“I have told you this secret from the bottom of my heart and entrusted my message to you.  Please tell my parents all that you have heard.  Whatever happens, never fail me!”

Liu Yi promised to follow her directions, and the girl took a written message out of her sleeve pocket, and presented it to him with a woman’s bow, while looking southward and weeping sadly.

After putting the written message in his wallet, Liu Yi hesitated a little.  “May I ask why you graze sheep?  Do dragons eat animal meat also?”

“No,” she replied.  “They are rainmakers in the shape of sheep.”

“What kind of rainmakers are they?” asked Liu Yi.

With a charming smile, the girl replied, “Lightning, thunder, and the like. …”

Examining the sheep carefully, Liu Yi noticed their unearthly characteristics.  Although they seemed ordinary at first glance, he noticed that they held their heads high and grazed in an unusual manner.

“Now, young lady,” said Liu, “I am going to serve as your courier; I hope that you will remember me after you return to your home in the lake.”

“Absolutely!” she exclaimed.  “You will be one of my dear relatives.”

Having bid adieu to the girl, Liu Yi set off for the south.  After about one hundred yards he glanced backward, but neither the girl nor the sheep remained in view.

The palace of the dragon king

In the evening he reached Jingyang and visited his friend.  It took him more than a month to finally return home, where he rested briefly before setting off for Dong Ting Lake.  There he found the orange tree at the special spot.  As the girl had instructed him, he changed his belt and knocked three times on the tree trunk.  In a moment, a warrior came out of the water, bowed to him, and asked, “May I ask what business brought you here?”