Having nowhere to stay, the two men were forced to move on. As they fretted over whether they would find a place to sleep, they saw a Taoist monk walking towards them. As he approached, they realized that they knew the man. It was Ding Jizhi, a famous performer from the Nanjing Troupe. Ding had come here to evade the Emperor and to practice Taoism at a monastery. Hou Fangyu and Liu Jingting felt greatly relieved to meet an old friend who could give them lodging. Soon, they began to inquire about Li Xiangjun. Neither Hou Fangyu nor Li Xiangjun was aware that they were only separated by a few hills that night.
One month quickly elapsed and it was 15th July, the Dead Spirit Festival. On this day people would offer sacrifices and worship their ancestors; releasing the souls of the decreased from purgatory. Zhang Yaoxing, a Taoist priest from the Baiyun Monastery on Qixia Mountain was to hold a grand memorial ceremony for General Shi Kefa and the other loyal ministers who had martyred themselves for their country. Zhang Yaoxing was once a Ming official and had served as a chief of the imperial guards. Zhang saw that Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng were usurping power and disrupting imperial law and he did not want to be associated with these evil men. When they dispatched imperial guards to arrest members of the Donglin Party and the Restoration Society in the name of the Emperor, Zhang Yaoxing dared not defy the imperial edict. On the other hand he did not want to be an accomplice of those treacherous court officials. He therefore requested to retire from political life on account of his age and was leading a seclusive life as a priest at the Baiyun Taoist Monastery.
Early in the morning of July the fifteenth, Taoists from the monasteries and nunneries on Qixia Mountain, the locals and refugees gathered at the Baiyun Taoist Monastery to hold the grand memorial ceremony. Over a thousand people gathered. Two of Zhang Yaoxing’s disciples set up altars with incense for the worshippers to place their sacrificial offerings and laid flowers and fruits at the front.
As luck would have it, both Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun came to Baiyun Taoist Monastery on that day, and were standing close to each other. However, it was so crowded at the ceremony and they were so absorbed in their prayers that they did not notice each other. When the ceremony was over, Miss Li Xiangjun took out a sacrificial banner, which she had hurriedly embroidered, and pushed her way to the front of the altar to give her offering. Hou and Liu were also pushing their way forwards to listen to Zhang Yaoxing preaching Taoism. Zhang Yaoxing said, “The righteous and loyal will be rewarded for their good deeds, respected with reverence and made gods in the Heaven. The evil will receive retributions and after death they will be scolded and spat on by the people and their souls will be cursed in hell. Do you know that the treacherous court official Ma Shiying fled to Taizhou but was killed by lightening? Ruan Dacheng, who surrendered himself to the Manchus fell to his death at the Xianxia Pass. W hat goes around comes around!”
The people applauded and called out, “God is wise!”
Zhang Yaoxing continued, “Though the fatuous Emperor and traitors Liu Li Cangzuo, Liu Zeqing and Tian Xiong succeeded in escaping for the moment, sooner or later they will be punished by Heaven!”
While Zhang Yaoxing spoke with passion, Hou glanced round casually and saw a familiar figure in the crowd. It was a young woman who looked very much like Li Xiangjun. He hurriedly forced his way toward the woman to have a closer look and found that it was indeed Li Xiangjun, the woman he yearned for every day and night. Hou hurriedly went up to her, grabbed her arm and asked eagerly, “Xiangjun! How did you come here?”
