A long long time ago, there was a scholar named Ye Zigao. Every day, he dream about becoming the top scholar in the imperial examination and rising to fame and fortune. However, he was very lazy and unwilling to study hard . He was not only late for school, he also slept in class. In the end, he never even graduated. 《得过且过》

One day, he fell asleep under a tree and dreamed that he had become the top scholar. As he does not know how to do anything, people accused him of being a fraud and were about to behead him. Just as the blade was about to fall, he woke up only to realise that it was all a dream. 《南柯一梦》

Ye Zigao then made up his mind to study diligently. On his way home, he found a bundle of silver. Ye Zigao decided to return it to its owner, but since it was already late, he chose to hide it first and look for the owner the following day. However, he couldn’t find a safe enough place to hide it. Finally, he came up with a “brilliant” idea, he buried the silver in his own yard. Still worried, he placed a sign over the spot that read:

“No three hundred taels of silver are buried here.” 《此地无银三百两》

In a while later, Ye Zigao’s father fell ill from anger over his son’s laziness. A neighbor recommended a good doctor named Mr Wang, and told Ye Zigao to invite him to treat his father.

However, Ye Zigao mistakenly brought back two other doctors one surnamed Wang (a different Chinese character ) and one surnamed Huang who turned out to be veterinarians. 《悔之晚矣》