The Grumpy Man
by
Evan
In Hong Kong, one of the biggest cites in China, there lived a grumpy old man named Ching Ming. He didn't like anyone. He also never did any favors for anyone. When he went to the market he had to help himself. No one liked him. But see, this man was very wealthy. He had a room that had ten thousand pieces of silver in it. He had a giant house with big gardens. He would travel to exotic places. If there was somthing new he was the first one to have it.
One day Ching Ming was sitting down and he and remembered that the next day was the Chinese New Year. He was so delighted. He was ready to party. But since he was so mean, no one wanted to party with him. When he thought about it, he knew there had to be someone.
The next day came and went and he didn't even go out of his house. He was so sad. He started being a tiny bit nicer, although people thought he was still not being as nice as he could be. They were a little jealous of his room of silver and his big house. There was only one person he liked. It was his brother Chung Tiz. He lived in the capital of China, Beijing. He also was wealthy, but not as wealthy as his brother. Every Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Chang Tiz would come to his brother's house for dinner. They were very good friends. Ching Ming thought that he should share his wealth with his brother.
One day an amazing thing happened. A voice said,"Be nice or you won't be anything." The man thought about this for a while, trying to figure out what it had meant. Though maybe it meant he would not have any feelings. Funny things happened after that. He had a dream that he would go for a ride on a junk and he did. Another time he thought he had gone to the market but when it was lunchtime there was no food. So that day he went to the market and to his surprise, there was no longer a market where it had been before. It had disappeared. He was puzzled.
The next day he went to see his nice fields and his company. He had found out that they had just made a lot more money. He was so proud. He started treating everyone meanly again. He got the same reaction from the people around him.
That night, when he was at work, one of the people who he had been mean to, robbed his house. They took precious stuff but he did not know who did it. He was very mad and became even meaner.
The next night was the Chinese New Year. That meant his brother would come over for dinner. He told his brother about the robbery and all the things that had happened to him. His brother did not believe him. He thought that he was going crazy. Then at dinner he heard the voice again. This time it said, " Second Warning!" He was astonished . After his brother left, he again thought about the voice. This time he figured it out. He started being nicer than he had ever been before. But still some people thought he would go right back to being his mean self, again.
The next day he felt weird . It felt like his heart was racing. He had a heart attack and died. The problem was he did not even have a chance to take one copper penny with him.
" Even though you amass ten thousand pieces of silver, at death you cannot even take with you one copper penny."