Liaozhai story "Painted Skin"

Wang Sheng of Taiyuan, a morning trip, met a girl, holding a burden in her hand, running alone, walking very hard. The king hurried to catch up, and saw that she was only fifteen or sixteen years old, very beautiful, and did not feel envious. Ask her, "Why do you go alone in the early morning?" She replied, "People who are hurrying are worried, so why ask more?" The king said, "If you speak out of your sorrows, you may serve you." The woman looked miserable and said, "My parents are greedy for money and sold me to a rich man." The eldest wife was very jealous, and she scolded at night, and she really couldn't stand it, so she ran away. Asked, "Where are you going?" She said, "Not necessarily. The king said, "My home is not far from here, please go and stay temporarily, how about it?" The woman replied happily yes. So the king carried her baggage on her behalf and led her home.

At the entrance, the woman saw that there was no one in the house, so she asked: Why is there no family? Answer: This is a study. The woman said: It's good here, if you sympathize with me, let me live a secret. The king promised her to live with her. Placed in a secret chamber, no one found.

A few days later, Wang slightly revealed to his wife that her surname was Chen, and suspected that the woman was the little wife of the Kuo family, and persuaded her husband to send her away, but Wang ignored her.

One day, the king met a fellow soldier on the road. When the Taoist priest saw him, he was immediately surprised. Ask him: What have you encountered? Wang said: No. The Taoist priest said: You are full of evil qi, how can you say that there is no? The king tried to defend himself. As the Taoist priest was leaving, he said, "You have been deceived!" There are people in the world who are not yet enlightened when death comes. The king doubted the woman for the reason in his words. But I also thought: Obviously a beauty, which will be a monster!

Maybe the Taoist priest wants to use the excuse to get rid of the demon and cheat a few money. When I went to the study, the door was locked, and I was not allowed to enter, so I had doubts, so I climbed over the wall and entered. But the door was also closed, and he quietly went to peek under the window, and saw a demon, his face was turquoise, his teeth were like saws, and his human skin was spread on the bed, and he was drawing with a pen in his hand. Soon, he threw away the pen, draped the human skin over his body, and instantly transformed into a girl. Frightened, the king crawled outside like a dog and hurried to chase after the Taoist priest. But I don't know where the taxi is? Look around and find each other, and finally meet in the wild. With a "bang", the king knelt on the ground and begged for help. The Taoist priest said: This ghost is also very pitiful, and it is not easy

Only then did I find a substitute, and I couldn't bear to hurt his life. Saying this, he handed the dust in his hand to the king, asked him to hang it on the bedroom door, and asked him to come to the Qingdi Temple for something to do.

The king did not dare to enter the study, and slept in the inner room at night, hanging dust on the door. About a little later, there was a noise outside the door, and the king himself was afraid, and asked his wife to see it. Only to see the woman come, looking at the dust and not entering the house, standing for a long time, gritting her teeth and hating away. The film came again, scolding: The Taoist priest scares me, I can't always spit out what I swallow. As he spoke, he took off the dust and destroyed it, broke into the bed, opened the king's stomach, grabbed the heart, and left. The king's wife cried loudly, and the servant lit a candle, and the king was dead, full of blood, so frightened that he did not dare to speak out.

The next day, The King's younger brother Erlang rushed to tell the Taoist priests. The Taoist priest was furious and said, "I pity this ghost, who knows if he dares to do this." Immediately, Tongjiro came to the Wang family. The woman was no longer where to go, and the Taoist priest looked up and said, fortunately, she did not go far away, and asked, Whose house is the South Courtyard? Jiro said, it's my family. The Taoist priest said, "The ghost is in your house." Jiro was horrified, thinking that there would be no such thing. The Taoist priest asked: Have any living people ever come? Answer: I will go to the Qingdi Temple in the morning, I don't know, but I can go back and ask. After a while, he came back and said: Sure enough, an old woman came early in the morning and wanted to be a servant in my house, but the insider refused, and now she is still staying there? The Taoist priest said: It is the guy.

So they went together, and the Taoist priest stood in the middle of the courtyard with a wooden sword in his hand, and shouted: Evil ghost, quickly return me to dust! The old woman was frightened indoors, her face changed dramatically, she went out to escape, the escapers chased, the woman fell to the ground, the human skin came off with a roar, and immediately turned into a ghost, lying down as a pig barking. The Taoist priest cut off its head with a wooden sword, and its head instantly turned into smoke, and it was everywhere. The Taoist priest took out the gourd, put it in the smoke, and in the blink of an eye, he had sucked all the smoke in, and when the Taoist priest put away the gourd and looked at the human skin, his eyebrows and siblings were all complete. The Taoist priest rolled up human skin like a scroll and put it in his pocket. Just as she was about to say goodbye, Wang's wife Chen Shi knelt at the door and cried to save Wang Sheng. The Taoist priest said that I did not have this ability, and Chen cried even more sadly, and he could not afford to fall to the ground. The Taoist priest thought about it and said. My Dao Fa is not deep, and indeed it is boundless to rise from the dead and come back to life. I'll point you to someone who maybe he can ask for. Who is the Q? He said: "There is a madman in the city who often sleeps in the dung. Try to beg him, and if he insults you, don't get angry. Erlang also knew that there was such a person, after saying goodbye to the Taoist priest, accompanied his sister-in-law into the city, and it turned out to be a beggar who was singing on the road. It was covered in filth, and the snot was so long that it was almost inaccessible. Chen Shi walked over on his knees, and the beggar laughed and said: "Love me?" Chen told him the purpose of pleading with him, and he laughed and said that everyone can be a husband, so why save him, and I am not the king of Yama. Saying that, beating her with a dog-catching stick, she was in tears. Watching the lively citizens more and more, forming a wall, the beggar coughed up phlegm and spit into a handful, held it up to the side of Chen's mouth, and said: Eat it! Chen's face was flushed and he was very embarrassed.

But remembering what the Taoist priest had said, he gritted his teeth and swallowed it. I felt something like cotton wool in my throat go down and stop at my chest. The beggar laughed and said, "Beauty really loves me!" After saying that, I got up and walked into the temple, without a trace, before and after, searching everywhere and not seeing.

Chen Shi returned home with shame, thinking of the tragic death of her husband, swallowing phlegm in front of everyone, it was really a great shame and great humiliation, and it was extremely sad. Eager to die immediately, just about to collect her husband's body into the house, no one in the family dared

Approaching, Chen Shi while holding the corpse to pick up the intestines, while crying loudly, the voice was also dumb, suddenly about to vomit, the things that stopped in the chest rushed straight up, wow a gush, too late to see, fell into the husband's chest cavity, it turned out to be a human heart, beating unceasingly in the chest cavity, the heat was fluffy. Chen Shi's heart was very strange, and he didn't want to think about it, so he quickly hugged his chest cavity with his hand. As soon as he let go of his hand slightly, the hot hand spilled out of the seam, so he tore the cloth into a belt and tightened it

Bundled. The body slowly turned warm, and Chen covered the quilt and sat on the edge of the bed to guard. In the middle of the night, the husband took a breath. At dawn, I came alive.