Wanglanghui

Wanglanghui

About twenty li from Heyuan City, roughly two li to the left of the Bailingtou Highway, there stands a conical rocky hill that juts out abruptly. The sheer cliffs rise over a hundred meters high, and a winding path leads to the summit, where a pair of footprints face the Dong River. This rocky hill has a widely told story: a woman, yearning desperately for her husband, day after day, year after year, climbed to the top of this hill to look for her husband’s return. Over time, she left behind a pair of footprints, and people named the hill “Wanglanghui” (Husband-Watching Hill).

Legend has it: at the foot of Wanglanghui lies a village called Mishi Fortress, where lived a man named Li Baixing. He married a woman surnamed Chen and had only one daughter, named Jinfeng. The family of three lived a modest but content life — the man tilled the fields while the woman wove at home. As time passed, Jinfeng grew into her teenage years. With rosebud lips, willow-leaf eyebrows, a graceful figure, and dignified manners, she was the very image of a fair maiden, cherished by her parents as the apple of their eye.

One day, Jinfeng and her mother came to the Heyuan City market. At noon, a sudden downpour struck. When the rain cleared and they started for home, the sun was already sinking toward the western hills. Jinfeng and her mother hurried to the ferry crossing. By then, the dock was crowded with passengers all scrambling to board the boat. The boat was small and the crowd was large. When the boat reached midstream and hit some rapids, it lurched violently, causing the passengers to cry out in alarm. In her panic, Jinfeng lost her footing and fell into the river, where the current swept her away. Her mother shrieked for help, her face pale with terror. The others, too, turned ashen with fear — when suddenly, a figure leapt from the boat into the water and swam swiftly toward Jinfeng, who was bobbing up and down in the current. The man grasped Jinfeng with one hand while using the other to paddle toward Longjin Ferry. When the ferry docked and the crowd rushed to Jinfeng, they found she had regained consciousness. Everyone held the brave young man in high esteem. Jinfeng’s mother bowed repeatedly to thank him, making the young man blush with embarrassment. Upon learning his name was Wu Lide and that he was from Bailingtou, they discovered his village was separated from Mishi Fortress by just a small stream. From then on, the Wu and Li families visited each other often, and the bond between Jinfeng and Lide grew deeper day by day. Their affection was unmistakable. Both families then engaged matchmakers to “formalize their union,” awaiting a date for their wedding.

But alas, the happy plan was thwarted. In the village of Lingtou, there lived a wealthy and arrogant family — the Ding clan. The father, Ding Guiren, and his son, Ding Yiyu, were notorious for bullying the villagers and doing all manner of evil. They kept a group of servants who acted as their thugs. The villagers hated them but dared not speak out. One day, the father and son led their servants, stewards, and clerk into the hills for a hunt. There, they spotted Jinfeng washing clothes by the stream. The sight stirred lewd thoughts in their hearts, and they lingered without leaving. The clerk and the stewards, seeing their master staring blankly at the maiden by the stream, quickly understood his intentions and gestured for the servants to inquire further. Seeing their ill intent, Jinfeng hastily gathered her laundry and went home. But how could the evil Ding father and son let it go? Soon after returning home, they instructed their clerk to spread the word far and wide — they were determined to take Jinfeng as a concubine by force.

When the news reached Jinfeng’s family, both she and her mother were thrown into a panic. Eventually, Jinfeng’s mother came up with a plan — she quickly sent a matchmaker to notify Wu Lide’s family, urging them to arrange the marriage of the young couple immediately to put an end to the Ding family’s wicked scheme. But even after learning that Wu and Li had already married and that the rice was already cooked, the Dings refused to give up. They secretly hatched a vicious plot — bribing the local headman and village elders to conscript Wu Lide into military service thousands of miles away. When the Wu and Li families received the tragic news, they were heartbroken. For the newlyweds, the misery was indescribable. The Ding father and son, however, were secretly pleased that their scheme had worked. After Wu Lide was taken away, they repeatedly sent people to persuade Jinfeng to give in — but she shut her door to all of them, driving each one away with curses. Seeing Jinfeng’s unyielding resolve, the Dings were at a loss — like a mouse trying to bite a turtle with no way in — and eventually gave up.

Jinfeng kept to her cold and lonely room, day and night longing for her husband’s return. For over ten years, she climbed to the top of the huge rock, gazing toward the (Dong River) for the sight of returning sails, weeping as she watched over Wanglanghui. Winter gave way to spring, geese flew back and forth, but still there was no word from her husband. Truly, “a thousand sails have passed, yet none was his; / how often I mistook a lonely sail for his on the horizon.” When will the waiting end? When, oh when, will it end? A pair of footprints sank ever deeper…