42. EELS TAKE REVENGE

　　Guizhou is one of the least developed areas of China. It is a mountainous province in the southwest. A man there named Lu liked eels so much that he couldn't eat a meal without some.
　
　　If anybody asked him why he ate so many eels, he always answered, "They taste so delicious!"
　　
　　One day when he was sixty, he went to the market to buy some nice fat eels.
　
　　A peddler called, "Want to buy fish? Fresh fish, live and fat, right here!"
　
　　"Have you got eels?" Lu asked.
　　
　　"Right here, in this urn," the peddler replied, so Lu rolled up his sleeve and stuck his arm into the urn to choose a plump eel. He had so much experience that he could choose a delicious eel this way, just by feeling. He didn't even have to look.

　Things were different this day. When he stuck in his arm, his face suddenly lost all its color and he let out a bellow like a wounded bull. Everybody looked at him, and saw that all the eels in the urn had attacked Lu's arm, and were biting him as hard as they could.
　　Nobody knew what to do. They couldn't get the eels off Lu's arm. Somebody ran to Lu's house, and his children came to the rescue with sharp shears. They cut the eels in half, but the heads stayed on Lu's arm, with their teeth buried in his flesh. By the time they had pried all of the eels' heads off, all the flesh was gone from Lu's arm, and he had died of the pain.

42. 报仇的鳝鱼

　　贵州是中国最不发达的地区之一，它是西南一个多山省份。有一个姓陆的人很喜欢吃鳝鱼，如果没有鳝鱼，他就吃不下饭。

　　如果有人问他问什么他吃那么多鳝鱼，他总是回答，“它们可好吃了！”

　　六十岁时的一天，他去市场买一些肥美的鳝鱼。

　　一个小贩喊道，“要鱼吗？新鲜的鱼，又肥又新鲜，快来买啊！”

　　“有鳝鱼吗？”陆问。

　　“有，在这个缸里，”小贩回答，于是陆卷起了袖子，伸手到缸里去挑一些肥鳝鱼。他经验丰富，只需要凭感觉就能找出美味的鳝鱼，看都不用看。

　　但是这天很不对劲。他伸手进去后，忽然面无血色，像一只受伤的牛那样咆哮起来。大家都看着他，发现缸里所有的鳝鱼都攻击他的手臂，还拼命地咬他。

　　大家都没有办法。他们都没法把鳝鱼从陆的手臂上拿走。有人跑去通知陆家，陆的孩子们拿着锋利的剪刀来救他，他们把鳝鱼切成两半，但是鱼头还是留在陆的手臂上，鱼嘴紧紧地咬着他的肉。当他们把鳝鱼的头都弄走时，陆手臂上的肉全掉光了，他也在疼痛中死去了。