The following story is from the Qing Dynasty Zhu Yiqing's notebook novel "Buried Worry Collection", which has been slightly changed when translated.
There was a merchant in Yingdong, surnamed He, who mainly sold medicinal herbs to make money. After his death, his son He Dongyazi inherited his father's business and continued to sell medicinal herbs, and the business was still good. He Dongya has a partner named Zou Zhanxin, who also does business. The two once bought a lot of medicinal herbs and took a boat to Baiyue to sell.
At first, when they took the boat, the two went smoothly, all the way south, and there was no situation. Later, when the ship arrived at the Chishui Gorge, it encountered strong winds, and the fleet was tightly linked, and the cables were always tightly tied to the shore and fixed. In this way, it is guaranteed that the ship will not be overturned.
For several days in a row, it was like this, He Dongya and Zou Zhanxin were bored, got off the boat and went ashore, walking along the mountain road, wanting to look around and pass the time. The scenery along the way was still good, so as they went farther and farther, the mountain road became narrower and narrower, and the two did not feel any danger.
Soon, the two men came to a place, flanked by high cliffs, lined with greenery below, and the thin mountain road was rough and almost covered with weeds. The mountain road below seemed to be a path in a box. As they were walking, a flock of sheep suddenly came running up to them, as if someone was driving them away. Gradually, the sheep came out of the grass, and the two of them took a closer look, and there was a bear in the back!
It turned out that it was the man bear driving the sheep, and the two wanted to escape, but it was too late, and the man bear was already close to the front, and forced the two to have no way out. The two had no choice but to get into the flock and follow the flock. The sheep wanted to go other ways, but they were always stopped by the bears, and there was no way, and the sheep could only continue to walk according to the will of the bears.
Goats can climb rocks, and the sheep climb along the cliffs on the side and soon come to the top of the cliffs. Either jump or there's nowhere to go.
There was a cave next to it, and when the leader saw it, he didn't want to go into it, after all, even if the cave was dangerous, it was better than being killed and eaten by a bear. He Dongya and Zou Zhanxin were in the flock, they couldn't get out and run, and they could only follow the sheep into the cave. Finally, the sheep all went in, and the bears followed them into the cave. After entering, the bear moved a boulder and blocked the cave door.
The cave is very spacious, and many places above are empty or open, and it is full of sunlight, so it is very clear to see inside.
It turned out that there was a cave in this cave, and there were actually many sheep in it, and the other sheep were locked in the sheep pen, which was made of large stones, and this group of sheep was driven by people and bears in a sheepfold, and the stones were huge, and the lead sheep kept trying to crash away, but the boulders did not move. He Dongya and Zou Zhanxin helped the leader, but they still couldn't shake the boulder.
The two hearts are like ashes, and it seems that this life cannot be achieved. At the thought of being eaten by a human bear, the two couldn't help but shiver.
At this time, the human bear blocked the door of the sheepfold with a boulder, and then reached out and grabbed Zou Zhanxin, who sat on the stone, put Zou Zhanxin in the canal next to the sheepfold, and washed his body with his hands. After washing, the bear put Zou Zhanxin on his knee, ripped off his arm and ate it directly, and Zou Zhanxin was already in pain and could not howl. First the arms, then the legs, then the head, and finally the bear ate his body.
In the blink of an eye, the human bear ate Zou Zhanxin alive, and there was nothing left.
At this time, the bears' hands and mouths were covered with blood, and there was also a lot of blood spilled on the ground, and He Dongya vomited after seeing it. The man bear was full, looked at He Dongya, and then leaned on the wall to sleep, and soon, the man bear fell asleep, snoring like thunder, He Dongya and the sheep were staring at each other in horror, and the sheep next to them seemed to be used to listening, and some of them also lay down and slept.
He Dongya was among the sheep, thinking that if he waited like this, he would undoubtedly die, and instead of sitting still, it was better to fight. He saw that there were a lot of weapons and clothes outside, which should be hunters who had been killed by bears, and he thought that he had a weapon in his hand, and maybe there was a glimmer of life. But how do you go out and get weapons?
