A long time ago, there lived two brothers with the surname Wang, their father and mother died, and there were no wives yet. The brothers collected brushwood in the mountains and fed themselves on that.
The elder brother's name was U-gen. People said about people like him: “If you eat, you’re healthy; if you work, you’re sick.” And they also said: “The tongue is sweet honey, the heart is bitter garlic.” U-gen was lazy beyond measure, and cunning beyond measure. That's why they called him Wu-gen.
The younger brother's name was Shi-e. He was an extremely hardworking, honest and truthful young man, he always did good to people and never forgot about his duty. No one for several dozen miles around could say a bad word about him. And they nicknamed the young man Shi-i.
Shi-i used to collect brushwood and go to the city to sell it at the house of the rich man Zhang. He will give away the brushwood, sit on a stone bench in the backyard and wait for the money to be brought out to him. One day he was sitting like this on a bench, and suddenly he saw that the window opposite, covered with light silk, opened slightly, and a girl looked out of the window, she was about eighteen years old. The beauty looks at the young man, and her eyes are large, clear, like water in a spring.
So her name was Min-zhu - Pure Pearl. She was the daughter of the rich man Zhang. The girl, although she grew up in contentment, did not like idleness and always worked. She had noticed the young man a long time ago and today she opened the window on purpose so that he would notice her too.
Shi-i had never seen such beauties and fell in love at one sight. “I wish I could take her as my wife, he thinks, these are just empty dreams. She is a rich man’s daughter, and I am a woodcutter.”
The young man took his money and returned home sad.
A few days later, Shi-i again brought brushwood to Zhang’s house. I sat down on the bench, as always, and waited for a long time. Suddenly he sees that the window opposite, like that time, opened, a beauty looked out of it, smiled, and threw a pink scarf to the young man. The young man turned around, hid the scarf in his bosom, smiled at the girl and ran home cheerfully.
From then on, as soon as Shi-i comes to the rich Zhang, the beauty immediately opens the window. The young man and the girl exchange glances, and when no one is around, they exchange a word or two. Days passed by. The girl and the boy fell deeply in love with each other and agreed that Shi-i would come with brushwood every three days until he had a chance to see Min-chu.
And then one day, just when the young man had to go to the city, he worked for a long time in the mountains, got tired and lay down to rest under a large green pine tree. He pulled out a handkerchief from his bosom, looked at it, and his heart felt so sweet, as if Min-chu herself had appeared before him. The young man was daydreaming and did not notice how the time of the date passed.
And Min-chu waited and waited for the young man, and anxiety overcame her, she opened the window and began to look into the yard.
Suddenly a whirlwind of wind blew in, filling people’s eyes with sand and dust. Following the whirlwind, the Black Eagle rushed, grabbed Min-zhu with its iron claws and rushed off.
The eagle flew to the mountains, got tired and landed on a pine tree. And just under that pine tree Shi-i was sleeping. In his sleep he hears as if someone is crying. Surprised, he raised his head. He looks - a black monster sits on the branches, a whole zhang long, a bird is not a bird, you won’t understand, and in the monster’s claws is a girl in red clothes. Shi-i got angry, grabbed the yoke, jumped up and as soon as he hit the eagle, he broke his wing and paw.
The eagle roared in a terrible voice, squeezed the girl even tighter with its claws, flapped its broken wing and flew away. Shi-i rushed to catch up with him.
The young man ran for a long time, and the eagle flew up to a cave at the top of a steep mountain, with its beak he pushed away a huge stone - because of the tall grass it could not be seen - he and the girl disappeared into the cave, and blocked the entrance with a stone.
Shi-i ran up to the cave, wanted to lift the stone, where it was - you couldn’t move it from its place.
And the sun is about to hide behind the mountain. The young man returned to the pine tree, took the bundles of brushwood and went home. “We need to call our older brother, he thinks, together, maybe we can overcome the stone and rescue the girl.”
Shi-i returned home, and Wu-gen said to him:
“I heard in the city today when I was shopping that the daughter of rich man Zhang was carried away by an eagle. Nobody knows where she is. There are notices all over the city: “Whoever points out where the young lady Min-zhu is, I will give him two hundred liang of silver as a reward. And whoever saves her and brings her home, I will give her to him as a wife and give her twenty thousand liang in gold in addition.” Eh, it’s a pity, I don’t know where the young lady is.
Shi-i realized then that the girl who was carried away by the eagle was Min-zhu, he told his brother about everything that had happened to him, and asked him to help him save his beloved. Wu-gen was delighted, nodded his head and said:
- Hai! Congratulations, brother! We are lucky this time, wealth and happiness will come to our home. We must immediately go to the city and tell her father about everything.
Answers brother Shi-i:
- I don’t need either gold or silver, why do I go to the city? Let's better think about how to save Min-ju.
Here Wu-gen spoke in a completely different way:
“Even if you don’t need gold, you still need to calm down the poor parents, tell them where their daughter is.” If you don't want to, I'll go myself. Wu-gen said this and lit the lantern.
He hurried to the rich man's house to tell everything he had learned about his daughter.
Wu-gen was known in Zhang's house; he also occasionally brought brushwood there. Wu-gen sat down on the bench and started to lie: he saw, they say, a bird, he chased after it, but did not catch up. He didn’t say where the eagle’s cave was, but he promised to bring the young lady home in a few days.
Wu-gen returned from the city the next morning. The brothers took a large basket of willow twigs, a rope, a log and went to the mountains. We reached the top, approached the cave, and how they both collapsed onto the stone! They overcame the stone and moved it from its place. They secured a log at the entrance to the cave and tied a basket to it. Shi-i put the ax in his belt, sat down in the basket, and Wu-gen began to slowly lower it down until he lowered it to the very bottom of the cave. Shi-i got out of the basket, holding the ax tightly in his hand, and began to feel his way in the darkness. He walked and walked, and suddenly he saw that it had brightened ahead, and the road appeared paved with rubble. There are piles of bones on both sides of that road. Shi-i looked at this and became angry: “How many lives has the damned bird ruined. I won’t rest until I destroy her!” He goes further, looks - the forest in front of him is dark, gloomy, in the forest there is a black house, quietly around, as if in a grave, not a sound can be heard. Shi-i hid himself behind a tall tree and looked around. He sees a fence, near the fence there is a stone, on the stone a girl is sitting, crying. The girl raised her head. Shi-i took a closer look - but it’s Min-zhu! The young man was delighted, came out from behind the tree and called quietly:
- Min-ju!
The girl Shi-i saw him and rushed to him, crying.
- How did you get here? - asks.
Shi-i quickly told her everything that happened. Then he asked about the eagle.
“Someone broke the eagle’s wing and paw yesterday.” Now he lies there and groans. At night I got up and drank some potion. “Wait,” he says, “I’ll get better—you and I will get married.” He will eat me if I resist. And people will take revenge for this. For a hundred and fifty miles around he will devour all the dogs and chickens...
Before the girl had time to tell everything to the end, the young man began to whisper in her ear:
- It was I who mutilated the eagle. He still threatens to take revenge! Yes, I will kill the monster so that it doesn’t harm people anymore. I figured out how to do this, only you have to help me.
Min-zhu nodded her head and disappeared into the house. Shi-i took the ax, went to the window, looked - a guy was lying on the bed, his face was black, there was a sharp beak instead of a mouth. His leg is bandaged and he is moaning loudly. Shi-i realized then that this was the damned eagle, gnashed his teeth in anger and clutched the ax even tighter in his hands.
Meanwhile, Min-zhu approached the eagle and said to him quietly:
— Lie on your back, I’ll give you a potion. If you get better, you and I will get married.
The eagle was happy.
“Okay,” he says, “I’ll turn around now.”
He lay down on his back. Meanwhile, Shi-i made his way into the house, crept up to the eagle, raised his ax, swung it and hit it! Killed the filthy creature.
He and Min-chu began to get out of the cave. We approached the exit. The basket, the rope - everything is in place. The young man Min-zhu put him in the basket and gave a sign to Wu-gen. He began to pull the rope and pulled the basket up. Wu-gen liked the beauty, and he planned evil. I’ll get rid of Shi-i, he thinks, and take the girl as my wife.
Wu-gen lowered the basket down, waited for Shi-i to give him a sign, and pulled the rope. He pulled out the basket more than halfway, then deliberately let go of the rope and shouted:
- Ay-ya! The rope broke, I’ll run home and get another one.
He goes down the mountain and Min-chu leads him. They reached the middle of the mountain, the elder brother said to Min-chu:
- Ay-ya! I lost one thing at the cave, sit here, I run away and turn around in an instant.
Wu-gen ran to the cave and began to block the exit with stones.
He thought that his brother had crashed. But Shi-i remained alive. He got out of the basket and looked around: the hole was deep, the edges were steep. He began to think about how to get out of that hole. Suddenly stones fell with a roar from above. Then Shi-i realized that his elder brother had planned evil against him. Now there is nothing to think about getting to the top. And Shi-i went into the depths of the cave.
Shi-i wanders around the cave, looking for a way out. But in front of him there are only stone walls. Suddenly he hears someone shouting:
- Brother Shi-i! Save me!
He came closer and saw a huge carp, more than three inches long, nailed to the wall with three nails.
Shi-i asks:
-Who nailed you to the wall?
- The eagle nailed it. I am the third son of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. I was once frolicking in the water, and an eagle grabbed me, carried me away and nailed me to the wall. He would have eaten me, but someone hurt his leg when he kidnapped one girl. Save me, young man!
