89.蜂吻 The Bees Kiss
- THE BEE’S KISS
Lu Xiaozheng was a minor official in northwestern China during the first half of the seventh century, at the beginning of the Tang dynasty, one of the great periods of Chinese history.
Unfortunately, Lu was a tightwad. He couldn’t get along with others. He was mean and even cruel. If his servants did anything he didn’t like, he would bawl them out and beat them. If he was like that to people, just think how he treated animals!
One day he noticed that the tree growing in his yard had a beehive in it. He was so stingy he didn’t even want bees taking advantage of his tree. He told his servant to get rid of the hive, but the bees were buzzing busily around the hive, and the servant was afraid of getting stung.
That made Lu angry. He told his servant to boil up a bucket of water and pour it over the beehive. Hundreds of innocent bees were scalded to death.
That May was hot. Lu was taking a nap in the living room. He was sound asleep. Suddenly he leapt off the couch with a screech and rubbed his mouth. Something really hurt!
It turned out that a huge bee had gotten into the living room and stung Lu right on the mouth! His mouth swelled up. The pain was unbearable. He groaned and bellowed.
The servants came to see what was the matter. They got a doctor who put ointment on Lu’s mouth, but it didn’t work. The swelling got worse and worse and wouldn’t go down. Lu couldn’t even open his mouth to eat, much less to chew!
When the doctor saw that, he shook his head and said, “The poison may have gone into his heart.”
The pain didn’t go away. Lu got hungrier and hungrier, and weaker and weaker. He thought back and remembered the beehive he had wiped out. Maybe this was the result of his cruelty. Maybe. But by the time he thought about that, it was too late to do anything for him.
89.蜂吻
在公元七世紀上半葉，也就是中國最偉大的朝代之一——唐朝初期時候，在中國西北部有個叫陸小正的小官吏。
陸是一個吝嗇鬼。他卑劣而且殘忍，和誰都沒法相處。如果他的僕人做了他不喜歡的事，他就把他們叫出來狠狠地打。如果他對人都這樣，想想他會怎麼對待動物吧！
有一天，他注意到自己院子里的樹上有一個蜂窩。他吝嗇到不希望蜜蜂上自己的樹上做窩。他命令僕人把蜂窩處理掉，但是蜜蜂在蜂窩邊來回嗡嗡叫，僕人們都害怕被蟄。
陸很生氣。他叫僕人們燒一桶水，把水倒在蜂窩上。幾百只無辜的蜜蜂就這麼被燙死了。
這年五月特別熱。陸就在客廳里打盹。他睡得很沉。忽然他從睡椅上尖叫著跳起來，揉著嘴。覺得非常疼！
原來是一只大蜜蜂飛進了客廳，叮在陸的嘴上！他的嘴腫了起來，疼得難以忍受。他咆哮哀叫著。
僕人們都跑過來看看是怎麼回事。他們請來醫生。醫生把藥膏擦在陸的嘴上，但是無濟于事。他的嘴越來越腫，一點也沒有消退。陸甚至沒法張嘴吃東西，更不用說咀嚼了。
醫生看到後，搖著頭說，「毒已攻心。」
腫一點也沒消退 。陸越來越餓，越來越虛弱。他回想往事，想起了自己滅掉的那個蜂窩。也許這就是他殘忍的報應。也許。但是當他這麼想的時候，一切都太晚了。