After looking at it and thinking about it, He Dongya suddenly jumped on a ram, the ram was very tall, He Dongya jumped up from the ram, jumped to the stone, and then jumped down from the stone, and finally jumped out of the sheepfold. Fortunately, he was not injured, and the bear was not woken up.
He Dongya picked two sharp iron forks from the ground, and then slowly approached the human bear, after seeing the eyelashes of the bear, he jumped violently to the human bear, and then exhausted his life's strength, the two iron forks poked at the eyes of the human bear. The bear woke up in pain, and He Dongya took the opportunity to jump to the side to avoid being caught and torn apart by the bear.
At this time, the man bear's eyes hurt, it touched the iron fork, pulled out with force, but unexpectedly because of the excessive force, the eyeballs were brought out, and it became a real bear blind.
The bear was furious, and the thunder roared wildly, and then while touching its eyes, it waved its arms again, trying to stab the person who blinded its eyes. He Dongya hid in the distance, his back against the wall, and the atmosphere did not dare to breathe. The man bear went crazy and smashed everywhere, some of the boulders of the sheep pen were pushed down by it, the sheep came out, and some of the sheep were beaten to death by the crazy fist of the man bear.
After playing for a while, the bear seemed to understand something, suddenly sniffed his nose, ran to the door of the cave, pushed away the boulder at the door, and then stood at the door of the cave and did not go.
The sheep did not understand, and when they saw that the mouth of the cave was open, they rushed to the mouth of the cave. The opening of the cave is narrow enough for only a sheep to pass through. Every time a sheep goes out, the bear will touch the back of the sheep, touch the hooves of the sheep, and after a few touches, let the sheep go. Several sheep in a row, man and bear do this.
Seeing this, He Dongya suddenly understood: This human bear is too refined, it is not boring to do this, it is to check "people". For it is impossible for a sheep to pierce it, only man can. But it could not see it again, and could only determine whether it was a person who went out by touching the sheep's body and hooves. If there is hair on the back and hooves on the limbs, it must be a sheep, and if the back is hairless and the limbs are without hooves, it is a person.
This human bear is really not simple, He Dongya looked around, found a pile of sheepskins on the side, and immediately thought of a way to go out.
He Dongya untied his belt, and while the bear was still checking the sheep one by one, he found a large piece of sheepskin, punched holes in the four corners of the sheepskin with stones, and then draped the sheepskin on his body, and his hands and feet were also wrapped in sheepskin. In this way, I also have hair on my body. But I don't have hooves? In a hurry, he found a few leg of lamb left on the sheepskin and tied them to his hands and feet.
After doing all this, He Dongya learned to climb to the front with the sheep, waiting for the bear to check.
To be fair, if you touch it, you will know that there is a problem, because even if the limbs of the person are tied to the hooves of the sheep, they are not one after all, and if you touch them carefully, you will know the difference. But there was no end to the road, and at this time the situation changed again.
It turned out that the human bear had been impatient because it had to check the goat one by one, at first it still touched the back of the goat, touched the limbs, and the back was also anxious, directly touched the back, felt the hair, patted the sheep's buttocks, and let the sheep go out quickly.
He Dongya followed the sheep, his heart raised to the throat eye, and when it was his turn, the human bear touched his back, hurried to the hair, and then pushed his ass and let him out. In this way, He Dongya escaped and retrieved a small life.
Stumbling all the way back to the boat, He Dongya told the others about it. The crowd was horrified, and they felt that someone had been killed and could not go back like this, so they sent someone to report the case.
The county commander personally came to this mountain with the servants, found that the bear had died at the entrance of the cave, and after going in to check, found that He Dongya was right, so he released He Dongya.
After He Dongya returned home, people found that his skin muscles were very yellow and asked him what was wrong. He Dongya said: After the head bear ate Zou Zhanxin, he looked back at me, and at that moment I suddenly felt that my soul was out of my mind, in fact, I was already scared out of my guts.