"While speaking, she went on to try and recollect his name and surname.
"No matter about names or surnames!" Pao-yü expostulated. "There's no need for you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll be enough."
"This official," old goody Liu resumed, "had no son. His offspring consisted of one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yü, (like Jade). She could read and write, and was doated upon by this official and his consort, just as if she were a precious jewel. But, unfortunately, when this young lady, Jo Yü, grew up to be seventeen, she contracted some disease and died."
When these words fell on Pao-yü's ears, he stamped his foot and heaved a sigh. "What happened after that?" he then asked.
Old goody Liu pursued her story.
"So incessantly," she continued, "did this official and his consort think of their child that they raised this ancestral hall, erected a clay image of their young daughter Jo Yü in it, and appointed some one to burn incense and trim the fires. But so many days and years have now elapsed that the people themselves are no more alive, the temple is in decay, and the image itself is become a spirit."
"It hasn't become a spirit," remonstrated Pao-yü with vehemence. "Human beings of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead."
"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated old goody Liu; "is it really so! Had you, sir, not enlightened us, we would have remained under the impression that she had become a spirit! But she repeatedly transforms herself into a human being, and there she roams about in every village, farmstead, inn and roadside. And the one I mentioned just now as having taken the firewood is that very girl! The villagers in our place are still consulting with the idea of breaking this clay image and razing the temple to the ground."
"Be quick and dissuade them!" eagerly exclaimed Pao-yü. "Were they to raze the temple to the ground, their crime won't be small."
"It's lucky that you told me, Sir," old goody Liu added. "When I get back to-morrow, I'll make them relinquish the idea and finish!"