In ancient times, there was a beautiful village in the coastal area, and there was a pool called Linglongtan at the entrance of the village. The pool is narrow and long, and is said to be connected to the sea, so it is deep and unstoppable. One year, people near Linglongtan saw a group of black shadows rushing out of the black pool late at night, dragging the chickens and ducks of the nearby people into the black pool to eat them, which made the people very panic!
Since then, a lot of livestock have been lost in the village, most of which are chickens, ducks and other poultry. The people were very scared. Some people speculated that it was the gods in the pond water warning the people that if they did not offer sacrifices, they might harm the villagers. The village chief hired many capable people and strangers and spent a lot of money, but failed to catch these monsters! The village chief convened the people to hold a meeting at the village entrance to discuss countermeasures.
An old man said, "Our ancestors have lived here for hundreds of years. Linglong means the homonym of the spiritual dragon, which means there is a divine dragon in this place. We are protected by the divine dragon. It is better to be in awe, give it some wine and meat, and bow to it devoutly. There is nothing wrong with relying on it in everything. We cannot oppose the gods, which will cause death!"
After hearing this, the people felt it made sense and nodded repeatedly. At this time, a ragged man was 15 or 16 years old and shouted loudly, "Please give it? Kneel down to it without knowing anything? I am really sick. It is better to kneel down to me than to kneel down! You are all cowards. If you don't dare to get rid of it, just let me do it! Just give me a few stagnant of copper coins." This ragged young man was named Guo Xiaowu. He has no father or mother since he was a child, and he is straightforward and makes money by working hard every day.
The village chief cursed, "Just you? Your body is not enough for him to have a full meal. It's really a ignorant person who is fearless!"
This sentence made everyone laugh. Guo Xiaowu curled his lips indifferently and said, "Do you dare to make a document? If I can beat the monster to death, what if you marry your daughter to me?"
The village chief's daughter is named Lian'er. Although she is not beautiful, she will not look down on Guo Xiaowu, a poor man who is barely in the family. When Guo Xiaowu said this, she said angrily: "I'm so shameless. The toad wants to eat swan meat!"
Guo Xiaowu curled his lips and said: "Don't look down on me, maybe I can't stand it then." After saying that, he left!
The village chief cleared his throat and continued, "Let's not pay attention to him. Every household donates some copper coins. Let's buy some chicken, duck, fish and meat and throw them in the water to sacrifice the dragon, so that it can bless us with happiness and health, and have good weather!"
The people nodded in agreement, took out the copper coins and handed them to the village chief, hoping that they could get peace. The village chief often brought a group of people to bow piously by the pond, and muttered, "Bless our ancestors, bless our gods, bless us with good weather, happiness and health!" After that, he threw the chickens and ducks next to the pool, but he didn't know that when they left, Guo Xiaowu secretly picked up some and took them home, roasted them with fire, and had a good time eating.
Not long after, Guo Xiaowu's behavior was discovered, and people were angry and wanted to throw him into the pond to sacrifice the gods. The village chief also rebuked, "Why do you ignorant and arrogant people steal the sacrifice? Are you not afraid of the gods punishing you?"
Guo Xiaowu said, "Since you have given it to the monsters, it is no longer your things. I snatched it from the monsters. If it punishes and revenges, it will come to me!"
"Come for you? You have implicated everyone, and the gods come out from time to time to hurt the animals, it is your fault for stealing the sacrifices. You don't know that the gods in the pond are the incarnation of our ancestors, and you are very disrespectful to them!" The village chief angrily wanted to tie Guo Xiaowu up.
At this time, everyone started to cheer and said, "It's really a rat shit. Guo Xiaowu is a heinous person. You have to hang him up and beat him up!"
Guo Xiaowu said angrily: "That monster is your ancestor? You can think of it! Well, it is your ancestor, not my ancestor! You all bully the weak and the strong and come to cause trouble for me. No one is considered a man!"
