boyutpedia Chapter 178 The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl 1
Chapter 178 The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl 1
(This story is purely fictional and should not be interpreted as mythology.)
When Qingmo came through, she was chewing something dry and a little stuck in her throat.
She spat it out with a "Pui!" sound. "What filthy stuff!"
Upon hearing a single "moo," Qingmo could not believe it.
She made a few more "moo" sounds, and the sound... seemed... seemed to be coming from her mouth?
I looked down at myself—good heavens! Whose hoof is this? I dared not open my eyes, hoping it was just my imagination.
She closed her eyes, looked again, and... huh? It was still those hooves! Help! She was dressed as a cow! How could she possibly survive?
If she were to transmigrate into the body of a cow from the Water Margin, wouldn't she be feasted on wine and meat? She has a huge stockpile of beef in her spatial dimension. What kind of retribution is this?
Heaven's way is easy to reincarnate, no one will be spared by heaven.
Staring wide-eyed, Qingmo gazed silently at the sky, tears of regret streaming down her face. If only she had known...
Okay, she'll still eat beef, it's delicious.
She glanced at the cowherd boy sitting on the grass in front of her, lost in thought, and seeing that there was no one else around, Qingmo secretly took out a piece of beef and quickly threw it into her mouth.
As they chewed away, you know what? When cattle and horses eat beef, it tastes even better!
"Xiao Wu, receive the plot."
After a moment, Qingmo didn't know whether to be happy or sad.
To her delight, she transmigrated into the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This world has immortals and spiritual energy, meaning that even if she is an ox, she can still cultivate.
Tragically, she really was an ox, and not a very good one at that. She was the ox in the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl who encouraged the Cowherd to do bad things.
Qingmo didn't know whether the original story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl was true or false, but her version was different from the original.
In her story, the Cowherd was not favored by his elder brother and sister-in-law. When the Cowherd came of age, his elder brother and sister-in-law separated him from his family and gave him only a dilapidated thatched hut and an old ox.
One day, the old ox suddenly gained sentience and could speak human language, but it never dared to speak, fearing that it would be mistaken for a monster and slaughtered for meat.
That day, the Cowherd accidentally stumbled upon a group of fairies descending to earth to bathe. Listening to their laughter and conversation, he concluded that they were fairies. The Cowherd then hid aside and secretly watched for a while before reluctantly leaving.
Seeing that the cowherd looked so absent-minded, the old ox guessed that he must be feeling the stirrings of spring and wanted to get married. But then it remembered that although the family was poor, the cowherd treated it well.
He then said, "Cowherd, I am Old Ox. Do you want to get married?"
The Cowherd was initially startled, but he calmed down later. He had already seen the fairy, so the old ox's words seemed harmless. If the old ox wanted to harm him, he wouldn't have waited until today.
The Cowherd nodded without hesitation, saying that he dreamed of marrying a wife. The old ox then told him that if a fairy descended to earth without a feather robe, she would lose her magic and be unable to return to heaven.
The ox didn't directly tell the cowherd to steal the fairy's clothes; it only told him. If the cowherd were an upright person, he certainly wouldn't do that.
Obviously, he is not a male prostitute.
The Cowherd stole the Weaver Girl's feathered robe and hid it. The other fairies put on their robes and flew away, but the Weaver Girl couldn't find her own robe and was frantic, not knowing what to do.
At this moment, the Cowherd suddenly appeared and rescued the Weaver Girl. Not only did he not take advantage of her, but he also returned home to fetch her a linen garment. The Weaver Girl could not find her feather garment and had nowhere to go. Seeing that the Cowherd was helpful and should be a good person, she went back with him.
Weaver Girl searched for her feathered robe day after day, but to no avail, and she was filled with despair. In addition, although Cowherd was poor, he was quite handsome. As they spent more and more time together, Weaver Girl also developed feelings for Cowherd.