He took pity on Shi-i carp, carefully pulled the nails out of his body and rescued the poor fellow. Karp turned somersaults three times and turned into a handsome young man. The young man began to thank Shi-i.
Shi-i says:
- Don't thank me. Tell me better, how can I get out of the cave? You are the son of the dragon king and should know this.
- It’s not difficult to get out of here! Close your eyes and lie on my back.
Shi-i did just that. The wind hummed and whistled in the young man’s ears: ooh-ooh. Before he had time to come to his senses, he suddenly heard:
- Wei! Open your eyes!
The young man opened his eyes and saw a smooth road stretching out in front of him. On both sides of the road there is green grass and bright flowers. In the emerald forest the house glitters with gold. The young man had never seen such beauty before and asked:
-Where have we gone?
The prince laughed and said:
“The eagle’s cave is now far, far away.” And this is the palace of the dragon king. Be my guest, brother, come in at least for a while!
“I can’t,” Shi-i answers, “I need to find out what happened to the girl I saved.” I ask you, brother, take me home quickly!
The son of the soaring dragons answers:
“You are my guest and must first inspect the palace.”
“When will I have another chance to visit the palace of the dragon king? - Shi-i thinks. “I rescued Min-zhu, I can walk here a little.” Shi-i thought so and followed the young man into the palace.
They came to the hall, in that hall precious stones sparkle - you can’t count them. An old man sits in the middle of the hall, his mustache and beard are white and white. Near the old man is a beauty. And they conduct a conversation among themselves.
The young man says:
- Here is my father, and here is my younger sister.
The king of the dragons and the princess rose to meet the guest. The young man told them about how Shi-i saved him from death, and the king ordered the servants to bring jewelry to Shi-i as a gift.
Shi-i says:
- I don’t need anything - neither gold nor silver. It was not for the sake of a reward that I saved your son.
The king of dragons heard his words and thought: “This nice young man Shi-i, I will give my daughter for him.”
The Dragon King says:
“It has long been known: what is yellow with the king of dragons is gold, and what is white is silver; what is round is pearls, what is shiny is precious stones; and scoop up corals and agates by the bucketful. You can’t bear the different clothes, you can’t eat the food, the mansions are spacious and rich. Do you want me to make you my son-in-law? You will be happy all your life.
The king of the dragons was indeed rich, and the princess was so beautiful that Ming-chu could not compare with her. But Shi-i didn’t even think about it and said to the king of dragons:
“Thank you for your kind words, but I already have a wife.” I beg you to take me home as soon as possible. I will forever be grateful to you for this.
A pair of dragons sighed and answered:
- Since you have a wife, nothing can be done.
He ordered his son to take the gourd and see the guest off. Shi-i closed his eyes and lay down on the king’s son’s back. The wind began to hum and whistle in the young man’s ears, and before he had time to come to his senses, he found himself on the seashore.
The king's son took out a gourd, shook it several times and whispered:
- Gourd pumpkin, gourd pumpkin! Turn into a fast red horse!
And indeed, a frisky horse jumped out of the gourd. Shi-i sat on it, said goodbye to the prince and galloped home.
In an instant, Shi-i's horse rushed to the village. Shi-i got off his horse, didn’t have time to look back, and there was no trace of the horse.
I later heard from people that Wu-gen was not happy when he brought Min-chu to his home. Before they had time to arrive, the girl was already in a hurry to return to the mountains to save Shi-i. The older brother did not go to save the younger one. And soon he began to persuade Min-zhu to marry him. Min-zhu did not agree, but Wu-gen told her:
- You're waiting in vain. No Shi-i has been alive for a long time. He either killed himself or died of hunger.
Min-zhu heard this, and a weight fell like a stone on her heart. The girl realized that Wu-gen was overcome by self-interest, and decided to lure him to the city, and there she would figure out how to get Shi-i out of trouble.
The girl says to Wu-gen:
“I agree to become your wife, just first get my father’s consent, let him decorate the house with multi-colored lanterns and flags and make the wedding magnificent.” I am alone with my father and mother, I have no brothers or sisters, all the wealth will go to you. If you don’t go to your father, I’d rather commit suicide and I won’t become your wife!
When Wu-gen heard about the wealth, he immediately hurried to the city.
The next morning, Wu-gen and Min-chu set off on their journey. They did not think, did not guess that Shi-i would suddenly meet them. Wu-gen saw his brother - he doesn’t know where to go from shame, and let’s run away like a hare.
I heard from people that the lazy and idle U-gen went from village to village, begged for alms, and soon died of hunger.
And Shi-i and Min-chu lived happily all century. They did not think about wealth, did not go to Zhang’s house, but returned to the village, worked together and spent their days in joy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru