Legend has it that the family of Lady Silkworm Flower lived in a ditch in the mid-mountains.
In the early days of Hangzhou, there was a smart and capable little girl named Ah Qiao. When Ah Qiao was nine years old, her mother died, leaving her and a four-year-old brother behind. My father begged a stepmother. The scorpion heart born by the stepmother treats Ah Qiao's siblings very fiercely! In the late winter and twelfth lunar month of this year, one day, the stepmother asked Ah Qiao to carry a bamboo basket and go out to cut sheep grass in the north wind. When it is cold and cold, there is no green grass! Ah Joe ran from morning till dusk and found the mountainside from the river, but she could not find any tender grass. She was cold and afraid, so she sat on the mountainside and cried. As she cried, she suddenly heard a voice above her head saying:
"Cut the grass, Banshanggou!
To cut the grass, Banshanggou! "
Ah Joe looked up and saw a white-necked bird flying into the ravine. She stood up, wiped away her tears, and followed the white-necked bird. After turning a corner, the white-necked bird disappeared. I saw an old pine tree standing upright at the mouth of the ravine, and it was green as a large umbrella covering the mouth of the ravine. Ah Joe pushed the branches aside and bypassed the pine tree. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she saw a crooked stream flowing. The red flowers and grass on the bank of the stream were green, beautiful as spring.
When Ah Qiao saw the grass, it was like picking up a treasure, and she hurriedly squatted down and cut it. She walked and cut, and walked farther and farther, and unknowingly she came to the end of the creek.
She cut a bamboo basket full of grass, stood up and wiped the sweat off her forehead, but saw that not far ahead, there was an aunt in a white dress, holding a basket with a thin strip in her hand, waving to her. The aunt in white said to Ah Qiao with a smile:
"Little girl, what a rare visitor. Come to our house for a few days!"
Ah Qiao looked up and saw another world in front of her: there was a neat row of houses on the mountainside with white powder walls and white tiles; in front of the house was a short forest with green leaves bigger than a palm; there were also many aunts in white, each carrying a thin basket, laughing and singing, picking the fresh leaves from the short forest.
Ah Qiao was very happy and stayed here.
From then on, Aqiao and the white-clothed aunts together picked young leaves in the short forest during the day and fed a kind of snow-white bug with leaves at night. Slowly, the bugs grew and spat out silk to form small snow-white walnuts. Auntie in white taught Aqiao how to draw these snow-white walnuts into shiny silk threads, and how to dye the silk threads with trees: Aozi dyes blue thread, red thread, yellow thread… Auntie in white also told Aoqiao: These snow-white bugs are called "sky bugs", and the leaves that feed the sky bugs are called "mulberry leaves"; these colorful silk threads are embroidered dragon clothes for the Emperor of Heaven and cloud brocade for the Weaver Girl.
Ah Joe lived in a ravine, picking mulberry leaves with her aunts in white, feeding the worms together, and twisting silk threads together. Her days were very happy, and three months passed in a flash.
On this day, Ah Qiao suddenly thought of her younger brother and asked him to come here to have a good life! The next day, as soon as it was dawn, she didn't have time to tell her aunt in white, so she went home by herself.
Before leaving, Ah Qiao also took away a piece of white paper scattered with the eggs of the sky worms. In addition, he packed two bags of mulberry seeds, walked all the way, lost all the way, and thought to himself: Come back tomorrow according to the mulberry tree.
When Ah Qiao returned home, he saw that his father was already old, and his younger brother had also grown into a young man! When his father saw Ah Qiao coming back, he asked happily and sadly:
"Ah Joe, why did you go for fifteen years before coming back? Where have you been all these years?"
When Ah Qiao heard this, she told her father how to go up the mountain and how to meet the aunt in white. The neighbors knew and came to see her, saying that she had met an immortal.
The next morning, Ah Qiao wanted to go back to the ravine to have a look. As soon as she stepped out of the door, she looked up and saw a short green forest along the road. It turned out that the mulberry trees she left behind had all grown into trees. She followed the woods until she walked into the ravine. The old pine tree at the mouth of the ravine was still covered like an umbrella, and she couldn't find the way in.
Ah Joe was staring at the old pine tree in a daze when she suddenly saw the white-headed bird flying out from behind the old pine tree again, crying:
"Ah Joe steals treasure!
Ah Qiao steals the treasure! "
Only then did Ah Qiao remember that when she left, she didn't say anything to Aunt Bai, and also took a sky insect egg and two bags of mulberry seeds. Aunt Bai must have been angry and hid the road from her. So she returned home, hatched the sky insect eggs, picked tender mulberry leaves to feed it, and raised the sky insect at home.
From then on, there were only celestial bugs in the world. Later, people combined the word celestial bugs and called it "silkworm." It is said that the aunt in white that Ah Qiao met in the valley was the silkworm flower lady who was specially in charge of the silkworm cocoon.