green fairy tale book

Chapter 11 The Story of the Soldier (3)
Xiaobing scratched his head and thought to himself: "Does she really want to marry me, or does she just want to cheat me again?"

Ludovina repeated it again.

"Aren't you going to tell me?"

Her voice was so gentle that Xiao Bing really didn't know how to reject her.He said to himself, "So what if I tell her the secret? As long as I don't give her the cloak."

So he told her the secret of the red cloak.

"Oh dear, I'm tired!" Ludovina sighed. "Don't you think we should take a break and plan our wedding when we're refreshed?"

She was lazily lying on the grass, and Xiaobing also lay down beside her.He rested his head on his left arm - on which was tied the scarf the princess had given her.Soon he fell into a drowsy sleep.

Ludovina has been watching him from the corner of her eye.As soon as she heard the soldier snoring, she untied the red cloak, gently pulled it out from under the soldier, put it on herself, took the money bag from his pocket, put it in her own pocket, and then Said, "I wish to go back to my room." In the blink of an eye she was there.

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The little soldier has slept for 24 hours. When he wakes up, where will he find his cloak, money bag and his princess?He tore his hair remorsefully, beat his chest, trampled the bunch of everlasting flowers to pieces, and then tore to pieces the scarf given to him by the femme fatale woman.

He remembered the wonderful stories his grandmother had told him when he was a child, but now it seemed that none of them were helpful.The soldier was very disappointed.Then he looked up and saw that there was a lush plum tree beside the place where he slept, and it was full of golden fruits.

"Let's eat plums then," he said to himself, "you'll be hungry!"

He climbed up the plum tree and ate it.He had just swallowed two plums when he felt something pop out of his forehead.He stretched out his hand to touch it, and found that he actually had two horns!

He jumped down from the tree, ran to a nearby creek and squatted down to have a look—oh!It was doomed.Such beautiful two little horns must be very respectable if they grow on the head of a goat.But why does it grow on his own head?

He said discouragedly: "I was cheated by a woman. Isn't that bad enough? The devil must have tampered with something, and now he gave me the horn. When I return to the original world, I will still Gotta chop off those pretty little baubles!"

But the soldier was still very hungry.Now that the misfortune had happened, he boldly climbed to another tree and plucked two more emerald-green plums.No sooner had he swallowed them than the horns on his head disappeared.Xiaobing was overjoyed.In spite of his astonishment, he came to the conclusion that no matter what happened to him, he should not be too quickly thrown into despair.After eating, an idea suddenly popped up.

"Perhaps," he thought, "these pretty little plums will take my purse and my cloak and my heart back from that wicked princess. She's got deer's eyes already, let her have some more." Right on the antlers. If I let her have a pair of horns on her forehead, then I bet all my money I don't want her to be my wife ever again. A chick with horns on her head, no matter what she looks like Not cute."

So he weaved a basket out of wicker, picked some of both kinds of plums, and put them in the basket. Then he bravely embarked on a long journey, eating wild fruits on the roadside when he had no food.Several times along the way he nearly died at the hands of beasts and savages, but he feared nothing but that his plums might rot, which did not happen.In the end, he finally walked from the prehistoric land to a country in a civilized society.

On the night he flew to the end of the world, he happened to have some jewelry with him.He sold them, and boarded a ship bound for the Low Countries.So, after a full year and a day of walking, he returned to the capital of the Low Countries.

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The next day he glued a false mustache on his face, put on a merchant's clothes, came to the church door with a little table, and piled the golden plums on a fine white cloth, and they It looks as fresh as it was picked off the tree.When he saw the princess coming out of the church, he cried out in a fake voice, "Fine plums! Lovely plums!"

"How much do they sell for?" said the princess.

"Fifty silver coins each."

"Fifty silver pieces! What's so special about them, and why are they so expensive? Do they make a man smart or beautiful?"

"They cannot add to what is already perfect, fair princess, but they can still add something."

Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. The few months that Xiaobing has been wandering around the world have not been in vain.Ludovina really enjoyed his eloquent flattery.

"What will they add?" she asked the soldier with a smile.

"You will see their effects, fair princess, after eating them. You will be pleasantly surprised."

Driven by curiosity, Ludovina took out her purse.She poured out as many piles of silver coins as there were plums in the basket.Xiaobing has a strong urge to snatch the purse out of her hands and announce to people that she's a thief, but he holds himself back.After selling all the plums to the princess, he closed the stall, removed the disguise, and changed to an inn, waiting quietly to see what would happen next.

