Chapter 33 32. Palace of the Dead

Once upon a time there was a king, and the king had a daughter.One day, the princess was standing on a balcony with a group of maids, and saw an old woman passing below. The old woman said, "Princess, have pity on me, and give me something." "Well, God bless you," said the princess, throwing down a small bag of money. The old woman said again: "Princess, this is too little...can you give me some more?" The princess threw another bag of money to her.The old woman said again: "Princess, can you give me some more?" This time the princess grew impatient and said, "Do you know what I can say about you? You nasty old woman. I have given you twice already, and I will never give it again!"

Then the old woman said angrily: "Ah, so you are such a person! I ask God to punish you, so that you will never be able to marry, and you can only marry that 'dead man'!" When the princess heard this, she ran back to the room from the balcony with tears in her eyes. The king knew why his daughter was crying, so he said to her, "Don't keep this matter on your mind!" But the daughter said: "I don't know what I should do in the future, but I want to run away from home and look for that 'dead man'!" "If you want to go, go, even if I don't have your daughter!" The king said, also shed tears.The princess set off regardless of her father's mood.

After walking for a long time, the girl came to a marble palace.The door was open, and the lights were bright inside.The girl walked in and shouted, "Is anyone there?" No one responded. When the girl came to the kitchen, she saw meat stewing in the pot. She opened the cupboard, which was filled with all kinds of food. "Since we're here, let's stay here." Thinking this way, the girl began to eat. After walking for so many days, she was already too hungry.After eating and drinking enough, she opened a door, saw a beautiful bed inside, and thought: "I'll go to sleep first, and see what happens tomorrow."

The next day, after the girl woke up, she went around the palace, opened the doors of all the rooms, and finally found a dead man in a room, lying there, with a small lump at his feet. A sign that reads: Whoever guards me, A year, three months and a week, She will be my most beloved wife. "I really found the person I was looking for." The girl thought, "From now on, I can only guard him day and night." Since then, the girl has never left this room except to cook and eat. In this way, the girl stayed here alone and watched over the dead man for a year.One day, she heard a cry from the canal: "Who wants a slave girl... who buys a slave girl..."

The girl thought: "Very well, I will buy a slave girl right away, so that at least I can have a companion, and I can find time to sleep for a while. I am too tired, and I am afraid I can't bear it alone. " She went to the balcony, called the slave girls over, and bought one of them.The slave girl was brought upstairs, and the girl asked her to stay with her all the time. After another three months, the girl was so tired that she couldn't hold on anymore, so she said to the slave girl, "Listen, I'm going to sleep now, just let me sleep for three days, and wake me up on the fourth day." Remember, don't get the time wrong!"

"You can rest assured and go to sleep, I will not make a mistake." said the slave girl. So the girl went to bed, and the slave girl stayed behind to watch over the dead man day and night.Three days passed, four days passed, the girl was still asleep, and the slave thought: I don't care about her!Just let her sleep, sleep! The deadline for guarding the marquis finally came, and the dead man opened his eyes. When he saw the slave girl, he sat up, hugged her and said, "You will be my beloved bride!" As soon as the words fell, the entire palace was free from magic.Servants came rushing from one side, maidservants from the other, cooks, coachmen, in short, there were people moving about in the palace.

The loud noise woke the girl up.She found that her last week had passed. "Oh, that slave-girl has deceived me!" said the girl. "That black-hearted man has not woken me up, and made me miss my luck! Cursed the moment I bought this slave-girl!" The dead man was a king with great fame.He asked the slave girl, "Are you always by my side alone?" The slave girl replied: "I also called a maid. She stays here for a little while every day, and then sleeps all the time. She doesn't help me much." "Where is she now?" asked the king. "She's sleeping in her room, she's always been like that."

So the king took the slave girl as his wife.But even though she was made to wear queen's clothes and gold and silver jewels, she still looked ugly and vulgar.The king ordered the palace to celebrate eight days.As soon as the feast on the first day was over, the king sent all the servants in the palace to sit down with him and the bride at the wedding table, and he said to the bride to call the maid who was with her and watched over him. "No, I won't call her," said the bride, "she won't come anyhow, and she has nothing to do but sleep." In fact, the poor girl sighed and cried from morning to night, regretting that she had lost her happiness by sleeping an extra day.

Eight days of wedding feasts were over, and the king said that he must go away for a few days to take care of his property.He had a habit of bringing back a present for all the servants every time he went out.So he called all the servants and asked them what they wanted.Some servants asked for a handkerchief, some for a suit, some for a pair of trousers, and still others for a tailcoat.The king wrote them down on a note one by one, so as not to forget.He said to the bride: "Call your maid and ask her what she wants, and I want to bring her a present too." In this way, the girl was called.The king found the girl so beautiful and elegant, and was immediately fascinated. The king asked, "Tell me, my dear, what do you want me to bring you back?"

