Liu Mai and his wife lived in poverty. In the three empty grass houses, there were dead mice and cats, and there was nothing but a soil kang, a pot frame, and an iron pot. There was not even a single piece of clothing, only a pair of cotton pants, which Liu Mai usually wore when she went out. At home, she and her mother wore torn cloth strips and squatted in the broken grass on the king.

The New Year is closed, the rich celebrate the New Year, and the poor pass the New Year. It's almost Chinese New Year, and there is nothing at home. How can I spend this year? On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Mai got up before dawn. He went to the kiln at the entrance of the village and put on credit a load of kiln goods, pots, cans, cylinders, etc., to sell at the fair, so that he could earn a few money to buy a few catties of white noodles, and make dumplings with his mother to eat for the New Year. The collection is far away, and the genius is dim. Liu Mai rushed to the collection with the kiln goods, so that he could catch up with the early collection.

I don't want to go to a reed in the east of the village, but I don't know what tripped under my feet and knocked down, and the kiln goods were all smashed, and there was not a single one left. Liu Mai was so angry and angry, "The poor are so unlucky? A load of kiln goods, not even the principal and interest. How could this year be!" He looked down and took a closer look, and it turned out to be a fox lying there, his mouth full of alcohol. It turned out that someone had invited an immortal, and he was drunk and fell asleep as he walked here. Liu Mai did not see it, but tripped a somersault, so he smashed all the kiln goods. He was angry, so he tied the fox to the end of the pole with a rope, carried it on his shoulder, and said as he walked, "Because of you, my load of kiln goods has been smashed, and the year will not pass. I'll take you home today and peel your skin first. Your skin is good, spread it on the kang to warm up; then cook your meat, and you two have a fat New Year! "

On the morning of the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the weather was very cold. The fox was on Liu Mai's pole, blown by the cold wind, and woke up drunk. When he saw that he was tied to the pole, Liu Mai said this again, and he heard it all, and said, "Liu Mai, let me ask you, do you want to celebrate the New Year, or do you want to celebrate the New Year every day?" Liu Mai was startled when he heard it, "This fox can still talk? Of course, it is better to celebrate the New Year every day!" Only the fox said, "You let me go, I told you to celebrate the New Year every day, eat well and wear well." Liu Mai was overjoyed and said, "Really? If it is true, I will let you go." The fox said it was true. Liu Mai untied the rope and let the fox go, only to see that it rolled and turned into a handsome scholar. In terms of age, they were one year older than Liu Mai, and the two became brothers. Liu Mai called him Big Brother Fox.

The eldest brother said to Liu Mai, "Go home and see my mother?" Liu Mai was very embarrassed, because my mother was still wearing rags, squatting in the broken grass on the kang, unable to see anyone, but it was not easy to refuse, so she had to go home with her eldest brother. When they walked to the door, they saw that the Spring Festival couplets had been pasted on the door. As soon as they knocked on the door, my mother came to the door in new clothes and said happily to my son, "In a while we will have new clothes in our house. If there are clothes, I will wear them, and if there is delicious food, I will eat them." When Liu Mai saw it, he had everything. There were basically all kinds of meals, vegetables, meat, fish, melons, fruits, pears and Chinese New Year dates, and he understood in his heart, "This is my big brother Fox, he..." The big brother spent the New Year at Liu Mai's house.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival. After dinner, the eldest brother asked Liu Mai: "Where are the best lanterns?" Liu Mai said: "Of course the lanterns in Yangzhou look the best." The eldest brother asked: "Do you want to go?" Liu Mai said: "If you want to go, you can't go. It's more than a thousand miles away, that's just talk." The eldest brother said: "If you really want to go, let's go." Then he drew a cross on the ground and told Liu Mai to stand on the cross, "Hug my waist, close your eyes, don't open your eyes!" Liu Mai listened to the "whoosh" sound of the little wind beside his ear. After a while, the eldest brother said: "Here we are!" Liu Mai's feet also landed on the ground.

Liu Mai opened his eyes and saw that the lanterns on Yangzhou Street were very lively. There was a sea of people watching the lanterns, and the ladies and wives of rich families were all wearing gold and silver jewelry and silk, standing on the floats with handles to see the lanterns. I saw a lady standing on the handle carriage, only seventeen or eighteen years old, very beautiful and handsome, so Liu Mai looked at her a few more times. The eldest brother saw that Liu Mai loved the girl, so he said to Liu Mai, "Brother Xian, how do you like the girl in the car? If you look good, get on her car and watch the lights with her." Saying that, he put a hat on Liu Mai's head, put him in the girl's car, and said in Liu Mai's ear: "You can watch the lights in this car, I still have something to do. If you encounter difficulties, shout'Big brother save me! '" He disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Liu Mai stood in the car and looked at the lights with the girl, but the girl ignored him. After reading the lights, it was already late at night, and the family drove the livestock and pulled the car home. After entering the village and entering the gate, they pulled Liu Mai and the girl to the embroidery building. The girl ignored him and got out of the car and went upstairs, and Liu Mai followed the girl to the embroidery building. The maid brought snacks and told the girl to eat dinner, but Liu Mai was so greedy that he grabbed it and ate it, but the girl said nothing. Liu Mai thought to himself, "This is because they can't see me, is it because the big brother gave me the hat?" Thinking of this, he wanted to take the hat off and try it. The hat fell off as soon as she lifted it, and as soon as the girl met a man, she was so frightened that she shouted "Wow" and shouted, "Someone! The scream was so great that the maid and slave ran upstairs and caught Liu Mai. Liu Mai was scared to death and was tied up and hung on the big locust tree in the back garden until tomorrow.

