The queen then told the princess to thank him.  The princess turned to Liu Yi in deep sorrow and asked, “Shall we meet again someday?”  Liu Yi suddenly felt deep regret that he had rejected the proposal offered by the prince.  In that moment they shared feelings of regret.  The party ended and the palace was filled with sighs as Liu Yi bowed farewell.

Liu Yi’s marriage to the dragon king’s daughter

Liu Yi first went to Yangzhou, the largest city on the Yangtze River.  He sold a small portion of what he had been given at the palace and became a multimillionaire.

A year later, he married his first wife, but she soon died.  A second wife also died within a matter of months.  Growing more and more unhappy, Liu Yi moved to Nanjing, another big city on the Yangtze River.

Now in his late twenties, he could hardly live with his loneliness.  One day a matchmaker came and told him of a girl from Fengyang County who was named Lu.  Lu Hao, her father, had been the magistrate of Ching-Liu and was now a noted Taoist master.  The girl had been married into the Chang family who lived on the Jing River, but unfortunately her husband had passed away not long ago.   Her mother was trying to find her a good husband.  She is young, very pretty, and very smart.  Was he interested?  Liu Yi agreed to the match and, on a beautiful day, he and the girl were married.  The magnificence of the wedding and the abundance of gifts impressed all the people in Nanjing.

One day, shortly after their first child was born, Liu’s wife invited all their relatives to the house.  In front of all the guests she asked Liu Yi, with a charming smile, “Don’t you remember that we have met before?”

Sensing something, Liu Yi replied, “I once carried a message for a dragon king’s daughter.  I will never forget it.”

“I am the daughter of the dragon king,” his wife declared.  “Wretched and abused by my former husband, I was rescued by you, and I swore to repay your kindness.  But unfortunately, when my uncle so untactfully proposed marriage between us, you refused.  Later, my parents wanted me to be the bride of another god’s son, but I made an excuse to stop it.  In truth, I would rather die than love somebody other than you.