Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 14 The Mermaid's Son Hans (2)
"What!" Hans was surprised, "Twelve men can't move a single stone?" He picked up the stone and threw it aside, and continued on his way, carrying a cart of trees on his back, and leading the horse behind him, But returned to the manor long before the others arrived.The owner of the manor walked up and down there, looking around, and he was very curious to know what was going on.At last, when he saw Hans coming back with the carriage on his back and leading the horse, he was so frightened that he didn't know what to do, so he quickly closed the gate and bolted it.When Hans reached the courtyard gate, he unloaded the tree from his back and knocked on the door, but no one opened it.So he threw the tree over the barn roof into the yard, and threw the wagon in too, so that all four wheels fell off, and went off in different directions.

Seeing this, the owner of the manor thought to himself: "If I don't open the door again, I'm afraid the horse will also be thrown in." So he had to open the door.

"Hello, master." Hans greeted, led the horse to the stable, and went to the kitchen to eat.At last the others came back with their wagons full of firewood.When they came in, Hans said, "Remember the agreement last night? Which of you will be hanged?" "Oh," they answered, "it was only a joke, nothing else." "Oh, Yeah, that's okay." And then it was over.

But the manor and his wife, and the man who knew how, had been whispering about this dreadful man in the house, and they agreed that something must be done to get rid of him.The man who will figure it out says he will arrange everything.He said that the next morning, when the hired workers were going to clean the well, they could use this opportunity to push him into the well, and then press it with the big millstone they had prepared, which would definitely end his life.Then they filled the well again.The manor and his wife thought it a very good idea, and were delighted to think that Hans would soon be rid of him.

Hans is not so easy to kill.The next morning, he stayed up very late as usual, and the manor saw that he was still awake, so he had to call him. "Get up, Hans, you've slept too long," he cried.Hans woke up and rubbed his eyes. "Yes," he said, "I should be up and have breakfast." So he got up and dressed, and by this time breakfast was ready.After dinner, he asked himself what to do.The owner of the manor asked him to help others clean the well.Well, then he came to the well and saw everyone waiting for him.Hans said they had a choice, either they would go down to the bottom of the well to clean up, put the dirt in a bucket, and he would pull the bucket up and empty it, or he would go down alone and they would pull it out of the well.They said they were willing to pull outside the well, because the well didn't have that much space for so many people to go in.

So Hans went down to the bottom of the well alone, and began to clean the well.But the other people acted immediately according to the pre-planned plan. They lifted stones from a pile of big stones and kept hitting Hans, trying to kill him with these stones.And Hans didn't notice all this at all, but yelled at them, and drove the chickens away, and they dug the gravel down the well and dropped it on his head!
Only then did they realize that such a stone could not kill him at all, but they also had a bigger millstone.Twelve men rolled the large millstone to the edge of the well with poles and rollers.With all their strength, they threw the millstone into the well, thinking that this would definitely finish him.But luckily, when the millstone fell, the middle eye went right through his head, so that the millstone hung around his neck like a priest's collar.Hans could not stay at the bottom of the well any longer, and he crawled out, with the millstone still around his neck, and went straight to the manor, and complained that they were playing tricks on him.He didn't want to be a priest, Hans said, knowing too little about the profession of priests.Then, bowing his head, he slammed the millstone so hard that the manor's toes were broken.

The manor limped to his wife, and they called the man who knew how to do something, and told him that he must try to get rid of this terrible man.They blamed him for the futility of the methods he had devised before, and for not having any good plans now.

"Oh, no," said the man who could think of a way, "there are plenty of good ways! You can send him to go fishing in the Devil's Lake tonight. He will never escape this time. There is the old devil Jiaolong there, and no one will Dare to go there at night."

Both the manor and his wife thought it was a brilliant idea.So the manor limped to Hans again, and said he would punish those who played tricks on Hans.At the same time, Hans didn't have to do anything, so he could not be with the bad guys who were playing tricks on him.But he had to go fishing on the lake at night, and he had no work the next day.

"Very well," answered Hans, "I am very pleased with the arrangement, but I must bring something to eat. I want a large loaf of bread, a cask of butter, a cask of ale, and a cask of brandy. Nothing less .”

The manor said it was easy to do.So Hans tied all these things together, and strode away to Devil's Lake, carrying them on his big iron rod.

