Maonan story:The man who fears meat

(Narrator: Mr Tan Xin-gai)
Jun. 22, 2005

The man who fears meat

Once upon a time, there was a farmhand who went out to work for this man

as a farmhand. He was a relative of the man. He had worked there for several years, but this relative would not recognize this relation. He would not let him eat well. He just ate the leftover vegetable, the leftover rice.
         One day, the man asked this young boy to come to work for him. He said
         ‘Today we’ll have a break, and have a chat and have some fun.’
         This rich man, he just wanted to play a prank on the servant. He then said,
         ‘Now, of the people living here, some fear tigers, some fear ghosts, some others fear bad people. And what do you fear?’ he asked the servant. The servant said,
         ‘Well, in the past several years, I have been working for your family and have been eating porridge everyday, so I do not know what a piece of meat or a rice dumpling looks like. Therefore, I fear meat and rice dumplings the most. On some rainy days, I went to the market for a walk. I just could not look at the meat. I saw they had those dumplings. I just could not look at them. If you cooked the meat, or the fat meat, and put it there, when I see it, I would become dizzy. So what I fear the most are fat meat and rice dumplings. Of other things, I am just not afraid. You are talking about fearing tigers, I can even hunt them. So when looking at these things, I become very frightened.’
         ‘Really?’ thought the rich man. He then went back home and he then thought,          ‘Really? This man is afraid of this? Now there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s make fun of him, make a prank on him, let him be dizzy and let’s enjoy it.’
         Well, one day, he had made some preparation beforehand. He cooked some meat and made some dumplings and then cooked them. He then left them in the room. He put them on the table and went out to get a bamboo lid and covered the food with it. He then sent for the servant. When the servant arrived, he said,
         ‘Let’s go inside the room and have a good chat and enjoy the liveliness. Shall we?’ Entering the room, he then let the servant sit by the table. They said,
         ‘Well, we are going out for a while. A moment later we’ll have a lot of time to talk. You just wait here.’
         Then they went out. They then closed the door and shut it from outside. They then slowly walked to the window, connected the string that they had just now tied on the lid. They went out and started to drag the string slowly. Well, they now could see the meat and the rice dumplings. They said,
         ‘But let’s wait for about half a day before we enter the room again. Let him die in the room. Eh, it’s enough to make him dizzy and it’s no good to make him die.’
         And then they dragged it open so the food could be seen. They then walked away for a chat. It would be better for them to return some time later. They watched him from the window. They slowly opened the window and looked for him. But they couldn’t see the man, wondering where he’d gone. Just now he was sitting by the table. Now they just couldn’t see where he’d gone. Well, they then returned to the house. They then open the room and saw him, saw, well, saw that he had gone to the corner of the wall, sitting there flabbily.
         ‘Well, we thought he had die, but he didn’t die at all. He’s just snoring loudly. Well, look at the dumplings and fat meat. I wonder where they have gone. Well, Damn! We said we’d fool him but now we were fooled by him! He has eaten up all

the dumplings and fat meat. He had eaten all of them. Well, eating his fill, he was taking a nap. He is now snoring loudly just under the wall. Oh, we have just been hoaxed by him! We thought he is stupid, but we are more stupid than him. He came here to work for us but we looked down upon him. This time we are finished. Next time it would be better for us never to do such thing again.’
This is the end of the story.

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