As soon as Princess Ludovina got back to her room, she cried out: "Now let's see what these beautiful plums will add to my beauty." Then she threw away her turban, picked up two plums and ate them. go down.

Imagine her surprise and horror when she suddenly found something growing on her forehead.She sprinted to the mirror and let out a piercing scream.

"My God! Two horns! That's what he called a 'surprise'! Send someone to find the plum seller and bring him to me! I'll cut off his nose and ears, and skin him alive. Pi! I'm going to burn him slowly and rasp his bones to ashes... Oh! How can I see people? I'll die!"

The princess's maids ran in when they heard her screams, and they tried to break off the horns on her head.Although they tried their best to nurse, it was of no avail.Their attempt gave Ludovina a terrible headache, but the horns remained firmly in place.

The king immediately sent a herald to put up notices everywhere, saying: "Whoever cures the princess' strange disease, he will marry the princess to him."So all the physicians, surgeons, and magicians from the lowlands and neighboring countries rushed to the king's palace, each with his own cure, but none of them worked, and the princess suffered a lot in vain. .So the king had to put up another notice, saying that whoever came to heal the princess, if he could not heal her, he should be hanged on the tree nearest to the palace.However, the reward for healing the princess is too tempting, no notice can stop the doctors and wizards swarming in.So this year, in the orchards of the Lowlands, almost every fruit tree was covered with dead people.

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The king had already given an order to let his men look around for the plum seller.Although they turned the country upside down, they still got nothing.When Xiaobing found that they had lost confidence, he thought the time had finally come.So he squeezed the juice of green plums into a phial, and bought a doctor's robe, and put on a wig and spectacles, and came before the King of the Lowlands.He claimed to be a famous physician from a faraway country.Then he promised that he would cure her if he were left alone with her.

"Another impatient lunatic," said the king listlessly, "well, just do what he says. A man with a rope around his neck, I can't refuse his request."

As soon as the soldier entered the princess' room, he poured a few drops of the liquid in the medicine bottle into a cup.No sooner had the princess drank it than the tips of the two horns disappeared.

"They could have gone away altogether," said the fake doctor, "but something counteracted the effect. My medicine can only cure a man whose soul is as clean as my palm. Are you sure you haven't committed any petty sin? think carefully."

Ludovina didn't even need to think about it.She was desperate to get the horns off her head, but too ashamed to confess to the shameful crime.This conflicted mood almost tore her in two.At last she answered, with a look of deep sorrow in her eyes.

"I stole a purse from a soldier."

"Give it to me. My cure won't work on you unless you put the purse in my hand."

The thought of giving up this inexhaustible purse made Ludovina terribly miserable, but she also realized that what was the use of being rich if she still had horns on her head?With a long sigh, she handed the purse to the doctor.

The soldier poured some more prune juice into the glass, and when the princess drank it, she found that half of her horn had faded away.

"You must have done another thing against your conscience. Did you really steal the purse from the soldier and nothing else?"

"I also stole his cloak."

"give it to me."

"Give you."

This time Ludovina thought to herself that when her horns were completely gone, she would order her men to forcibly wrest the purse and cloak from the doctor.The thought made her very happy.At this moment, the fake doctor suddenly put on his cloak, pulled off his wig and glasses, and revealed his true colors as a soldier to the treacherous Ludovina.Ludovina stood before him, speechless in astonishment.

"Originally," said the soldier, "I could have made you grow horns all your life, but I'm a good boy, and I loved you. Besides—you're too devilish to even need him corner."

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The soldier wished he was back in the gull's cabin, and in the blink of an eye he was there.Seagull was sitting at the window mending her nets, and her eyes looked out to sea from time to time, as if she was expecting someone.After hearing Xiaobing's voice, she looked up and couldn't help blushing.

"It was you!" said she, "how did you get here?" Then, in a low voice, she added: "Have you married the princess?"

Xiaobing told her about his journey.When he was done, he gave her back the purse and cloak.

"What do I do with them?" she said. "You've shown me that happiness isn't about how much money you have."

"It's about hard work and love from an honest woman." Xiaobing said, it was the first time he discovered how beautiful the eyes of seagulls are.

"Dear Seagull, would you like me to be your husband?" He held out his hand as he spoke.

"Yes, I would," replied the gull.She blushed even more, "But the condition is that we seal the purse and cloak in a copper vase and throw them into the sea."

Of course they did.

(End of this chapter)