In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a scholar named Ning Shunzhi in Huizhou Prefecture . He came from a poor family but was extremely smart. He passed the scholar examination at the age of twenty and married a lady from a wealthy family.
After getting married, the couple loved each other very much. The wife's name was Liu Ruyan. She had a charming face and a plump body. She not only managed the house virtuously, but also knew the secrets of the house. She served Ning Shunzhi extremely attentively, making him satisfied all day long and smiling at everyone he met.
This year, when autumn was approaching, Ning Shunzhi was about to go away to take the exams. Before leaving, he told his wife many times to close the door at night and beware of bachelors, and wait for him to come back to love each other again. Mrs. Liu cried and nodded in agreement.
Not long after, Ning Shunzhi rushed to the provincial capital to take the exam, but his performance was not satisfactory and he failed.
After leaving the provincial capital, he took a shortcut to the mountain road in order to return home as soon as possible. After walking for half a day, three unkempt beggars suddenly emerged from the grass on a remote mountain road. They were holding big knives and were unkempt. The old beggar among them blocked the road with his sword and shouted to Ning Shunzhi: "Smelly scholar, if you want to go over, leave the money to buy the road, otherwise I will kill you!" "
Ning Shunzhi had never encountered such a bad thing. He shivered in fear and begged tremblingly: "Master, please do a good job. I only have half a tael of money left to pay for my trip home. If you take it away, I won't be able to go back!"
The old beggar put the knife on Ning Shunzhi's neck with a "swish" sound, bared his yellow teeth, and sprayed out foul breath towards Ning Shunzhi, shouting: "Look at your thin skin and tender flesh, you have never suffered. If you don't have money, just go back and become a beggar." !" After
said that, the three of them rushed forward and pushed Ning Shunzhi to the ground mercilessly. They took away all his luggage and stripped him of his robe, leaving only a tattered linen garment on him.
Fortunately, he was a scholar and didn't hit him, so he didn't suffer any injuries.
After being robbed that day, Ning Shunzhi had been feeling flustered and had no cloth to cover his body. He had no choice but to endure the stench, picked up the tattered smelly clothes and put them on, then walked empty-handed through two mountains and entered a county town.
At this time, his stomach was already hungry, his limbs were weak and unable to walk, and he fainted from exhaustion in a few moments on the street. Others saw that he was an outsider, so they thought he was a wandering beggar, and did not step forward to help.
At night, Ning Shunzhi woke up from hunger and had a dry mouth. He saw the lights of hundreds of houses in the city and the smell of food, but he was reduced to living on the street. Being hungry and cold, he felt bitter in his heart and started crying in the street.
Fortunately, in a white-walled mansion nearby, an old man heard the crying and came out and asked him: "You beggar man, why are you crying so miserably?"
Ning Shunzhi said: "Old man, I am a scholar and not a street beggar. Today I encountered a bandit. , robbed money and things, and ended up like this!" After listening to the interview, the old man thought for a moment and said, "You don't look like a liar because of your bookishness. Regardless of whether it is true or not, my house is short of a servant to run errands. If you agree, I will take you in." Ning Shunzhi was so hungry that he had no way to go, so he nodded and agreed.
That night, the man entertained Ning Shunzhi for dinner. He called himself Chen Weng, and his family owned a hundred acres of land. There were seven shops on the street, all of which were leased for people to use. He could live a wealthy life just by collecting land and shop rent every year.
Chen Weng has now hired ten servants to run errands for him. If Ning Shunzhi is diligent and honest, he can earn enough travel expenses in less than half a year to quit his job and return home. Ning Shunzhi fell to this point and was taken in by kind-hearted people. He had to take it one step at a time and stayed on to work as an errand boy.
The rooster crows three times a day, so Chen Weng takes a whip and goes from servant room to servant room to urge people to get up and work. If they disobey the slightest bit, he will whip and insult him. Ning Shunzhi will not dare to disobey others even though they are soft-spoken. , all follow Chen Weng's rules, get up early in the dark and work hard without complaint, work since the fifth watch, carry water and chop firewood to the fields, run errands, carry goods and pour night fragrance, do everything, eat three simple meals a day, work until dark at the second watch, and then have a rest.
After half a year of this, Ning Shunzhi had transformed from an elegant scholar into a slave with dark skin and strong limbs. When he saw Chen Weng calling him "master" on the left and "master" on the right, he hoped to pay him his wages as soon as possible and let him go home to reunite with his wife.
