Story The man gave food to the beggar, and the beggar said, "Don't eat the food your parents cooked tonight."
During the Ming Dynasty, Liu Fusheng of Zhangjia Village, Qinghe County, Quang Binh Province, did not live as well as his name implied when he was young. When he was less than two years old, Liu Fusheng's father died for some reason, and the family lost its support, and life became extremely difficult.
And in Zhangjia Village, the Liu family is unique. According to the legend of the old people in the village, during the Hongwu period, Liu Fusheng's grandfather wandered here during the migration of the population and settled here. With the death of Liu's father, Liu's family became a home for orphans and widows, lacking the care of the clansmen, and life became extremely difficult.
As the saying goes, "God doesn't die of hunger." "In Zhangjia Village, there is a wealthy Zhang Yuanwai who has a big family, but he has never got a successor, which makes him quite anxious. I heard that marrying a woman with a child can attract descendants for her, so Liu Fusheng's mother remarried Zhang Yuanwai and became his concubine.
However, in the family, concubines with babies usually have a low status, similar to those of maids. Fortunately, Liu's mother was young and beautiful, just eighteen years old, and she was pregnant with her son, so she successfully won Zhang Yuanwai's heart. With his mother being favored, Liu Fusheng also enjoyed a happy time. However, at that time, Fusheng did not know much about his mother's remarriage, and it was not until a long time later that he realized that he was not Zhang Yuanwai's biological son.
When Zhang Fusheng was six years old, Zhang Yuanwai was happy to have a noble son. Liu Fusheng's mother gave birth to a younger brother for her, making her a prominent position in the family and gradually becoming the mistress of the Zhang family. Zhang Fusheng was also stained because of this and was considered the eldest young master of the Zhang family.
However, as time passed, Zhang Fusheng found that since he had his younger brother Zhang Youcai, his family status had declined sharply. Although he claims to be the eldest young master of the Zhang family, in the eyes of his family, his younger brother Zhang Youcai has become the focus of the family. Especially Zhang Yuanwai, he never treated Fusheng like before, often with a straight face, cold and ruthless to him.
When Zhang Fusheng was twelve years old, because he was fighting for food with his younger brother Zhang Youcai, he inadvertently gave Zhang Youcai a slap in the face. Unexpectedly, he was hit by Zhang Yuanwai, received a hard slap, and was scolded as a wild seed. What's even more poignant is that the mother didn't pay attention to it, just picked up her younger brother and cared for her in every way, in order to please Zhang Yuanwai, even her own son could be ignored.
This angered Zhang Fusheng, who was in the rebellious period, and he left the Zhang family's mansion in a fit of rage. When he went out, the reproach from Zhang's mansion echoed in his ears. Wandering aimlessly around the village until the sun went down and the sky grew dark, and the stomach growled. In desperation, he could only quietly return home, and found that the servants in the palace did not seem to notice his departure.
Walking to the yard where his mother lived, he wanted to be coquettish, but he was told to apologize for his younger brother. This made Zhang Fusheng even more angry, and while his mother was not paying attention, he stepped forward and slapped Zhang Youcai a few times, cursing in his mouth: "It's all because of you, it's all your fault!."”
Knowing that Zhang Fusheng was back, Zhang Yuanwai came over and was ready to teach him a lesson. As soon as he walked here, he heard the cry of the little master, and then heard Zhang Fusheng's cursing, and he hurriedly rushed in. Seeing that Zhang Fusheng was beating Zhang Youcai, he hurriedly asked the servants to stop him and beat him severely. After being relieved, he picked up the little master and said, "He beat you **?."You hit him and give it back double!”
Seeing Zhang Youcai's timidity, he didn't dare to fight back, Zhang Yuanwai was furious, not only scolded Fusheng's mother, saying that she had no way to teach her son, but also loudly declared: "The family law serves this wild seed!".Zhang Fusheng's mother was so sad that she could only cry silently, unable to speak out to dissuade her.
This time, Zhang Fusheng was not only beaten to the ground, but also deprived of his surname Zhang and changed back to his surname Liu. Since then, his status in Zhang's Mansion has plummeted, and he has become a subordinate in the mansion, and he has been arranged to live in the backyard, doing trivial chores for subordinates, and living the same life as other servants.
This change made Liu Fusheng's life fall from the clouds to the bottom, and at the same time, he also understood his true identity. Because he was too arrogant when he was the eldest young master, he offended many subordinates and became the most unfavored person in the Zhang Mansion. was often bullied by servants, and became the object of Zhang Yuanwai and his wife and concubine to vent their anger, and was ridiculed as a wild seed;was even often used as a horse by Zhang Youcai, arbitrarily bullied, and scolded.
