Chapter 64 The Story of Perhotut the Liar

According to legend, there used to be a well-known liar named Bei Haotu.Bei Haotu has two partners.One day, he enthusiastically told his two friends about his experience—you know, I have been lying since I was eight years old, and now I have developed the habit of telling lies once a year.The reason for lying is entirely to deal with those slave traders.The funny thing is, my lies often come true, so those slave traders have a headache when they mention me, so they have no choice but to take me to the slave market again and again to sell. Once, I was brought to the slave market by a slave trader. He entrusted a broker to sell me and asked the broker to explain my shortcomings to the buyer.So the manager announced loudly to everyone in the market according to his request: "This is a slave with special shortcomings. Is there anyone willing to take it?"

"What is his particular fault?" people asked the agent. "He tells a lie once a year to deceive his master, and other than that, he's pretty good." "Is anyone paying for him?" a businessman stepped forward and asked. "Yes, it's already paid out to six hundred yuan." "Okay, I'll buy him and pay you twenty yuan in silver." So the broker brokered the deal between the slave trader and the merchant.After seeing them exchange the money, the broker took me to the merchant's house, explained it to me personally, and happily took away the 20 yuan handling fee.

The businessman found me a suit of clothes suitable for my status and asked me to change into them.From now on he is my new master.I obey my orders and serve my master with all my heart and soul.In the blink of an eye, it was the harvest season of the second year. Due to the good weather and a bumper harvest of grain, every household held a big banquet, drank and had fun, and celebrated the bumper harvest together. On this day, my master is no exception to hold a sumptuous banquet in his manor outside the city, inviting his business colleagues, relatives and friends to celebrate the harvest year together.At noon, the master suddenly remembered that he had forgotten something, so he told me:

"Ride your mule home at once, get what I want from my wife, and bring it to me right away, hurry up!" I took orders and hurried home.When I was almost at the door, I suddenly yelled and burst into tears hoarsely.The cries alarmed the neighbors, and people gathered from the streets and alleys to watch the excitement.At this time, the wives and ladies heard my cry, and hurriedly opened the door to come out to see what happened.Seeing me in pain and tears streaming down my face, I hurriedly asked what happened.So I broke down in tears and told them: "The master and his friends were sitting under an ancient wall, eating and talking happily, when the ancient wall suddenly fell down somehow and crushed them all to death. Seeing this scene, I I was at a loss for a while, but then I remembered that I should report to my wife as soon as possible, so I hurried back."

Upon hearing the sudden news, the wives and ladies beat their breasts and cried.They tore their clothes frantically and slapped themselves.Seeing this scene, people hurried forward to comfort them.At this time, the hostess has completely lost her mind, and rushed into the house in a daze, regardless of everything, she smashed everything she saw.For a while, all the furniture, doors, windows and walls were smashed and smashed.She smashed it and said to me: "Bei Haotu, you damned fellow, what are you doing standing aside, come and help me soon." I didn't dare to neglect, I smashed it with my hands, overturned the wardrobe and cabinets, smashed all the decorations on the table and the porcelain in the room.While wreaking havoc, I cried: "My master! My master! You died so badly!..."

In this way, I buried all the porcelain in the master's house. When the house was turned upside down and almost all the things that should be destroyed were destroyed, the wife rushed out the gate with disheveled hair and disheveled ladies and young masters, and said to me: "Bei Haotu, you lead the way, we Let's go together to the place where the master died, so that my poor husband can be buried." I followed the instructions of the hostess and led the way with my nose and tears in my eyes. The wives and ladies following me have long since forgotten the canon.With bare heads and bare faces, they all cried out in grief: "Ah! My people! Oh! God!..." Neighbors, men, women, and children all followed us, and everyone shed tears. Tears of sympathy.A large group of people walked along the street, and the crying and noise alarmed the people in the city. They came out to watch in amazement, and some people came forward to ask what happened.I lost no time in telling them the situation.So people sighed: "There is no way to encounter such a disaster. It seems that we can only pray to Allah for salvation." Some people said: "This is a prominent person, you have to report the situation to the governor!"

After hearing the unfortunate news, the governor hurriedly led a team of people with hoes, shovels and other tools to come to the rescue from behind us. At this time, there are more and more people watching the excitement on the side of the road.I walked in the front of the line, crying and slapping myself, looking in pain.The wives, ladies, and young masters followed behind, and the cries were earth-shattering.When I was about to reach the manor, I quickened my pace, threw off the large group of people, quickly grabbed a handful of soil from the ground, sprinkled it on my head, and raised my cry, rushing into the manor in a panic, crying shouted:

"My lord! It's not good, my wife, yo, ho, ho, my wife is dead! What should I do from now on, who will love me? I hope I can get her life back..." When the master saw me like this, he was so frightened that his face turned completely white.He asked dumbfounded: "What's wrong? Bei Haotu, what happened?" I replied: "I obeyed the master's order and went home to pick up things. Unexpectedly, when I got home, the walls of the main room had completely collapsed, and the whole family was crushed under it." "How is the lady, is it safe?" "No, sir, no one escaped the misfortune. They were all crushed, and the wife was the first to die in the accident."

