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

Chapter 43
Long, long ago, an old couple lived deep in a mountain.The husband and wife have very different personalities. The husband is modest and honest, but the wife is greedy and competitive. She will quarrel with anyone who disagrees with her.Despite this, the two have been living a peaceful life and living in peace with each other.

One day, the old man was sitting in front of the house, and he liked it very much. Suddenly, he saw a little sparrow flying towards him, followed by a big black crow.The poor little sparrow was very frightened and yelled as it flew. The big crow behind it flew very fast, flapping its wings and stretching its neck. It was already hungry and wanted to eat.Just as the two birds were approaching the old man, he jumped up and knocked the crow back.The crow flew into the sky, neighing in disappointment, while the little sparrow, freed from its enemy, stood in the old man's hand.He took the sparrow home, smoothed its feathers, and told it not to be afraid, it was safe now, but he felt his heart still beating, and put it in a cage.The little sparrow recovered after a while in the cage, began to jump up and down, and chirped again.The old man liked all kinds of animals. Every morning, he would open the birdcage, and the little sparrow would fly out happily and play around. When it saw a cat or a mouse, or any other vicious animal, it would fly back into the cage. It knows that no one can hurt it in the cage.

A man's wife complains all day long, and now that her husband likes the bird so much, she's so jealous that if she dares, she'll give the bird a lesson.Finally, one morning, her chance came.Her husband went down the mountain to the city a few miles away, and it would take several hours to return, but he did not forget to open the birdcage before he left.The little sparrow was just as usual, thinking that there were no bad guys, so it jumped around and chirped happily, but the woman's brows became more and more tight, and finally she had a seizure.She picked up the broom and threw it at the little sparrow standing on the bracket on the wall. The broom missed the little sparrow, but knocked down the vase on the shelf and smashed it. Hit the little sparrow.At last she caught the sparrow, who was as frightened as he was when he first came to the house.

At this time, the woman was more fierce than usual. If she had the courage, she would definitely kill the little sparrow, but now she only dared to cut the sparrow's tongue.The sparrow struggled and screamed, but no one heard it, and finally, crying out in pain, it flew out of the house and into the depths of the forest.

After a while, the old man came back and asked him where the bird was.His wife, still in a fit of temper, told him what had happened, and gave him a good beating, saying he was so stupid to make such a fuss about a bird.But the old man was very sorry, and said she was a wicked woman to do this to a poor, innocent bird, and he left the house and went into the woods to find his bird.He walked for a long time, called it, called it, but it still didn't come back, so he went home sad, determined to go out at dawn next day, and never rest until he got the stray bird back. .He searched day after day, called day after day, and night after night, and he returned home dejectedly.Finally, he gave up hope, thinking he would never see his little sparrow again.

On a hot summer morning, the old man walked slowly under the shade of the trees in the forest without thinking about where he was going. As he walked, he came to a bamboo forest.Walking out of the dense bamboo forest, he found a beautiful garden in front of him. There was a small neat house in the middle of the garden. A beautiful young girl walked out of the room. She opened the door and warmly invited the old man to go in and rest. "Oh, my dear old friend," she cried, "I am so glad you have found me at last! I am your little sparrow, and you have saved my life and taken good care of me. "

The old man shook her hand eagerly, but before he could ask a question, the girl led him into the house, set the table, and served him herself.

While he was eating, the maiden played the lute, sang and danced to him with her maids.The hours passed quickly, and the old man didn't even notice that it was getting dark, and he forgot that he would be scolded by his wife when he came home so late.

In this way, they enjoyed the singing and dancing, and talked about the days when the girl jumped in and out of the cage when she was a sparrow, and the night passed without realizing it.The first ray of sunlight in the morning fell into the bamboo forest, and the old man stood up abruptly, thanking the hostess for her warm hospitality, and prepared to say goodbye. "I won't let you go like this," she said, "I have prepared a gift for you to express my gratitude, and you must accept it." As she said, her servants brought out two boxes , one is small, the other is big and heavy. "Okay, please choose one to take home." So the old man picked out the small box, hid it under his coat, and went home.

He was getting closer and closer to home, but his heart sank, because he knew how his wife would look like a shrew and abuse him if he didn't come home.The situation was worse than he expected.But long experience told him to let her growl without saying anything, so he lit a cigarette and waited for her to finish.The woman was still very angry, and didn't seem to want to take a breather. At this time, her husband ignored her, took the box from under his coat, opened it, and my God!It was so bright that it dazzled people.The box was full of gold and precious stones, shining brightly in the sun.Seeing these treasures in front of her, even the woman stopped yelling and scolding. She stepped forward, picked up the gems, and greedily put the biggest and most valuable ones aside.

Then, too, her tone softened, and she asked her husband, very gently, where he had been that night, and how he had acquired these wonderful treasures.So he told his wife what had happened, and she listened with astonishment, and when he told him at last that he had chosen one of the two boxes, she began to curse at him for being so foolish for choosing only one small box.She didn't give up, and kept pestering her husband to describe in detail how to get to the Sparrow Girl's house.She wrote it down as she listened, put on her best clothes, and set off at once.But she was too impatient and kept going the wrong way. Finally, after walking for several hours, she finally arrived at the little house.She had the audacity to go to the door, and enter the house as if the place were hers, and the poor girl was startled at the approach of her old enemy.However, she still tried her best to look calm, welcomed the woman, served her food and wine, and hoped that she would leave after eating well.However, this is not the case.

"You're not going to let me go without giving me anything, are you?" said the greedy woman, who didn't see anything being offered to her. "Of course not," said the girl, and she ordered two caskets to be brought out, just like the previous ones.The old woman snatched the big box in one fell swoop, and staggered into the forest with the heavy box in her arms, without even bothering to say goodbye.

It was a long way home, and it seemed as if the box was getting heavier with every step she took.Sometimes, she felt that she couldn't walk anymore, but with the support of greed, she finally reached her door.She sat down on the threshold, exhausted, but she stood up again after sitting for a while, and fumbled to unlock the box.But it was already dark at this time, and the lights were not lit in the house, and the woman was too impatient to get the treasure, so she didn't bother to light the lights.At last the lock was unlocked, the lid of the box lifted, and, my God, it was terrible!What she saw was not gold, silver or jewelry, but poisonous snakes!Those poisonous snakes stared at their bright eyes, spit out scarlet letters, wrapped themselves around the woman, and began to spray venom into her veins. In the end, she died, and no one felt sorry for her.

(End of this chapter)