As Liu Fusheng's mother, in order to maintain her status in Zhangfu and live a life of fine clothes and food, she turned a cold eye and turned a blind eye to Liu Fusheng's humiliation suffered by the people of Zhangfu, and was indifferent to it. This made Liu Fusheng's heart suffer a huge blow, not only physically tortured, but also mentally traumatized, full of doubts about life, and once felt hopeless about staying in Zhang Yuanwai's house.
Liu Fusheng slipped out quietly, but for a child who was only thirteen years old and had never set foot in a distant place, the feeling of confusion and helplessness made him helpless outside. Tormented by hunger and fear, he returned to Zhang's mansion in disgrace, only to find that the gate had long been closed. The gatekeeper said that this was a decision to protect the little young master from Liu Fusheng's madness.
Liu Fusheng became a real street child, wandering outside for several days, suffering from people's ridicule and sneering. Luckily, fate always leaves a glimmer of hope. He eventually met a lame little beggar whom he had given alms when he called "Young Master Zhang", and the two decided to make a living together in Qinghe County.
After arriving in Qinghe County, the lame little beggar suggested that he and Liu Fusheng try to find an errand in a restaurant together, at least to have something to eat. So, they squatted at the window in the backyard of the restaurant, waiting for the leftovers from the restaurant's handout. After lunch, an old man named Steward Liu handed the beggars the mixed meal left by the diners.
Faced with the scramble of many beggars, Liu Fusheng had a plan, pulling the lame little beggar to plan to work in the restaurant, doing some chores such as sweeping the floor, wiping the table, and washing the dishes, in exchange for a full meal. The lame little beggar told him that it was impossible for them. Liu Fusheng followed his eyes to look at his disability, looked at the beggars around him again, and saw the figure of the old, weak, sick and disabled, he seemed to understand something.
After careful consideration, Liu Fusheng decided to take a risk and go to a restaurant to get a job. He wanted not only to solve his own food and clothing problems, but also to help the lame little beggar occasionally. So, after the other beggars left the window, he shouted the name of Steward Liu. Hearing the call, Steward Liu scolded softly, and brought out some leftovers to give to them. Liu Fusheng seized the opportunity and said: "Steward Liu, my name is Liu Fusheng, I am thirteen years old this year, and I am willing to do some chores for the restaurant, whether it is washing dishes and vegetables, or sweeping the floor and wiping the table, just to have a good meal! ."”
In Qinghe County, Steward Liu's feelings for Liu Fusheng are deep and complex. He felt that Liu Fusheng was pitiful but witty, so he decided to let him find a place to wait in the restaurant. So Liu Fusheng got a handyman job in the restaurant, working hard every day, wiping the table, sweeping the floor, washing dishes, tea and other trivial work, but at least he had food and shelter, compared to wandering and begging outside, this is a turnaround. And being able to help a lame little beggar, Liu Fusheng also felt a little sense of accomplishment.
Time flies, and five years have passed. Liu Fusheng started with the most basic handyman work, and gradually rose to become the head chef of the restaurant, mastering various cooking skills. Steward Liu saw that Liu Fusheng was hard-working, diligent and studious, and had a good human nature, so he arranged for him to marry his granddaughter and achieved a good deed.
During this time, Liu Fusheng also helped the lame little beggar grow up under his care. Liu Fusheng had a certain status in the restaurant, and he also wanted to find an errand for him in the restaurant so that he would no longer wander, however, the little beggar was accustomed to freedom and soon quit his job. Liu Fusheng could only sigh helplessly, and no longer persuaded.
Later, a major change occurred in the restaurant owner's family, and Liu Fusheng, with the support of Steward Liu, went bankrupt, took over the restaurant, and became the owner and chef. With his unremitting efforts, the restaurant business is booming, the wealth is rolling, and Liu Fusheng has also become a young and promising member of the rich party.
However, one evening, Liu Fusheng heard the announcement from the running hall and learned that there was a woman outside the restaurant who claimed to be his mother, and a young man who said that he was his younger brother. Liu Fusheng was shocked in his heart, his mother, who had been cold to him for many years, actually appeared.
The appearance of his mother and younger brother shocked Liu Fusheng. The mother is unkempt, very different from the image of many years ago, and is simply a wandering beggar. And his younger brother Zhang Youcai also looks like a hanger. Hearing his mother call him Fusheng, Liu Fusheng burst into tears. He immediately arranged for the maid and the restaurant to help his mother and younger brother bathe and change clothes, and the family was reunited.
