Ghost Story of Liaozhai

Miss Xiliu, from the Central Plains.She has a slender waist and a cute Pingting. She has been intelligent since she was a child. She can understand characters roughly and is good at physiognomy.

Xiliu has a calm personality, doesn't like to talk about people's good and bad, and has a good name, so there is an endless stream of people seeking relatives.Xiliu interviewed them one by one, read many people, but none of them liked her, nearly nineteen years old, still single.

Her parents were annoyed at being picky, and scolded: "Is there no good match in the world, pick and choose, do you want to be an old girl?"

Xiliu said: "I thought that man could conquer heaven, but I didn't know that marriage is unpredictable and cannot be forced. From now on, the decision of marriage is entirely up to parents."

A senior student in the county seat, a famous person from a famous family, has heard the name of Xiliu for a long time, and came to propose marriage.The two hit it off, set an auspicious date, and sent their daughter off to get married.

After marriage, the husband and wife are harmonious and respect each other as guests.Gao Sheng's ex-wife had a son named Changfu who was only five years old.Xiliu took good care of her, cared for her, and loved her deeply.

A year later, Xiliu gave birth to a son, named Changhu.Gao Sheng asked what it meant, Xiliu said: "Your father, you can rely on me. I have no other intentions, I just hope that the elder father can always be with me."

Xiliu is not good at female workers, but good at brokerage and financial management.The amount of land in the family, the severity of taxes, and memorize it by heart.This day, the husband and wife were gossiping, Xiliu said: "The family affairs, the concubine does it by herself, I wonder if it's okay?"

Gao Sheng said: "You are willing to take the initiative to share my worries for me. I can't ask for it." From then on, I no longer manage the housekeeper, and hand over all affairs, big and small, to Xiliu.So half a year, never lost.

Half a year later, Gao Sheng went to a neighboring village to drink, and an official came to his door to urge him to pay the land tax.There was not much food left in the family, and Xiliu was unable to raise money for a while, so she was kind and kind, and begged the officials to forgive him for a few days.The officials refused to listen, and wandered indoors, refusing to leave.

Xiliu had no choice but to call Gao Sheng back urgently and ask him what countermeasures he had.Gao Sheng said: "This is easy. If you want to ask for grace, how can you not lose your money? Learn it hard." He took out the silver taels from his arms, bribed the officials, and sent him away easily.

After the officials left, Gao Sheng said with a smile: "Xiliu, as the saying goes, 'a wise woman is not as stupid as a man'. No matter how capable a woman is, she is not as good as a man in adapting to the circumstances and not being surprised. Let's have a discussion: Housekeeping Busy and thankless, I will be the housekeeper in the future."

Xiliu refused, and cried: "Who says women are inferior to men, I will definitely prove it to you."

Since then, I have become more diligent and sleepy all night. I often reserve grain a year in advance and pay rent without any mistakes.And by using this method to store clothes, cloth and silver, the family has a lot of money, and the expenses are more than enough.

His wife is so virtuous, and Gao Sheng was overjoyed. He often joked with her, "Xiliu is so thin: eyebrows are thin, waist is thin, Lingbo is thin, and the mind is more delicate." High, I hope the life expectancy is especially high." He was joking, but he was worried in his heart, "My husband's fortune is limited, and I see his appearance, he is not a long-lived person, so it is better to make plans early."

There was a coffin seller in the village, and Xiliu spared no expense to buy it, but when he didn't have enough money, he borrowed money from his neighbors.Gao Sheng said with a smile: "This is not something urgent, so it's okay not to buy it." He stopped him many times, but Xiliu didn't listen.

In the blink of an eye, a year later, a wealthy family had a funeral and was in urgent need of a good birthday coffin. There was nothing to do in a hurry, so they asked Xiliu to buy it, and the price was extremely high, several times the cost.Seeing that it was profitable, Gao Sheng persuaded Xiliu to sell the coffin, but Xiliu refused. He asked her the reason, kept silent, and asked her again and again, with tears streaming down her face.

Another year later, Gao Sheng was just 25 years old. Xiliu knew that his fate was not long, so he was forbidden to travel far, and when he returned home later, he sent a servant to urge him.On this day, Gao Sheng had a banquet with his friends, and suddenly felt unwell, so he left unhappily.On the way home, he fell off his horse and fell to the ground, and died in the west.It was hot summer, the weather was hot, and the corpse was very perishable. Fortunately, Xiliu had prepared the coffin and shroud in advance, so he calmly took care of the funeral, and the burial went smoothly.

That year Changfu was ten years old and had just started studying literature.His father passed away and he was left unattended. He refused to study and played with the shepherd boy every day.Xiliu was out of breath, and she was beaten violently, but it had little effect. Changfu was stubborn because of me, and he was still stubborn.

Xiliu had no choice but to say: "You don't want to study, and I don't want to force it. It's just that a poor family has no leisure, and no one can sit and eat. From today on, you will work together with the servants and be self-reliant. If not, carefully read your books. Skin."

Chang Fu nodded in agreement, herding pigs and sheep every day, dressed in rags.No meat to eat, no seats to sleep, simple tea and light meals, the suffering is unbearable.A few days later, Chang Fu was overwhelmed with exhaustion and deeply regretted it. He knelt in court, asked for a repeat, repented and admitted his mistakes, and burst into tears.

Xiliu was unmoved, she turned her face to the wall and said nothing, and ignored her.Changfu played a rogue, cried and crawled, and refused to leave.Xiliu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she picked up the cane and whipped her. Changfu couldn't bear the pain and fled in embarrassment.

In the following days, Changfu worked with servants and lived with livestock. In autumn and winter, he had no clothes and no shoes. He couldn't bear it, so he simply left home.

