After the wedding, Zhang stopped working completely. He doesn’t go to the field, he sits at home all day, admiring his young, beautiful wife. The more he looks at her, the less he wants to leave the house. Not only did he abandon his work, but because of his wife he forgot about everything in the world.
Six months passed, then a year... By the end of the second year, the wife’s dowry: tables, chairs, and linen - everything was pawned or sold, not a coin was left in the house.
Zhang's wife was truly beautiful. She sits and thinks gloomily: how they played the wedding, the husband never left the house. Day and night he watches over me, does nothing but eats. Soon there will be nothing to live on.
She began to reproach her husband:
“All the people work, you’re the only one sitting at home all day.”
Zhang looked at her gentle face and became alarmed: “I’ll leave, and she’ll start being nice to others.”
Zhang did not listen to his wife and stayed at home again. It’s better, he thinks, that I’ll eat the simplest food, so long as nothing happens to my wife.
But one fine day Zhang realized that they would die of hunger if he did not earn bread tomorrow.
Early in the morning Zhang said goodbye to his wife and went to a neighboring village to look for work.
A man of about fifty met him and asked:
— How to get to the nearest village?
“Let’s go together,” Zhang answers, “I’m going there too.”
On the way, Zhang complained to the stranger:
“I’m an unfortunate man, I left my beautiful wife at home, and I myself go to work so as not to die of hunger.”
- And you put your wife in a bottle, what’s easier!
- What?!
- I'm telling you that it's quite simple. I'll give you a bottle. As you begin to leave, look at your wife, blow into the bottle, and at that very moment your wife will be in the bottle. So you will never be separated from her. Here, take it!
The man handed Zhang an inch and a half bottle and disappeared. Zhang hid the bottle in the bag, repeated to himself everything that the stranger had told him, and, humming cheerfully, hurried home.
The next day he decided to try the magic bottle. My wife was just doing her hair in front of the mirror. Zhang looked at her and blew into the bottle. The wife can see everything in the mirror, but as soon as she wanted to ask her husband what he was doing, at that very moment she lost her memory, and when she woke up, she was already in the bottle.
Zhang calmed down, now no one will see his wife. He returned home in the evening, knocked over the bottle, and his beautiful wife was again in front of him.
But one day Zhang still had to leave his wife at home. He got ready for the bathhouse, told his wife not to go anywhere, took soap and a towel and left.
And the wife just saw her husband off and ran to the river to do laundry. She took her husband’s shirt, felt something hard in his pocket, and immediately realized:
“Eh, so this is the same bottle that my husband hides me in every morning. He never leaves her, why did he suddenly leave her at home today?”
Then the woman noticed that a handsome young man was standing on the other bank, looking at her. The beauty looked at him, became ashamed, and lowered her head. I accidentally blew into the bottle, and lo and behold, the young man had disappeared.
The woman washed the clothes, put the bottle in its place, and slowly went home.
In the morning, Zhang got ready in the field, took the bottle, blew into it, and his wife found herself in the bottle again.
As Zhang walks into the field, every time he remembers the stranger with gratitude for giving him the treasured bottle. Now no one will see his wife. Zhang returned home, knocked over the bottle, and stood frozen in place; a handsome young man stood next to his wife.
What a wonder! How could a young man get into a closed bottle?
But it’s true, no matter how hard you take care, you won’t be able to protect your young beautiful wife!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru