Liang and Zhu (folk tale)

In ancient China, girls and women were not allowed to go to school because girls were required to stay at home and they were forbidden to meet strange men before marriage. But there was a girl named Zhu who found that she was really interested in reading books and learning knowledge. She was brave, so she got away from her home, dressed up like a boy and attended a school. In the school, she met a lot of classmates who were all boys absolutely and thought that Zhu was also a boy. Specially, Zhu became very good friends with a boy named Liang. They discussed questions in the class, had endless talks and had fun during school tour. Then Zhu found that she fell in love with Liang. But Liang just regarded Zhu as his best friend. Therefore, Zhu attempted to tell the truth to Liang. But it was heard by another classmate, Ma, unintentionally. Liang was shocked and quickly found that if Zhu was a girl, she actually was the very lover for him. So they were very happy because they loved each other. Happy ending? No! It does not end. Just then, Zhu received a letter from her family that she was found by them and urged to come back to home as soon as possible. Zhu had to leave and before leaving, she left a letter to Liang, saying” Two and eight, three and seven, four and six”, which means that Liang should come to her home and make a proposal after ten days. The reason why Zhu did not state this straightforwardly is that it was an age that girls were even not allowed to meet strange men. However, Liang thought that he should do this after thirty days. After Zhu came back to home, she was waiting for Liang’s proposal every day. Nevertheless, Liang did not appear, but their classmate, Ma, came to her home and proposed to her. Actually, when Ma heard that Zhu was a girl, he also fell in love with her. Zhu’s family thought that Ma was much richer than Liang and looked pretty. So they forced Zhu to marry him. Zhu resisted marrying Ma because what she loves was Liang. But finally, without having got any information from Liang, Zhu agreed. When Liang heard that Zhu was about to marry Ma, he was extremely regretful and became sick gradually. Eventually, Liang died of disease. When Zhu knew that it was actually a misunderstanding, her heart was also dead. She requested to pass Liang’s grave on the day when she was on her way to marry Ma. All of a sudden, the grave was cracked. Zhu jumped into the grave and immediately the grave closed. When the environment became peaceful again, there were two beautiful butterflies coming out from the grave. People think that they are actually Liang and Zhu and they can finally stay together forever without any restraint. (Mengxi, China, 2015)