Drilling through the fire ring
Father and son Lao You and Xiao You make a living by performing arts. Early that morning, the two men came to the streets of Lianghe County, set up a scene, and struck the gong three times, attracting onlookers from three floors inside and outside. They were just about to perform their special skill of drilling into a fire ring in public, when suddenly the crowd dispersed. , a group of people walked in. They were dressed like people from the yamen. The leader was a big black man. He waved his hand: "Stop, don't drill!"
Lao You hurriedly stepped forward, cupped his fists and saluted: "My lord, we are entertainers, and we keep to ourselves. Along the way, government offices everywhere have allowed us to make a living as entertainers. I beg you to show your support!"
The big black man raised his hand and said, "Okay, if you pay a tael of silver, you can perform in Lianghe for three days!"
Before Lao You could say anything, Xiao You took a step forward and said angrily: "The imperial court has never prohibited artists from performing. You are blackmailing me…"
Lao You hurriedly stopped his son: "My lord, this child is young and has a unclear mind. You don't remember the mistakes of others!"
The big black man sneered: "It's good that the imperial court does not prohibit entertainers from performing, but the imperial court must resolutely ban the tricks of defrauding the people and defrauding people of money. Aren't you going to perform "drilling in a ring of fire"? Then perform one, and I will see if you are cheating. !”
As soon as he finished speaking, the group of people stood up in the inner circle with a huff, pulled up a chair, and asked the big black man to sit down. Then, their eyes were as wide as buns, looking at Lao You and his son. , for fear of missing the slightest detail.
At this point, Lao You had no choice but to perform seriously so that these officials could not find fault. He explained a few words to his son, and then the father and son straightened the wooden circle on the table, inserted oil paper around it and lit it one by one. In an instant, the wooden circle turned into a circle of fire. Xiaoyou roared, stepped forward, made a leap, passed through the ring of fire, and landed firmly on the ground on the opposite side, unscathed, and immediately received thunderous cheers from everyone.
"Pah!" The big black man slapped the armrest of the chair, "What do you mean by walking into a ring of fire? This is a trick, take it down!"
Seeing a group of people about to rush forward, Xiaoyou yelled: "Wait a minute, you said this is not walking into a fire ring, then what do you mean by walking into a fire ring?"
The big black man said viciously: "Put wax around the wooden circle, and you crawl through the circle. The wax will stick to the person passing by. This is called drilling into the fire circle! Do you want to try it?"
Lao You and his son looked at each other in confusion, and everyone onlookers also whispered, this is not trying to get into a circle of fire, it is clearly difficult for others!
Big Hei didn't care about this. He waved his hand and ordered his men to collect the guys from Lao You and his son.
"Slow down!" Lao You yelled and asked, "Master, what if we succeed?"
"You can perform as you please in Lianghe!"
"Thank you, sir, and please all the fellow villagers to testify!" Lao You clasped his fists around, turned around, opened his backpack, took out some candles, placed them one by one on the wooden circle, walked dozens of steps away, bowed to everyone again, and then started running away . He ran faster and faster, and his figure flashed, and the person jumped across the wooden circle. At the moment of leaping over, the twelve candles around the wooden circle were all lit with a "pop" sound. As Lao You's legs landed on the ground, the entire wooden circle behind him burned into a ring of fire.
Amid the cheers of the crowd, Lao You came to the big man Hei and clasped his fists again: "Please show me your noble hands!"
The big black man stared at Lao You suspiciously, suddenly grabbed Lao You's fist, pulled it open hard, and took out something from his hand. When he saw it, it turned out to be a very small fire stick, and he yelled: "You It’s a candle lit with a fire stick, it doesn’t count!”
Xiaoyou muttered unconvinced: "My dad got in and lit the fire ring. You don't care what we use to light it!"
"You are talking about walking into a ring of fire, but what you are playing is lighting candles. Come on, take them down!" Following the command from the big black man, his men swarmed up and pounced on the father and son. Xiaoyou's eyes were on fire, he clenched his fists and was about to charge forward. Lao You was afraid that his son would cause some trouble, so he tapped his waist twice. Xiao You suddenly collapsed to the ground and became motionless. Lao You clasped his fists and saluted again: "Master, please raise your hands, we will leave Lianghe right now!"
"Catch!" The big black man said the second word without even looking, "Hit!"
The men grabbed Lao You, pushed him to the ground, and beat him severely. After fighting for a while, someone suddenly sneaked up to the big black man and whispered: "Uncle, he… is dead!"
The big black man stood up, walked to Lao You, kicked him with his feet, and frowned: "It's really dead! Bagong carries him away!"
Xiaoyou, who was paralyzed on the ground, could hear clearly, but his whole body was limp, unable to move or even speak. He could only watch helplessly as those people walked towards his father's body.
Those people tried to lift Lao You, but they couldn't. The big black man got angry and cursed: "Trash!" He rolled up his sleeves, grabbed Lao You's shoulders with both hands, and said "Get up" with a strong force! But Lao You's body remained motionless.
Everyone was stunned. The big black man was a famous strongman, but he couldn't lift it up. It seemed that the dead body could not be lifted away. At this moment, suddenly there was a sound of gongs in front, and someone came to report that the county magistrate's sedan chair was coming. The big black man frowned and quickly asked a few people to lie on the ground. Others gathered around them and pretended to treat their injuries. At the same time, he took off several pieces of clothing and covered Lao You's body tightly. As soon as they were ready, the county magistrate's sedan chair came over. The county magistrate saw them in the sedan, ordered someone to get off the sedan, stuck his head out and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Come back, sir!" The big black man knelt down hurriedly, "These brothers went astray in their practice. We are rescuing them!"
