One day, the matchmaker at the village head came to Liu Ergou to propose marriage, but Ergou was so happy, but the girl's family asked to take out fifty lotons of food as a dowry, so she was willing to marry her daughter.
This made Liu Ergou very anxious. Only his little field was collected, and the dealer could barely eat it himself, so wherever he could get fifty thrones of food.
After thinking about it, Liu Ergou finally got an idea. There are many lands on the deserted beach in the south of the village. Because it is too barren, no one is willing to plant it. While he is young and strong, he will cultivate more wasteland and work harder. In the future, he will not have to worry about not having food or marrying a wife.
does it as soon as possible. The next day, Liu Ergou took farm tools to start the work of reclaiming wasteland, and he worked for several months.
On this day, Liu Ergou was waving his hoe and doing it vigorously. With a "clang" sound, it seemed like he had shoveled something. Liu Ergou bent down and took a look with his hand. It turned out to be a tombstone. He looked at the small mound next to him and found that it was a grave.
Due to years of disrepair, the tombstone has fallen into the weeds and the tombs are almost flat.
Out of instinctive kindness, Liu Ergou did not think much about it, but repaired the tomb, eradicated the weeds around him, and erected the tombstone again. Before leaving, he bowed to it.
After working for a day, Liu Ergou was exhausted. After returning home, he fell asleep early...
In his dream, a woman in white slowly came to him and said to Liu Ergou: "Don't be afraid, benefactor, I'm here to say goodbye to you. Today you repaired the grave for me, so that King of Yama discovered me. I will be reincarnated tomorrow. In order to express your kindness, I will give you a treasure gourd. You can get food from the gourd every three days. Remember it is three days, not in advance."
After saying that, the woman in white floated away.
Liu Ergou woke up and found that there was indeed a gourd on the table. The gourd was not big, and it was black all over, which was very ugly. Liu Ergou disagreed and stuffed the gourd under the bed and continued to fall asleep.
In a flash, the autumn harvest season has arrived. On this day, Liu Ergou was busy drying the food. The matchmaker came to him again and urged him to prepare fifty loads of grain. Liu Ergou said with a frustration: "Look, I have worked hard for a year and have only harvested such little food. I can barely eat enough for myself. Can I slow down? The wasteland I have cultivated will be harvested next year."
The matchmaker nagged, said some irrelevant words, and turned around and left.
On the night, Liu Ergou tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep, and his mind was full of fifty loads of food. Suddenly, he remembered the gourd and hurriedly got up under the bed to search. Sure enough, the gourd was still lying there quietly, but it was covered with dust.
Liu Ergou wiped the gourd, opened the lid half-believingly, and found that it was full of golden food. This made Liu Ergou very happy and hugged the gourd tightly in his arms, as if he was holding the wife who had not passed the door. He poured the grain into the jar, re-covered the gourd, placed it straight on the table, and went to sleep happily.
According to the instructions of the woman in white, Liu Ergou got the food as scheduled.
It was like this. Not long after, Liu Ergou collected fifty dans of food and married his wife into the house.
On this day, Liu Ergou discovered that every time he took the food, the gourd would grow a little bit. Now, the food he took the gourd once was enough for a month to eat at home.
Liu Ergou thought to himself, with this treasure gourd, the family can’t eat up the food, so what else can you plant? It’s so hard and so tiring.
Since then, Liu Ergou no longer went to the fields to work, and took all the food that he couldn't eat at home to the market to sell. After he got rich, Liu Ergou's life changed drastically. He first bought a suit for himself, dressed like a young man, and swaggered on the street all day long, which was so majestic.
Several gangsters on the street saw that Liu Ergou had become a nouveau riche, so they encouraged him to treat him to the restaurant. Liu Ergou was not stingy and invited them to eat and drink every day, and soon got along with the group of people.These gangsters took Liu Ergou to the brothel to have fun and went to the casino to play money. Liu Ergou also enjoyed it and truly lived the life of a rich man.
On this day, Liu Ergou lost all his money in the casino. He was furious and returned home and poured grain out of the treasure gourd again. He had forgotten that he had just taken the grain yesterday. It was not yet the three-day deadline, but Liu Ergou could no longer care about so much.
After taking out the food, Liu Ergou threw the gourd to the side and was about to go out when the treasure gourd spoke: Don’t bet, don’t bet, gambling is more harmful than tigers. Sometimes tigers are not hurt randomly, and gambling is all lost.
After saying that, the treasure gourd disappeared. Liu Ergou threw down the grain and shouted, "Treasure gourd, treasure gourd, don't leave, I will never be blocked again." Then, he climbed to the ground, searched the house all over, and never found the treasure gourd again.
It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, and it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Without the treasure gourd, there will be no continuous source of food. Liu Ergou has become accustomed to the life of falling pies from the sky and being lazy and greedy. How can he pick up a hoe to work?
From that day on, Liu Ergou seemed to have become a different person, walking on the street with barefoot and disheveled hair, sometimes dancing and running wildly, sometimes with dumb eyes and dazed, muttering: Where did my gourd go, where did my gourd go...
Liu Ergou was crazy, everyone saw him hiding far away, the friend who had eaten, drink and have fun together has long disappeared, and his wife who had just passed the door also left him.
Later, some people saw Liu Ergou often ran to the field covered with weeds, throwing the soil with his hands without listening, and some people said that Liu Ergou was possessed by evil spirits...
As the saying goes: gambling is a disaster, your wife is separated, your family is broken, gambling wins money, you are lazy and hate work and endure hardships.