The few people were very angry when they saw Guo Xiaowu's appearance, and surrounded Guo Xiaowu and beat him up, and then hung him on the tree at the entrance of the village.Guo Xiaowu was furious when he asked him to admit his mistake to the gods and insisted that he had made no mistake. Everyone was helpless and ridiculed him for a while before leaving.
At this time, an old man came to Guo Xiaowu and said, "Young man, do you really have a way to eliminate monsters?"
Guo Xiaowu nodded and said, "I am not afraid of people being stupid, but I am afraid of people being stupid and stubborn, and I stubbornly think that they are right. What about reality? They just go with the flow, and they can't think of anything but insist on denying other people's ideas!" Guo Xiaowu became more and more angry as he spoke.
The old man said, "You have nothing and have no power to tie a chicken. It is difficult for people to believe that you are not a liar."
Guo Xiaowu snorted coldly, "I have nothing, but I will find a way. This alone is much better than them!"
The old man nodded and asked him, "Can you tell me what kind of solution?"
Guo Xiaowu answered without raising his head. He said, "Ten ducks and ten geese can do things. If you don't believe me, you will only laugh at me for being whimsical!"
The old man took out a string of copper coins and handed them to him and said, "You go and try it, be careful, don't take risks!" Guo Xiaowu was extremely excited and said to the old man that if he made money except for the monsters, he would share the money with him. The old man waved his hand and turned around and left.
In the next few days, Guo Xiaowu bought a group of ducks and geese, tied fish hooks under each duck and geese's wings. Each hook was stringed with thin lines. Ten fish hooks were hidden in the feathers, and dozens of sets were tied to each duck and geese. After tied up, he drove the ducks and geese into Linglong Pond.
A few days later, all the ducks and geese in Linglong Pond were dragged into the water and disappeared. At the same time, the pond water often stirred up huge waves. The nearby villagers shouted, "No, the gods are going to punish them, so don't come out!"
Guo Xiaowu said confidently, "If there are less than three days, the monster will definitely float out. Now it raises huge waves because there are a string of iron hooks in its belly, which cannot be spit out or discharged. It is struggling painfully on the water surface!"
A few days later, as Guo Xiaowu said, dozens of giant tortoises appeared on the water surface, each of which is as big as a millstone. The people in the village hid at home and refused to come out, for fear that the gods would take revenge on themselves. Little did he know that Guo Xiaowu not only hired several carriages to transport these giant tortoises to the city and sold them at a high price. These giant tortoises sold for as much as 100 taels of silver! After Guo Xiaowu returned home, he distributed the money to the old man who gave him copper coins as agreed. The old man was so surprised that he couldn't believe his eyes. At this time, many villagers were ashamed. They couldn't figure it out so much, how stupid they were! I once knelt down to a group of turtles and recognized them as their ancestors!
A month later, the villagers completely realized that Guo Xiaowu was doing the right thing. The giant turtle in the water was just a group of evil beasts. It was what people thought of it, not that it was really scary! Guo Xiaowu built several magnificent houses in his home, which made many people jealous and regretful.
The daughter of the village chief Lian'er came to Guo Xiaowu's house with affectionate feelings and said to him: "I thought you were a hero who dared to act at first sight. You have not married, I have not married..."
Guo Xiaowu smiled coldly and said, "It's too late! It's too late to say anything. I have long been interested in someone and are in love with each other. How can I be worthy of you, a swan?" Lian'er turned around and left with shame.
The village chief regrets it every day, and whenever he thinks of the sentence he said, "The gods in this pond are the incarnation of our ancestors."
Follow me, tomorrow's story will be more exciting!
This story is a purely original folk story, with an educational and entertaining style, aiming to enrich readers' amateur cultural life. All plots are compiled based on folk oral descriptions. Pure literary works, use the past to describe the present and make sense of the truth and do not match feudal superstitions! Plagiarism and infringement will be pursued!
