The following story is from the Qing Dynasty Xu Fangzhiwei's notebook novel "Nuogao Guangzhi", which has been slightly changed when translated.
In Baodi, Tianjin, there is a rich man, let's call him Li Xiangyu. Li Xiangyu's family is very rich, and the wealth of his family, a few of which also have one and a half million taels of silver, in addition to hundreds of acres of good land, gorgeous buildings, and dozens of servants and maids in the family. In short, his family's wealth and strength are among the best in the local area.
Under normal circumstances, the family is so rich, they don't care about small money, and maybe they can often help others. But Li Xiangyu is different, he is not only very miserly, but also greedy by nature, and he also wants to take every piece of money for himself. In order to make more money, he lost his conscience and manipulated the scales in his home.
Li Xiangyu's scale is a balance scale, he injected some mercury into the copper rod at the horizontal end of the scale, and every time he bought something from someone else, he dialed the mercury to the left, so that what he bought might be 10 pounds on the surface, but in fact it was 12 pounds. And when he wanted to sell something, he would put mercury to the right, so that he sold 10 pounds of things on the surface, but in fact only 8 pounds.
In short, there is a problem with his scale, the same money he buys more things, the same things he sells more money.
In ancient times, one pound and sixteen two, so there is an idiom called "half a pound eight two". It is said that the sixteen two represent the seven stars of the Big Dipper, the six stars of the South Dipper, and the three stars of Fulu Shou. If you lack one or two, there will be no blessing in life, and if you lack three or two, fulu life will be gone. Although Li Xiangyu was not short of two pounds, he was of the same nature, so his retribution soon came.
Li Xiangyu has a son, only a teenager, named Li Lang. In order to let his son study well, Li Xiangyu hired a local Zhao Juren. It was almost the New Year, and Li Xiangyu left Zhao Juren to celebrate the New Year together. However, the Chinese New Year's Eve meals Chinese New Year's Eve are not rich, only enough to eat. Zhao Juren knew that Li Xiangyu slammed the door, and did not say anything, and rested in his room after eating.
In the middle of the night, Zhao Juren heard movement outside, it seemed that people were tiptoeing and walking, getting up to see but there was nothing. When he returned to bed, he heard a lot of footsteps, and it seemed that several people were walking around the house, but they obviously saw nothing in front of them. He was wondering when he suddenly heard the sound of the two talking.
One person said: I have seen it inside and out, yes, it is this family, this family has been pitting people with mercury balances, it has been several years. You say, how are we going to punish him? Another said, "Or we'll burn down his home and turn him into a poor ghost." One person said: No, such a punishment is too light. Another man said: Otherwise let him cut off his children and grandchildren! One person said: It is not good, such a punishment is too heavy. In the end, the two discussed it and said four words, "Liu's Retribution".
Then there was no more sound in the room, and the two men had apparently left.
Although Zhao Juren couldn't see people, he could hear the dialogue, and he knew in his heart that this was meeting the immortals. He wanted to tell Li Xiangyu, but first of all, he felt that the heavenly opportunity could not be leaked, and second, he did not like Li Xiangyu as a person, so he did not tell him. He couldn't understand what "Liu's Retribution" meant, nor did he hear that there was a Liu clan in Li Xiangyu's family.
In order to avoid upsetting himself, Zhao Juren made an excuse the next day and left Li Xiangyu's house.
Not long after, Li Xiangyu bought another concubine, surnamed Liu, very beautiful, full of charms, Li Xiangyu liked this concubine very much, so he snubbed his wife. Of course, the wife could not stand it, but she did not dare to scold her husband, so she took the concubine and became angry. As a result, the family, which was originally quite harmonious, quarreled all day long, and even beat the chicken and the dog.
One day, the wife was scolding the concubine Liu Shi again, but liu shi was supporting Li Xiangyu, and also began to scold his wife back, in ancient times, "the wife respects the concubine and is inferior", and the concubine does this very contrarianly. When the wife saw that Li Xiangyu had indulged the concubine, she was so angry that she couldn't hold back, and even Li Xiangyu scolded her.
Li Xiangyu was furious, and actually disregarded the feelings of knotting hair, picked up his wife and beat her, and her wife was seriously injured and could not move, Li Xiangyu was still angry, continued to beat his wife with heavy punches, and beat her to death.
After calming down, Li Xiangyu regretted it. After the wife's mother's family found out, they complained to the government, and the government quickly found out the truth, and Li Xiangyu did not deny it, so he was sentenced to death, and he was asked to be beheaded after the autumn.
Li Xiangyu's son was studying outside, and when he learned that his mother had been killed by his father, he was so sad that he went to his teacher Zhao Juren to talk to him, hoping that he could save his father.
At this time, Zhao Juren had moved to the capital, and when Li Lang found him and told him that his mother had scolded his aunt and angered his father for being killed, Zhao Juren suddenly realized. It turned out that what the two gods said about "Liu's retribution" meant letting Liu's come to Huo huo li xiangyu.
Therefore, Zhao Juren said to Li Lang: When I left your house, I heard the conversation of the gods and men, saying that I would use the Liu clan to repay your father. I was afraid of tiring myself and did not dare to divulge God's word, so I made an excuse to leave. Your father is manipulating on the scale, ignorant of conscience, doomed to be punished, everything is predestined, people are irreversible, you still mourn and change, be a good person in the future, don't take your father's path. Go home and say goodbye to your father, I can't help him.
After Li Lang listened, he did not believe that his father was manipulating on the scale, wept and worshiped Zhao Juren, and then went home.
After arriving home, Li Lang smashed his father's scale and found mercury. He cried and kept prostrating himself to confess his sins. He spent a lot of money to visit his father, to find connections, to try to rescue his father, but Li Xiangyu was eventually cut off his head.
After Li Xiangyu's death, the concubine Liu Ran away, Li Lang would not run it, and soon the family business was spent. Li Lang later abandoned his studies to become a farmer, carefully planted the few acres of thin land left in his family, and later married and had children, and his life was upright, and he was respected by the people in the village. 、
Comments: Whether you are a person or a person, you must talk about conscience, and you must not think of taking advantage of it, so that even if you can get something for a while, you will eventually lose it and pay a painful price.