While a dike was under construction in Mozhou,
a young woman was seen one day walking on the embankment with a bundle.
Looking tired, she sat down for a rest under a willow tree, where a few
dozen laborers happened to be enjoying their break. She told them she was
on her way back from her parents’ house. She had been riding a donkey with
her younger brother holding the halter, but the donkey galloped halfway,
throwing her to the ground. Running after the donkey, her brother disappeared
into a sorghum field. She waited from morning till noon, but he failed
to come back. Her house was just four or five li to the northwest, and
she offered to pay a hundred copper coins to anyone for carrying the bundle
for her and walking her home. One of the young laborers thought to himself,
“I can take the chance to make advances at her. Even if she rejects me,
I will still earn some money.” So he set off with her.
On their way the young laborer kept teasing the young woman,
who neither answered nor rebuked him. They had walked three or four li
when over half a dozen men accosted them, shouting, “How dare you take
liberties with a woman from our family, you scoundrel?” Swarming over,
they tied up the laborer and gave him a sound beating. “Let’s bury him
alive here rather than take him to the yamen!” they said. The young woman
then described how he had provoked her with lewd remarks. Unable to defend
himself, he could only beg for mercy repeatedly. At this one of the men
said, “We’ll spare you if you dig up this ridge to drain off the water.”
They handed him a spade, then sat down urging him to quicken his work.
At midnight, when he finally drained away the water, the woman and the
men all disappeared, and he found himself surrounded by reeds, without
any village in sight. Some people guessed the young laborer had been trapped
by some foxes to drain water from their flooded lair. |