You said Liu Mai was so scared that he lost two and a half souls. When he woke up and saw himself hanging from a big tree, he remembered his big brother's words and shouted, "Big brother save me!" The big brother stood in front of him with a smile, hurriedly put Liu Mai down, then carried him on his back, and suddenly went over the wall from the garden to the wild. When he landed on the ground, Liu Mai said, "Where have you been, big brother? But I was scared to death!" The big brother smiled and said, "You told me to be startled before, but now I also surprise you." He asked Liu Mai again, "Do you think that girl looks good?" Liu Mai waved his hand and said, "Don't care if she looks good or not, hurry up and go home!" The big brother said, "If you like it, let's take it home together. You wait here for a while, I'll be right there! "After saying that, he jumped into the wall and carried out the quilt. It seemed that the girl had just fallen asleep and didn't know what had happenedened.

The eldest brother asked Liu Mai to hug his waist, closed his eyes, only to hear the wind in his ears, and soon he arrived home and put the girl on the kang. When the girl woke up, she saw that it was not her embroidery building, and she did not know where she was, and she could not find her own home. Seeing that Liu Mai was loyal and honest, she became a family with Liu Mai. Liu Mai was really happy, the house that was turned over was bright and spacious, with money and food and a sweet wife, and he was grateful to his eldest brother in every way.

Days went by quickly, and another year his wife gave birth to two boys with one child. If you say Liu Mai is happy, you have to say it. In this way, the eldest brother often comes to his house to play, and the children call him uncle. The two children are lovely and lively. When they were seven or eight years old, his uncle hired two teachers, one for martial arts and one for martial arts, and his uncle Hu taught them when he had time. The children did not realize that when they were eighteen years old, they were all talented people with one watch, and both civil and military skills.

Big Brother Hu is a welcome guest and a regular visitor of Liu Mai's family. He doesn't avoid anything in Liu's family. When he is drunk, he will show his true form. Adults and children are used to it and don't see it as a foreign object. Seeing that Liu Mai's family is living happily, Big Brother is satisfied and doesn't want to mix in the mortal world anymore, because he is most afraid of the thunderbolt of summer, so he wants to step into the fairy world. One day, he said to Liu Mai, "Good brother, big brother will treat you well?" Liu Mai said, "Big brother is good to me, and it will be difficult to repay me forever!" Big brother said, "Then you promise me one thing, and when I show my true form in your house, you will cut off my tail with a knife. When the two nephews are rushing for the exam, you can hang it on the palanquin pole of the nephews, which is good for both the nephews and me. Remember to remember! "

On this day, the eldest brother got drunk again at Liu Mai's house and found his true form. Liu Mai remembered the elder brother's words, so he took the knife and cut it according to the elder brother's tail. When the knife went down, there was only a flash of fire, and the eldest brother was gone, only a fox tail on the ground. Liu Mai was so frightened that he cried and said, "The eldest brother is gone..." The two children said, "Don't cry, daddy, my uncle left a word, don't you think it's on the welcome wall!" Liu Mai was illiterate, so his sons read it to him: "Liu Mai was running in time, and he met a fox fairy on the road. The two became brothers, and Yangzhou watched the lamp; the first child gave birth to twins, and the two champions of civil and military affairs'. Look at my uncle, even the futures of my brothers have been calculated!" Only then did Liu Mai turn sorrow into joy.

When the examination period arrived in the capital, the test began, and the two brothers went to rush the test. Liu Mai hung his eldest brother's tail on his son's palanquin pole and set off. When they arrived in the capital, the weather changed drastically, and it began to rain heavily, just like the Tianhe River breaking down, the ditch was full of rivers, and the road was closed to pedestrians. It rained non-stop, but the palanquin of the two brothers kept walking, and it didn't rain at all nearby, until they reached the examination room. The other examiners who rushed to the test were all cut off by the heavy rain on the road, and most of them did not make it to the examination period.

The emperor was overjoyed at the sight of Long Xin. But most of the examiners were soaked through, only the two Liu brothers' clothes and sedan chairs were dry, and they were not soaked at all. The emperor asked them strangely, "Why weren't they soaked?" The brothers said, "With my uncle's tail on the palanquin pole, it couldn't rain at all, and the heavy rain fell behind us all the way." The emperor heard it and said, "Then your uncle is a god." At this time, someone in the air said, "Thank you Lord Long for your kindness!" It turned out that the fox fairy had been following the nephews and was here to seek the seal. The emperor accidentally said, "Your uncle is a god," and the fox fairy thanked him for being named a god.