A Short Story
Spiced the Hooves of Sheep
Written by: Wu Junhui
Translated by: Liu Yang
Yanliu is a dramatic theatre actor. He especially likes to eat spiced sheep’s hooves.
One day, Yanliu found that there was a new mutton shop in front of his house, and its hooves of sheep were fresh. So he went and asked the price. But the owner only made “whoa woo” sound without saying anything, and then put out his open hand in front of him. At that time, Yanliu knew that the owner was a dumb person, and he thought it was cheap to buy such fresh sheep’s hooves.
So he bought 5 kilos and gave the owner a RMB 100-yuan note, but the owner only gave him back 40 yuan in change. The owner put out his hand again when he wanted to ask why the change was only 40, not 50, and this time he saw clearly that the owner has six fingers on this hand, not five. He took those hooves away with a wry smile.
Several days later, Yanliu ate up those hooves. And one day, he saw that owner beckoning to him, when he’s on his way home. Yanliu wanted to see what his other pieces of intellectual artifice are, and went into the store.
This time, the dumb owner put out his other open hand with sincerely look. Then he saw that the owner has only three fingers on this hand. The owner pointed to a stack of sheep hooves, and put out his other hand with three fingers again and again. Yanliu thought it’s too cheap to buy those hooves, although they looked not so fresh. So he took all the hooves home.
But not so long after he ate them, he’s got a stomachache and had to go to the hospital, and this time he lost more than RMB 200 Yuan.
When he came back from the hospital, he saw the dumb owner was lying down on the deck chair, listening to the music leisurely. Yanliu was so angry, but he said nothing and went home.
A few days later, an old man with a white beard came into the dumb owner’s store, pointed to the sheep’s hooves, then put out an open hand, then two fingers, without saying a word. The owner guessed that he was a dumb, and gave him two kilos of hooves. But the old man didn’t take them and still put out two fingers.
The owner was so happy, because he thought the old man was a big customer, so packed twenty kilos of the hooves for him, but, the old man still put out two fingers.
The owner was puzzled, “Did he only want to buy two ounces?”
He was so melancholy, and gave that old man two heavy hooves without weighing. But the old man still put out two fingers.
Then the owner lost his patience and said: “What the hell do you want?” It turned out that the owner was not a dumb person. He just pretended he was a dumb person, so he could sold his hooves easily.
The old man used the knife to cut two fingers from one sheep foot, and then put one finger into his mouth, the other one on another sheep’s foot. Subsequently, he left two Yuan and away without taking the hooves.
Actually, the old man was pretended by Yanliu. When he saw the owner listened to music at the door that day, he guessed that the dumb was a phony. So he went and tried to find the truth, and it confirmed his thought.
The owner didn’t know what had happened until the old man went away. He was so angry when he saw the hooves on the chopping board. Looking at these two hooves, one had one more finger, the other lost two, which implied him, his face changed into white.
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Originally Posted by prendrelemick
