MERCHANT

 In Ju County, Shandong Province, there is a pair of brothers named Shang, the eldest family is very rich, the second family is very poor, and the two homes are adjacent to each other, only separated by a wall. During the Kangxi period, there was a great famine, and the oldest two were often left without food. One day, almost noon, Shang Lao Er family has no rice in the pot, hungry stomach, anxious to pace back and forth in the house, but can not think of a way. His wife told him to go to his brother's house for help. Shang Lao Er said, "It's useless to go there. If my brother had pitied my family's poverty, he would have come up with a solution for us a long time ago." His wife asked him to go again and again, so he sent his son. Shortly afterward, his son returned empty-handed. Shang Lao Er said, "How is it! I said it's useless!" His wife asked him in detail what his uncle had said. The son said, "Uncle hesitantly looked at auntie; auntie said to me: 'Brothers have been separated, everyone has his own food, who can care about who.'" Shang Lao Er husband and wife have nothing to say, so they can only take a few pieces of broken furniture, for a little chaff to barely make ends meet.

 There were three or four rogue teenagers in the village, who inquired about Boss Shang's wealth and jumped over the wall into the house in the darkness of the night. The couple woke up from a dream and called out for help, but the neighbors hated them. But the neighbors are very cynical about them, no one to help. They had no choice but to call out to the old man. When he heard his sister-in-law's cry, he was about to rush over to help. His wife stopped him, and said loudly to his sister-in-law, "Brothers have separated, each has his own misfortune, who can care about who!" A moment later, the thieves smashed open the door of the room, tied up the oldest Shang couple, and branded them with a red-hot branding iron, causing them to scream loudly in pain, their voices very miserable. Shang Lao Er said, "They are certainly merciless, but how can I sit by and watch my brother being tortured to death without saving him!" So he took his son and jumped over the wall and cried out. Shang Lao Er's father and son were already very brave, and people usually feared them, and the thieves were afraid of alerting others to come to their aid, so they all fled. Shang Lao Er took a look at his brother and sister-in-law, their thighs were burnt. He helped his brother and sister-in-law to bed, and called the maids and servants, before going home.

 Although the merchant boss was wounded, none of his money or property was lost. He said to his wife, "All this property left behind now is from his brother, and he should share some of it with him." His wife said, "If you had had a good brother, we would not have suffered this!" Shang Boss then stopped talking. The family of the Elder Shang had broken down, and was full of the thought that his brother would surely come to reward him; but after waiting a long time, there was no movement at all. His wife couldn't wait any longer, so she asked her son to carry her pocket to borrow grain, but she only got a bucket of millet. His wife was so angry that she thought they had given him too little, and wanted to ask his son to send it back; but Shang Laoren was quick to stop him.

 After two months, Shang Lao Er's family could no longer sustain itself. He said to his wife, "There is no way to make a living now, so we might as well sell the house to our brother. If my brother is afraid that we will move out, he may not want the deed to our house and may help us, and even if he doesn't, we can still live for a while with the ten taels of silver we get from selling the house." The wife thought he was right, and sent her son with the deed of the house to the Boss of the Merchants. Boss Shang told his wife about this and said, "Even if my brother is unkind, he is still my blood brother. If he moves away, we will be isolated, so why don't we return the deed and give them some money?" His wife said, "You're wrong. When he says he will move away, he is blackmailing us; and if you do as you do, you will be caught in his scheme. Besides, if there are no brothers in the world, must they all die? We have built the wall high enough to protect ourselves. Why don't we take the deed to his house, and move him wherever he pleases, and we can still expand our dwelling." When the agreement was finalized, he signed the deed of sale, paid him the money for the house, and left. He moved to a neighboring village.

 The disgruntled scoundrels in the village, hearing that Shang Lao Er had moved away, again beat their way into the house of Shang Boss. Once again, they seized Boss Shang, and tortured him very cruelly with sticks and rods, and made him hand over all his gold and silver treasures to ransom his life. When the thieves were leaving, they opened the granary of the boss and let the poor people in the village take whatever they wanted to take home, and in a few moments all the food was taken away. The next day, Shang Lao Er heard the news, when he ran to see, Shang Boss has been delirious, can not speak; he opened his eyes to see his brother, but can only use his hands to grab the mat on the bed, not a moment after the death. Shang Lao Er was very angry, so he went to the county court to complain. However, the leader of the thieves escaped and there was no way to catch them. The more than one hundred people who robbed the grain were all poor people in the village, and the government could do nothing about it.

 The oldest of the merchants left a young son, only five years old, since the family broke down, often ran to his uncle's house by himself, and did not come home for several days; if he sent him back, he would cry endlessly. The wife of Shang Lao Er disliked him very much. Shang Lao Er said, "His parents are unrighteous, but what sin has the child?" So he bought some steamed cakes for the child and sent him back himself. After a few days, Shang Lao Er secretly took a bucket of millet and sent it to his sister-in-law without his wife's knowledge, so that she could raise the child. This had become a habit. After a few more years, Shang Boss's wife sold all her fields and houses, and the money she got from the sale was enough for mother and son to make ends meet, so Shang Lao Er no longer went to help them.

 A few years later, there was a big disaster, the road everywhere can see the starvation of the people, Shang Lao Er's family to eat more people than before, and will not be able to take care of others. The nephew is fifteen years old, the body is too thin to do heavy work, Shang Lao Er let him carry a basket, followed by his own son to sell sesame seed cake. One night, Shang Lao Er dreamed that his brother came and said with a miserable look: "I was confused by my wife's words, which made me lose my brotherhood. The fact that you do not remember the old grudge makes me even more ashamed. The old dwelling house which my family sold is still vacant, and you should rent it to live in. There is a cellar of silver buried under the heap of grass behind the house; dig it out, and you can live a little more sparingly, and let my unprofitable son follow you; and as for that talkative woman, I hate her to death; leave her alone." When Shang Lao Er woke up, he felt very strange. He paid a high price to the owner of the house before he could rent it, and indeed he dug out five hundred taels of silver. From then on, he stopped doing small business and asked his son and nephew to open a store in the market. The nephew was very smart, bookkeeping without a single error; for people and very honest and loyal, even if a penny difference must be reported. The second merchant loved him even more. One day, the nephew cried and asked for some food for his mother. Shang Lao Er's wife wanted to refuse to give her; but considering his nephew's filial piety, Shang Lao Er gave her some grain every month. After a few years, Shang Lao Er's family became even richer. Later, when the wife of the oldest Shang Bao's wife fell ill and died, and the oldest Shang Bao was getting old, he split the family with his nephew and gave half of the family's property to him.