70.燉屠夫 Butcher Stew
- BUTCHER STEW
“You have to go, whether you want to or not！” The fierce butcher hauled on the rope with all his might. The old cow on the other end of the rope knew what was going on. It lowered its head and refused to budge.
“Hurry up, will you!” The butcher pulled out a whip, and cursed as he whipped the old cow. They struggled all the way up the street this way, one cursing and pulling, the other silently resisting.
When they got to a bank, the cow suddenly dropped to its knees in front of the door and started to cry. Big tears rolled down its bovine face. The president of the bank came out to see what the commotion was about. The cow looked so sad!
“Butcher, what is the price for this cow?” he asked.
“It cost 8,000, but I’m not selling it!”
“I’11 give you 10,000, what do you say?” The bank president was touched by the cow’s tears, and had decided to save its life.
But the butcher sneered and said, “This cow has given me a load of trouble!I’ve had it with this cow. I’m going to chop off its head and hack it to death,that’s what I’m going to do! And I’m NOT going to sell it to you, so don’t even bother to raise your price!”
The old cow seemed to understand human speech. When it heard that, it got to its feet with a sigh and went with the butcher.
The butcher was furious that the cow had tried to beg for its life. Instead of taking it to the market, he took it to his own house and chopped it into pieces.He threw the pieces into his biggest wok to cook.
By then it was late, so he left the wok on the fire overnight, so it would be thoroughly cooked and delicious in the morning. Then he went to bed.
But early the next morning, his wife heard him get out of bed. “I’m going to check the fire and see how the beef is doing,” he said.
Much later, his wife realized that he still hadn’t come back yet. She got out of bed to look for him. In the kitchen, she saw the fire was still going under the wok – somehow her husband had slipped and fallen into the wok and was cooking with the beef!
70.燉屠夫
「你給我走，不管你願不願意！」凶狠的屠夫使勁拉著繩子。繩子另一端，是一頭老牛，它知道將會發生什麼事，低下頭，堅決 不走了。
「快點！」屠夫拿出了一根鞭子，一邊鞭打老牛一邊咒罵。他們就這樣子艱難地在街上對峙著，一個一邊拉一邊罵，一個默默地反抗。
當他們來到一個銀莊前的時候，那頭牛忽然在門前跪下來，痛哭流涕。大顆大顆的眼淚從它的臉上滑落。銀莊老闆出來看看外面的騷動是怎麼回事。那頭牛看上去那麼悲傷！
「屠夫，這頭牛的價錢是多少？」他問。
「8000塊，但我不賣！」
「我出10000，怎麼樣？」銀莊老闆被牛的眼淚感動了，他下決心一定要救它的命。
屠夫冷笑了一下，說，「這頭牛給我惹了一堆麻煩！我讓它折騰夠了。我要把它的頭砍下來，殺死它，這就是我將要做的！我絕對不會賣給你的，你也不必這麼麻煩抬價了。」
老牛好像能聽懂人言。它聽了後，嘆了一聲，站起來，隨屠夫走了。
屠夫因為老牛曾經求人饒命而勃然大怒。他沒有把牛帶到市場去，而是帶回了家。他把牛剁成碎片，然後把牛肉扔到最大的一口鍋里煮。
這時候已經很晚了，所以他把鍋放在爐上煮過夜，這樣第二天就有香噴噴的熟牛肉了。然後他上床睡了。
第二天一大早，他的妻子聽到他起床了。「我去看看火，順便看看那些肉怎麼樣了。」他說。
很久後，他的妻子才意識到他還沒有回來，于是她起床去找他。在廚房里，她看到鍋底的火還在熊熊燒著 ——她丈夫不知道怎麼滑到鍋里去了，正和牛肉一起被煮著呢！