On this day, Cao Nanshan was building a wooden bridge over the south ditch of Caojiazhuang. The wooden bridge was made of three cypress tubes he carried from the mountain. In order to make the wooden bridge strong and safe to walk on, he also used iron wires to tie three pieces of dove tree tubes together tightly, and put a hoop on the upper, lower and middle sections to prevent the wooden structure of the bridge from loosening.
After the wooden bridge was completed, he was sweating all over, but with a smile on his face. Sometimes he walked from one end of the wooden bridge to the other, and said to himself: This is great, it can not only facilitate myself, but also Make it easier for others.
It was a rainy early summer season. The weather cleared up that day, and a torrent rushing down from the mountains gathered in the ditch, gurgling toward the river outside the mountain.
At this moment, Cao Nanshan was standing on the wooden bridge, watching the full ditch of water swirling like a smile, as if applauding him for his merit in building the bridge.
Suddenly, the ghost Cao Yang appeared. He came behind Cao Nanshan and was about to push Cao Nanshan with his palm. He planned to push him into the ditch, then hold his head and drown him to get revenge. But when the ghost Cao Yang reached out, the Earth God suddenly appeared behind him and grabbed his arm.
The Earth God said in a consultative tone, please spare Cao Nanshan!
The ghost Cao Yang turned around and asked, why should I spare him? I want to take revenge from this life. He freed his arm from the hands of the Earth God, then took out an ID, flashed it in front of the Earth God, and said confidently, do you know? God of the Earth, I have received a decree from the underworld to ask for his life. I must put him to death today.
Back then, in his previous life, he joined a group of strongmen on the Chibi River to rob a ship of soybeans our family was transporting to the north of the Yangtze River. They pushed all seven members of our family into the river and drowned. I will push him into the ditch and drown him today too. No, I am unhappy and angry, why do you stop me?
The God of Earth stamped his feet and spoke loudly, "Oh!" Please listen to my explanation. In his previous life, it is true that he joined a group of strongmen and committed such inhumane bad things, but he has become a better person. You see, this wooden bridge was built with his heart. There are two sides on both sides of the ditch. There are two villages facing each other. Building a wooden bridge here can make it easier for people in the two villages to avoid many detours.
You see, if there is not a wooden bridge here, people from Beicun want to go to Nancun. They need to walk along a loess road more than two miles long along the edge of the ditch, and then pass through a stone arch bridge in the middle of the ditch. You can see how laborious it is to walk. Such a long and unjust road.
The ghost Cao Yang said with an angry look on his face, God of the Earth, let me tell you clearly that I came to him to ask for my life, not to listen to you talk about his merits in building bridges and roads, do you understand?
He has good deeds now and will be rewarded in the future; he has done bad things in the past and has not been punished in the past. Now that the opportunity is ripe, he must be punished. This is natural, you have to distinguish clearly.
The Earth God still said calmly, Cao Yang, don't get angry. I know you have received the decree, and I shouldn't stop you from asking for Cao Nanshan's life. But I have something to say now, and I won’t say it quickly. After I say it, if you ask for his life again, I won’t be able to control it.
Yinhun Cao Yang put the decree in his hand back on his body and said in a gentle tone, "Just say it!"
The Earth God said, let me tell you, this Cao Nanshan is one of the strong men who robbed your family on the Chibi River in the past life: He has been reincarnated as the son of your parents, Cao Hongyou and Xiao Huaihua. Of course, Your parents from the past life have also been reincarnated, and they are Cao Huahua and Meihua who are still married in this life.
The reason why I dissuade you from seeking debt collection from Cao Nanshan is because I think that Cao Nanshan is not only a good man in this life, but also a truly filial son. He is very filial to your reincarnated parents.
At first, the Ghost Judge's opinion was that people in the past should be allowed to turn into beasts early, but considering that he was filial to the Master and still had good roots, he was allowed to continue to be reincarnated as a human being, but he turned into a disfigured person without ears. It is also due to his karma.
The ghost Cao Yang took a closer look and found that Cao Nanshan, who was still wandering on the wooden bridge, did not have ears. The parts where ears should have been were bare, with only two holes.
He was convinced by the God of the Land, and walked across the newly built wooden bridge to the south of the ditch. He pondered for a long time, but stopped talking.
The land god asked, "What do you want to say?"
