green fairy tale book

Chapter 34 Three Snake Leafs
Once upon a time there was a poor man who was so poor that he could not even support his only son.So the son said to him, "Dear dad, you are so poor. Instead of staying at home and becoming your burden, I might as well go out to the world to make a living." The father blessed him, and then sent him away sadly. home.At this time, the king of a powerful empire was engaged in a war with an enemy country, and the young man joined his army.Soon they met the enemy, and the battle was very fierce. In the hail of bullets, the young man's comrades fell beside him one by one, and even the commander died in battle.The troops lost their morale and retreated one after another.At this critical moment, the young man bravely stood on a high place and shouted to the warriors, "We cannot let our country be invaded!" His words inspired others, and they all followed the young man to rush forward. Go up and finally defeat the enemy.After the king heard about the victory, he was very grateful for the young man's brave performance at the critical moment, so he bestowed high officials and rich salary on the young man, and the young man suddenly became the number one hero of the kingdom.

The king had a very beautiful daughter, but the princess was so capricious that she swore she would marry no one unless someone would bury himself alive beside her after her death.

"If he really loves me," she always said, "what's the point of his life when I'm dead?" Bury yourself alive next to him.This strange oath made all the suitors shy away, but the young man was so captivated by the princess's beauty that he proposed to the king without hesitation.

"Do you know what promise you are making?" asked the king.

"I must go to the grave with her," he replied, "if I outlive her. But I love her too much to care about the risk."

So the king agreed, and held a grand wedding for them.

They lived happily for a long time, and then the young princess fell seriously ill, and all the famous doctors failed.After she died, the young son-in-law remembered his promise, and he trembled when he thought that he would lie alone in her grave waiting to die.But there was no escape for him.The king has ordered guards to guard the exits everywhere, and he is really doomed this time.

On the day of the funeral, the princess's body was placed in the royal tomb, and he was also brought into the imperial tomb. Then the gate of the imperial tomb was closed with a bang, and was sealed from the outside.

Beside the coffin was a table with four candles, four loaves of bread, and four bottles of wine.When this food is consumed, he will starve to death.He sat there sad and desperate, eating only a small piece of bread and drinking a small sip of wine every day, barely maintaining his life, watching the god of death approaching him step by step.One day he was sitting in a daze when he suddenly saw a snake crawling out of a corner, and soon crawled to the side of the princess's body.He felt that the snake would definitely bite the princess's body, so he immediately drew out his sword and said, "As long as I am alive, I will never let you hurt her!" Then he swung the sword and chopped the snake into three pieces.After a while, another snake crawled out from the corner, and when it saw the first snake was dead on the ground and cut into three pieces, it crawled back again, and then crawled out again with three green leaves in its mouth. .It pieced together the three carcasses of the first snake and placed a leaf over each wound.In the blink of an eye, the three corpses grew together again, the dead snake came back to life, and then hurried away with the second snake, but the three leaves remained on the ground.The unfortunate young man witnessed all this, and he suddenly thought, could the magic power of these three snake leaves also bring people back to life?

So he picked up the three leaves, and put one of them on the mouth of the corpse of the princess, and the other two on her eyes.As soon as he finished these, the texture of the corpse's skin showed blood, and her pale face also showed a rosy color.At last the princess regained her breath, opened her eyes and said, "Ah! where am I?"

"You are with me, dear lady," he answered.He then told her what happened and how he brought her back from the dead.He gave her some bread and some wine to drink, and they went together to the door of the tomb, knocking and shouting.The guards guarding the tomb heard their voices and quickly reported to the king.The king himself opened the door of the tomb, and was pleasantly surprised to find that both the princess and the son-in-law were alive and healthy.He was so happy that all tragedies were over, and they returned to the palace together.The young son-in-law handed three snake leaves to a servant and said to him: "Keep them carefully and remember to take them with you at all times, maybe they can save our lives at critical moments!"

After the princess was resurrected, she seemed to be a different person, and her love for her husband gradually faded.After a while, the son-in-law decided to go home to see his old father, so he took the princess and his servants on a ship bound for his hometown.However, the princess has forgotten her husband's deep love and loyalty to her, and also forgot his life-saving grace to her. Instead, she moved on and fell in love with the captain of the ship.One day, after the son-in-law fell asleep, she called the captain to her side.She ordered the captain to lift the son-in-law's feet, and she herself lifted the son-in-law's head. Together, they threw the poor son-in-law into the sea.When they had finished their wicked work, she said to the captain, "Now we sail home, and say that the devil died on the way. I will praise you well before my father, and he will let me and you Get married, and you will be the heir to the throne in the future."

But loyal servants witnessed the plot.He quietly lowered a small boat and rowed to the place where the owner fell into the sea.The sailors on the big ship didn't notice it at all, and continued to sail forward.The servant brought the drowned son-in-law out of the sea, and then put the three snake leaves on his eyes and mouth. After a while, the son-in-law came back to life.

They rowed day and night, and the boat traveled like flying, and finally arrived at the palace before the princess.The old king was startled when he saw them come back alone, and asked him what had happened.The son-in-law told him all about the princess's evil deeds.After listening, the old king said: "I don't believe she can do such a bad thing, but the truth will soon come to light." He ordered the son-in-law and his servants to hide in the secret room so that no one could see them.

Soon the ship also docked, and the princess appeared before the king pretending to be sad.The king said to her, "Why have you come back alone? Where is your husband?"

"Ah, dear father," she answered, "I am terribly distressed. My husband fell ill and died on board the ship. If it had not been for the help of the kind captain, I would have died too. My husband was dying. He was at his bedside when he was there, and he could tell you everything."

The king said: "I will raise the dead." Then he opened the door of the secret chamber and ordered the son-in-law and servants to come out.When the princess saw her husband, she was stunned with fright as if struck by lightning.She knelt before the king and son-in-law, begging their forgiveness.But the king said, "Your crime is unforgivable! He was willing to die with you and bring you back to life; but you killed him while he was asleep. You must be punished."

So she and her accomplices were put into a boat whose bottom had been punctured, and the boat was pushed out to sea, where they soon sank in the rough seas.

(End of this chapter)