A long, long time ago, there was a small village in the countryside. It was just an ordinary village where people lived happily and peacefully. There was a small spring in the village, and the village people used to take water from it.

One day, as usual, a group of people went to the spring to draw some water. Everything looked just the same as before, except one thing. A beautiful woman was standing by the spring. When she saw the villagers, she filled a gourd with water from the spring and poured it over the water jars the people brought with them. As if waiting for this to happen, she repeated the job until each jar was filled with water. People were stunned, but the mysterious woman just smiled at them. From that day on, the lady helped people draw water from the spring. As this ritual continued, the rumor of a beautiful woman near the spring quickly spread throughout the village. Everyone wanted to come to the spring to see the kind and charming lady. The villagers would draw water very frequently even though they had enough water at home.

The rumor finally reached the ears of the village magistrate. He wanted to see the buzzed-about woman himself and ordered his servants to bring her to him. As soon as he saw the woman, the magistrate was captivated by her dazzling beauty. Feeling curious, he asked her who she was and why she was drawing water for village people. She answered, “Sir, I am, in fact, a fairy from heaven. I did something wrong up there, and the king of heaven ordered me to do something good in this human world for two years. So, I have to perform my duty before returning to heaven.” The magistrate was completely infatuated with the beautiful creature from heaven. He suggested that she stop the laborious work right away and marry him instead so she could live a comfortable life. Of course, the fairy politely rejected the proposal and returned to the spring to continue her task.

Sometime later, a handsome young man passed by the spring. As usual, the fairy-turned-water-drawing girl gave him water to drink. The young man was impressed and gave her a bowl made of jade in return. The two were immediately attracted to each other. It turned out that the man was the prince of the country. Of course, the fairy never really knew who she was talking to. He promised her to come back to see her again. After he left, the fairy found herself missing the man, although she knew that she should return to heaven after fulfilling her job.

Meanwhile, the village magistrate had been tenaciously persuading the fairy to live with him, only to be refused each time. He happened to hear that she had met a young man passing by and that the two seemed to love each other. The magistrate was burning with jealousy. He believed that she was rejecting him all because of the stranger. He was so angry that he threw her into prison. He thought if he couldn’t possess her, no one else should have her, either. Now in prison, the fairy became weaker and weaker until she finally died. What she held in her hand until the last moment was a jade bowl that the prince had given her.

Before long, the prince returned to the village. He traveled all the way to be reunited with the woman he had missed so much, but what had been waiting for him was the tragic news about her death. It was too late. Crying bitterly, he took her body to the spring where she used to draw water and buried her nearby. After a while, a strange flower, shaped like a wide jade bowl, was found at her grave. People believed that it was the ill-fated fairy’s spirit and called it a lotus flower.