In the past, Hu Weisheng was a lumberer axing trees to collect wood. He met a forest spirit and her daughter Yue Tixia. The forest spirit demands Hu to stop cutting down trees and starts chasing. Hu quickly grabs Yue to help her escape. The forest spirit summons beasts to chase them, and Yue summons a bean stalk that springs them into a nearby lake. Hu nearly drowns but is saved by Yue and her donkey acquaintance Azhu (阿柱). Hu realizes that he has been revived via artificial respiration and thinks that it was Yue's sweet tender lips that saved him (but really it was the donkey Azhu).
Hu excitedly runs home, embarrassed, saying that he is still too poor to marry. But at home he sees a shadow play (皮影戏) of a princess who accidentally trips and kisses a man. The man says that true men need to take responsibility and then marries the princess. Hu realizes that he himself needs to take responsibility too. So he heads out to the forest with a goose and some eggs, searching for Yue.
After 3 days 3 nights of fruitless search, he collapses and is taken by another forest lady to Yue's home. Azhu forcibly takes Hu to see Yue, and Hu yells that Azhu will never be able to take his heart. Yue mistakenly hears this and thinks this is directed towards her and is about to cry, thinking Hu was looking for another girl. Hu tries to explain, but the donkey kicks him into the wall. Yue says she has heard Hu calling her 'double-hemp braid girl' (双麻花辫姑娘) for 3 nights. Hu then asks why she did not respond. Yue says it was because Hu was wandering in the wrong forest. It was actually Yue's colleague who brought Hu to her. Hu, embarrassed, leaves the scene.
But Hu left behind his eggs. Azhu then cooks it, and some words appear. Turns out if you mix the juice of some forest turnips with duck tears, you can write characters on eggs that only appear when you boil them. Yue then chases after Hu and asks him to repeat the words he wrote on the eggs:
'Will you, on the premise of marriage, go on a date with me?'