During the Ming Dynasty Apocalypse, Dengzhou lived a rich young man with an eccentric personality named Chen Zhu. He has been obsessed with foxes since he was a child and kept three yellow, white and red foxes as pets in his backyard. All day long, I dreamed of meeting the fox fairy and marrying him.
But he did nothing for half of his life, and he still failed to pass the examination until he was thirty years old. His family persuaded him to get married and have children, but Chen Zhu was very opposed and vowed to wait until the Fox Fairy appeared.
This year, as the Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, Chen Zhu had nothing to do. He took some wine and meat with him and rode a horse to the mountains to play. When he came to a beautiful mountain stream, Chen Zhu spread brocade cloth and sat on the ground, eating and drinking by himself.
At this time, a red fox quietly emerged from the grass. It was agile and agile. It smelled the aroma of meat. Chen Zhu liked it very much when he saw it. He threw out two pieces of meat. The red fox looked around a few times and then lowered his head to eat. Chen Zhu looked at it for a while and then said with a smile: "The foxes in the mountains are so beautiful!" After saying this, he suddenly reached out to the red fox and wanted to catch it.
The fox was very clever. When he saw Chen Zhu coming towards him, he clamped his tail tightly in fright, screamed a few times, turned around and ran away.
Chen Zhu didn't care much, and followed the fox as it fled, and the shadow started chasing him. Unknowingly, at sunset, he saw the red fox burrowing into a cemetery from a distance and disappearing among the graves.
When Chen Zhu stepped forward to search, he saw an old man and a beautiful girl kneeling next to a tomb. The two were burning paper to pay homage and whispering. Chen Zhu felt curious and squatted next to him to take a peek. The old man whispered to the grave for a while. When the night was getting dark, he picked up the girl, turned around and left with the offerings in the vegetable basket.
Chen Zhu felt that the two people were haunting the mountains, and they were most likely transformed by the fox fairy, so he followed them out of curiosity.
At the second watch, when the moon rises from the east mountain, the old man and his daughter walked along the mountain road for a while and entered several mud houses at the foot of the mountain. Then candles were lit in the house and smoke rose from the roof.
Chen Zhu stood in the distance and watched several times, becoming more and more proud, and said to himself: "Living in such a secret place, and this daughter looks like a fairy, who is she if she is not a fox fairy?" So, Chen Zhu walked around, and after thinking about it, he quietly went to knock on the wooden door.
After a while, the old man heard the sound and walked out to see a handsome white-faced young man. He bowed and asked, "Brother, why are you knocking on the door?" I wonder if it would be convenient for the old man to stay here?" The old man looked at the woman in the house, and waved his hands and said, "Why don't I take you down the mountain while the night is still dark?" When Chen Zhu saw the other party's refusal, he suddenly tilted his ankle and pretended to fall and said, "Old man, I hurt my foot just now, I'm afraid I can't walk." Seeing this, the old man had good intentions and had to help him into the house.
At this moment, there was a beautiful girl sitting next to the bed in the room. She was embroidering and she was embroidering. When she saw Chen Zhu entering the room, she blushed and turned away.
Chen Zhu's eyes shone and he asked, "I wonder who this lady is?"
The old man moved a wooden stool for Chen Zhu to sit on, and said, "This is my daughter's name Linghulan, and my name is Linghugu. They have lived in this mountain for generations. Today is the death anniversary of my deceased wife. I just came back from paying homage to her at the cemetery!" Chen Zhu When he heard that their names had foxes, he was even more confused and said with a smile: "The names are related to foxes. Could it be that the two of them were transformed by fox gods?" After hearing this, Linghu Gu laughed and said: "Mr. Chen, you are overthinking. My father and daughter are just ordinary people!" After that, they arranged a firewood shed for Chen Zhu and brought him a quilt and straw mat for him to use.
At night, Chen Zhu tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. Thinking of the red fox during the day, he felt more and more strange. He was like a ghost. He thought to himself: "It is such a coincidence that I met the fairy fox, and the fairy fox led the way to let me meet this beauty. It must be God's good will to fulfill my good deeds."
