Although Shi Deren is greedy for money, but what is before him now is: should he continue to be greedy for those two jars of silver, or should he exchange them for his two biological sons? This made his mind swirl with thoughts, making it difficult to calm down.
The old lady of the Shi family knew that Shi Deren had always been an iron rooster and it would not be easy to take out the money once it was in his hands, so she wanted to impress him with family affection: "Aren, you and Ayi are both my biological children. Son, your hands are made of meat, and so are the backs of your hands. This time, I am not helping A Yi, but helping Li. I hope you can consider brotherly kindness and return the money that belongs to A Yi to him. .”
Zhang Shaofei said to Shi Deren: "Your mother is right, you can't get ill-gotten gains. Things in the world belong to you, and they are still yours; if they are not yours, you can't get them no matter how conspiratorial and deceitful you are."
The old lady of the Shi family: "Ah Ren, I saw that you went to all lengths for that little money, and even deceived your own brother. You completely ignored the family ties of flesh and blood. As a mother, I feel heartbroken!"
Zhang Shaofei spoke very seriously: "If money is gone, you can get it back through other methods. But if family ties are gone, what's the point of living alone in the world? So money is valuable, but in comparison, family ties are more important." It’s so precious!”
Shi Deren looked sad and wanted to deny it but couldn't think of any other tricks, so he could only say: "You make sense."
Zhang Shaofei: "The greatest kindness for a person in the world is to be filial to parents, but you don't even listen to your mother's words. The greatest meaning is to pity each other. Be humble to each other, and everyone will live in harmony and work together. The real repentance is to change." "
Zhang Shaofei's words hit Shi Deren's heart like an arrow: "This..."
The old lady of the Shi family said to Zhang Shaofei: "What you said is like a great Buddhist monk. You are absolutely right."
"I'm just telling what's in my heart." Zhang Shaofei said to Shi Deren, "Goodness is the source of happiness. If you do one good deed every day, your virtue will increase by three points. I hope that through this matter, you will get rid of your bad roots, so that you can You can put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha immediately."
Shi Deren felt aggrieved, stretched out his hands, opened his palms, and turned them over: "Hey, I have never wielded a sword, why should I put down the butcher knife?"
Zhang Shaofei said coldly: "Of course a knife forged from steel can become a butcher's knife that can kill people, but the greed and evil in your heart is also a butcher's knife! The butcher's knife in your heart can harm others, but it can also harm yourself. "
The old lady of the Shi family: "Yes, I also understand what this brother said about Buddhism. There is no better way to know a son than a mother. Ah Ren, Ah Ren, you have done too many evil things over the years. Now even your own brothers If you want to lie, this is unacceptable and will shorten your life!"
Zhang Shaofei: "A wise person will make mistakes even if he is a saint. But if you know your mistakes and can correct them, you must be a wise person. If you protect your shortcomings, you are not a virtuous person in your heart."
Shi Deren blushed when Zhang Shaofei and his mother said: "I... I will try my best to change it in the future."
The old lady of the Shi family: "Aren, don't talk about the future. Do you think that my two grandsons will transform from monkeys into humans in the future?"
Shi Deren: "Auntie, what do you mean?"
The old lady from the Shi family said sincerely, "Ah Ren, you and A Yi are biological brothers, but even if you break your ankle bones, they are still connected to the tendons. Now return the two pots of silver to A Yi and correct your mistake."
Zhang Shaofei said to Shi Deren: "The shining light deep in the human heart is conscience. You always think about plotting against others, but people are doing it and God is watching. There are gods three feet above your head. You will also be tricked by others in turn. Calculating.”
Shi Deren was still hesitating. His wife, who loved his son dearly, poked the tip of his nose with her finger and cursed: "Deren, what are you thinking about just standing there like a piece of wood? Quickly return those two jars of silver to Ayi. In my In my heart, my two sons are more important than those two pots of silver!"
At this point, Shi Deren knew that he could no longer rely on him, so he had to sigh: "Oh, but I declare that I will hand over the two jars of silver, and you must return my two sons to me!"
Old lady of the Shi family: "Of course, I can guarantee this for you, mother."
Zhang Shaofei said sincerely: "Look, although your mother is very young, she still has a clear sense of love and hate and a righteous heart."
"Okay, you follow me to the vegetable garden at the back." After Shi Deren said this, he asked Shi Deyi to take a shovel and follow him to the vegetable garden at the back.
This vegetable garden is not big. There are several strips of land on it, and a few rows of beans are climbing on the intersecting fences.
Shi Deyi worked with him to pull out the beans and fences on the border, and then used a shovel to dig out the soil above about a foot deep, and saw two new clay pots.
Shi Deren blushed and pointed to the new pottery pot and said to Shi Deyi: "The silver is in these two pots."
Shi Deyi bent down and picked up the two new clay pots from the mud pit, wiped off the soil on them, and then opened the seals. Sure enough, the bright silver was inside, filled to the brim.
Aizi's money was recovered, and the old lady of the Shi family smiled.
Shi Deren looked at the old lady of the Shi family impatiently and asked, "Auntie, I have returned the money to De's sworn brother. Where are my two sons?"
Shi Deren’s wife: “Yes, I think they are going crazy thinking about it.”
"Okay, just wait." The old lady of the Shi family said nothing and went out to the second uncle's house at the end of the village. Not long after, she brought Ah Fu and A Gui back.
When Shi Deren's wife saw her two beloved sons coming back, she hugged them in her arms. She burst into tears with excitement and said repeatedly, "I brought you delicious food."
