Chapter 321 Xia Shang

Xia Shang, a native of Hejian County, and his father Xia Dongling, is extravagant. Every time he eats steamed buns, he throws away the corners. The ground is messy, and his figure is fat. The people secretly gave him a nickname, called "Lost Captain."

In the later years of Xia Dongling, his family declined. He was full of food, and he was as thin as firewood. Before his death, he said to his son, "I have been violent in heaven in my life. I have offended the heavens. I am frozen and starved to death, which is all karma. After I die, you should be diligent and thrifty, do more good deeds, and atone for my sins.

Xia Shang followed his father's teachings and was honest. The husband and wife had two kinds of land and were self-sufficient. Seeing that he was destitute, a rich businessman borrowed a few taels of silver for him to do business, but he returned nothing. Xia Shang was unable to pay off the debt, so he sold the field house, collected the silver and returned it to the rich businessman.

The rich businessman didn't accept it and redeemed the field. He handed it to Xia Shang as it was. He lent him money to do business again. Xia Shang refused and said, "The last time the capital could not be repaid. What should I do if I lose money again this time? As the saying goes, if I owe money to others, I want to be a cow and a horse to repay in the afterlife. I don't want to be a beast.

The rich businessman sighed, "Well, if you don't want to do business, I won't force you." Since then, Xia Shang has been doing his part in housework and farming. He lives a miserable life. Thinking that he has achieved nothing, he can't help but hurt himself and feel sorry for himself. He often sighs, "Life is alive, and it is impossible to be depressed all his life. Why don't I have a good luck for a long time?"

It happened that a warlock came from other places. He was good at divination and measuring people's fate. Xia Shang went to ask the gossip. The warlock was an old woman. She received a hundred yuan reward and put it all in the bamboo tube and shook it gently. After that, the copper coins were poured out and arranged one by one on the table.

There were fifty-eight copper coins in a row, each of which was literally up. Xia Shang's face was full of doubts and he didn't know what it was. The warlock said, "At the bottom of fortune-telling, there is a rule. If the front handwriting is facing up, it means that the gossip is in a bad fate. If the reverse image is facing up, it will start to be transferred. Judging from the hexagram, the gentleman will not be developed until he is fifty-eight years old. But when you are fifty-eight years old, you will make a fortune.

Xia Shang asked, "I'm only 28 years old now. Don't I have to live in poverty for another 30 years?" Why is it like this?" The warlock said, "There is cause and effect in everything. As the saying goes: the ancestors do good deeds, and the descendants enjoy blessings; the ancestors do evil, and the descendants suffer misfortune. It seems that your ancestors have a bad character, that's why he should repay you. But you don't have to worry. You have never done bad deeds in your life, and future generations will be blessed. And the hexagram said that the situation will be slightly improved five years before the transfer.

Hearing this, Xia Shang was half-confident, and now he returned home. From then on, I didn't dare to ask for it. At the age of fifty-three, there was a great drought in the world, and the seedlings dried up. In autumn, it rained. There were only a few loads of grain left in the summer merchants. Seeing that the neighbors planted wheat and beans, they had nothing to grow, so they chose a batch of grains and planted them in the fields.

Soon after, the weather was arid again, and all the wheat beans withered. Only the grain seedlings were drought-tolerant and survived. Then it rained heavily, and the seedlings grew happily. At the time of harvest, the output increased greatly, twice as much as in previous years. The next year, the famine spread, and the summer merchants had enough grain rice and were not hungry, so they were very convinced of the warlock.

In the past few years, Xia Shang has been fifty-seven years old. On this day, he repaired the wall at home. Suddenly, he dug out an iron pot from the ground and opened the lid. It was surrounded by smoke and dispersed for a long time. At a glance, the pot was white and dazzling, full of snowflake patterns and silver. Weigh it with a scale, a total of 1,325 taels. Xia Shang couldn't help thinking, "The warlock said that I won't get rich until I was fifty-eight years old. It seems that she is not accurate."

It happened that the neighbor's wife came to the door, secretly saw Yin Liang, and told her husband about it. The husband was jealous and told the county magistrate about it. The county magistrate was greedy. At present, he arrested Xia Shang and asked him for silver. His wife only wanted to give half. Xia Shang said, "It's you who can't take it. It's not that you can't keep it, but it will cause trouble." So he handed in all the silver. The county magistrate accepted the silver, but he suspected that Xia Shang had hidden his own. He found an iron pot to weigh it. It was full of pot, no more, no less. Only then was he satisfied. He released Xia Shang with a smile and sent him home. Soon after, the county magistrate was transferred to Nanchang.

The next year, Xia Shang went to Nanchang for business. After arriving, the county magistrate had died. His wife had no intention of being widowed. She sold the sundries in the house one by one and collected money to return home. Among them, several baskets of tung oil were cheap and bought by Xia merchants. When he returned home, the oil basket leaked, and Xia Shang poured out the tung oil. He saw two ingots of silver at the bottom of the basket. After testing it, there was more or less silver in each basket, which added up to exactly 1,325 taels.

Since then, Xia Shang has become rich overnight, helping the poor and the poor, being kind and giving, and their grandparents and grandchildren prosper and prosper.