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Story 95: Ah San and the Widow Folktales

Ah San and the Widow

Author: Anonymous

Once upon a time there was a widow whose family was poor and had only one son. Mother and son depended on each other for life. This year, the family was short of food and relied on digging wild vegetables to survive.

One day, I was passing by Fanru Di. I thought that my six-year-old son had not eaten a grain of rice for two days. Seeing no one around, I dug up two pieces of tomatoes and wrapped them in cloth. When I was about to leave, I saw the bachelor Asan rushing towards me. He came over, took Bran away, and threatened to pay him five yuan in silver. If he didn’t pay him back in three days, he would be sued to the official.

The widow was an honest person, timid and could not afford to lose money. She was so frightened that she burst into tears. A scholar passed by and asked about the reason. He felt very sympathetic, so he wrote a letter for her and asked her to hand it in when asked in court.

Ah San waited for three days but didn’t see the widow come to compensate her, so she complained to the Yamen. The magistrate immediately summoned him for trial, and the widow knelt down in front of the court and presented her complaint. The county magistrate took it and looked at it, and it read: “The family is so poor that they have no rice to wash, so they dig some wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger. The bachelor saw the lust and became malicious, and forced Bran to stir up trouble.

Because the adultery failed, he committed evil tricks and falsely accused Toru Wang. A clear warning.” The county magistrate thought to himself: a widow is beautiful, a bachelor has no wife, rape, and cheating are suspicious. It shows that neither man nor woman is a cunning person, so he plans to give him a lighter sentence.

He wrote and commented: “The young widow looks like a flower, she is a bachelor in her thirties and has not yet started a family. There is insufficient evidence of rape and cheating. It is difficult to defend Bran when she is kidnapped. She is sentenced to a fine of 100 kilograms. After the case is over, everyone goes home.”

Seeing the verdict, Ah San had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky and picked up a hundred catties of tomatoes and sent them to the widow’s house. The widow thought to herself: Stealing someone’s tomatoes and then falsely accusing them of rape was really adding insult to injury.

Not only did she refuse to accept Fanru, she also repeatedly apologized to Ah San. Ah San was very moved and blamed herself for going too far. “No fight, no acquaintance” From then on, Asan often came to help the widow with labor. Seeing that Ah San was honest, the widow also washed Ah San’s long clothes.

As time went by, the two of them became interesting and became a happy couple.