But every time the salary issue was brought up, Chen Weng always used various excuses to shirk it. Ning Shunzhi was under the roof, angry but not easy to express, so he could only bear it silently.
On this day, Ning Shunzhi ran errands to the market to buy some lights. Passing by a crowded street, he suddenly passed by a woman. Looking at each other, Ning Shunzhi said in surprise: "My wife, why are you here?"
It turned out that the beautiful woman in front of him looked very much like Ning Shunzhi's wife Liu Ruyan.
The two met here. Ning Shunzhi felt sad and happy. He stepped forward and wanted to recognize each other, but Liu Ruyan didn't seem to recognize Ning Shunzhi and said in shock, "I'm afraid you have recognized the wrong person!"
After saying that, he covered his face with his sleeves and turned away. Ning Shunzhi looked at the woman's leaving back and movements, including the voice of his beloved wife, so he was unwilling to give in and followed her immediately.
The woman walked quickly, occasionally looking back anxiously, and saw Ning Shunzhi following her. She was slightly panicked, then turned out of the suburbs in a few steps and entered an uninhabited and ruined temple.
Ning Shunzhi felt more and more strange and followed her closely. When he saw the woman trying to leave through the back door, he hurriedly pulled her forward and hugged her, saying, "If you are not my wife Liu Ruyan, who are you? If you and I are husband and wife, I will recognize you even if you turn into ashes!"
Liu Ruyan was silent for a while. Seeing Ning Shunzhi hugging her tightly, her face turned red and she mumbled: "You...are you telling the truth?" Ning Shunzhi also felt strange, but seeing his wife hesitant and suspicious, he told what happened to him in the past six months.
After hearing this, Mr. Liu didn't struggle or deny it, but just answered without saying a word. Seeing nightfall, Ning Shunzhi was reunited with his beloved wife. He had no time to worry about running errands. Instead, he hugged and confided in his wife, gradually becoming more and more lustful. He couldn't help but have sex with Liu Ruyan in a deserted temple, and they were passionate about the clouds and rains in Wushan Mountain.
An hour later, the two of them were covered in sweat. The wife in front of them was quite satisfied and said with a smile: "Mr., you are so kind." After saying this, she snuggled into Ning Shunzhi's arms lovingly. That night, Liu Ruyan took out some more money and checked into an inn with Ning Shunzhi. Then she asked the waiter to order some food and wine and had a happy dinner.
At the third watch, the two parties rolled over on the bed like glue, entangled until the rooster crowed at dawn, and then fell asleep contentedly.
On the second day, Ning Shunzhi learned that his wife still had thirty taels of silver with her and did not want Chen Weng's wages. They packed up, hired a carriage and drove home.
Time flies, day and night alternate, and more than half a month passes in the blink of an eye. Ning Shunzhi and Liu Ruyan, running all the way, finally return to the village. It was afternoon and the sun was shining brightly. Ning Shunzhi and his wife walked into the village with a smile, and nodded and greeted the villagers when they saw them.
Unexpectedly, when the neighbors in the village saw Liu Ruyan, they felt as if they had seen a ghost. They were so frightened that they screamed: "There is a ghost!" Then they ran away and fainted. Ning Shunzhi didn't know what was going on, so he had to go straight home with his wife.
In a blink of an eye, he arrived at the door of Ning's house and found two white lanterns hanging in front of the door. They were slightly worn and the door was closed and covered with dust and cobwebs. Ning Shunzhi was suddenly surprised and said: "Why has my family changed like this?"
At this time, the neighbor Zhang Ershu walked out with a gun. When he saw Liu Ruyan, he was so frightened that he almost lost his life and fell to the ground. It took him half a day to get up. Ning Shunzhi then asked, "Uncle Zhang, you don't know my husband and I, why are you so scared?" Uncle Zhang didn't dare to look at Liu Ruyan and hesitantly climbed back into the house.
That day, Ning Shunzhi and Liu Ruyan cleaned the dilapidated house inside and out before letting Liu Ruyan take a rest.
As night fell, Ning Shunzhi thought about it more and more and couldn't understand it more. He felt that something was fishy, so he went to his neighbor Uncle Zhang's house alone to find out what happened.
Ning Shunzhi knocked on the door three times before Uncle Zhang opened the door tremblingly and led him in.