With his understanding, Zhang Shaofei directed a good show of "son turns into monkey", turning the farce of "silver turns into stone" into a comedy of "stone turns into silver".
"Your matter is settled, it's time for me to go back." Zhang Shaofei took the two monkeys and said goodbye to the old lady of the Shi family.
When Zhang Shaofei walked out of the gate, the old lady of the Shi family suddenly thought of something and shouted loudly: "A Fei, wait a minute!"
Zhang Shaofei stopped when he heard the cry, turned around and asked, "Is there anything else?"
"Yes," the old lady of the Shi family nodded, and the wrinkles on her face deepened as she said, "I still have one thing that I can't solve, which has always been a knot in my mind. You are a very wise person, I hope you can Help me again."
Zhang Shaofei asked puzzledly: "What unsolved knots do you have?"
"The piece of mountainous land my husband left behind before he died." The old lady of the Shi family pointed to the hill that could be seen outside the window. "Well, this is the piece of mountainous land next to the big camphor tree."
Zhang Shaofei raised his eyes and said: "That is a good mountainous land!"
"But that's a mountainous area that gives me a headache!" The old lady of the Shi family told the reasons.
It turned out that the husband of the old lady of the Shi family left her a piece of more than 120 acres of mountain land before his death. Knowing that she was old and frail, she wanted to divide the mountainous land between her two sons, lest the two brothers turn against each other over the mountainous land a hundred years later. In fact, what she is most worried about is that her younger son Deyi will be bullied by her eldest son Deren. The difficulty is: the mountainous area is not only high and low, but also faces east and west. How to divide that mountainous land equitably into two halves? She tried her best but couldn't come up with a good solution, so she had to ask the elders in the village to help draw the boundary. In order to divide the mountainous areas fairly, the mountainous area facing west is of course larger than the mountainous area facing east. But how much larger is reasonable? This is really difficult to define. Each time the division was divided into two, the two sons said the division was unfair. Rowing back and forth failed to satisfy both brothers.
"The elders in the village and I were trying to reason with the brothers and talk about family ties until our tongues were dry, but they still refused to give in." The old lady of the Shi family let out a long sigh, "Well, if my husband hadn't left Going down to this mountainous area, I don’t have so many worries.”
Zhang Shaofei comforted him: "You can't say that. Now that there are mountains to share with future generations, that's a good thing. You don't have to lament about it."
The old lady of the Shi family said: "You have great understanding, you must have a good way to cut it open for me."
Zhang Shaofei pinched his chin, knitted his eyebrows, and thought for a long time. After a while, he fisted with his palms and shouted: "Yes."
The old lady of the Shi family stretched her neck: "What can I do?"
Zhang Shaofei put forward his idea: "You can ask your eldest son Deren to go out in person and divide the mountainous area into two parts, and ask him to make the division as fair as possible, and then let your younger son Deyi choose first. Or, turn around. , let your younger son divide the mountainous area into two parts, and then your eldest son will make the selection first."
"Okay! This is such a good idea!" After hearing this, the old lady of the Shi family clapped her hands, the wrinkles on her face loosened, and she smiled until there was only a slit in her eye. Then she asked Zhang Shaofei to follow her into the house again, and told her two sons about the division of mountainous areas. Imagine.
The old lady of the Shi family said to Shi Deren: "Aren, if it's up to you to divide it, Ayi will pick first; if it's divided by Ayi, you will pick first. Which method do you choose?"
Shi Deren tilted his head and thought for a moment, then pointed at Zhang Shaofei and said, "Since he proposed such a plan, it doesn't matter whether I draw the line or my sworn brother draws the line."
The old lady of the Shi family said: "Aren, you are the eldest brother. It is up to you to go up the mountain and draw the boundary yourself tomorrow."
Shi Deren nodded: "Okay."
"It's settled." The old lady of the Shi family turned to Shi Deyi, "Tomorrow, after Aren draws the mountain boundary, you will make the first choice. Do you have any opinions?"
Shi Deyi replied readily: "No objection."
Seeing that the matter was resolved satisfactorily so quickly, the old lady of the Shi family breathed a long sigh of relief and said to Zhang Shaofei: "Hey, you cured my heartache in one fell swoop. I can sleep peacefully tonight."
Zhang Shaofei said: "Since you don't have anything to do anymore, I'm going back to Yunwu Mountain."
"Ayi, let's send this great benefactor off." The old lady of the Shi family and Shi Deyi sent Zhang Shaofei out of the village.
When leaving, Shi Deyi took out a few ingots of silver from his arms and handed them to Zhang Shaofei: "My dear friend, I have troubled you to run around today. This is just a petty thing, not a sign of respect, and shows little concern."
Zhang Shaofei repeatedly refused: "No, no, I can't accept this money. Helping those in need and helping others enthusiastically is what I should do."
Shi Deyi apologized: "If you don't accept it, I will feel uneasy."
The old lady of the Shi family held Zhang Shaofei's hand tightly and said with great gratitude: "Yes, my benefactor, you can give me some face, just accept it."
Seeing how stubborn the old lady of the Shi family was, Zhang Shaofei came up with an idea: "Either way, you can use the money to buy some tree seeds and plant them on Yunwu Mountain. This is our common wish."
"Okay." The old lady of the Shi family and Shi Deyi nodded, "We will take care of this tomorrow."
Zhang Shaofei saw the two monkeys looking up at him, smiled and waved to them: "Zuo, Ah You, go back to the mountain!"
The two monkeys seemed to know that they had completed their "mission" and were going back. They were so excited that they did somersaults on the ground and shouted "Ao, Ao".
