murdered man. But one night, Ying-in (such was the girl’s nickname) came to him herself, and from then on they indulged in secret love. In-in, although perfection itself was itself, kept modestly, rarely uttered a word, and was even ashamed to play the zither.

It's time for Zhang to go to the capital. The ying-in did not reproach her lover, only for the first time took the zither with him and played a mournful melody, and then burst into tears and ran away.

In exams in the capital, Zhang failed, but decided not to return home. He wrote a letter to his beloved and received a response. Ying-in wrote about her eternal love and great shame. She did not hope for a meeting and sent Zhang a jasper bracelet in memory of herself, for jasper is firm and pure, and the bracelet has no beginning or end; a bamboo mortar that kept traces of her tears, and a skein of tangled silk - a sign of her confused feelings.

Ying-in's letter became known to some of Zhang's friends. They asked him about what had happened, and he explained that women had been a source of disaster for centuries. He supposedly did not have enough virtue to overcome the destructive spell, so he overcame his feeling.

Ying-in married, Zhang got married. The last greetings from her were in verses and ended with the lines: "Love that you gave me / Give to your young wife."