vampire

Chapter 11 Temptation of Eros (4)
While talking, the courtier threw a piece of sweet meat to the dog.The dog that had eaten the sweetmeat soon jumped up and down, and at last lay motionless on the ground, dead.

"Ah, it's terrible!" exclaimed Mulamkud, furious. "I loved her so much! But it's all over now. How could she do such a thing!"

"Things have happened, my master!" The courtier said very calmly, "Actually, I have already prepared to deal with this genius princess. But a smart person like her should not make such a stupid move." Wrong, and the means are so indecent."

Hearing his words, the prince no longer doubted and attacked his talent.

"I have already reminded you to be careful of other people's treachery, but now I am very tired. She failed in this round of contest. After this round, she will not act rashly again, but it is only temporary. I think Boldly ask you a question: would you be happy without her?"

"Hey, buddy!" the Prince looked annoyed, but then replied, "No." Then he blushed.

"Okay," said the courtier, "It's better to be honest than to hide. Now, we have to face her and have a real fight with her, and use her best weapon - cunning to deal with her. But I don't want to break my promise to women. First of all I don't like it; and secondly, I know they'll do it to me as well. I'll lie to them while maintaining my integrity. And I think, she might be a good wife. Remember, she wants It is only me who was poisoned, not you. During this month, I have been worrying about you all the time—whether my prince will fall into the tiger's mouth, and now you have appeared in front of me safe and sound. Please tell me, my prince , when will the princess ask you to go back?"

"She said that I would not return until my heart was no longer disturbed by my friend," answered the Prince.

The second day passed very slowly.When evening came, the son of the minister accompanied the prince outside the palace, and he said to his master:
"My master, how to get this princess is our real goal. Please take this trident and hide it away when she shows you the deepest love. Don't tell her what happened here. If she asks you about me, perplexed by your nonchalant behavior, say that I was so tired last night that I could hardly breathe, that I was too ill to eat the sugar plums she sent , I shall eat it tonight. When she falls asleep at night, take her jewels, and thrust the trident I gave you into her left leg, and run to me as soon as possible. If she wakes, you Just rub a little of this stuff on your thumb - don't be scared, it's just powdered larvae fed with verdigris, and you put it in her nostrils. That's enough to put an elephant to sleep, so you have to be careful, Don't get it on your face."

After this, Mulamkud once again hugged his good friend warmly and returned to the palace.At the gate of the palace, he saw Parmavati waiting for him there.She flung herself into his arms, looking lovingly into his eyes, as many self-righteous wise women do.At this moment, the woman immersed in boundless joy and contentment is convinced that her lover is completely hers and that her betrayal of him will never be discovered.So, after being extremely excited to be with her lover, the beautiful and wise princess soon fell asleep.

At this moment, the prince, who always kept in mind his good friend's instructions, took away Parmavadi's jewelry, and then slipped out of the room quietly.The courtier who had been watching the prince secretly took out a big bag and beckoned his master to follow him.They left their luggage and horses in Old Nan's room, and went to a blazing fire in the suburbs.The courtier took off the clothes he and the prince were wearing and threw them into the fire. Then he took out a set of ascetic clothes from his big bag and put them on his body, pretending to be an ascetic, and asked the prince to put on a set of disciple clothes.Finally, the master said to his disciples: "Go, young man, go to the market and sell this pile of jewelry, and make sure to let half the jewelers here know about it. If anyone arrests you, you will take He came to see me."

At this time, it was already dawn, and the prince kept the words of his courtiers in mind, so he went to the market with the princess' jewelry and walked to the nearest gold shop.He showed the jewels in his hands to the shop assistants and said he would sell them, asking them for the price.Those gardeners, tailors, and goldsmiths were not honest fellows, as the proverb goes.Seeing the person who doesn't understand the market, they understand that he doesn't understand the true value of these jewelry.The jewelers thought they might be able to make a big deal with him, filling their safes.So, the jeweler offered a price - equivalent to only one thousandth of the real value, but was rejected by the disciple, who didn't want the matter to end like this.At this time, the jeweler realized that the disciple was about to leave, so he jumped out from behind the counter, blocked the disciple's way, and threatened that if he refused the transaction, he would call a judge and tell him that he bought the jewels from the shop. stolen.Hearing this, the disciples smiled.The goldsmith was considering what words to use to continue threatening him, but at this moment he hesitated again—the judge had heard too many such pretense.Just as he was hesitating, a huge figure appeared, and the whole room went dark—the biggest jeweler in the city entered.As soon as he saw the jewels, he immediately said, "These jewels belong to Dhantawat's daughter, that's for sure. I saw them a few months ago."

He turned around and said to the disciple who was holding the jewels, "Tell me honestly, where did you get these things?" At this time, there were more than a dozen people around.The matter quickly reached the ears of the military leaders in the city.He ordered a soldier to bring to him the disciples, the goldsmith and the great jeweler and the jewels.

When all were brought into the courtroom, the chief looked at the jewels and asked, "Don't try to lie, young man. Tell me where you got these jewels?"

"At... at the place of my spiritual guide." Mulamkud stammered, pretending to be afraid, "He is worshiping God in the cemetery in the suburbs, and he told me to take these white The stone was sold. He gave it to me, how do I know? Please, sir, let me go, I am innocent."

