The story of Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou

Many years ago, on the slopes of Huangguoshu Waterfall, there lived an old man who planted crops and his wife. The old couple are in their sixties, they have no children and no daughters, and they work all year round, never resting for a single day, but life is always very hard. The old couple often frowned and sighed when they thought of the life of hard work all day long and could not get food and clothing.
　　Since the old man came here when he was young and strong, he cut down trees and thatched grass by himself, and built a grass house, and the family lived alone. He planted a hundred yellow fruit trees in front of and behind the house, and over the years they had grown into a forest, and they surrounded his small thatched hut. The old man sat at the door of his room and smoked a cigarette when he was fine, and his door was facing the waterfall rushing down in front of him.
　　This waterfall originally had no name. It was more than ten zhang wide, rushing straight down from the overhanging rock thirty or forty zhang high, and the rumbling sound sounded day and night, and the water foam flew several miles away like a cow's drizzle. In the morning, when the sun shines on the waterfall, a colorful rainbow appears. At night, when the moon shines on the deep pool below the waterfall, the pool will shine again. This is how the old man watched the wonders of the waterfall every morning and evening. In addition to planting crops, he looked at the yellow fruit tree and spent his years.
　　One year, the 100 yellow fruit trees planted by the old man were somehow very different from previous years. This year, each yellow fruit tree bloomed more flowers than in previous years, and the flowers were larger, and the fragrant wind could be smelled several miles away. The old man and his wife were very happy, and he calculated that this year's harvest must be more than in previous years. Of course Luo! It also sells for a lot more money. Whenever the old man thought that his income would increase, he always grinned and repeated to his wife what he had said many times: "Wife, when the yellow fruit is sold for money, your rotten clothes should be replaced with a new one." His wife repeated the phrase that she didn't say once: "You can also go to the field and buy a few catties of meat for a tooth sacrifice." ”
　　After the yellow fruit flower was grateful, the days passed day by day, the old man looked at this tree every day, that tree looked, looked at it for more than ten days, and never saw a tree bearing a yellow fruit rice. At this time, the old man was sad and disappointed, he didn't want to speak, he couldn't eat, just smoked bag after bag of leaf cigarettes. But one afternoon, as he was dozing off at home, his wife suddenly cried out in surprise outside the door: "Come and see, Huangguo!" The old man jumped up and rubbed his eyes and ran out of the door. At this time, his wife was holding a bundle of freshly picked firewood and was looking up at a yellow fruit tree.
　　"Look, it's a big yellow fruit!" His wife said, pointing to the tree.
　　"Hey, strange, why didn't I see it?" The old man saw that there was really a yellow fruit in the leaves, and said strangely: "This yellow fruit is a bit strange, it has only been ten days since the flower, and it has grown bigger than the ripe one." ”
　　"Let's see if there's anything left." His wife put down the firewood in her hand and said.
　　So, the two of them searched for one tree after another, and they carefully searched for a hundred trees, but they could not find a second yellow fruit except for this yellow fruit.
　　"Don't look for it." The old man said to his wife, who still wanted to look for him: "The life of the poor is always bitter, and you can't find it again." ”
　　A few days later, a rare guest came to the old man's house, who had come from hundreds of miles away after hearing the legend about Huangguo. The guest was no more than thirty years old, and his slender man looked like a tuberculosis ghost, but his eyes shone with a strange light. There are people who know him, and they all call him the old man of Shaanxi (1), but the old man never knew him. As soon as the old man arrived at the old man's house, the first thing he said was: "Old man, do you sell your yellow fruit?" ”
　　"There were a lot of yellow fruits in previous years, and you bought hundreds of catties, but this year's annual success is not good, and there is only one in total."
　　"That's what I'm going to buy." Shaanxi Lao said.
　　"It's a seed, and I don't sell it yet." The old man replied casually.
　　"Sell it, I have the money." Old Shaanxi looked at the old man with seductive eyes and said.
　　"Got money? How much can you come out? The old man asked suspiciously.
　　"How about two hundred taels of silver?"
　　"Two hundred taels?" The old man's heart "banged", although he had seen some scattered silver, but how much two hundred taels was, he didn't know very well, I think it must be more than a lot of silver! When he thought of the word "more", he thought that Shaanxi Lao was playing with him, but looking at Shaanxi Lao's face, he was serious, and it didn't seem to be cheating.
　　"Two hundred taels are too little?" Old Shaanxi said, "Then so be it, I'll give you a thousand taels, this is the fixed money." Old Shaanxi took out a silver ingot of fifty taels from the pocket he carried with him and handed it to the old man.
　　"No, no." The old man looked at Bai Shengsheng's big ingot of silver, and he didn't know how to say it.
　　"One thousand taels is a lot, you can take it." Old Shaanxi stuffed the silver ingot into the old man's hand, and the old man was really a little confused at this time. His wife, as if she remembered something, hurriedly said, "Sell it, and I will pick it up." ”
　　"Don't be busy, don't be busy." Shaanxi Lao hurriedly stopped him and said, "I don't want this huangguo now, and my silver is not enough." ”
　　"And when are you going to want it?" The old man asked.
