When Brothers and Sisters Argue the Bystander Takes Advantage
Chao Wong is a very selfish and greedy girl.
Her little brother, Chao Pai, is exactly like her but much worse. They lived
in a beautiful palace with jewels and gold that always shone in the sun.
Inside, it had many old possessions from other members of the royal family
who had lived in the palace. They lived in the palace because their father
was a wonderful warlord. The warlord was so busy and caught up with himself,
he didn't even notice or pay attention to his children's selfishness and
greediness.
Chao Pai and Chao Wong fought over small things
like at dinner, who got the plate with the orange ginger jar engraved in
the fine porcelain, or who got the newly bought rice candy out of the box.
Everything seemed to be a competition between them. Not even once would
one of them give in. The children never knew when to stop yelling and screaming
at eachother.
"Dinner!" yelled old Mao to the children upstairs. When they were eating they fought over the same things as usual.Mao was their maid. She had to clean up the palace and she had to take care of the children. Even worse she had to put up with their quarreling. She had to listen and just tolerate it.
One day she just broke down and screamed back
at the children. There was a silence but not for long, they started fighting
right back up again. The next day Mao tried to separate the two and see
how that would work, that was even worse. To her, it seemed as if they should
be put in animal cages. She couldn't stand it so she let them fight.
"Children," the warlord said in a very calm and elegant voice. The children could barely hear him over their own voices because they were being so loud. The children ran over to there father, as usual, they were fighting.
"Children, I have very bad news! I have to leave and I won't be home for a long time. I need you to act like a lady and gentleman and I need you to be on your best behavior," said the warlord in a sad voice.
The children didn't know what to say. Actually, they went on fighting about
who got to use his possessions, who got his room, and most importantly who
got the "Chinese" cup of gold. The other things were to be forgotten
of his. The Chinese cup has been in the family for hundreds of generations.
The warlord left to fight for the emperor in a region far away.
There was news that the palace would be destroyed
because the warlord had cheated the people of the country. The children
didn't know anything about the news. One day, they found out that the palace
would be destroyed by an angry mob of peasants the next day. The children
fought over that too, but they worked very hard to try not to fight but
they still argued.
The palace was destroyed and neither of the children had gotten anything that they wanted. But they did stop fighting and they became very good friends. They stayed friends forever!