During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a big family surnamed Cui in Guishu Village in the south of the Yangtze River, known as "Cui Dahu", who always liked to show off his wealth. One day in September of this year, Cui Dahu suddenly felt that if he placed two big stone lions in front of his house, it would add a lot of style.

Cui Dahu immediately sent someone to hire a stonemason surnamed Zhou, and asked the stonemason Zhou to arrive at Cui's house three days later in the morning and start carving the stone lion.

Stonemason Zhou lived in the neighboring village of Guishu Village and was good at carving stone lions. Three days later in the morning, Stonemason Zhou picked up his tools and hurried out of the house to Guishu Village.

In little time, Zhou stonemason came to the bank of the Kwai River, and on the other side of the Kwai River is Guishu Village. There is a stone bridge over the Kwai River, and you can enter Guishu Village after walking through that stone bridge.

Zhou Stonemason walked up the stone bridge, and just halfway through, he suddenly heard a "plop" sound in the river, followed by a "ouch" sound. Zhou Stonemason followed the sound and saw that in the heart of the river next to the stone bridge, a ten-year-old boy was crawling up from the shallow river water, covering his right leg with both hands, screaming in pain, and his clothes were wet all over. Zhou Stonemason immediately understood what was going on.

It turned out that the stone bridge was built by Cui Dahu for money, and he always just wanted to take advantage, for fear that he would suffer a loss, so he stipulated that if the villagers wanted to pass through the stone bridge he built, each household must give him 5 loads of rice every year, otherwise they would not think of crossing the bridge. Most of the families in the village are poor, how can they afford so much rice? Therefore, the villagers had to rely on wooden ferries for passage, and in the dry season, the water in the river was too shallow for ferries, so the villagers used the pebbles on the beach to stack several piles in the middle of the river for the villagers to step on, so that they did not have to wade through the water.

However, these pebbles were round and smooth, so it was very easy for the piles of stones to collapse, and it was very easy to slip under your feet if you stepped on them. Just now, the little boy was crossing the river, but unexpectedly his foot slipped, and he slipped from the pile of stones and fell into the river…

Zhou Stonemason shook his head and sighed for a while, then crossed the bridge and rushed to Cui's house. In front of the door of Cui's house, there were two large bluestones, which were carved stone lions. Cui Dahu specially sent someone to buy them from other places.

Stonemason Zhou began to carve, and as time went by, a stone lion gradually took shape under his iron chisel. After breakfast that day, Stonemason Zhou began to carve again, and after swinging the hammer a few times, he suddenly stopped, looked thoughtfully at the Kwai River not far away, and suddenly nodded heavily, and then he started to work "jingle" again.

Ever since Zhou stonemason began carving stone lions, Cui Dahu would come closer every day and watch them carefully many times. Sometimes, he would put on an expert look and make a few comments; sometimes, he would describe Zhou stonemason the appearance of the stone lions he saw when he went to visit other places, and make a lot of requests to Zhou stonemason. This morning, Cui Dahu sat at home and drank tea leisurely for a while, then he went out the gate to see Zhou stonemason work again.

As soon as Cui Dahu walked out of the door of his house, Zhou Stonemason heard his footsteps, but he pretended not to hear them and continued to do his work. Soon, Cui Dahu came to Zhou Stonemason and said happily, "Yes, it's a good carving!" When Zhou Stonemason heard this, his hands shook suddenly, and then he exclaimed, "It's broken, it's broken!" Cui Dahu asked strangely, "Why is it broken?" Zhou Stonemason pointed with his hand: "Master Cui, I didn't know you came over just now, so I was shocked by your voice, and my hands shook, so the iron chisel tilted its head, I missed!"

Cui Dahu looked in the direction of Zhou Stonemason's finger and saw that a toe on the left front paw of the stone lion was broken by a small part. He immediately understood: just now, Zhou Stonemason was carving the left front paw, and after the iron chisel missed the head, the toe was actually cut off – the stone lion was broken!

