During the Song Dynasty, there was a fisherman named Hao Hehua in Zhenzhou, who lived with his mother Liu Shi in a village near the river and made a living from fishing every day. Three years ago, Hao Hehua's father Hao Laohan died, since then his mother Liu Shi often went to worship her husband, every time he went, he had to take some grilled fish and shochu and placed them in front of the grave, for a long time, the villagers did not praise Liu's loyalty, and even Hao Hehua also had a reputation for filial piety, so Hao Hehua's fishing momentum was even stronger.
Two years later, Hao Hehua married a wife named Yao Shuangya, at first Yao Shuangya and her mother-in-law Liu Shi were still quite harmonious, and after a long time, Yao Shuangya began to mutter in front of her husband, saying that her mother-in-law Liu always loved to take dried fried fish to the bedroom to eat, making her room smell fishy, Yao Shuangya reminded her mother-in-law twice, did not expect that her mother-in-law not only did not listen, but also scolded her for being nosy!
Hao Hehua therefore thought that after his father's death, his mother did become fond of eating fish, but he did not pay attention to the fact that his mother would hide dried fish and eat them in the bedroom. Hao Hehua suspected that there was something wrong with his mother's spirit, and one night he hid directly outside the window of his mother's bedroom to see what was going on inside.
Hao Hehua found that her mother, Liu Shi, had indeed taken dried fried fish to her bedroom, but she had placed the plate containing dried fish on the bedside floor, and she herself had gone to bed early.
Hao Hehua couldn't understand what was wrong with his mother, that night he turned over and couldn't sleep, and when it was late at night, Hao Hehua sneaked out to the side of his mother's bedroom, but he heard the sound of creeping in the bedroom, Hao Hehua leaned over the window and looked at it, good guy, there were three extremely fat gray rats eating that plate of dried fried fish, and his mother Liu Shi was lying on the bed and sleeping!
Hao Hehua thought to himself, is her mother too lonely and raised mice for recreation? Hao Hehua therefore observed his mother for a few more days, and when he found that her was no different from before, he confirmed his own thinking and told his wife not to take care of her mother's business anymore.
Who knows, the appearance of a young woman later revealed the truth of this matter.
It was March of the following year, the sun was warm and baking, Hao Hehua went to the river to fish as usual, who knew that there were very few fish in the river, Hao Hehua was busy until late at night, only to catch seven or eight small fish, he took the fish home.
Halfway through, Hao Hehua saw a young woman walking in front of him, the young woman's back was very reverie, Hao Hehua rushed to the young woman's side in three steps and two steps, he saw that the young woman was pregnant, so he said: "Why does the little lady walk late at night?" Why don't you go to the villain's house for a night's rest? ”
The young woman heard this, looked at Hao Hehua gratefully, and agreed.
After the two arrived home, Hao Hehua used steamed bread and fish soup to entertain the young woman, but the young woman was disgusted when she saw the meat, let alone ate it, Hao Hehua had to let his wife make a large bowl of noodles, the young woman ate the noodles, very grateful to the two of them, and then made a strange request to Hao Hehua.
The young woman said to Hao Hehua, "Benefactor, if you catch a female crucian carp with a big belly tomorrow, can you put it back into the river?" Because I went into the temple a few days ago to burn incense, the old monk asked me to release my life to pray for my children, so I came to the fishing village, just met you, if you did this for me, I will give all the money as a reward. ”
The young woman said, took out five or six pieces of silver from her sleeve, and put a brain on the table, hao Hehua and his wife happily agreed to the young woman.
After a while, the young woman got up and prepared to leave, and when she walked out of the door, she heard a sound of creeping in a room, and the young woman went to the window to see, and when she saw the situation in the house, her face turned white with fright, and she muttered, "How is it so coincidental!" ”
The young woman said, as if running for her life, Hao Hehua also went over to take a look, he saw that on the ground of his mother's bedroom, a plate of dried fried fish had been eaten to the bone, and for a moment he knew it, but he felt that the young woman was nagging, so he did not go out to take care of her, but pulled his wife to sleep.
The next afternoon, Hao Hehua dragged up a fishing net, and saw that there was a female crucian carp with a big belly inside, and he was trying to put the female crucian carp back into the river, when suddenly a huge gray-haired rat next to him jumped on Hao Hehua's arm, and he bit the female crucian carp and dragged it away, Hao Hehua reacted and rushed to chase it, he chased for more than ten meters, and the mouse put the female crucian carp down and fled on its own.
Hao Hehua picked up the female crucian carp and found that it was dead, Hao Hehua felt some regret in his heart, but he was dead, so it was better to take it back to make fish soup. The hateful thing is that now the rats dare to grab food from people, and Hao Hehua can't tolerate his mother's behavior at once, so he decides to go back and talk about his mother.
In the evening, when Hao Hehua returned home, he cut open the belly of the mother crucian carp, but he regretted it as soon as he opened the belly.
It turned out that in the stomach of the female crucian carp, in addition to the full roe, there were also undigested noodles, which the wife had made for the young woman yesterday!
Hao Hehua suddenly understood that the young woman was a crucian carp, and his heart was regretful and afraid, so he called out to his wife to see the strange, and his shouts alarmed his mother Liu Shi, and Liu Shi ran over and said: "Son, this fish has become a sperm, I can't eat it, or let me feed the mouse!" ”
After Liu Shi finished speaking, he knew that he had missed his mouth, and his face was a little flustered, Hao Hehua took the opportunity to question: "Mother, I have long seen that you are feeding mice, and you are better at feeding a dog than feeding mice!" What's going on here? ”
Liu Shi listened to this for half a day, and finally only said that he liked mice, and said that this matter was related to Hao Hehua's father, so let them be juniors and don't care more!
Later, Hao Hehua could not resist Liu's pleading, so he gave the mother crucian carp and the fish roe in her belly to her mother, and let her make food to feed the rats, but in private he felt that things were strange, so he and his wife informed him and ran to a nearby Taoist temple.
In the Taoist Temple, an old Dao surnamed Xia listened to Hao Hehua's words, his face was very solemn, and he followed Hao Hehua home, but Xia Lao Dao did not go to Hao Hehua's house, but to hao Hehua's father's grave.
Xia Lao Dao looked for a large circle before and after the grave, and finally found a rat hole, Xia Lao Dao burned the wormwood he carried with him and put it at the entrance of the rat hole, after a while, a huge gray-haired rat came out of the hole, Xia Lao Dao quickly caught the mouse, and wrapped it with a red rope, and the mouse could not escape, and even spat out: "Spare your life!" Spare your life! ”
Xia Lao Dao asked the rat to honestly confess the crime, and the rat said that he was a rat who became a spirit in the mountains, and when he saw that Liu Shi often gave her husband a grave, he disguised himself as Liu Shi's husband to seduce Liu Shi, and lied to her that if he wanted to get rid of the rat body, he needed Liu Shi to secretly worship the rat with dried fish for three years.
In fact, this big rat wants his unfinished children to accept human worship, because among the fish that Hao Hehua catches, there are many fish that have become sperm, but if they can't escape the robbery, they are easy to become a dish, and if the rats eat such fish, they can quickly become sperm.
Hao Hehua listened to the mouse's words and instantly remembered the young woman who had become a crucian carp, and Xia Lao Dao told him that all animals with high morality, under the coincidence of chance, they can also know their own disasters in advance like people, and they will take the initiative to avoid disasters and be blessed, but in the end, whether they can escape the disaster also depends on luck.
Later, Xia Laodao subdued the rat and his three newly refined sons, and adopted them as protectors, as for liu, she stopped worshipping rats after knowing the truth, and the Hao family returned to normal.