The leader ordered his men to find the ascetic monk, and then brought him, his disciples, and the jewels to King Dantawat, and narrated the whole story.

"Master," asked the King, after he had heard the narrative, "where did you get these jewels?"

The ascetic did not answer directly.Instead, he took out a piece of black antelope skin from under his arm, spread it out on the ground, smoothed it slowly, and then sat on it as a cushion (a cushion commonly used by Indian ascetic monks).Then he took out a string of rosary beads the size of an egg and twisted them in his hand.After grumbling and shaking his head for almost an hour, he looked the King in the eyes and replied:
"O great king, these jewels are all mine. On the night of the fifteenth of this month, in order to break a spell cast on a witch, I went to an underground palace where corpses were buried. After a long After a lot of hard work, she finally appeared. But the witch still refused to repent of her mistake, so I had to punish her again. If I remember correctly, she was hit by my trident in the left leg. But she Still unrepentant, in order to get her a harsher punishment, I took her jewelry and clothing and told her to go somewhere where she can help people. But it doesn't do anything for her. This is what I've encountered Wickedest witch, so these jewels are mine."

Hearing this, the king was stunned.He begged the eminent monk not to leave the palace, and hurried into the harem.Just ran into the widowed empress dowager head-on.The king said to her, "Quick! My mother, go and see if there is any scar on Parmavadi's left leg!" After a while, she came back and told the king, "Son, your daughter is lying on the bed and complaining Had an accident myself. Really, Parmavadi looked very distressed, and I found out that she had been stabbed in her left leg with a triangular sharp object. And she said it was from a nail, but I never heard of a One nail will make three holes. We have to get a doctor for her quickly, otherwise there may be erysipelas, swelling, gangrene, necrosis, etc., and may even die." After the empress dowager finished speaking, she hurriedly said left.

Hearing these words, King Dantawat's heart seemed to be broken.But years of experience made him control his emotions and calm down.He thought: family ugliness should not be publicized.Parmavadi is no longer my daughter, but a terrible witch.In any case, I must go to that eminent monk to discuss how to deal with this matter.

When the king returned to the palace, the ascetic was still sitting on his black antelope skin, and kept poking the floor with his trident, begging the chief to let his disciples go. Then he looked around and said to one of the king's attendants: "Ah, Saint! According to the Dharma Bible (Indian Bible), if a woman practices evil witchcraft, what should she do?"

"Long live my king!" said the pious believer. "It is recorded in the Dharma Bible: 'A Brahmin, a cow, a woman, a child or other people who depend on us for survival, whatever his motives, If she is guilty of infidelity, she should be expelled from the country.' But no matter what crime they have committed, we cannot take their life away. Goddess Lakshmi (the Indian goddess of prosperity) does not like to take my life."

When the ascetic monk relayed these words to the king, the king was very grateful to him, gave him a generous gift, and then let him go.When night came, without disturbing the royal family, the king dispatched a group of confidantes to quietly arrest Parmavadi and exile her far away to a forest where tigers and leopards infested and wolves and bears swarmed.

Just as the king took action, the ascetic and his disciples rushed back to the cemetery and resumed their original identities.Then they went to Old Nan's room, and gave her many presents in return for her kind help.The old nanny was so moved that she couldn't stop sobbing. She helped them prepare their weapons, led their horses, and accompanied them out of the imperial city.The fakir told her that they had easily persuaded the poor girl to marry Mulamkud in the jungle.The wedding ceremony will take place in Benares.Old Nan took them at their word, and agreed without even asking if the service was in church.This is a question that any woman pays great attention to.In the next few days, when they returned home, their joy was beyond words.

"Wickram!" Betal said suddenly, "you didn't interrupt me when I told this story, which shows that you must be deeply attracted by this story. The men in the story use the weapon that women usually use-deception But I warn you, if you can't get this out of your head, you're sure to go to hell: Of the four in the story, who is most to blame? The suitor (the suitor is not to blame; this is Indian opinion on such matters; this ancient injunction does not seem to us to have any effect on a suckling baby)? His friend? The girl? Or the father?"

"In my opinion, Parmavadi is the worst. She is the source of all these disasters." cried the little prince Dihavashi.At this time, the king reminded his son that what he saw with his own eyes and what he heard did not apply to the same truth, but he could understand his son's feelings, so he forgave his rude behavior.In the end, Vikram decided to make a just verdict: "King Dantavat is the most to blame."

"Why is this?" Betal felt very strange.

"Prince Mulamkud was tempted by the god of love to do this crazy act," explained Vikram, "and therefore he is not responsible for it. His friend is just doing his duty as a servant and doing everything for him." As for the self-righteous woman, like many ordinary young girls, she will inevitably do naive and simple things. And Yaga, as the king of a country, a man with rich experience and the father of eight children, how can Can you easily believe such a low-level deception? You should not deport your daughter."

"My dear, that's terrible!" cried the vampire, followed by a string of shrill laughter. "Now, then, I must go back to the tree. I daresay I never heard a king like that before." Blame another king." As soon as he said this, he slipped out of his clothes quickly, and the bag on the shoulders of the great monarch became empty at once.

King Wickram stood there, getting very depressed.But after a while he regained his spirits and turned back to the steps, with his son closely behind him.The two stepped forward and worked together to pull Betar down, put it in his pocket as before, and then continued on their way.

(End of this chapter)