Fated Immortal: Lady Jin San

During the Qing dynasty, Zhou Yuqian, a scholar from Dantu who worshipped the Immortal Lü, saw a message written in vermilion beneath his inkstone before an exam: "Your fame depends solely on the Third Lady; do not wait for the vermilion-robed official to nod." Mistaking it for a reference to his wife, he asked her, and she answered, "Upper-middle." He failed the exam and lost his wife. Later, he realized that the "Third Lady" might refer to himself as the third son, though he was actually twelfth in line. While visiting relatives, he dreamed that the character "three" turned into gold. Then he heard a fisherman speak of "Golden Third Lady," which led him to a grand mansion. An old woman welcomed him inside. There, he saw a couplet written by the Immortal Lü and met the exiled immortal, Golden Third Lady. She said their marriage was ordained by fate, gave him a hundred taels of gold, and sent two servants, who were in truth water nymphs, to help him travel north.

On the way, he rescued a young nobleman and received a recommendation to a powerful family. His servants arranged for Wang Xiaolian to help Zhou cheat his way into passing the imperial examination and becoming a jinshi. Third Lady took on the identity of a noblewoman to marry him, saying, "I will lend you my sail and help you ascend the road to the clouds." The servants had been sent by the Immortal Lü; once their task was done, they took their leave.