Xiliu didn't want to stay, she just let her go.After accumulating for several months, Changfu wandered around, begging for a living, haggard and emaciated, and finally came to his senses, returned home, pleaded guilty, willing to accept the responsibility of a hundred sticks, and only begged his mother for forgiveness.

Xiliu asked: "Do you know I'm wrong?"

Chang Fu said: "My boy knows his mistake."

Xiliu said: "Since I know I made a mistake, I won't beat you. From now on, I will feed the pigs peacefully. If I do it again, I will never forgive you."

Chang Fu cried: "My child would rather be beaten, but I don't want to feed the pigs anymore, please let me study."

Xiliu said: "If you promise me to work hard, I will let you study." As he spoke, he hugged Changfu into his arms, washed his hair, put on new clothes, and ordered him to be the same teacher as his younger brother. study.

Since then, Changfu changed his mind and studied hard. Three years later, he was admitted as a scholar.

The younger brother, Changhu, has a dull personality. He has been studying for several years, but he still can't remember his name.Knowing that his official career is hopeless, Xiliu persuades him to work in farming instead.The eldest father is idle and afraid of suffering. Every time he farms, he is always lazy. Xiliu is furious and scolds: "Scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen are the foundation of a country. You don't want to study or work in agriculture. Are you going to starve to death?" cao Pick up a stick and beat him up.

Since then, Changhuri has been with the farmers, farming and working together.Xiliu's supervision was very strict, and if she slack off a little, she was immediately scolded.Ordinary clothes and food, the cheapest to the most humble, can't compare with my brother at all.Changfu said nothing, feeling aggrieved.

After the farm work was over, Xiliu contributed money and ordered Changhu to start a business and support himself.Changhu likes to gamble and lust, start with money, but it is gone in a blink of an eye.Fearing that his mother would punish him, he lied that he had met a thief to deceive him.Xiliu is so shrewd, a little investigation will reveal the truth.Without further ado, it was another beating.Fortunately, Changfu pleaded for mercy and got away with it.

The eldest father was beaten and scolded repeatedly, panicked in his heart, and slightly restrained his evil deeds, but in fact, his nature is hard to change, and he is still rebellious in his bones.

On this day, Changhu told his mother: I plan to go to Luoyang to do business.It's called making progress, but it's actually a way to travel far away and hang out by chance.

Xiliu was clear-eyed, but he didn't break it, so he gave out 30 taels of broken silver as a gift, and presented a whole ingot of gold, saying: "This is a relic from the ancestors, and it should not be used lightly. I will lend it to you for a while, just in case you need it." .It’s your first time doing business, and I don’t expect you to make money, as long as you can keep 30 taels of capital, that’s enough.

The eldest father arrives in Luoyang with huge wealth in his arms, refuses business travel, and stays in a brothel.He hangs out with the famous chicken Li Ji every day, and after more than ten days, the broken silver is gone.I thought I had a lot of money in my pocket, so I wasn't worried.After another day of confusion, he took out a gold ingot to exchange banknotes, and took a closer look, but it turned out to be a fake silver ingot, coated with gold water on the outside, but a piece of scrap iron inside.

Li Ji was furious, her face changed suddenly, she looked cold, sneered, and spoke viciously.It was night, and the elder father was sitting alone in the brothel, full of disappointment, intending to leave, and also greedy for Li Ji's beauty, thinking, "Li Ji and I have been friends for half a month, so we should remember our old relationship, and we will never drive me away."

Before finishing the thought, he suddenly heard footsteps, two officials broke into the room holding iron chains, and shouted: "Boy, drink flower wine and eat free food. You have committed a crime. Come with us." Put on iron cuffs and put him in a prison.

It turned out that Li Ji was ruthless, secretly stole the ingot of fake silver, went to the Yamen to sue, and demanded piao money.

The eldest father is in prison, suffering so much, lingering on his last breath every day, regretting too much.

At the beginning, when Changfu traveled to Luoyang, Xiliu said to Changfu, "In 20 days, you will go to Luoyang for me. Don't forget." Changfu asked, "Why?" Xiliu said, "Your brother's behavior Frivolous, similar to you in the past. If I hadn't taught you cruelly back then, how could you be who you are today? Others say I am indifferent, but crying in secret, tears wet the pillow, who would have known? Your brother is riddled with bad habits and has not endured hardships It's hard to be kind. I deliberately gave him fake silver that day, just to frustrate his edges. If it's not bad, Changfu must be in prison at this moment. Master Zhongcheng is on good terms with you, you can go to intercede and save your brother Get out of the disaster. I believe that after this incident, he will definitely correct his mistakes and start a new life."

Changfu was taught earnestly and went to Luoyang as promised.At that time, Changfu was highly valued by Mr. Zhongcheng, and he was well-known far and wide, and the county magistrate had already known it.Hearing that he is the elder brother of the elder brother, he immediately released the eldest father without saying a word.

When the two brothers returned home, the eldest father was worried about his mother's scolding, so he knelt down and sincerely apologized.Xiliu reprimanded with a straight face: "This trip to Luoyang, there was such a commotion, but did my wish come true?" Changfu just wept, not daring to make a sound.Changfu interceded on his behalf, and Xiliu's remaining anger disappeared.

Since then, Changhu has changed his bad habits, behaved according to his duties, and did business with integrity. After several years of gathering together, he saved ten thousand taels of gold and became rich.As for Changfu, he also worked hard to become stronger. He passed the exam in three years, was admitted to the imperial examination in three years, and passed the Jinshi degree. The scenery is infinite.

(This is a story of a mother teaching her child, which is quite instructive.)