Cui Dahu stomped his feet in annoyance, and Zhou Mason comforted him, "Master Cui, I can modify this toe to make it look like a toe. But then, if you take a closer look, you will find that this stone lion looks like it has been injured."

When Cui Dahu heard this, he frowned and said, "How can there be an injured stone lion in front of my door? Wouldn't that make others laugh out loud! Stop carving this stone lion, I'll send someone to buy a new stone and carve one!"

What Cui Dahu never expected was that three days later, because he was happy for a while, he sang a few plays loudly, but he did not expect to disturb Zhou Stonemason again. Zhou Stonemason lost his hand again and cut off a toe on the right front paw of the stone lion that was being carved, so the stone lion also became a piece of waste... In the next month, for three different reasons, Zhou Stonemason lost three more times, so the waste stone increased to five pieces. And strangely, since the fifth stone lion was chiseled into waste stone, Zhou Stonemason never lost his hand again. After another month, Zhou stonemason carved two majestic stone lions, which made Cui Dahu happy.

When he walked out of the gate of Cui's house, Zhou reminded him, "Master Cui, those five pieces of waste stones are placed in front of your door. They are too ugly.

Arriving at the riverbank, Stonemason Zhou kept pointing at the guys. "Some to the left, some more..."

Without much effort, the five waste stones were all thrown into the Gui River. Walking out of Guishu Village, Zhou Masonry looked back at the five waste stones that had rolled to the bottom of the river, and suddenly grinned happily. And the position where the five waste stones rolled down was next to the piles of stones made of pebbles.

The villagers of Guishu Village soon found the five pieces of waste stones, so a few men went down the river that day and moved the waste stones into a row, from one side of the river bottom to the other. In this way, they became five large stone piers, and the villagers could use them to cross the river, and no longer need to cross the original stone piles made of pebbles. The big stone piers are stable, flat, and will not collapse. Those who step on them to cross the river will never slip into the river again.

There was a family in Guishu Village who was a relative of Zhou Stonemason. One day, half a month later, Zhou Stonemason came to Guishu Village to visit relatives. When he entered the village, he saw someone crossing the river across the five large stone piers, and he couldn't help but grin. It turned out that the five waste stones were deliberately chiseled by him pretending to be a mistake, and the reason why he deliberately chiseled the five stones was because he wanted them to become stone piers that the villagers could step on when crossing the river.

After entering the village and passing by the gate of Cui Dahu's house, Zhou Stonemason saw that the big drying field in front of Cui Dahu's house was covered with rice. It turned out that this morning, Cui Dahu saw that the weather was fine, so he asked the guys to pick up all the rice in his granary and transport it to the big drying field to dry it to remove moisture.

After lunch at a relative's house, Zhou Stonemason was about to say goodbye when suddenly he saw dark clouds rolling in the sky at an unknown time, and heavy rain was about to fall. On the big drying field of the Cui family, several guys were busy gathering rice and picking up the goods for the granary. Cui Dahu stood by and urged anxiously, "Hurry up! Hurry up..."

Zhou Stonemason couldn't help but get anxious for Cui Dahu. At this time, he saw many villagers carrying tools and quickly rushed to the Cui family's drying field to help collect and carry the rice. Several people from Zhou Stonemason's relatives also ran over, and one of the relatives ran while saying, "After all, the waste stones of the Cui family make it much more convenient for us in Guishu Village to cross the river. Now that the rice of the Cui family is about to be soaked by the rain, we should all go and help!"

Hearing this, Stonemason Zhou couldn't help but sigh. He knew that if this had happened in the past, not only would the villagers of Guishu Village not help Cui Dahu, but they would also gloat…

Because of the help of the villagers, all the rice from the big sun farm was soon picked and transported to the Cui family's granary, and when the last load of rice was picked and transported to the granary, a heavy rain poured down. At this time, Cui Dahu looked at the rice in the granary and the rain outside the house, and was so excited that he shed tears and murmured, "I have decided that from today onwards, everyone in the village and outside the village will pass through that stone bridge for free..."