Ghost Story of Liaozhai

Wang Shixiu, born in Luzhou, is brave and powerful, and can lift a hundred catties of stone mortar. Both father and son are good at Cuju.Wang's father was over forty years old, and when he crossed the Qiantang River, he sank in the middle of the river, and his life and death were unknown.

Nine years later, Wang Shixiu went to Hunan for business and stayed at Dongting Lake at night.While admiring the moon-colored lake, suddenly five men emerged from the lake, holding a huge mat in their hands, spreading the water surface flat, the size of half an acre.I saw them spread the dishes and wine on the mat, and the cups and plates made a sound when they touched each other. It was warm and dull, not like human ceramics.After a while, the three of them sat down on the mat, while the other two waited on them.The owner is wearing yellow clothes and white clothes.All three of them were wearing red scarf caps with strange styles, and the moonlight was faint, so they couldn't see clearly for a while.

The two servants are both dressed in brown clothes, one looks like a boy and the other looks like an old man.I only heard the man in yellow say, "The moon is beautiful tonight, it should be white." The man in white said: "This situation is quite similar to the banquet held by King Guangli in Lihua Island in the past." The three exchanged words. Persuading people to drink, toasting each other, and sometimes talking, the voice is so small that they can't hear clearly.The guests on the boat hid themselves and did not dare to move. Wang Shixiu carefully inspected the old man, and found that he looked exactly like his father, but he was different from his father when he heard his voice.

At the end of the second watch, a master said: "Taking advantage of this bright moon, it's just for fun to hit the ball." That is, the boy took out a ball from the lake, which was big enough to hug.The three hosts stood up one by one, and the man in yellow called the old man to play together. The old man kicked the ball several feet into the air, and fell to the deck with a plop.Wang Shixiu felt itchy, and stepped on it with all his strength, the ball was so soft and soft, it broke from it with just a light touch, and was thrown far into the center of the river, where it shone brightly halfway, like a long rainbow passing through the sky, or like a comet falling on the surface of a lake, and the lake was boiling , Chi Chi bubbled, and it took a long time to calm down.

The hosts in the banquet were furious, and cursed in unison: "Where are the strangers, defeating me Qingxing!" He said angrily, "We're just getting annoyed, you old bastard, why are you so happy? Why don't you go with the little bastard and catch the culprit for me, otherwise, I'll break both of you with one stick."

Wang Shixiu heard that there was no other way to escape, so he mustered up his courage, raised his knife and stood across the bow of the boat, and after a while he saw the two old men rushing towards them with weapons in hand.Wang Shixiu took a closer look, the old man was indeed his biological father, and shouted: "O Weng, here is the child!" The old man was terrified, looking at each other sadly.

Tong'er turned around and left, the old man said: "Son, hide quickly, or you and I will die." Before saying anything, three masters boarded the boat and broke in. They all had dark faces, eyes as big as pomegranates, and yellow eyes. The clothes man grabbed the old man and dragged him out.Wang Shixiu fought desperately, the ship shook, and the cable broke.Wang Shixiu cut off the enemy's arm with a single blow, and the man in yellow screamed in pain and fled in embarrassment.A man in white rushed to him, and Wang Shixiu cut off his head with a single knife, and threw it into the center of the lake, falling into the water with a sound.The other man in white was timid and afraid of death, so he jumped into the water with a splash and disappeared.

Wang Shixiu discussed with his father and was about to leave at night. Suddenly, a giant mouth popped up on the surface of the lake, as deep as a dry well. When he sucked it in hard, the lake water from all sides gathered and was absorbed by the giant mouth. The water splashed and the waves were rough. Tens of thousands of ships in the lake were bumping and shaking at the same time, and the passengers were in a mess.

Facing danger, Wang Shixiu leaned over and grabbed a stone drum weighing hundreds of kilograms on the boat, and threw it into the giant mouth. Water splashed everywhere, and the sound was like thunder.

For the rest of the father and son's lives, Wang Shixiu suspected that his father was a ghost. The old man said: "I am not dead. A total of 19 people sank into the heart of the Qiantang River in the past, and they were all swallowed by fish monsters. I survived by luck because I was good at Cuju. Later, the three fish The demon offended the Dragon King of Qiantang and moved to Dongting Lake for refuge. The ball you kicked just now was fish bubbles." The father and son were reunited, overjoyed, and left overnight by boat.At dawn the next day, Wang Shixiu saw a five-foot-long shark's fin on the deck, and suddenly realized: the shark's fin is the severed arm of the man in yellow.