This is what I found and ya... It does sound some what familiar....
The story began from the good-looking poor orphaned boy living with his elder brother and sister-in-law. After his parents past away, his brother inherited the house and the land. The boy only owned an old ox and he needed to work on the farm's field with the ox everyday. His life was just like in a Cinderella story.
The 7th daughter of Emperor is good at handcrafting, especially cloth weaving, therefore she was called the Weaving Maid. The Emperor uses her skills to weave clouds and rainbows to beautify the world.
The ox the boy owns was actually an immortal from Heaven. He made mistakes in Heaven and was punished to be an ox in the Earth. One day, the ox suddenly said to the boy, "You are a nice person. If you want to get married, go to the brook and your wish will come true." The boy went to the brook as told and saw 7 pretty ladies. They happen to be the 7 daughters of the Emperor who came down from Heaven to bath in there. Fascinated by the youngest and also the most beautiful one, the boy secretly took away her fairy clothes.
The other six fairies flew back to Heaven after their bath but the youngest couldn't fly back without her fairy clothes. Then the boy appeared and told her that he would not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. After a little hesitation and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, she agreed to the request from this handsome man. So they married and had two children two years later.
One day, the old ox was dying and told the cowherd that he should keep his hide for emergency purpose.
The Emperor found the sky not as beautiful as before without the 7th daughter's weaving clouds and rainbows and wanted his daughter back. So he set out his mother, the princesses' grandmother to find his missing daughter and to bring her back.
After being caught, and while the 7th princess was flying to Heaven, the boy wore the ox hide, took his children in two bamboo baskets with his wife's old fairy clothes and chased after his wife in the sky. The grandmother made a milky way in the sky with her hairpin, which kept them separated. The 7th princess was moved to the star Vega (The swooping - Eagle) in the Lyra (Harp) constellation. And the cowherd with his two children stayed in the star Altair (Flying one) in the Aquila (Eagle) constellation. The star of Vega is also known as the Weaving Maid Star and the star of Altair is as the Cowherd Star in China.
The magpies were moved by their true love and many of them gathered and formed a bridge for the couple to meet in the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which is the only day the Emperor allowed them to meet once a year.They said that it's hard to find a magpie on Chinese Valentine's Day in China, because all magpies fly to make the bridge for the Weaving Maid and Cowherd. The one thing to prove that is the feathers on the head of the magpies are much lesser after the Chinese Valentine's Day. If the night Chinese Valentine's Day rains, the rain are the tears of the lovers.
Adapted from http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/77a.htm
After reading this, it kinda jolted my memory a little... If I'm not mistaken, some people call today 'ngau chart' = 'ngau' means ox in Cantonese; and 'chart' means 7.
Whether it's a true story or belief, I still want to wish everyone out there "Happy Chinese Valentine's Day!!" And it does make a good bed time story... :)
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