　　Old Shaanxi first walked under the tree to look at it for a while, then raised his fingers and counted, and then said: "In another hundred days, a full hundred days, I will come to pick up the yellow fruit." But you must remember that during these 100 days, day and night, you must guard this yellow fruit, and no one shall touch it, nor give it to birds and beasts ....... ”
"Don't worry!" The old man interjected and said, "It's rare for me to have a person here for a year and a half." If you are afraid of birds and beasts eating it, you just need to make a cage to cover it. ”
"No, you can't cover it, you have to grow it." Shaanxi Lao said, "You must keep watch day and night, and you must not be negligent at all, otherwise, I will not be able to buy your yellow fruit at that time." ”
　　"Why?" The old man asked.
　　"If you promise not to tell others, I will tell you."
　　"My wife and I dare to swear curses, even if we are three years old, we won't tell him." The old man patted his chest and said honestly.
　　"This-a-yellow-fruit-is-a-treasure!" Old Shaanxi lowered his voice and said softly into the old man's ear. In fact, he shouted a few times but no one heard him, because the sound of the waterfall opposite the door was very loud, and the old man's family lived alone on the hillside, and there was no neighbor.
　　"What's the use of it?" The old man asked.
　　"Well, this ...... "Let's talk about it later!" Shaanxi Lao didn't want to say a word more, and the old man didn't want to ask again, so he nodded and listened to Shaanxi Lao's instructions, and then watched him go.
　　From then on, the old man and his wife took turns guarding under this yellow fruit tree every day, and even at night, they did not dare to close their eyes. In the old man's arms, the heavy ingots of fifty taels made him forget his fatigue; When he thought of the unimaginable amount of "one thousand taels", he always took out the ingots and stroked them.
　　Seeing that the hundred days were approaching, the old man and his wife were also exhausted and were about to get sick. When the ninety-ninth day was over, the old man could no longer support it, his hard-working waist was bent like a lobster, and his red eyes just wanted to close. He thought: "I have been guarding it for ninety-nine days, and the yellow fruit is already ripe, so it doesn't matter if I don't keep it for a day." But he thought, "If you don't keep this day, won't you be eaten by birds and beasts?" The old man thought about it again and again, and finally decided to take it home and put it away in case of accidents.
　　The next day, Old Shaanxi really came as scheduled. He brought no money, but a bundle of silk threads and a rope ladder. As soon as he entered the door, he asked, "Old man, how does the yellow fruit look?" ”
　　"It's ripe, I took it off yesterday."
　　"Taken off?" Shaanxi Lao asked in surprise, "Let me see." ”
　　The old man took out the yellow fruit, which is rare in this world, fragrant and big, as big as a pumpkin. After looking at it for a while, Old Shaanxi sighed and said, "It's a pity that this day is missing, and the strength is insufficient." ”
　　"Speaking of which, what's the use of this yellow fruit?" The old man asked.
　　Shaanxi Lao pointed to the waterfall opposite and said to the old man: "The deep pool under this waterfall is a treasure pit, and some people know that there are a lot of gold, silver and jewelry in the pool, but they can't get it." This yellow fruit is the key to open the deep pool, but unfortunately you will pick it off one day away, I am afraid that the strength has not grown enough, and it cannot be opened. But we can try. After speaking, Shaanxi Lao picked up Huangguo, carried the rope ladder on his back, and walked to the deep pool at the bottom of the waterfall. The old man and his wife helped him tie the rope ladder to the big stone by the pool. After tying it up, Shaanxi Lao picked up the yellow fruit in both hands and threw it towards the center of the pool, and strange things happened immediately: the rumbling waterfall above suddenly stopped flowing, and the deep pool below also dried up all of a sudden. The old man and his wife stretched out their heads to look into the pool, only to see yellow and white shining gold, silver, pearls and gems, piled up at the bottom of the pool like stones and sand, and there were many large and small iron boxes in the middle. Shaanxi Lao threw the rope ladder into the pool with a happy face, and slipped to the bottom of the pool with it, he picked up the yellow fruit very quickly at the bottom of the pool, and immediately carried a small iron box and hurriedly climbed up along the rope ladder. Just as he was halfway up, suddenly, there was a loud bang like the sky was cracking, which frightened the old man and his wife. It turned out that the waterfall above rushed down very violently, and the deep pool below was also filled with water in the blink of an eye. When the old man was conscious, except for the rope ladder in front of them, there was no trace of the old man.
The old man shook his head, sighed, took out the silver that had been touched and shiny from his bosom, threw it into the deep pool without hesitation, and turned back to his wife and said, "This is not what we farmers deserve, and it is useless to keep it." ”
　　Since then, this waterfall has been called Huangguoshu Waterfall. Although it is known that the deep pool below the waterfall is still full of gold and silver treasures, people can no longer find the key to open it.

Original Note (1) A common name for Shaanxi merchants from Guizhou.