When thinking of this, Chen Zhu didn't know where to find the courage. He put on his clothes and pushed the door open.
At this time, the moon and stars were hidden, and the mountains and forests were cold and lonely. Chen Zhu entered the girl Linghulan's room.Just as he was about to make a move, the woman suddenly woke up and shouted: "Sir, don't do this nonsense!"
Chen Zhu said with a smile: "When the fairy peeked at Xiaosheng tonight, she knew that you were interested in Xiaosheng. Why don't you help me and I will take you back to get married tomorrow? !" After
said that, he got interested and went to hug him. At this time, the old man heard the sound and rushed over. Seeing Chen Zhu doing something indecent, he got angry and pulled out the hoe from the corner of the room, shouting: "You beast, I took you in so kindly, but you are so heartless." After speaking, he raised his hoe and smashed it at Chen Zhu.
When his life was at stake, Chen Zhu took advantage of his youth and strength to grab the hoe. In desperation, he hit the old man's head three times and beat him to death.
After seeing the person die, Chen Zhu just came to his senses and said: "I thought your father and daughter were transformed by the fox fairy, but they turned out to be mortals." Then Chen Zhu didn't stop doing anything, and simply defiled the woman Ling Hulan. After threatening him, he took advantage of the moonlight and went down the mountain to go home.
Poor Linghu Lan witnessed the tragic death of her own father and was defiled by a thief. She cried so hard that at dawn, she dug a mud pit and buried Linghu Gu, then went down the mountain to the county government office in tears.
On the same day, the county magistrate heard Linghulan's case and summoned Chen Zhu for confrontation.
Chen Zhu refused to admit it and said: "I have never seen this woman, let alone killed her father." However, Linghu Lan cried for a long time, not knowing what to do. Since there was no physical evidence, the county magistrate actually released Chen Zhu.
Linghulan beat drums several times to complain, but when she got no response, she was so heartbroken that she braved the pouring rain at night and jumped into the river in the north of the county to commit suicide.
When Chen Zhu learned that Ling Hulan was dead, he breathed a sigh of relief, felt no guilt in his heart, and lived his life with peace of mind. Soon, after he released the three foxes in the backyard, he no longer had the sweet dream of marrying a fox fairy, and began to let his parents arrange for him to marry a noble lady.
After searching for matchmakers through the neighboring matchmakers, he soon found Li Huizhen, the daughter of the Li family on the other side of the river in the north of the county. This girl was two years younger than Chen Zhu. She was plump and charming, with plump and beautiful facial features. She looked very blessed. Her parents had a horoscope and felt that the two were a match made in heaven, so they chose a good and auspicious day to get married.
The wedding day came in a blink of an eye. Since the bride was on the other side of the river in the north of the county, Chen Zhu specially asked people to decorate a wedding boat, decorated it with two red lanterns on the bow, hired a gong and drum team, and drove the boat over to welcome the bride while beating gongs and drums.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the wedding boat sailed down the river to the middle of the river, it was calm and suddenly stopped. At this time, something unknown under the water actually pushed the big boat back along the original path.
Chen Zhu was very surprised when he saw this, and said angrily: "Today is my wedding day, and you, the boatman, have bad intentions for my good deeds!" The boatman had been sailing for fifteen years and had never seen such strange things. He hurriedly sent more people to punt the boat again, hoping to cross the river to get married as soon as possible.
The strange thing is that everyone pushed the big boat to the middle of the river more than a dozen times, only to be pushed back to the original shore.
Everyone kept tinkering until sunset. They missed the right time to worship and finally couldn't cross the river. Chen Zhu was angry and complained, so he had to give up the marriage and go home. All the relatives and friends in the hall were disappointed when they saw Chen Zhu returning empty-handed. And some gossips leaked out, causing the Chen family to lose face.
Like this for several days, Chen Zhu tried for several days, but the wedding boat was pushed and pulled by strange forces and could not cross the river.
