A girl named Su, in Chenzhou, Hunan, was washing clothes one day by squatting on a huge rock in the river. Some lovely green water plants drifted over and circled the rock three times, arousing Su’s curiosity. After that she found herself pregnant.
When her mother asked her about her pregnancy, she told her the incident at the river which simply mystified her mother. Several months later, Su gave birth to a baby boy. She could not bring herself to give the baby away, so she kept him in a chest at home. To show her chastity and devotion to the boy, she decided never to marry. To give birth to a baby before marriage, nevertheless, was a most disgraceful thing. She had to hide the fact that she had a baby. The boy was seven years old and still had never met a stranger.
One day, the boy said to his mother: “I’m growing up, why do you always keep me shut up at home? I must leave here in order not to bring you any trouble!” When asked where he was going, he told his mother: “I’m not a human being, so I’ll fly into the mountain valley.” Her mother cried sorrowfully and asked him when he would come back. He said: “I won’t return while you are alive, but if you need anything, just open my chest and you will not be disappointed.” So saying, he bowed and left.
His mother ran after him out of the house but could see nothing. She told her mother what had happened, and the old lady was greatly surprised.
Su kept to her decision to not marry anyone and continued to live
with her mother. The family grew poorer and poorer.
Once there was not a single grain left in the house. Trying to find a solution to their problem, Su suddenly remembered what her son had said before he left. So she opened the chest and found there was rice. Ever after that, whenever she needed something, she could always find it in the chest.
Three years later, Su’s mother died and all the things needed for her funeral were found in the chest.
Su lived all by herself for thirty more years after her mother’s death. One day, a woman from a neighboring family came to Su’s house and found her sitting all alone in her room. They talked for a long while, then the neighbor left. Soon after, she noticed a colorful cloud hovering over the roof of Su’s house and on the cloud stood a woman clad in expensive clothes. She looked closely and saw the woman on the cloud was Su. The cloud carrying Su circled over the house and then took off into the sky where it disappeared.
Neighbors rushed to Su’s house where they found her in sitting position in the center of the house, dead. People began to discuss how to bury her, since she had no family members to take care of the matter. Just then, a young man, handsome and well-built, came in, greeted and expressed gratitude to everybody. The neighbors had vaguely heard that Su had a son, and the young man’s arrival, therefore, was not a great surprise. The young man arranged for his mother’s burial and planted two peach trees by her grave before he left. He had taken only a few steps when clouds surged under his feet and soon he was out of sight.
Later the peach trees bore huge and fragrant peaches which the local people called “Fairy Su’s Peaches.” Every year, the trees blossomed and bore a great deal of fruit, never withering.
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