A day in heaven is equivalent to a year on earth. If the Weaver Girl were to disappear for a few days, no one would notice, and the two would live as husband and wife in the mortal world.
At first, the Cowherd treated the Weaver Girl very well, after all, he was marrying a fairy from heaven, who was so beautiful.
But as time goes by, even the most beautiful fairy who falls to earth is just an ordinary person, burdened by the mundane realities of life, which can be overwhelming.
When the Cowherd learned that the Weaver Girl could weave cloth, he lent her money to buy her silk thread. The Weaver Girl was a fairy in heaven who was responsible for weaving clouds and colorful clouds, so weaving cloth was naturally a piece of cake for her.
As expected, the cloth woven by the Weaver Girl was exceptionally beautiful. The Cowherd took the cloth woven by the Weaver Girl and sold it, making a lot of money.
But his greed grew, and he kept forcing the Weaver Girl to weave day and night. No matter how powerful the Weaver Girl was, without her feather robe she was now just a mortal. In addition to taking care of the Cowherd, she also had to weave every day, which left her exhausted.
Later, the Weaver Girl became pregnant, but the Cowherd still kept asking her to weave cloth. Even though the Weaver Girl regretted it very much, it was too late; she could not return to heaven.
The Weaver Girl gave birth to a son and a daughter for the Cowherd, and the Cowherd went from being a penniless cowherd to becoming a famous wealthy man thanks to the Weaver Girl's skills.
It's like killing an ox after it has served its purpose. Year after year, the old ox, apart from speaking up and helping the Cowherd get the Weaver Girl, has been of no use at all. The old ox is old and can no longer do any work.
It is also the only ox that knows where the Weaver Girl's feather robe is hidden. The Cowherd is no longer the innocent cowherd he once was.
Fearing the old ox would speak, he killed it himself, distributed its meat to the servants, wrapped the Weaver Girl's feather robe in its hide, and buried it in the backyard.
The Cowherd thought that this way he could keep the Weaver Girl forever, but he never expected that the Queen Mother would find that the Weaver Girl was missing. She sent people down to earth to search for her and learned that the Weaver Girl had married a mortal. She was furious and wanted to take the Weaver Girl back.
The Weaver Girl appeared to be crying, but inside she was secretly laughing.
Damn it, she's had enough of being a mortal. Every day she has to weave cloth, serve her husband and children, work herself to the bone to earn money to support her family, while those other people are just here to enjoy themselves.
What do you mean, "I only envy the mandarin ducks, not the immortals"? Bah! Isn't it better to be a beautiful fairy? Why do I have to come down to earth and suffer this?
When the heavenly soldiers and generals arrived, they dug up the Weaver Girl's feathered robe in the backyard. The disbelief in the Weaver Girl's eyes was genuine.
She originally thought this man was bad enough to her, but she never expected him to be even worse; it was all part of his scheme.
The Weaver Girl wanted nothing more than to kill the Cowherd, but immortals cannot harm mortals, so she had no choice but to angrily return to heaven.
The Weaver Girl left, and the Cowherd was unwilling to accept it. After all, she was a money tree. Now that the old ox was dead, there was naturally no one to carry the Cowherd to heaven to find the Weaver Girl.
So the Cowherd went to various temples every day to accuse the gods and the Queen Mother of forcibly breaking up his marriage, leaving him without a wife and his children without a mother. The story of the Cowherd also spread among the people.
After all, she's a fairy. A fairy descends to earth and falls in love with a mortal. Who wouldn't love this gossip?
The impact was quite negative, directly leading to a decline in the number of worshippers of the Queen Mother of the West, and her reputation among the people was extremely poor.
Ultimately, the Queen Mother compromised, which led to the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meeting on the Magpie Bridge on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
To this, the Weaver Girl could only say: What bad luck! Stay away from me.
Unfortunately, the human world has mythologized this love story, so even if the Weaver Girl is unwilling, she has to suppress her disgust and visit this scoundrel every year.