In his eagerness to know who had enchanted him, he told his men to go
and question the boatmen. But he learned no more than that the junk
had been hired by Li Chia. He obtained no information concerning the
singer. He reflected:

"Such a perfect voice could not belong to a woman of good family. How
can I manage to see this bird?"

He could not sleep that night. In the morning, at about the fifth
watch, he heard the wind roaring on the water. The light of day was
strangely veiled by cloud, and flakes of snow were whirling madly. It
has been said;

The clouds are swallowing
Countless thousands of trees upon the hill.
Footprints disappear on many footpaths.
The fisher in the bamboo hat
On the frail boat
Catches only snow and the frozen river.

This snowstorm rendered it impossible to cross the river, and the
boats could not be set in motion. Sun, therefore, told his rowers to
leave his moorings and to make fast alongside Li Chia's junk. Then, in
a sable bonnet and wrapped in his fox-skin robe, he opened his cabin
window, pretending to look at the white snow as it fell. Shih-niang
had just arranged her hair, and, with her tapering fingers, was
pushing back the short curtains to throw out the dregs of tea in the
bottom of her cup. The freshened splendor of her rouge shone softly.

Sun saw that celestial beauty, that incantation; he scented that