The ghost Cao Yang said, I think he is quite pitiful. He looks disabled, but he is not disabled in his heart. He is quite beautiful. How about this! Starting today, I will inspect Cao Nanshan for three years. If he is not really filial, but is pretending to be filial, then I'm sorry. Once I find out, I will immediately seek his life to collect debts, that is, I will look for opportunities to push him into the water. Drowning, in the past life he also pushed my family members from the boat into the water and drowned. I also wanted to let him experience the feeling of being drowned in the water.
During the Tomb Sweeping Day of the next year, Cao Baohua and Cao Nanshan and their son went to the ancestral grave hill behind the house to worship their ancestors. In addition to burning incense and kowtowing and setting off firecrackers, offerings of wine and meat were also placed. Cao Baohua took the wine jug and sifted several cups of wine one after another, and sprinkled it on the ancestral grave where the grass had just been pulled out and the loess bags were revealed. The aroma of wine immediately filled the air.
Cao Nanshan instinctively raised his nose and quivered, then asked for the jug and wine cup from his father. Just as he was about to sift the wine, he followed his father's example and sprinkled wine at the graveyard as a sign of sacrifice.
Cao Baohua said, Nanshan, no need, I just spilled wine on the grave. After a while, the sacrifice is over. There is still half a bottle of wine in this pot. You can drink it if you want. It just so happens that there are some plates of pig heads that were offered to ancestors in front of these tombs, which can be used as snacks.
Cao Nanshan said, Dad, let’s drink and eat meat together in the cemetery later.
Cao Baohua said, "I don't taste wine. If I taste wine, my head will be dizzy. You are young. Eat all the meat and wine you can. It's best not to take it home."
Cao Nanshan waited quietly for about a cup of tea with a wine pot and wine cup. Cao Baohua looked at him and made a gesture and said, you can drink wine and eat meat.
Cao Nanshan seemed to be so greedy that he didn't even want the wine cup. He picked up the wine bottle, put the spout into his mouth, raised his neck, and started drinking.
After that, he put the jug away, picked up a plate of pig head meat, and ate it all in a few seconds. Then he picked up the jug again, poured wine into his mouth, and then ate the meat. After repeating it four times, the wine in the jug was drained and the pig heads in the four cold dishes were all eaten. At this moment, Cao Nanshan's ears and face were bright red. He was already slightly drunk and asked Cao Biaohua, Dad, am I drunk too much?
Today is a special occasion. You can't drink so much next time. Cao Biaohua said this with a nod.
Cao Nanshan said "hmm".
At this moment, the father and son went down the ancestral tomb mountain and followed the mountain path to the back of the house. Instead of going home directly, they walked around to the front of the house and walked towards the sparkling Dangjia Pond in front.
Cao Baohua approached the bank of the pond and asked Cao Nanshan to take back the empty wine jug, but Cao Nanshan did not return immediately.
Cao Nanshan was carrying a bamboo basket with four empty plates and was going to the pier by the pond to wash them.
Cao Baohua frowned and said, "You drank too much and were a little drunk. Your body staggered and rolled into the pond. You'd better let me wash you!"
Cao Nanshan said, I'm just a little drunk, it's not a problem, not to mention I'm drunk and I know it, there's absolutely no problem for me to wash four dishes. Then he gave the empty wine bottle to Cao Baohua and said, Dad, you go back first.
Cao Baohua had no choice but to walk back with the empty wine jug, but as he approached the edge of the pond, his sole slipped and he fell into the water with a "bang" sound. As the water splashed about ten feet high, Cao Nanshan, who was washing the empty dishes, couldn't help but plunged into the pond from the pier, and lifted Cao Baohua, who was sinking, with only gray hair on top of his head, out of the water. Hua grabbed a handful of bank grass and climbed up the bank. He was wet and shivering from the cold, so he trotted home. When he came out after changing into clean clothes, Cao Nanshan was nowhere to be seen.
At this time, many villagers gathered around. Cao Baohua asked, have you seen Cao Nanshan?
All the villagers answered in unison, no.
Cao Biaohua said alertly, "It's broken." Then he approached the edge of the pond and shouted loudly, Nanshan... Nanshan...
Knowing that something was ominous, the villagers built bamboo rafts and used iron hooks to fish in the deep water of the pond. Finally, they fished Cao Nanshan's body out of the pond and placed it on the bank.
At this time, Mei Hua, who was weeding in the vegetable garden, rushed home and found that her son was missing. She cried out loudly, "My son!" How did you drown as a water player?
Cao Baohua was also crying loudly and scolding him. At first, I fell into the pond, but my son Nanshan rescued me. I didn’t know he didn’t get up from the pond. I don’t even understand how he drowned because he could play with water.