It turned out that in the second year after Liu Fusheng left home, Zhang Youcai inherited the family business, and his mother's position was stabilized. And now, a major change has occurred in the family, and his mother and younger brother have come to find Liu Fusheng. Faced with his mother's miserable appearance, Liu Fusheng's heart was full of complex emotions.
With the death of Zhang Yuanwai, Zhang Youcai became the new head of the family and began to preside over the affairs of the Zhang family. However, this period marked the gradual struggle of the Zhang family. First of all, Zhang Yuanwai's concubines, after his death, those young widows left one after another, taking away the wealth accumulated in the family, some returned to their parents' homes, and some remarried, resulting in the rapid loss of family wealth. The more serious problem is that the Zhang family's unscrupulous son Zhang Youcai.
In the case of Zhang Youcai being overly spoiled, he cultivated bad habits from his youth. I don't know when it started, Zhang Gongzi was idle all day long, and he was contaminated with the vice of eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling. With the passage of time, after Zhang You** became older, he sold out his family's land regardless of his family business and used it to buy real estate. In just over ten years, the Zhang family's property was lost, which became a shame in Zhangjia Village. Now, the Zhang family's real estate has long been sold by Zhang Youcai, and he is living in poverty, even begging along the road, and finally defected to Liu Fusheng.
After listening to his mother's narration, Liu Fusheng recalled the brocade clothes and jade food he enjoyed at Zhang Yuanwai's house when he was a child, and couldn't help but sigh: "Thirty years in Hexi, thirty years in Hedong." Although I knew in my heart that this was also my biological mother, she remarried as a concubine out of helplessness, otherwise she might have starved to death.
So, Liu Fusheng arranged for his mother to live in the two-story attic in the backyard of the restaurant, and at the same time help take care of the children, so that his mother could enjoy her old age in peace. For his younger brother Zhang Youcai, Liu Fusheng gave a strict education and taught the truth of reforming evil and returning to the right. Zhang Youcai nodded yes again and again, and even began to work in the restaurant to clean and wipe.
However, surprisingly, Zhang Youcai's work performance was unsatisfactory the next day, cleaning up in a mess, and even complained to his mother that he was tired and had back pain and leg cramps. He also complained about his brother Liu Fusheng, his heart was full of resentment, and he had no gratitude at all.
Knowing his brother's dissatisfaction, Liu Fusheng asked him: "Then what do you think?"”
Zhang Youcai responded: "I am educated, I know how to settle accounts, and I can be in charge of cashier in the store!."”
Liu Fusheng thought to himself: "Eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling are all there, let you be in charge of the cashier, it is estimated that the restaurant will go out of business!"”
He said to Zhang Youcai: "Now that your sister-in-law is in charge of cashiering, you should start small first and learn the skills of a chef, it is better to master a craft than to mess around." If you don't do your job, don't blame me for being merciless, I can only let you get out of here!”
Although Zhang Youcai reluctantly nodded in agreement, he complained to his mother in a blink of an eye: "Liu Fusheng doesn't treat me as a human being at all, he treats me as a subordinate, I can't do this kind of work!."”
His mother chose to turn to Liu Fusheng for help, begging him to be lenient with his younger brother Zhang Youcai, after all, they were both born to their mothers. Liu Fusheng felt helpless, thinking in his heart that this might be one of the reasons for the decline of the Zhang family's fortune. The mother lacks firm assertiveness, always listens to the wind, and is a loser, no wonder the Zhang family's situation is so decadent.
In order to avoid Zhang Youcai from being in the restaurant**, Liu Fusheng decided not to let him participate in the work of the restaurant. Instead, he arranged for his younger brother to take care of his mother and to do some good deeds by distributing the leftover food to the waiting beggars after the meal. However, Zhang Youcai did not know anything about Liu Fusheng's kindness, but became more and more dissatisfied, thinking that Liu Fusheng was humiliating him, and felt resentful, and even spread his anger on the beggars, mocking and insulting them, and throwing food directly on the ground.
Hearing this, Liu Fusheng found Zhang Youcai again, gave him a stern lesson, and warned him that if he didn't behave well, let him get out. However, Zhang Youcai mysteriously disappeared at night, and his wife found that the family's belongings were also quietly taken away, and became angry with Liu Fusheng.
