An alchemist (方士) was in the marketplace peddling his wares, when the Master walked through with his wife. He turned to the Master’s wife and told her about his many tinctures that could make her eternally beautiful and even immortal (僊) if she would but buy them, and she could even make more money selling them herself. But she rebuffed him.
The Master said, “I have provided my wife with wisdom, so your poisonous words have no more power than your poisonous fluids. She knows that physical beauty is fleeting and a folly to chase, while joining a multi-level marketing scheme means poverty forever.”