---
title: 82.河中的海豹 The Seal In The River
description: "Li Chuntan was in charge of sending foodstuffs down the river to Dachangkou in Huaining, Anhui. One of his subordinates,"
---

82.THE SEAL IN THE RIVER

　　Li Chuntan was in charge of sending foodstuffs down the river to Dachangkou in Huaining, Anhui. One of his subordinates, Gong Kai, came to him and said, "I sure had a strange dream last night."

　　"What did you dream about?"

　　"I saw this old guy with white hair and a long white beard. He was crying when he came up to me and said, 'Help! You have to save my life! If you do, I'll be sure to reward you some day!'"

　　"That sure was a strange dream."

　　Their conversation was interrupted by shouting. All the soldiers in the escort were yelling excitedly and pointing to something in the water.

　　　"Look, sir, "said Gong, "It's a seal! Have you ever seen a seal this far up the river?"

　　The soldiers captured the seal and dragged it right up next to the boat. Li and Gong went over to have a look at it. When the seal saw Gong, it gave him along, deep look. His heartbeat quickened. He remembered his dream.

　　"Sir, I'd like to buy this seal and let it go free. I think it has something to do with that dream I just told you about."

　　"Okay, if you please. It's your money." Gong got out his wallet and was going to give the soldiers a reward for pulling the seal up to the boat.

　　They were all happy. All but one mean soldier called Chen 4 who insisted that he wanted to eat seal for dinner. He refused to take Gong's money. Instead, he snatched up his spear and stabbed the seal in the head. The seal's blood stained the water red.

　　"Don't you guys know how good seal meat tastes?" Chen asked the other soldiers. "What do you want with that measly little tip? Let's have some seal tonight!" Most of the soldiers felt sorry for that poor seal, but some of them didn't care. They helped Chen pull the dead seal aboard, and they ate it with him.

　　Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to eat that seal after all, because before long, everybody who had joined Chen was sick. Chen was the worst of all. He seemed to be suffering terribly. Some of the others took care of him, until he suddenly said, in an eerie voice, "I worked for years to develop my powers. Everything was going smoothly until I had a spell of bad luck and ended up on this river. I asked Gong Kai for help. Everybody had agreed to let me go, everybody but you. You refused to let me go, Chen 4, you refused to give me my life, you took your spear and drove it into my head and killed me! You have taken my life, and now I am going to take your life!"

　　The soldiers looked on in horror as Chen 4 threw back his head and died!

　　Some spirits develop their powers for many decades and even for many centuries. Among their other abilities, they achieve the power of transformation. Science does not recognize these abilities yet, but no matter what, there may be more to the animals around you than meets the eye!

82.河中的海豹

　　李春潭正押送著一船官糧沿河而下，準備去安徽懷寧的大昌口。一天，他的一個副手宮凱找到他說道，「昨天晚上我做了一個很奇怪的夢。」

　　「你夢見了什麼？」

　　「我看見一個白頭髮白胡子的老頭，他來到我面前，一邊哭一邊說，『救命啊！你一定要救救我！如果你能救我，總有一天我會報答你的！』」

　　「這的確是一個奇怪的夢。」

　　他們的談話被一陣喊叫聲打斷了。護送糧食的軍兵們都指著水面上的東西興奮地喊叫著。「快看，大人，」宮凱說，「一只海豹！您這麼近見過河里的海豹嗎？」

　　軍兵們抓住了那只海豹並把它拖到了船邊。李、宮二人走上前去仔細查看。當海豹看到宮凱時，便意味深長地凝視著他。宮凱的心跳都加快了。他想起了昨晚的夢。

　　「大人，我想把海豹買下來放走。它一定和我剛才告訴你的夢有關。」

　　 「好吧，如果你願意，怎麼處置都行。反正是你花的錢。」宮凱拿出錢準備賞給那些把海豹拖上船的軍兵。

　　軍兵們都很高興。但是有一個叫陳四的卑鄙小人卻不同意，他堅持要用海豹肉當晚餐。他不收宮凱的錢，相反，他抓起了長矛刺入了海豹的腦袋。海豹的鮮血染紅了河水。

　　「你們這幫人難道不知道海豹肉有多好吃嗎？」陳四質問著其他的軍兵。「要那點兒小錢有啥用？咱們晚上一起吃海豹肉吧！」大多數軍兵都為那只可憐的海豹感到難過，但是也有些人毫不在乎。他們幫著陳四把海豹的尸體拖上船，然後一起把它吃掉了。

　　不久人們就發現，吃海豹肉絕對不是一件明智的事，那些和陳四一起吃的人都病倒了。陳四病得最重。他看上去痛苦萬分。一些軍兵在他身邊照料著，突然，陳四開口說話了，他的聲音聽 起來很奇怪。「我已經修煉了很多年。一切都很順利，直到此劫難，要我死在這條河上。我求宮凱救我。除了你，每個人都同意放我走。你不讓我走，陳四，你不讓我活，你拿起長矛刺進了我的腦袋，你殺死了我！既然你結束了我的性命，現在我也要結束你的性命！」

　　軍兵們驚恐地看著，這時陳四腦袋突然一歪，死掉了！

　　有些生靈可以修煉幾十年，甚至幾百年。它們可以變幻身形。雖然科學並不承認這些，但是不管怎樣，動物也遠非像你肉眼看到的那樣。