Casey
3/2/98
Literature
AT THE CROSSROADS
A long time ago, there lived two men in a small
fishing village, it was called Shanghai. These two men had wives and both
were very poor, but they still had their friendship. The first man's name
was Sung Li, his wife's name was Sung Zhen. The other poor man's name was
Fu Tao, his wife was Fung Tong. A though the men were not wealthy, they
were almost happy, almost. They were waiting patiently for their town to
grow to be wealthy. The men of course worked hard but that was not enough.
They were still poor farmers, and would always be so if neither one of them
gave some money first.
"Hello Fu Tao" said a familiar voice.
"Why, hello, Sung Li, how are you this lovely morn?"
"Oh fine, but I am still worried about my children's education. If I don't make enough money for my children, if I ever have any, they will be ignorant and forced to be farmers, instead of scholars," Sung Li sighed deeply.
"Don't worry, my friend," said Fu Tao. "Wealth will come when a little goes. We must wait 'til the time is right to invest our money."
Cheerfully, Fu Tao started to milk his cow whistled as he did. "Our money. Speak for yourself!" Sung Li yelled in a very annoyed tone. "I plan to make my money the old-fashioned way, good hard work. All I need is to move to another location where people will want to but my crops."
Smiling, Fu Tao said "Suit yourself and happily went back to his work. Fung Tao knew that Sung Li would never move away, the two had been friends since the world began, or at least that's what it seemed. Fung Tao knew that Sung Li knew that he was not about to leave Shanghai and the two would never split apart. At least Fu Tao thought Sung Li knew!
"Good bye, my neighbor," said Sung Li. "I still can not believe you are moving away, neighbor. I thought we were going to invest our money in that house and rice field," said Fu Tao.
"I told you to speak for yourself and that is what I meant neighbor. Now let us not argue over a little thing," Sung Li cried.
"Goodbye," said Fu Tao. " I know we will meet again, and we will both lead happy lives."
"Your wish seems lovely," said Sung Li. "We will meet again one day, goodbye."
He left without another word, not even looking
back. Sung Li was sad but held his head high, his nose pointed high up I
the air.
"Why don't we join them on their journey
through the country" exclaimed Fu Tao's wife.
"Because," Fu Tao said firmly, "our
loyalty is to our home, Shanghai, and we will invest our money and sell
our investment, then we will be wealthy."
He hugged his teary eyed wife, and walked to
their small house.
"We must get back to our work and not be distracted in any way"
said Fu Tao, sniffling back tears and sadness. "After we have sold
the house, we will buy a bigger house, with chickens and farm animals and
rice fields. It will be wonderful, and our town will be wealthy also,"
Fu Tao explained to his wife.
"Yes, it will be wonderful" his wife smiled, "I know it will."
"Why are we coming back to Shanghai after
we just left in the year of the rabbit and it is now only the year of the
tiger?" asked Sung Li's wife.
"Because our traveling was not working
and opportunity was not coming. The best move we have is to come back and
reclaim our house," said Sung Li in an annoyed voice.
"Neighbor!" a shout greeted Sung Li. A man in fine clothes and jade jewels appeared next to him. Sung Li squinted at the figure, with a confused look.
"Neighbor, I have been worried about you
ever since you left us in the year of the rabbit," Fu Tao greeted Sung
Li with a grand handshake.
Sung Li realized all at once that it was Fu
Tao. "Neighbor," he said, "I can't believe it is you, you
look so-so-so grand. What happened to you."
"Well," said Fu Tao, "After
you left us, I invested all of my money in a little shack not bigger than
mine. I fixed it up and sold it for twice the amount I paid for it. I bought
an even bigger
house, got
twice as much and so on. I now live in the biggest house in Shanghai,"
Fu Tao looked at his house triumphantly.
"So, when our town is tiny and worthless,
I used to own the second largest house." Sung Li said with a smirk.
"Ha Ha, not now, it is the biggest and
most important city in all our land, and maybe if you respect me and beg
on your knees, I will have mercy on you and take you in. Your house has
been demolished."
Sung Li got on his knees and begged to Fu Tao
for forgiveness for all his cruelty.
Fu Tao took pity on him and gave him a small
house, twice the size of his old one. But it would never feel right to Sung
Li staying in his own home out of pity. He would never be wealthy like Fu
Tao was, never. He never worked for wealth.
But Sung Li learned a lesson from this, if
you want some wealth to come to you, you have to let some go.
The End