In the end, it was the woman's father who came up with the idea and asked a few men with better water skills to carry the bride Li in a small boat. This allowed Chen Zhu to successfully complete the marriage.
Afterwards, Mrs. Li was actually very virtuous. Chen Zhu served her well both inside and outside, and even went to her parents' home from time to time to visit her parents.
But every time during the holidays, Chen Zhu and his wife wanted to cross the river to visit his father-in-law. As soon as he boarded the boat, the boat could not cross the river and was always pushed back to the original bank by the reverse current. Chen Zhu was angry and scared, so he just stopped going.
One day, Chen Zhu quarreled with his wife over some trivial matters. Mrs. Li was so aggrieved that she cried for a long time, packed her luggage and returned to her parents' home.Chen Zhu didn't stop him, thinking that the weather would disappear in two days. Unexpectedly, there was no news as soon as Li left. Chen Zhu waited for four or five days and was unbearably lonely. He wanted to go to the river to find someone at his father-in-law's house, but he did not dare to cross the river.
After thinking about this for a long time, I drank for a long time. When the smell of alcohol came up, I plucked up the courage to go to the bank of the river in the north of the county.
At this time, as dusk approaches, a red sun sinks into the sky, and waves of red are reflected on the river. The wild geese fly by in the sky and start to sing. Chen Zhu, his face flushed from drunkenness, saw a boatman holding a boat on the shore, so he stepped forward and said, "Boatman, take me across the river."
The boatman recognized Chen Zhu and quickly waved his hand and said, "Mr. Chen is not allowed to do this. I don't know if you have offended the river god. You will not be allowed to cross this river."
After hearing this, Chen Zhu became furious and shouted: "I won't be allowed to live when I get married. Now that my wife's whereabouts are unknown, why won't you let me live? This time I must live!" After saying that, he took out a piece of silver and gave it to the boatman.
When the boatman saw Chen Zhu's generous gesture, he greeted him with a smile and helped him get into the boat with both hands.
The two of them were at the bow and stern of the boat, holding the boat swaying toward the other side of the river.
After a while, ripples suddenly appeared in the water, and the boat involuntarily moved back. Now the boatman panicked and said, "No, the river god has done something strange again. Let's go back quickly!" Chen Zhu said angrily: "What the hell, I have to cross the river today even if I die!".
There was only a "pop" sound, and Chen Zhu jumped into the water and planned to swim across the river.
At this moment, a big black fish with sharp fangs and protruding eyes suddenly appeared in the water. This fish was about ten feet long and as thick as a rice bowl. It had green and black patterns on its body. It opened its mouth and pounced towards Chen Zhu to bite him.
Chen Zhu struggled and screamed: "Help me, help me!". But the big black fish came with great force, and with one bite at Chen Zhu's crotch, it bit off his lifeblood.
Taking pity on Chen Zhu, the clear river water dyed a large area red, and then attracted a group of small fanged fish to compete for food. Chen Zhu was so frightened that he almost fainted from the severe pain. Fortunately, he was not far from the boat. The boatman had quick eyesight and quick hands. He took a long pole and fought hard to fish him out.
That night, he was carried back to Chen Zhu and returned home. He fainted and asked a doctor to give him timely treatment. When he woke up, he found that his lifeblood had been eaten by snakehead fish. He was in so much pain that he coughed blood and cried for days. He survived for half a month and died of serious illness.
Jing Yuezhai's message:
As the saying goes, "God is watching when people do it. It's not that they don't repay it, but the time has not yet come!" Chen Zhu committed a crime and beat the old man to death, and then defiled his daughter, which was a heinous crime. But the county magistrate did not help the rich but the poor, so the girl died unjustly. Chen Zhu finally received his comeuppance, and the unjust county magistrate will get his evil retribution sooner or later.
In reality, the same is true for some people. Relying on their connections in the family and having some bad money, they feel superior to others and look down on the poor and low-level workers. As everyone knows, a madman has his destiny, and the rich and poor will change. When he is unlucky in the future, it will be too late to understand this.
(Author of this article: Tang sometimes)
