Story of the Foreign Fairy Chapter 104

Many years ago, there was a drought in the plains of western Sichuan. How severe the drought was! The trees are dead, the seedlings are scorched, the paddy fields are cracked by drought, the bottom of weirs and ponds are under drought, and the whole sky is filled with a fiery red sun shining on the earth.

On the edge of the village near the river, there lived a family named Nie. In the house there was only a mother in her forties, whom everyone called Mother Nie; and a son who was fourteen or fifteen years old, named Nie Lang. Although they rented a few bushels of land to grow grain, it was not enough to eat, so Nie Lang went outside to collect firewood and cut grass to supplement the income. Nie Lang is very straightforward, hard-working, willing to help others, and listens to his mother. All the children in the village get along well with him. Everyone praised Nie Lang as a good boy.

One day, the rooster had just crowed for the first time. As usual, Nie Lang picked up the bamboo pole and went out to cut the grass. He walked towards Chilongling, thinking as he walked: How could he meet Changsheng? He said that someone gave Zhou Yuanwai's home a snowflake horse, which could travel thousands of miles in a day. Zhou Yuanwai loved it so much that he asked people in the village to cut grass and feed it. He was thinking about something, and unconsciously he had crossed the Chilong Ridge.

The foot of Chilongling Mountain is called Hualong Valley. When the spring water comes out, there are many fish and shrimps, and the edge of the ditch is often covered with green aquatic plants. Now it has become a rocky dam. Nie Lang sighed and was about to go somewhere else when he suddenly saw a white shadow flashing behind the Earth Temple. Nie Lang said in surprise: "Hey, white rabbit!"

Nie Lang thought that the white rabbit ate green grass, so he picked up the bamboo pole and chased after it. He didn't know how far he ran this time. The white rabbit ran to the foot of the rock in Wolong Valley and suddenly disappeared. A city of green and tender grass appeared there. Nie Lang was so unhappy that he took out his sickle and cut a whole section of grass.