In ancient times, there was a member of Huai'an City whose surname was Li. He was poor in his early years and worked as a carpenter. Due to his superb skills and honest duties, his business was prosperous. After a few years, he saved a sum of money.

After Li Yuanwai made his fortune, he did not forget his original intention, was kind to charity, and often helped the poor and was a good person, so he was called Li Shanren by the nearby people.

One day, Li Yuanwai went out on business, and when he got home, he saw a person curled up in the corner of the street, looking at his clothes. He seemed to be a scholar. It was the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the scholar was thinly dressed and shivering from the cold. After seeing Li Yuanwai, he went forward to ask why the scholar was frozen here. The scholar raised his head, his lips were purple, and his mouth was full of Ai Ai, and his voice trembled.

Li Yuanwai hurriedly brought him home, and the food was served. The scholar's noodles were delicious, and the hunger tattoo was in his mouth. It seemed that he had not eaten a full meal for many days.

After a full burp, Shu Sheng slowed down, got up and bowed to Li Yuanwai, and was about to kneel and kowtow. Li Yuanwai hurriedly pulled him, "A man has gold under his knees, brother, you must not do this big gift."

"Had it not been for the rescue of the outside members, I would have been frozen to death on the street long ago. The outside members will remake their kindness, and I will definitely keep it in my heart." The scholar said, and thanked Li Yuanwai.

The two of them chatted for a while, and the scholar seemed to remember something and said, "I have nothing to gain, so I 'm only good at drawing dragons." I have nothing to repay the kindness of the members.

Li Yuanwai had never attended a private school, was illiterate, and did not love calligraphy and painting. However, seeing that the scholar said so, he could not bear to refute his kindness, so he smiled and nodded, "Then I will have to work for you!"

The scholar took out the pen and ink from his pocket, spread out the rice paper, and flicked the paper, and the pen was dragons and snakes, penetrating the back of the paper. Even if Li Yuanwai knew nothing about painting, he could see that the scholar was very good at painting. The scholar looked attentive and had no foreign things in his heart, and it took a few hours to draw a picture. During this period, Li Yuanwai called him to rest for a while, but the scholar turned a deaf ear, as if he had not heard it, his concentration was evident.

It was not until evening that the scholar finished the painting, let out a long sigh, and stared at the painting for a long time. After a while, he came back to his senses, like waking up from a dream, remembering where he was, and thinking of letting Li Yuanwai wait for a long time, he hurriedly apologized to Li Yuanwai, and his words were very guilty.

Li Yuanwai didn't care at all, picked up the dragon picture drawn by the scholar and looked at it, and was immediately amazed. He saw that the dragon in the picture was lifelike, wagging its head and tail, not angry and arrogant, but lifelike. At this time, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the thunder rumbled. The dragon in the painting seemed to be about to leap out of the paper and fly away, which made Li Yuanwai full of praise.

Shu Sheng heard Li Yuanwai's words of admiration, but he sighed and said, "Although Tang Yin Zhu Da is famous all over the world, he has been poor and frustrated all his life. Why am I not like this? Although his fame is not as good as theirs, the situation is similar."

The scholar smiled bitterly, then told his life story to Li Yuanwai, and murmured: "I am a good dragon by nature, and I have become crazy about painting dragons since I was a child, and I have reached the point of forgetting to eat and sleep. Cold and warm festivals are easy, and I never stopped, which is why I delayed my studies. I tried again and again, and my father hoped that my son would become a dragon, and that I could go to school, be an official, and be a proud ancestor. I have repeatedly taught myself not to play with things and lose my mind, but to put my studies first, but I turned a deaf ear, and even quarreled with my father many times, so that my father died with hatred."

"After my father died, my family's situation deteriorated, and my mother was worried. She followed my father for half a year, leaving me alone. Although I was sad in my heart, I still did not want to repent. I indulged in painting all day to relieve my worries.

The scholar muttered to himself and kept talking. Although he looked at Li Yuanwai, he seemed to be talking to himself. When he said something sad, he couldn't help but cry. Li Yuanwai didn't know how to comfort him.

