During the Tang Wenzong period, there was a scholar named Ao Zongshen, whose parents had died and were not yet married. He failed many imperial examinations, and was forced to make a living, so he had to rely on Wenyou Leng, who was thousands of miles away. Wenyou Leng was his classmate and friend, and the road to the imperial examinations was smooth. He was admitted to Jinshi three years ago, and now he is a county magistrate somewhere thousands of miles away.

County Magistrate Leng once wrote to him, claiming that if Ao Zongshen couldn't make it, he could go to him and be a staff member by his side, or recommend him to work in another official office, so that he could have a place to live and a place to live. Now, Ao Zongshen really unable to get along. Remembering County Magistrate Leng's instructions, he borrowed a sum of travel expenses and set off for the north.

Along the way, he finally arrived at the county yamen. As soon as he found out, as early as three months ago, County Magistrate Leng was escorted to the capital. It turned out that the county magistrate Leng was corrupt and perverted the law, and was sued by the local people.

Hearing the news, Ao Zongshen fell into the ice cave all of a sudden, wanting to cry without tears. Now that his hope had been dashed, he was penniless and could not go home. He had to live on the streets, relying on copying others, living like a beggar.

That night, the cold wind picked up, and Ao Zongshen's clothes were thin and could not stop the cold, so he found the bridge hole and planned to shelter from the wind. Sitting in the bridge hole, he found that there was a person in the bridge hole with his back against the wall, moaning constantly.

The moans made Ao Zongshen unable to sleep, so he simply sat up and started chatting with the man, asking him what disease he had? The man said intermittently that he had a disease born of the wind and had been treated for many years, but it had no effect. Every autumn and winter, the cold air invaded, and it would attack. Once it broke out, the pain was unbearable.

Ao Zongshen asked where was the birth of the wind? The man pointed to his abdomen, which meant that the wind was born in his stomach. Ao Zongshen was overjoyed because he knew that a prescription for the treatment of the wind was found in an ancestral medical book. His fifth ancestor used to be a famous doctor. Because of a medical accident and excessive medication, he cured a rich businessperson to death and was beaten to death by the son of a rich businessperson. Therefore, no one in his family was willing to be a doctor anymore. That medical book was shelved. When Ao Zongshen had nothing to do, he flipped through the medical book and remembered the prescription for the treatment of abdominal wind. This is really a coincidence!

He told the man that during the treatment period, the man would take care of his food and drink. The reason why the condition was so low was because Ao Zongshen considered that the man was sleeping in the bridge hole and was also a poor person, so he couldn't knock on much oil and water.

The man was overjoyed when he heard the words, and immediately agreed to this condition, and promised that every meal would have wine and roast chicken. Ao Zongshen was so unhappy that he had not known the taste of meat and wine for three months, so he immediately told the man about the recipe. The man silently remembered it and told Ao Zongshen that his surname was turtle and his name was Tianshou.

The next morning, Gui Tianshou went out and returned an hour later, bringing back a pot, a bundle of dry firewood, many fresh herbs, a jar of wine, and a roast chicken. Ao Zongshen was overjoyed, and a hungry tiger came to eat, grabbed the roast chicken and ate it. After eating half of the roast chicken, he opened the wine jar and slowly tasted the wine.

Gui Tianshou lit the firewood, put it in the pot, and began to cook the medicine. After frying it in a medicinal soup, he drank it. From then on, he had to decoct the medicine and drink the medicinal soup sooner or later. Of course, he also fulfilled his promise and brought back a jar of wine and a roast chicken every day for Ao Zongshen to enjoy.

After two days, Gui Tianshou began to vomit. As long as he drank the medicine for less than half an hour, he would vomit a lot of stinky things. Ao Zongshen told him that this was a normal reaction, indicating that the medicine was working, so he insisted on taking the medicine.

In this way, Kamei Tianshou has been taking medicine for two months. At first, the vomiting was black, and the person was getting thinner and thinner. After more than a month, vomiting was red, and occasionally there was blood, and his weight began to increase, and his complexion got better and better. After two months, Kamei Tianshou only felt relieved, but he actually recovered.

Gu Tianshou was overjoyed and threatened to repay kindness, help Ao Zongshen turn around, and ask him how much silver he needed to live a stable life. Ao Zongshen did math, repair the house, buy land, and maids. If you want to live a middle-level life, you need at least 5,000 taels of silver. Gu Tianshou said, "Okay, I'll give you 500 taels of gold, which is enough for you to live a rich life. However, I don't have it on hand. Wait for me to repair a book, and you can take the letter to my house to pick it up."

After saying this, Gui Tianshou repaired a letter and handed it to Ao Zongshen, who also gave the address of his home. Ao Zongshen took the letter and asked doubtfully, "There is something I don't know, your family is so rich, why do you want to live in the bridge cave?" Gui Tianshou laughed and said, "I have pursued the great road all my life, so I have traveled all over the world. For me, the world is big and the earth is big, and everywhere is home. I have committed an old illness, so I am temporarily settled in the bridge cave. I say goodbye today, and I don't know when we will meet again. You have to take care of yourself." After saying that, he bowed his hands and drifted away.

After walking for five or six days, Ao Zongshen finally found the address, came to a big river, and knocked on a big willow tree as he said. After a while, a small door appeared on the big willow tree, and an inquiry sounded inside. Ao Zongshen said his intention. After a while, the small door opened, and an old servant took the letter and walked in.

After a while, the old servant came out and said, "The king had already sent 500 taels of gold according to the prince's wishes, and it was on the carriage behind him." When Ao Zongshen turned around, there was indeed a carriage parked behind him, and when he turned around again, the small door on the big willow tree had disappeared.

Ao Zongshen checked the carriage, and there were indeed ten gold ingots, about fifty taels each. He was overjoyed and drove the carriage to his home.

Not long after he left, Ao Zongshen thought to himself that Gui Tianshou must be a monster, and so much gold in his house must have been made by Xing Yao. So his mind became hot, he drove the carriage to the official house, and told what he had seen and heard.

When Governor Yin heard that there were monsters living in the river, he ordered them to be eliminated. More than a dozen soldiers who were proficient in water, armed with swords and spears, dived into the river. Under the roots of the big willow tree, they found a huge cave and caught hundreds of turtles, the largest of which was twice the size of a millstone. In the deepest part of the cave, there were hundreds of thousands of gold and silver jewels.

Governor Yin ordered all the turtles to be killed and gave meat to the soldiers. Those gold and silver jewels were pulled into the official treasury and confiscated. As for the ten gold ingots in Ao Zongshen, Governor Yin thought they were stolen goods and also confiscated them. Under Ao Zongshen's bitter pleading, Governor Yin gave him twenty taels of silver for the journey home.

He stopped Ao Zongshen and said with red eyes, "You are really an ungrateful person. I helped you kindly, but you harmed my whole family. Do you care if we are demons or immortals? You didn't harm humans, so why would you tell?" After saying this, he spat fiercely on Ao Zongshen's face and turned away.

Ao Zongshen was ashamed and did not dare to speak. He wiped the saliva off his face and hurried on his way. The next day, the saliva began to fester, which was extremely itchy, and the medicine was ineffective. After a few days, the whole face festered, and it was extremely ugly. After returning home, except for his facial features, there was no good meat on his face, and all of them were scars, as if they had been burned.

When people learned of his evil deeds, they all looked down on him and called him a "faceless man." Later, Ao Zongshen had no way to live and had to beg everywhere. Within two years, he fell ill and died in the street.

This story adopts absurd brushwork, which is to reason and persuade the world, and has nothing to do with feudal superstition.