The next morning, when the restaurant opened, he found Zhang Youcai waiting at the door, and after he slipped into the back kitchen to eat, he quietly returned to his mother's room to catch up on sleep.
Upon learning of this, Liu Fusheng decided to teach Zhang Youcai a lesson and planned to let him experience three days of wandering life. Her mother also agreed, because Zhang Youcai's behavior was indeed excessive. Three days later, Zhang Youcai came back disgraced, looking much more honest, but his eyes were still full of resentment towards Liu Fusheng, and he had no remorse. Although Liu Fusheng was unwilling, for the sake of family harmony, he chose to tolerate it temporarily, and regarded Zhang Youcai as an "idler" in the family.
One afternoon, Liu Fusheng came to the backyard on time to do good, distributing the leftover food from the restaurant to the old, weak, sick and disabled beggars waiting outside the courtyard. Finally, a lame little beggar stopped him and whispered to him, "You can't eat your mother's cooking tonight!".”
Liu Fusheng was very surprised, because since his mother came, she was mainly responsible for taking care of the children, and the meals were prepared by other people, and she did not go to the kitchen to cook at all. Why would someone tell him that he couldn't eat his mother's cooking tonight?
In the evening, Liu Fusheng suddenly remembered the reminder of the little beggar at noon. So, he quietly told his wife that he should not eat dinner first. He cooked the meal himself, found an excuse to go out, and fed the food to the chickens in the yard. However, he found that the chickens that had eaten had fallen to the ground and died.
This surprised Liu Fusheng, he quickly called his wife out, and then went to his mother to ask: "Why did you poison the food?".What are your intentions?”
When the mother heard this, she suddenly realized that she cried to Zhang Youcai: "You bastard, you said you wanted to eat the food I cooked, but you actually poisoned the food!."”
Zhang Youcai has an attitude that a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water, and he does not admit that he was poisoned. Liu Fusheng felt helpless, he had done his best to be benevolent to this cheap brother, but the most unforgivable thing was that he actually poisoned his closest family members, which was simply mad and went against his back.
So, he arranged for the guys in the restaurant to guard Zhang Youcai, and then took the food and walked to the yamen, ready to report the case. After verification in the yamen, it was found that the porridge really contained poison. So, Zhang Youcai was escorted to the yamen that night, and the review was carried out early the next morning. But Zhang Youcai did not admit to his death, because he understood that once he confessed to the crime of framing his family, he would not be able to escape the death penalty and was destined to be tried the most harshly after the fall.
Towards the end of the trial, a lame little beggar stepped forward outside the yamen and became a key witness in the trial. It turned out that not long ago, Zhang Youcai was severely lectured and expelled by Liu Fusheng for stealing the property of the restaurant to gamble. During the three days of wandering, driven by jealousy, Zhang Youcai came up with a plan, planning to poison Liu Fusheng's family to death, so as to monopolize the rights of the restaurant and live a life of infinite beauty.
After leaving home, Zhang Youcai secretly inquired about the purchase of poison and purchased arsenic from Yang's shopkeeper's pharmacy. This act was witnessed by a group of beggars, and the news reached the ears of the little beggar at the foot of the slope, and he deeply felt that it must not be a good thing for the younger brother of Fusheng to buy poison. So, while waiting in the backyard of the restaurant to receive the leftovers, he heard Zhang Youcai tell Fusheng's mother that he wanted to eat the food she cooked at night. Combined with Zhang Youcai's bad motive for buying poison, the little beggar on the slope hurriedly told Liu Fusheng not to eat the dinner made by his mother after he did good deeds.
The news reached the shopkeeper Yang of the pharmacy, and he confirmed that Zhang Youcai had purchased ***. During the interrogation, the human and material evidence was complete, and Zhang Youcai could not deny it, so he had to plead guilty. It turned out that Zhang Youcai was not only jealous of Liu Fusheng's good luck, but also planned to poison Liu Fusheng's family and occupy the restaurant because of his inflated desire for money. This conspiracy is revealed, justice is obviously intolerable, and the truth emerges. In the end, Zhang Youcai was sentenced to be beheaded after the autumn, and Liu Fusheng's mother was also blamed for having no way to teach her son and a loving mother who failed her child, and was sentenced to take care of Liu Fusheng to serve as a warning.
Afterwards, Liu Fusheng took his tormented mother home to take care of him. He also tried to invite the little beggar at the foot of the slope to become a buddy in the restaurant, but the little beggar refused, because he was used to living a free life and did not want to be restrained. Liu Fusheng had no choice but to give up, but he still generously provided him with abundant food every day.