"Bring me a scythe, a black candle, and a knife," sighed the girl. The king was surprised when he heard the three things the girl wanted, and said, "Okay, okay, don't worry, I will definitely bring these things back to you." The king set out to take care of his property, and when everything was ready, he went to buy the presents for the servants, and when he had bought them, he boarded a ship to set off.But after the ship weighed anchor, it didn't move at all, neither moving forward nor going backward.Sailors asked: "Your Majesty Shengming, you will not forget anything?"

"No, nothing is forgotten," said the king, and looking carefully at the note, he found that he had missed three things that had been bought for the girl.He got off the boat at once, found a small shop, and wanted to buy those three things. The shopkeeper looked into the king's face and asked, "Excuse me for taking the liberty to inquire who are these things for?" "One of my maidservants," answered the King. "Oh, that's right. Let me tell you, you'd better do this. When you get home, don't give her anything. Let her wait for three days. After three days, you go to her room and say to her: 'Go and give her something. I'll get you a glass of water and I'll give you these three things.' When she goes out, you leave these things on the closet and hide under the bed or somewhere you can see what she's doing." "I understand".said the king. As soon as he got home, all the servants ran up to meet him, and the king brought each of them what they asked for.The girl was the last to come and asked if he had bought her those three things. "Why, why are you so annoying!" said the king, "I have brought back your things, and I will give them to you later..." The girl ran back to her room and burst into tears, thinking that the king had forgotten what she wanted. Three days later, the girl heard someone knocking at the door, opened the door and saw that it was the king. "I'm here to give you the gift you want, but you go and get me a glass of water first, I'm so thirsty." The girl ran out at once, and the king put his things on the wardrobe, and hid himself under the bed.When the girl returned to the room, she found that the king was no longer there, so she said to herself: "Forget it, he still didn't bring me anything, and he lied to me again." She put the cup on the wardrobe, and found the gift It's all there. Thereupon the girl immediately barred the door, undressed, struck a fire with a scythe, lit the black candle, and set it up on a little table.Then, take the knife and stick it on the small table.She knelt on the pajamas and said to the knife: "Do you still remember that when I was at home with my father, His Majesty, an old woman told me that if I couldn't find the 'dead man', I would never be able to marry?" Knife replied: "Yes, I remember." "Do you still remember that I was wandering around, finally found a palace, and found the 'dead man' inside?" Knife replied: "Yes, I remember." "Do you remember that I guarded him for a year and three months, and then I bought that ugly slave girl to accompany me. I told her I was too tired and let me sleep for three days, but she let me sleep for a whole week , just in time for the 'dead man' to wake up, embrace him, and marry her as his wife again?" Knife replied: "Of course I remember." "Who deserves this happiness? I who have suffered for a year and three months, or the slave girl who only stayed there for a few days?" The knife replied: "It's you." "Since you remember and agree that I deserve this happiness, then pull it out from the table and stab it into my chest," the girl said. When the king heard that the knife was about to be pulled out from the table under the bed, he jumped out immediately, hugged the girl and said, "I heard it all! You are my bride! Now you stay in the room first, and I will come deal with this." The king came to the slave girl's room and said to her, "I have finished my affairs and come back, and now I want to hold a banquet for eight days." "You have to be careful not to waste too much money," said the slave girl. "You don't know, I have always had the habit of doing this every time I come back." So, the king held a big banquet, and during the banquet, the king said to the female slave: "I want all the servants to attend the table. You go and call your maid, and I want her to participate too." "Let her be alone, no one wants to talk to her." "If you don't call her, I'll go." So, the girl was invited to the banquet, as usual, with tears in her eyes. As soon as the feast was over, the king began to tell about his experience of this trip.He said that in another kingdom, something very similar to his own happened, the king was bewitched, and a girl stayed by his side for a year and three months, and then bought a slave girl to keep her company. Because she was so tired that she couldn't bear it anymore, she went to sleep, but the slave girl didn't wake her up. When the 'dead man' woke up, he saw only this slave girl and married her. "Now I want to ask, which of the two of them should be the king's bride, the one who has been guarding for a week, or the one who has been guarding for a year and three months?" All the people said in unison: "It should be the one who kept guard for a year and three months." The king said: "That's right, everyone. This is the girl who has been guarding for a year and three months, and this is the slave girl she bought. What do you say should be executed for such an ugly Moor who betrayed his master?" " Everyone jumped up and shouted: "She should be burned in the middle of the square on a bucket of asphalt." In this way, the slave girl was burned to death.The king and the girl got married and lived happily together.What happened afterwards was never mentioned again.