Once in Shih-niang's presence he stood still, sobbing mo-mo, mo-mo, without a word.
"How is our plan going?" she asked.
He only answered with a flood of tears; so she insisted:
"Can people have been so hard as to refuse three hundred ounces?"
Stifling his sobs, he answered with this verse:
It is easier to catch a tiger in the mountains
Than to move the world with speech alone.
"I have gone about for these six days, and my hands are empty. Shame has kept me away from my perfumed companion, and it is only at her command that I have come back. I have tried my hardest. Alas! such is the spirit of the century."
"We will say nothing to the ma-ma. Let my Lord stay here for the night: his slave will propose another plan to him."
She served him with a meal and wine, and made him lie down. Then in the middle of the night she asked: