In the past, there lived a teacher on the edge of the Huai River named Feng alone, and his wife died of bleeding while giving birth to a child. Feng never married again. First, because he earned a meager income by teaching a few children, and second, because he was afraid that marrying a stepmother would not be good for his son, he always took his son to live. The son's name is Elephant. Because his father taught, the son was less motherly and naughty since childhood, and because his father pitied Elephant, who had no mother since childhood, and everything depended on him. Usually, he was reluctant to play a finger of Elephant, which made Elephant develop a disposition of being lazy and the only me in the world.

One year later, on the way home, Feng found a small flower snake trembling and curled up in a ball in the autumn wind, which was very pitiful. Feng moved his heart to hide, and carefully picked up the small flower snake and put it in the sleeve cage to take it home for careful feeding. The elephant also likes the small flower snake very much, and often goes to the field to catch some frogs and come back to feed it. The small flower snake was carefully fed and soon grew into a big snake, and its appetite was too large to be afraid of people, and the elephant was unwilling to catch frogs for it anymore. Feng decided to put the flower snake into the reed swing. The flower snake had lived in the Feng family for more than ten years and was a little reluctant to leave the Feng family, but it saw that Feng was old and weak, and the elephant was lazy and lazy, and life was getting more and more difficult, so it had to leave. The flower snake nodded to Feng again and again, as a thank you to the owner for raising him, and then swam into the reed swing.

Feng was getting old, and he said to him many times: "Son! As my father is getting old, there is not much road ahead, you should learn some skills, so that you can support yourself in the future." The elephant always said dismissively: "Don't worry, the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge." Seeing that his son never made progress, Feng often shed old tears and shook his head and sighed: "It is not the fault of the father to raise a child."

A few years later, Feng passed away. The neighbors arranged for Feng's funeral. The elephant was ignorant and lazy, and began to make a living selling his family property. Gradually, he sold out the things worth some money in the house, and life became more and more difficult. Often, he ate the last meal and did not leave the village. Seeing that winter was coming, cotton-padded clothes were sold as early as autumn, curled up in the quilt and couldn't get up, and there was nothing to eat at home. The elephant was sad, covered his head in the quilt, and cried, crying while complaining why his father had not left more family property. Just as he was crying, he suddenly heard a "rustling" sound, and then the door opened, and the elephant was startled, thinking it was a thief. The elephant's head was still covered in the quilt, and it cried even more sadly. As he cried, he said, "There is nothing valuable in this house except the house, so you can take whatever you want." After saying that, he cried loudly, and after crying for a while, he felt that someone was patting the bed, and the elephant stuck his head out of the quilt to see that a huge flower snake was coiled in front of the bed, and his soul was almost startled. He looked at it again, and the flower snake was crying. The elephant suddenly remembered that it was the flower snake that was put into the reed a few years ago and came back. The elephant said, "Flower snake, don't you have anything to eat?" The flower snake shook its head. "Then why did you come back?" The flower snake suddenly spoke: "Elephant, your father and son saved me, and now you are in trouble, I can't help you." When the elephant heard that the flower snake could speak, he got up and said in surprise: "You can talk, flower snake?" The flower snake nodded. The elephant hurriedly said, "How can you help me?" The flower snake said, "My eyes are night pearls, you can take a knife and dig one out of my eyes for a few hundred taels of silver, which is enough for you to enjoy for a lifetime according to normal life." The elephant's butt has a spring, and he jumped out of the bed and found a knife. When he walked up to the flower snake, he trembled all over and dared not start, and the flower snake said, "Don't be afraid, dig my left eye." The elephant went down with a knife, and the flower snake's left eye gushed out, blood gushing like a spring, spraying all over the elephant's body. The flower snake was in unbearable pain and rolled to the ground before saying, "Elephant, take care of yourself, I'm going back to the reeds."

The elephant washed the eyes of the flower snake, put it in his arms, and went to the largest pharmacy in the city. The young man at the counter heard that someone was going to sell the night pearl, so he didn't dare make an indiscriminate offer. He hurried to the back hall to find the shopkeeper, who repeatedly looked at the night pearl and praised it: "Okay! Okay!" Looking at the furry boy who was still wearing a single dress outside the cabinet, he asked in disbelief, "How did you get it? This is a rare thing in the world." The elephant raised his head and said arrogantly, "What's so strange about getting it." Then he told the shopkeeper about raising the snake, releasing the snake, and the snake coming back to repay the master. The shopkeeper smacked his lips and said, "If you can get that snake gall, it's priceless." The elephant said angrily, "Then you don't want the snake's life?" After a bargain between the elephant and the shopkeeper, he got two hundred taels of silver and went home.

When Elephant had money, he began to spend his time drinking and dying. Everyone in the casino knew that Elephant was generous, everyone in the brothel knew Elephant was rich, and owner of the pub knew that Elephant was never stingy. The elephant also often laughed secretly at his dead father.

A few years passed by in a flash, and the elephant had very little money left in his hand. The owner of the casino began forcing him to collect debts. The beautiful sister of the brothel has another new person, and the young man in the pub also dares to roll his eyes at the elephant. The pharmacy manager said a few years ago that snake gall was priceless, which often floated in the elephant's mind. The elephant said to the owner of the casino: "Tomorrow I have money, buy this city, and I will ask you to put horses on me." The elephant scolded the beautiful sister of the brothel: "Bitch, tomorrow I have money, buy this money, and I will ask you to lick my ass." The elephant said to the owner of the pub: "Dog eye, tomorrow I have money, buy this city, and I will tell you to drink urine."

One day, the elephant was drunk and swaying towards the reeds. The reeds swayed endlessly. Where can I find the flower snake? If I can't find the flower snake, I can't get the snake gall, how will I live in the future? The elephant shouted beside the reeds: "Flower snake! Flower snake! Here comes the elephant." After a while, I heard the hula, the wind rolled and the reed leaves rattled, and the flower snake came to the elephant, and the elephant was overjoyed, but when the elephant proposed to take the snake gall, the flower snake shed a line of tears and said sadly: "Elephant, you took my gall, didn't you want my life?" The elephant said: "I don't take your gall, how can I live?" The flower snake sighed and said, "A few years ago, I dug out an eye with pain. A few hundred taels of silver should be enough for you to enjoy for a lifetime, but you are insatiable in eating, drinking, prostitutes and gambling. No matter how much money you have, it is not enough for you to squander. You can go, I can't help you!" After saying that, he lowered his head in pain, unwilling to see the elephant again. The elephant saw the flower snake lowered its head and quickly took out a knife from its arms, raising the knife to kill the flower snake. The flower snake gave in, and he was so angry that he trembled all over, thinking what is the use of a villain to stay in the world? So he opened his big mouth and sucked lightly, like a leaf floating into the mouth of the flower snake. After the flower snake swallowed the elephant into his belly, he swam back into the reeds.

And that's what my grandmother taught us: "You can't be greedy."