The county magistrate nodded: "Be careful!" After saying that, he got into the sedan.
But just as the county magistrate's sedan had just left the ground, a thunderous roar suddenly burst out from the ground: "Master, I was wronged!"
Like a thunderbolt, Big Hei and the others were startled. When they turned around, it turned out that it was Xiaoyou who could speak. The big black man hurriedly covered Xiaoyou's mouth, turned around and said to the county magistrate: "Master, this brother has gone crazy."
The county magistrate nodded and was about to give the order to get up the sedan when he saw a piece of clothing suddenly rolled up from the ground. Where the clothes were blown up, a dead body appeared in front of everyone. It was Lao You!
The county magistrate was startled and asked, "What's going on?"
Xiaoyou on the side yelled at the top of his lungs: "They blackmailed us entertainers. If the blackmail failed, they beat my father to death!"
Seeing the angry expression on the face of the county magistrate, the big black man quickly defended himself: "Master, I heard from the people that they were cheating people by performing arts, so I brought people to investigate. As expected, I found that they were cheating people out of money by drilling in fire rings. I will punish them." , who would have thought that this old man is actually pretending to be dead here."
Xiaoyou was so angry that he almost lost his breath and cried out for injustice. The county magistrate ordered someone to stop Xiaoyou, walked up to him, inspected him carefully, and nodded: "Put the young one in jail first, then carry the old one back to the Yamen and ask the doctor to check him out!" Get into the sedan chair and drive away.
The county magistrate left. After a while, a government servant ran over and asked the black man to go to the Yamen immediately. The county magistrate wanted to see him.
The big black man hurried to the county government office and went directly into the back hall. At this moment, the county magistrate, dressed in casual clothes, was waiting there. When he saw him, he asked unhappily: "Why did someone die?"
The big black man hurriedly explained: "Master, according to your instructions, I collected the miscellaneous taxes from these entertainers, but the two men just refused to cooperate and wanted to fight against us. When the brothers got angry, they attacked a little harder. …”
When the county magistrate heard this, he slapped the table and cursed: "How can it kill someone? Even if it kills someone, it must be dealt with quickly. How can it be left on the street? What a waste! What are you going to do with it, gentlemen?"
The big black man had already made a plan and said: "The younger one has been put in jail. I will ask someone to deal with it in a few days. The old one is dead and was thrown into the wild and let wild dogs tear his body away. Sir Do you think so?"
The county magistrate smiled coldly and said: "This is your business. I don't care, and I don't know. But in the future, we must remember: first, what we want is money, not life; second, I don't want to see dead people. Go down. !”
When it was getting dark, Mr. Hei rushed in excitedly to report that everything had been done. The county magistrate asked someone to set up a banquet, and the two of them drank together. After three rounds of drinking, there was a sudden sound of gongs banging outside. Then, a yamen servant hurriedly came to report: "Master, it's not good, there is a fire in the prison, the fire is soaring into the sky!"
The county magistrate threw away his wine glass and shouted to the big black man: "How could the ghost sedan of the Dream Yin Si in the center of the cell catch fire? Go and check!" The big black man agreed and went out.
In the blink of an eye, the fire reached the back hall, and the county magistrate was crying and shouting, not knowing where to go. At this moment, a figure rushed in, grabbed his belt, tucked it under his arm, and quickly escaped from the county government office.
When they came to a secluded place, the man put the county magistrate down. The county magistrate was trembling all over, but he said: "You saved me, I will reward you heavily!"
"Thank you, sir! Please forgive my son for arson first!"
The county magistrate was stunned, and when he looked up, he couldn't help but be shocked. The person who saved him was none other than Lao You! "You… aren't you already… dead?"
"That's a lie!" Lao You looked at the county magistrate and told the truth. It turns out that at that time, when Lao You saw that he could not get rid of the big black man, he made a bitter plan with his son. He pretended to be dead by using the breath-holding technique, and then his son complained about the injustice in order to end the matter. As a result, he ran into the county magistrate. They thought they could find justice in this matter. But who knew that their officials were protecting each other, and in desperation, Lao You and his son cooperated inside and outside, and set fire to the prison and the county magistrate's home.
Lao You looked at the county magistrate and said harshly: "Master, I know that everything the black man did was your instigation. To be honest, we are all ordinary people. We don't dare to go against the government. As long as there is a trace of If we have hope and a way out, we can endure it. But you can't push people too hard and push us too hard. You won't get good results. You should remember: being an official is like walking through a ring of fire. If you don't get it right, you will You will burn yourselves to pieces!"
The county magistrate thought that Lao You was going to kill him, so he trembled and said, "You want to kill me? If I die, the court will hunt me down, but you will not be able to escape the court's arrest in the end!"
Lao You seemed confident, and he made a condition: "Master, as long as I let my son go, we will settle the matter and we can fly away, okay?"
When the county magistrate heard this, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "Yes! Yes! In the name of heaven, I swear to God that I will never hold you accountable!"
Early the next morning, Xiaoyou was indeed released. He and his father packed their things and left Lianghe County.
At this time, the county magistrate called the big black man and gave these instructions. The big black man took the order and left.
Seeing his men riding out of the county seat, the county magistrate smiled slightly: "Lao You, you are too young. I swore not to pursue you, but I didn't swear not to let others pursue you. Lao You, you don't Knowing that the common people have offended the officials, they are also trying to get into the fire! Binghaha!"
Not long after the county magistrate was happy, someone rushed to report: "The new house is on fire!"
The county magistrate hurriedly looked in the direction of his new house, and saw the fire soaring into the sky, flames flying, and a chill rising from his heels…