“And have you come?” they asked. “We have been waiting for you overlong!”
Then they led them into the cave and served them with tea and wine.
“I have been destined for the lord Liu,” said the maiden in the red gown; “and my sister is for the lord Yuan!”
And so they were married. Every day the two scholars gazed at the flowers or played chess so that they forgot the mundane world completely. They only noticed that at times the peach-blossoms on the trees before the cave opened, and at others that they fell from the boughs. And, at times, unexpectedly, they felt cold or warm, and had to change the clothing they were wearing. And they marveled within themselves that it should be so.
Then, one day, they were suddenly overcome by homesickness. Both maidens were already aware of it.
“When our lords have once been seized with homesickness, then we may hold them no longer,” said they.
On the following day they prepared a farewell banquet, gave the scholars magic wine to take along with them and said:
“We will see one another again. Now go your way!”
And the scholars bade them farewell with tears.
When they reached home the gates and doors had long since vanished, and the people of the village were all strangers to them. They crowded about the scholars and asked who they might be.