The Dragon's Shell

The Dragon's Shell

Once upon a time,there was a dragon living in a pool in the mountain.The pool was like a jade inlaid in the valley,surrounded by willow trees and various beautiful mountain flowers.However,the dragon always thought the pool was too small and wanted to find a bigger place to live.So,he took off his dragon shell and put the shell in a baggage.He transformed into a man named Li Sheng and went to find a place to build a great dragon pool.

One day in autumn,he came to Diansuo Bazi in Yuxi area and was extremely happy to see the flat and wide Bazi surrounded by mountains.The water formed by two clear springs streamed out of the mountain entrance in the west of the Bazi.He thought to himself:Only if I block the entrance of that mountain,it will be a sea and I will become the dragon king of the sea!

That night,Li Sheng found a small hill by the clear river.It was just big enough to fill in the entrance.He put on his dragon shell and began to remove the hill.With a gust of wind and a heavy rain,he carried up the hill and moved it slowly to Diansuo Bazi.At dawn,he was exhausted,so he took off his shell and put it into the baggage to lie down to rest.Soon he fell asleep with snoring.

The villagers were worried that the heavy rain at night would flood the rice which would be ripe soon.At dawn,they shouldered hoes one by one to drain the water.An old man came out and saw a small hill sticking out in the Bazi.When he ran nearer,he could not help crying,“Oh,Good Heavens,what can I do?”It turned out that his field was just pinned down by the small hill.The old man walked around and saw a man lying at the foot of the hill.He quickly woke him up and asked,“Why do you sleep here?Do you know how this hill came from?”

After Li Sheng realized that the sky was bright and he couldn't block the entrance,he became angry with the old man,“I,Li Sheng,moved it here.What do you want to do?”

The old man grabbed Li Sheng and said,“Move the hill away quickly.”

The villagers saw a hill in the Bazi and came to see it one after another.When the old man told them the story,they were all trembling with anger.Several angry young men came forward to hold Li Sheng and took his baggage away.“How did you move the hill to here?If you don't tell us the truth,you'll be tied up!”said they.

Li Sheng's face turned pale with fear.He thought:“If I am tied up and the dragon shell was taken away,everything would be over.”So he said hurriedly,“Return my baggage and I will tell you the truth.”

Fearing that he would slip away,the old man said,“You'd better tell us the truth first.”

“I will.I'm the man who moved the hill.Please return my baggage.”said Li Sheng.But at that moment,an evil idea came to his mind:As long as he tricks the shell back and puts it on,he can turn into a dragon,then there is nothing to be afraid of.

The old man said,“I'll let you free first,but I'll return the baggage to you after you move the hill away.”Li Sheng used up his all strength,but the hill was motionless.People thought he was playing with them,and they held him back.The old man burst into a fury,“If you don't move it,we'll break your bones into pieces!”

Li Sheng had to tell them the truth,“I am not a human being,but a dragon.My dragon shell is put in the baggage.Only when I put it on can I move the hill.”

People opened the baggage and saw that there was indeed a dragon shell inside.The impatient young men wanted to return the dragon shell to Li Sheng so that he could move the hill away quickly.But the old man stopped them and said,“Wait a minute.”He turned around and asked Li Sheng,“Why did you move the hill?”

“I...”Seeing the opening mouth of the hill,Li Sheng was speechless.The old man saw through his bad intention from his eyes and snapped,“Do you want to build a pool here and drown us all?”

Knowing that his bad intention was exposed,Li Sheng rolled his eyes,knelt down in front of the old man and said hypocritically,“It's all my bad conscience.Please forgive me.I won't build a pool here.”He turned around and cried out to everyone,“Please give back the dragon shell to me.I will definitely remove the hill and return the fields to you.If I can't do it,you can cut me into pieces!”

The old man thought to himself:If I return the dragon the shell,he will remove the hill,and my field will appear.But the cunning Li Sheng maybe move the hill to block the pass,and the whole Bazi will become a sea.I would rather let the hill cover my field than let Li Sheng do the evil thing!Then he said to everyone,“We all know the saying:If you don't beat the snake,you will be bitten by the snake.If we release Li Sheng,then we will die in his hands.”With saying that,he tore the dragon shell to pieces.As soon as the dragon shell was torn apart,Li Sheng turned into a small snake and ran away from the grass.The old man raised his hoe to chop it into pieces.

Later,each time when people saw this hill,they would say angrily,“This is Li Sheng's fault!”Therefore,this hill was called“Sheng's Fault”.In memory of the old man who rid the evil dragon,people planted many cypress trees on the hill and renamed it“Anding Xiaohe Hill”(Anding means settling down in Chinese).