"Where's my little girl?" "She's dead too." "How's the mule? It's all right." "No, I swear to Allah! Since the walls of the main house and the stable collapsed together, all the cattle, sheep, poultry, and ducks were crushed to a pulp, and there was nothing left." "Perhaps the old man is all right?" "No, my lord, don't have any more hope. Everything and everyone in the house is gone." At this point, the master felt that there was no hope.His face immediately lost its luster, his mind went blank, and he was dumbstruck.Due to the lack of consciousness, his legs were paralyzed and his hands were weak, and he gradually lost his strength and sat on the ground slumped.After a while, he suddenly jumped up frantically, grabbed his clothes indiscriminately, pulled out his beard, threw off his turban, and beat himself frantically until blood flowed from the beating.Then he broke out and howled:

"Yo ho ho, my poor children, poor wives and old masters! Why do you have such bad luck! Who in the world has a more miserable fate than me!" The relatives and friends in the business circle who were present at the same table also felt very sad when they heard the unfortunate news. They pitied what happened to my master, wept with him, and tore their clothes with him.Due to this sudden and severe blow, the master was insane, and walked towards the gate of the manor like a drunkard.Others followed him and rushed towards the gate of the manor. As soon as he stepped out of the gate of the manor, the owner saw the sky full of dust, and a large crowd with crying and shouting was running towards this side.He took a closer look, only to find that the governor led a team to walk in front, followed by his family members, all crying like weeping people.When the master, his wife and children met each other, they were stunned for a moment, and after a long time, they laughed and asked each other.

The master asked: "What happened at home? How are you? Didn't it mean that you had some misfortune?" "Thanks to Allah, Dad, you are finally safe and sound." The ladies and young masters rushed forward to hug the master one by one. When the wife saw that the master was well, she was very pleasantly surprised, and at the same time felt strange, and said, "Praise the Almighty God, Allah! He keeps you and your friends safe and sound!But I don't know how you escaped from death? " In the noisy atmosphere, the master didn't know what his wife was talking about, so he just asked, "How is the situation at home? Is there any accident?" "Everything is normal at home, nothing happened. It's just that the servant Bei Haotu was bald, tearing his clothes, and crying: 'My master!' I asked him what happened, and he said: 'Master and friends all crushed to death by the collapsing wall.'” "Just now he came to me crying and told me that everyone in the family is dead." The master said and turned around, and saw me standing aside with a torn scarf on my head, tears and tears all over my face. Dust, he shouted angrily: "Damn slave, look at what you have done, I must peel your skin and constrict your tendons." "Sir! You can't punish me, because this is my shortcoming. You don't know that I tell a lie once a year, and this time I only told half of it. Well, I will tell the other half at the end of the year, and then constitute a complete one." "You son of a bitch! You damned bastard!" The master's anger reached its climax, and he flew into a rage, "You have caused such severe consequences, yet you still say that you only told a half lie. I'm so mad , get out of here! I don’t want to see you again.” "Although you have restored my freedom, I can't leave you. After I finish telling the remaining half of my lies before the end of the year, you can take me to the market and explain my shortcoming to other buyers. Sell ​​me. Now you can't drive me away, because I don't have any skills to support my life. You have studied with a master of law, and you should know the relevant provisions of law for the release of slaves." I was politely defending, but the host kept swearing, and we refused to give in to each other. At this time, people gathered around and comforted my master sympathetically.Then the master and his friends greeted the governor, told him the truth, and reiterated that this incident was only the result of a half lie, and it was not known what harm the next half lie would cause.After hearing this, the governor and everyone thought it was too shameful to make such an exaggerated joke.So everyone cursed and reprimanded me with one voice, but I smiled nonchalantly and said: "This is my shortcoming. The master cannot punish me, because he was very aware of my situation when he bought me." Afterwards, the owner returned home, and when he saw that the house was in such a mess that he could not find a single good item, he was furious.Most of these destroyed objects were smashed by me personally, and the losses have been beyond calculation. Of course, my wife also destroyed a lot of things, but she added fuel to the fire and said to the master: "These porcelains and other things All the belongings were smashed by Bei Haotu." Finally, the owner said helplessly: "I don't know what sin I did to meet such a bastard like you. You caused such a disaster, but you still plausibly said that this was only half of the lie. If you tell the other half of the lie Don't you want to destroy the whole city?" The more the master thought about it, the more angry he became, and he couldn't swallow it, so he took me to see the governor.I was whipped so hard that I was bloody and unconscious.Then I was pierced in the cheek, branded with fire, and brought to the market to be auctioned.Later, as before, no matter which new owner's house I went to, I would continue to make troubles, and of course I was resold as a result.And so, as I went from house to house, my reputation as a liar grew.