The Fragrant Fart
故事全文
Once upon a time, there were two brothers. The older brother was lazy and unkind, and the younger brother was honest and polite. When their father died, the older brother tricked the younger brother out of most of his inheritance, leaving the younger brother with a tiny sugarcane field. The older brother wanted the ox for himself too, so he told his brother, “Let's see who can move the ox. I'll pull its nose and you can pull its tail. Whoever moves the ox can bring it home.” When the brothers started to pull the ox, the wife of the older brother patted the ox's back and the ox moved forward. The younger brother got nothing but a flea from its tail. Their neighbor saw this and felt sorry for the younger brother, so he gave the younger brother a rooster.
One day, the younger brother brought the rooster with him to a wedding banquet, but it was eaten by the host's dog. The younger brother was sad and cried loudly. Fearing that the crying would be inauspicious for the wedding, the host gave the younger brother the dog as compensation. The next day, the younger brother brought the dog with him to till the field. A rice merchant who was passing by felt amused. He made a bet with the younger brother, “If your dog tills this field, I'll give you all my rice for free.” The younger brother agreed to the bet and threw a rice ball in front of the dog. The dog saw the rice ball and ran forward, dragging the plow. When the dog almost got to the rice ball, the younger brother picked it up and threw it further away. The dog kept chasing the rice ball, and before long, the sugarcane field was completely tilled. The merchant ended up giving the younger brother all of his rice. The older brother heard about the dog and borrowed it from the younger brother. He made a bet with a cloth merchant that the dog could till the field. This time, the dog refused to move because it had learned its lesson. Having lost the bet, the older brother was furious and beat the dog to death.
The younger brother was sad to see that his dog had died, and cried while he buried it. One month later, black beans sprouted from the dog's grave. The younger brother cooked the beans and ate it. Strangely, after eating the black beans, he began to fart loudly. Even more strangely, the fart smelled nice! The younger brother decided to go to the city to sell his fragrant farts. The county magistrate heard about this and told the younger brother, “If your fart is indeed fragrant, I will reward you with twenty ingots of silver. However, if your fart doesn't smell good, I will beat you twenty times with a stick!” The younger brother got the reward in the end. When his greedy brother heard about the reward, he also cooked and ate the black beans, and went to find the county magistrate to sell his fart. However, his fart smelled awful and the county magistrate beat him twenty times with a stick.
In the end, the younger brother's fart cured the daughter of a rich landowner. He was not only rewarded with a lot of gold, he also married the landowner's daughter.