Once there, he got into a small boat and rowed to the center of the lake, ready to fish.Alone in the middle of the lake, and it was so late, Hans felt that he should have something to eat before starting to work.Just when he was busy eating, the old devil dragon suddenly came out. He grabbed Hans by the collar, dragged him out of the boat, and dragged him to the bottom of the lake.Fortunately, Hans happened to be carrying his big iron rod, and when the old devil's claws grabbed his collar, he grasped the iron rod in his hand.When he reached the bottom of the lake, he said: "Stop, wait a minute, we've reached the bottom of the lake!" As he spoke, he turned around and grabbed the back of Jiaolong's neck, and hit him hard with a big iron rod with the other hand. Back, beat him flat like a pie.The old monster Jiaolong howled in pain and kept begging for mercy, begging Hans to let him go, and promised that he would never come back here again.

"That's not right, my fellow," said Hans, "I won't let you go unless you promise me to have all the fish in the lake out in the manor's yard by tomorrow morning."

The old devil Jiaolong quickly agreed, and Hans let him go.Then Hans rowed the boat to the shore, ate and drank all that was left, and went home to sleep.

The next day, the owner of the manor got up and opened the door. As soon as he opened the door, the fish jumped in. My God, the whole yard is full of fish!He didn't know what to do, so he ran back to his wife and said to her, "What should we do now? Even the old devil Jiaolong can't do anything to him. I'm sure those fish are from the lake, and the whole yard is full of fish." It's fish!"

"Yes, it's too bad!" said the wife, "you must think about it, send him to the Devil's Den, and ask them to pay tribute to the manor." After a long time, he squeezed out of the fish pile and came to the place where the hired hands lived.He first thanked Hans for bringing back so many fish, and then said that he was going to give him a task, and this task could only be given to people he trusted.Then he told Hans that the task was to go to the Devil's Den and ask them to pay tribute to the manor for three years, because they owed him this.

"I'd love to go," said Hans, "but which way shall I go to get there?"

The owner of the manor stood there, not knowing how to answer, so he had to ask his wife again.

"Oh, how stupid you are!" said the wife, "won't you let him go straight on? Let him go straight south through the woods. That way, whether he finds the Morden or not, we can get out of it anyway." him."

The manor returned to Hans.

"The way to get there is just ahead, go straight south through the woods," he told Hans.

Hans said that something must be provided for him on the road, and he ordered two large loaves of bread, two barrels of butter, two barrels of ale, and two barrels of brandy.He tied all these things together, hung them on his big iron rod, carried them on his shoulders, and strode south.

After passing through the woods, there were several roads, and Hans didn't know which one to take, so he sat down, opened something, and ate.But he found that he did not have a knife, but as it happened, there was a plow beside the road, and he took off the plow to cut the bread.While eating, a man ran towards him on a horse.

"Where are you from?" Hans asked.

"From the Morden!" answered the man.

"Then stop and wait for me." Hans called out.But the man was in a hurry and didn't want to stop.So Hans had to run after him, and finally grabbed the horse's tail.Then he knocked the horse back, and the man fell headlong into a ditch. "Wait a minute," said Hans, "I'm going in the same direction as you!" He tied up his food again, put it on the horse's back, and leading the horse, said to the man, "Let's go together." Let's walk!"

On the way, Hans told the man what errand he was going to do, and also told him how he taught the old devil Jiaolong a lesson.The man didn't talk much along the way, but he knew the way very well, and soon they arrived at the gate of the Devil's Nest.No sooner had they arrived than the man and the horse disappeared, leaving Hans alone at the door. "They'll let me in right away," thought Hans, but no one came to the door.He knocked on the door hard, but no one came.Hans waited anxiously, smashed the door with a big iron bar a few times, and then walked in.A large group of little ghosts surrounded him and asked him what was the matter.Hans said that his master, the manor, required them to pay tribute to the manor for three years.When the little ghosts heard this, they suddenly growled at him, grabbed him and tried to drag him out.But after being hit by Hans with a big iron rod a few times, they had no choice but to let him go and ran in, howling loudly.Oh, it turned out that the old devil Jiaolong was there!After he was beaten by Hans in the lake, he is still lying in bed and can't get up!The little ghosts told the old devil that the messenger was sent by the owner of the manor by the Devil's Lake, and he actually asked the devil to pay tribute to the manor for three years.This guy smashed their gates to pieces and beat their arms and legs with big iron bars!
"Promise to pay tribute for three years! Pay tribute for ten years!" The old demon Jiaolong screamed, "Just let him not come near me again!"

So the goblins dragged out a great deal of gold and silver from the Morden, and Hans packed them all up, hung them around his neck, and strode back to his master.The manor owner was so frightened that he didn't dare to look at him again.

Hans didn't want to work on the manor anymore, so he gave half of the gold and silver he brought back to the manor owner.The manor owner was very happy, not only got the money, but also got rid of Hans.Hans took the other half of the money back to the smithy and gave it to his father.Then he bids farewell to his father, who, weary of the life of men on the land, wants to go back to his mother again.Since then, no one has seen the mermaid's son Hans again.

(End of this chapter)