Li Chuntan was in charge of sending foodstuffs down the river to Dachangkou in Huaining, Anhui. One of his subordinates, Gong Kai, came to him and said, "I sure had a strange dream last night exhibition Hong Kong."

"What did you dream about?"

"I saw this old guy with white hair and a long white beard. He was crying when he came up to me and said, 'Help! You have to save my life! If you do, I'll be sure to reward you some day!'"

"That sure was a strange dream."

Their conversation was interrupted by shouting. All the soldiers in the escort were yelling excitedly and pointing to something in the water .

"Look, sir, "said Gong, "It's a seal! Have you ever seen a seal this far up the river?"

The soldiers captured the seal and dragged it right up next to the boat. Li and Gong went over to have a look at it. When the seal saw Gong, it gave him along, deep look. His heartbeat quickened. He remembered his dream.

"Sir, I'd like to buy this seal and let it go free. I think it has something to do with that dream I just told you about."

"Okay, if you please. It's your money." Gong got out his  the soldiers a reward for pulling the seal up to the boat.

They were all happy. All but one mean soldier called Chen 4 who insisted that he wanted to eat seal for dinner. He refused to take Gong's money. Instead, he snatched up his spear and stabbed the seal in the head. The seal's blood stained the water red .

"Don't you guys know how good seal meat tastes?" Chen asked the other soldiers. "What do you want with that measly little tip? Let's have some seal tonight!" Most of the soldiers felt sorry for that poor seal, but some of them didn't care. They helped Chen pull the dead seal aboard, and they ate it with him.