50. THE REVENGE OF THE FIELD CHICKENS
Once there was a barber named Liang Jiashou in Wuwui, Anhui. His head was kind of pinched on top like a deer's, and he had beady eyes like a rat. He was no beauty. Outside beauty doesn't matter so much, but he was no beauty inside, either. He always wrangled and dickered. He never tried to improve his behavior or his attitude.
He was greedy, too. His favorite dish was frog -- what some Chinese call The Chicken of the Fields. He couldn't eat a meal with some field chicken. He knew a dozen ways to prepare frog meat. He had a bunch of friends who were no better than he was, and they all said that field chicken fixed by Liang Jiashou just couldn't be beat!
The more they praised his cooking, the more frogs Liang killed, as if they were enemies he wanted to wipe out. He kept this up until he was in his forties, a middle aged man.
One night, he was sound asleep. Then he felt itchy all over. He seemed to see that his whole bed was covered with frogs. Frogs all over the blankets! Frogs all over the pillows! Al1 over the bedstead! Frogs everywhere!
"Strange," he said to himself. "Well, I know what to do with frogs." He gathered up all these frogs and put them into the wok. Then he went back to his bedroom, and again he found his bed covered with more frogs!
Liang spent the whole night this way, collecting frogs from his bed.The next day, he got some friends over, and told them how he had spent he night harvesting frogs from his bed. His friends couldn't figure it out, either.
Suddenly, Liang grabbed his shoulder.
"The frogs are back!" he shouted.
"I don't see anything," one of his friends said.
"Here, right here, there's a frog on my eyebrows! Now there's one in my hair!" Liang was panicked, but his friends were confounded. They didn't see a single frog. What they saw was Liang running around and hacking off his eyebrows and hair with his razor. But nobody saw a frog at all. "He must be crazy," they whispered.
From then on, Liang saw frogs attacking him every day. He tried to defend himself with his razor, but the frogs kept coming. He begged his friends to help,but only he could see those frogs. He lived like a madman for six more years before he finally died.
Was he worn out from fighting off the frogs? Had the frogs finally taken their revenge? Or was he just out of his mind? Nobody could tell. But everybody knew that Liang certainly wouldn't have suffered so terribly if he hadn't cooked so many frogs.
50. 青蛙的报复
从前安徽无为有一个叫梁佳手的理发师。他的头顶很尖，像鹿一样还有像鼠一样的豆子眼。他长得很丑。外在美不算什么，他连内在美都没有。他总是吵吵嚷嚷地和人讨价还价。从来不想改变自己的行为或者态度。
他很贪婪。他最爱吃的菜是青蛙——一些中国人叫田鸡。如果没有田鸡，他就吃不下饭。他知道很多烹调田鸡的方法。他认识一帮狐朋狗友，他们和他一样坏。他们都说梁佳手做的田鸡最好吃了。
他们越夸他，梁就越起劲地杀田鸡，好像它们是他的敌人，一定要消灭光。直到他四十多岁，成了一个中年人，还是一直这么做。
一晚，他睡得很沉。他觉得全身发痒。他似乎看到他的床上都是青蛙。毯子上！枕头上！床架上！到处都是青蛙！
“怪了,”他自言自语，“好吧，我知道怎么对付这些青蛙。”他把这些青蛙都拣起来，放到锅里。然后他回到卧室，发现他的床上来了更多的青蛙！
梁就这么忙了一晚，在他的床上不停地拣青蛙。第二天，他告诉一些朋友他在他的床上抓了很多青蛙。他的朋友也不能断定这是怎么一回事。
忽然，梁抓住了他的肩膀。
“青蛙又来了！”他大叫起来。
“我什么都没看见。”他的一个朋友说。
“这，就在这，我的眉毛上有一只青蛙！现在我的头上也有一只。”梁惊惶失措，他的朋友们都糊涂了。他们连一只青蛙也没看见。他们看到的是梁跑去用自己 的剃刀把眉毛和头发都剃光了。但是还是没有人看到有青蛙。“他一定是疯了。”他们低声说。
从此以后，梁每天都看到有青蛙来袭击他。他用剃刀来保护自己，但是青蛙还是不断出现。他乞求他的朋友们帮助他，但是只有他自己看到那些青蛙。他像疯子一样生活了六年多才死去。
他是驱赶青蛙累垮了？被青蛙报复？还者他是真的疯了？没人知道。但是人们深信不疑，如果他不是烹食了那么多的青蛙，他不会受到这么可怕的折磨。
