When he awoke, the sun was blazing down upon the streets of Chang-ngan, and making the town like a furnace.
However, Pei-Hang took up his stick and set off, because he had promised his father and mother to start that day.
"I will rest a little at the Indigo Bridge, and walk on again in the cool of the evening," he said to himself.
But on the bridge he fell asleep again, so tired was he with the many sleepless nights he had spent in study.
While he slept he had a dream, in which a tall and beautiful maiden appeared to him, and showed him her right foot, round which a red cord was bound.
"What is the meaning of it?" asked Pei-Hang, who could hardly take his eyes away from her face to look at her foot.
"What is the meaning of the red cord around your foot, too?" replied the girl.
Then Pei-Hang glanced at his right foot, and saw that his foot and the girl's were tied together by the same thin red cord; and by this he knew that she must be his future wife.
"I have heard my mother say," he said, "that when a boy is born, the Fairy of the Moon ties an invisible red cord round his right foot, and the other end of the cord round the foot of the girl-baby whom he is to marry."
"That is quite true," said the maiden; "and this is an invisible cord to people who are awake. Now I will tell you my name, and remember it when you hear it again. It is Yun-Ying."