After entering the house, Ning Shunzhi was about to speak, but Uncle Zhang was surprised and said, "Why did you bring a dead person back?" Ning Shunzhi heard it like a thunderbolt from the blue. He first told the story of how his wife recognized each other, and then listened to Uncle Zhang's secret words, and then learned the truth.
It turned out that Liu Ruyan suddenly fell ill and died half a year ago. When the villagers saw that Ning Shunzhi had not returned, they raised money together to buy her a coffin and organize her funeral.
Three days after the coffin was suspended, it suddenly rained heavily, but the villagers, under the auspices of Uncle Zhang, still carried Liu's coffin and went to the mountain cemetery for burial despite the rain. Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened. Halfway there, a flash flood suddenly broke out on the mountain and rushed towards the villagers. At this time, everyone hurriedly discarded the coffin on the spot and ran for their lives.
The flash flood was not big or small, and it happened to wash the coffin containing Liu into the river.
After the heavy rain stopped, the villagers hurriedly went to the river to salvage the coffin, only to find that the coffin had disappeared. Therefore, when Ning Shunzhi brought the dead Liu Ruyan back to the village, everyone was frightened.
It's night, and it's very quiet. When Ning Shunzhi learned the truth, he was so frightened that his hair stood on end. He hesitated and was too embarrassed to stay at the neighbor's house for a long time in the middle of the night, so he gritted his teeth and went home.
After a while, Ning Shunzhi returned to the dormitory and saw that Liu Ruyan had fallen asleep. However, Ning Shunzhi was flustered and scared and did not dare to sleep in the same bed anymore. He found a pillow and quilt and went to sleep in the side room.
On the second day, just after dawn, there was a burst of gongs and drums outside the door. Ning Shunzhi opened the door and saw a Taoist priest with a long beard and yellow robe in front of his house. He was opening an altar and doing the practices, muttering something, and the villagers behind him were holding gongs. The drums were beating, and they all shouted: "Exterminate demons and catch ghosts! Exterminate demons and catch ghosts!"
At this time, the Taoist priest shouted: "Immortal God, demons and monsters are here to kill you!"
After that, he pushed Ning Shunzhi away and rushed straight into the house. At this time, Liu Ruyan happened to push the door open and saw the aggressive Taoist priest. He was immediately frightened and turned away.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he took a few steps, the Taoist priest struck him with a few flying palms and knocked him to the ground. Then the Taoist priest waved his hand and threw three yellow talismans on Liu Ruyan, which instantly ignited three balls of flame.
Liu Ruyan couldn't bear the severe pain, rolled on the ground and kept struggling, shouting: "Mr., save me!" Ning Shunzhi looked at Yu and couldn't bear it, and stepped forward to rescue him. With a "pop" sound, a ball of black smoke was instantly pulled away from Liu Ruyan's body, and turned into a giant green-shelled turtle when it landed on the ground. His eyes were filled with tears, and foam kept spitting out of his mouth.
After a moment, the giant turtle said: "Master Taoist, spare your life, sir, save me!"
After everyone asked, they learned that after Liu Ruyan's coffin sank into the deep river that day, an adult giant turtle happened to swim by. Seeing Liu Ruyan's extraordinary appearance, he cast a spell to possess her and came to life. After the turtle spirit borrowed the corpse and became a human being, he began to travel around the world. By chance, he bumped into Ning Shunzhi in a foreign land.
When the Taoist priest saw that the turtle spirits were not guilty of harming others and had only committed the crime of borrowing corpses, they did not kill them all. They beat them with thirty iron rods and released them into the river. Ning Zhishun had no choice but to bury his wife's body again. After
, Ning Shunzhi would go to the river to sigh every time he missed his deceased wife.
Until one day, the turtle spirit survived the catastrophe and truly transformed into a human form, somewhat similar to Liu Ruyan. The woman broke out of the water and left hand in hand with Ning Shunzhi to find another place to settle.
Jing Yuezhai's message:
As the saying goes, "A man can bend and stretch!" When a person is in a difficult situation, the most important thing is to survive. Face is not important at all. You have to persevere despite hardships. Ning Shunzhi met a bandit. If he was arrogant, he would probably starve to death. Later, when he met his deceased wife in a foreign land, it became another good marriage.
Yesterday has passed, and tomorrow is unpredictable. The most important thing for us is to grasp the present moment. Only in this way will the future become brighter and brighter.
(Author of this article: Tang sometimes)
