Lai Zhou scholar Qin brewed his own medicinal wine. Through a moment of carelessness, he mistakenly included toxic herbs in the batch. Unwilling to discard his effort, he sealed the potent liquid away.

Over a year later, Scholar Qin was gripped by a terrible craving for drink. He searched everywhere, finding nothing. Suddenly, he recalled the bottle of medicated wine at home. He rushed to retrieve it, broke the mud seal, and upon inhaling the fragrance, his mouth watered uncontrollably. As he prepared to pour a cup, his wife pleaded with him to stop. Qin merely laughed, "To die from drinking exquisite wine is surely better than starving to death from thirst."

After draining the first cup of medicinal wine, his desire unquenched, he reached for another. In a fit of anger, his wife snatched the jar and smashed it against the floor, spilling the contents everywhere. Unconcerned by the mess, the scholar dropped to his knees and began licking the spilled wine drop by drop from the dirt. Not long after, a sharp agony seized his abdomen, and he died before midnight.

His wife wept uncontrollably as she prepared a coffin and set a date for the burial. That evening, a beautiful woman, no taller than three feet, appeared. She carried a small porcelain vial, approached the bier, and poured the liquid within down the scholar's throat. Swiftly, Qin awoke, resurrected from the dead. When the couple asked the beauty her origin, she replied, "I am a Fox Immortal. Your husband went to the Chen residence to steal wine earlier, drank too much, and died. I revived him with this medicine. I happened to pass your door on my return. Seeing that Master Qin shared the same affliction—a true wine fanatic—my lord commanded me to save him." With those words, she vanished.

My friend, Qiu Xingsu, a Gongshi scholar, was utterly devoted to wine. One night, consumed by the need to drink, and with no place to buy spirits in the dead of night, he could bear it no longer. He turned to his wife, "Do we have any vinegar? Bring me a jar. If I cannot have wine, I must settle for vinegar." His wife laughed, "Are you mad? Who would drink vinegar?"

Qiu Xingsu would not be deterred, snapping, "You nagging woman! I asked for a jar of vinegar, why the endless chatter?" His wife, resigned, reluctantly heated a pot of aged vinegar, which Qiu Xingsu promptly finished. He then stretched, let out a satisfied burp, and went to bed.

The next day, his wife handed over money and ordered a servant to buy wine from the shop. On the way, the servant encountered Qiu Xingsu's cousin, Qiu Xiangchen, who asked what the errand was for. The servant explained everything. Qiu Xiangchen laughed, "Madam is too stingy! Since Elder Brother loves wine, she should simply buy it for him! Making him drink vinegar—what kind of logic is that?" The servant replied, "The mistress said: 'We have very little vinegar stored, and his lordship drank half of it last night. If he drinks another pot, we will have nothing left for cooking.'"

The neighbors heard the tale and roared with laughter. They failed to grasp that when a true obsession strikes, some men would drink poison, let alone simple vinegar.