"I've been drawing dragons for half my life, but I can't draw myself into a dragon in the end, so what did I get? In the cold and twelfth lunar month, I can't even prepare a cotton-padded coat to keep out the cold, and I almost froze to death, I can't achieve anything, I'm just wasting my time!" When Shu Sheng said this, his face had a determined look, "If that's the case, what's the use of this?" Just listening to the "click" sound, Shu Sheng had already broken the pen, "It's better to learn some crafts, and I can also get a job and feed myself."

Li Yuanwai wanted to stop him, but he couldn't find a reason, so he could only sigh. The scholar broke the pen and stopped talking. Then he stared blankly at the pen that had accompanied him for half his life and was now broken in two, his eyes full of sadness.

The scholar touched the tears in his eyes and said, "Thinking of the past, my heart was touched. I lost my temper for a while, which made the scholar laugh."

"No one has ever been poor and destitute. Xiongtai is not yet in his thirties, it is a good time, and there will be a day to come."

After listening, the scholar nodded. Seeing that it was getting late, he said goodbye to Li Yuanwai. Seeing that it was cold outside, Li Yuanwai refused to let him go and let him stay here.

The next day, Li Yuanwai took out three silver ingots as a gift when the scholar left. The scholar hesitated again and again, but only accepted one silver ingot. He knelt down and thanked him and said, "Great kindness, unforgettable." Then he left.

After the scholar left, Li Yuanwai hung the dragon picture he had drawn in the hall. Although he saw it every day, he did not notice anything strange about the dragon picture, nor did he think it was something precious, but Li Yuanwai did not expect that this dragon picture would save his life in the future.

After many years, this year there was a severe drought, no grain in the fields, and the taxes were heavy. The people no longer had any surplus grain, and they were in a desperate situation. Li Yuanwai opened a warehouse to put grain and set up a porridge factory. At first, the people nearby were grateful and called Li Yuanwai a living Bodhisattva. Later, after a long time, the people nearby became accustomed to it, but they felt that this kind deed was what Li Yuanwai should do, and they no longer had the heart of gratitude.

However, it was said that the drought had lasted a long time, and it had not rained for three years. Li Yuanwai's porridge factory also opened for three years, and he spent a lot of real money and silver in three years. Even if Li Yuanwai had a rich family, he could not stand such consumption.

The people came to Li Yuanwai's house with knives and sticks, tied Li Yuanwai up, and then rummaged through the cabinets to search for valuable items. However, in a large mansion, only three or five taels of silver were found under the bed. Not everyone believed it, but thought it was Li Yuanwai hid the money and forced him to hand over the family's money. Li Yuanwai was furious and kept silent. Seeing this, everyone was furious and beat Li Yuanwai to death.

One of the leaders said, "Let us just think that you have done a lot of good deeds before. As long as you hand over the money hidden in your house, you will be spared your life. If not, you will not be able to spend it even if you have money."

Li Yuanwai sneered and spat at the man coldly, spraying the blood from his mouth on the man's face, "You ungrateful dog, I have given you three times in vain. Back then, your mother was buried and I bought the coffin. Your mother Ruoquan knows, how can you allow you to be presumptuous here."

Seeing that there was a cup of tea on the table, he took it and threw it at Yuan Li. Yuan Li tilted his head and hid, but the tea was poured on the dragon picture hanging in the hall.

The man was even more indignant when he saw that the tea had not been poured on his body. He stepped forward with two slaps, causing him to retreat again and again.

Li Yuanwai looked back and was also astonished. He saw that the dragon on the dragon map actually came alive and swam on the drawing paper. At this time, there was thunder in the sky, and in an instant, the clouds were dense, lightning flashed and thunder, and the sky dimmed.

As soon as he escaped, it rained heavily. The rain was so heavy that it was like the Milky Way pouring down and the sea was pouring. In an instant, the place where Li Yuanwai's home was located became a sea.

It rained heavily for three days and three nights before stopping, and all the surrounding counties were affected, but except for the vicinity of Li Yuanwai's house, the rain was not heavy, so there was no flood, but the drought was relieved, and the people of the surrounding counties were very happy. After the flood subsided, Li Yuanwai returned home and found several corpses near his house, all of whom were buried.

Because he had done many good deeds in the past, he had a lot of friends. Now that he was penniless, when he was in trouble, many people helped him. It didn't take long for him to make a comeback, become wealthy, and make a fortune again.