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THE HEALING POISON
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A long time ago, a girl
named Li-Li got married and went to live with her husband
and mother-in-law. In a very short time, Li-Li found that
she couldn't get along with her mother-in-law at all.
Their personalities were
very different, and Li-Li was angered by many of her
mother-in-law's habits. In addition, she criticized Li-Li
constantly. Days passed days, and weeks passed weeks.
Li-Li and her mother-in-law
never stopped arguing and fighting. But what made the
situation even worse was that, according to ancient
Chinese tradition, Li-Li had to bow to her mother-in-law
and obey her every wish.
All the anger and unhappiness in the house was causing
the poor husband great distress.
Finally, Li-Li could not
stand her mother-in-law's bad temper and dictatorship any
longer, and she decided to do something about it.
Li-Li went to see her
father's good friend, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told
him the situation and asked if he would give her some
poison so that she could solve the problem once and for
all.
Mr. Huang thought for
awhile, and finally said, Li-Li, I will help you solve
your problem, but you must listen to me and obey what I
tell you.
Li-Li said, "Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do whatever you
tell me to do." Mr. Huang went into the
back room, and returned in a few minutes with a package
of herbs.
He told Li-Li, "You can't use a quick-acting poison
to get rid of your mother-in-law, because that would
cause people to become suspicious. Therefore, I have
given you a number of herbs that will slowly build up
poison in her body.
Every other day prepare some pork or chicken and put a
little of these herbs in her serving. Now, in order to
make sure that nobody suspects you when she dies, you
must be very careful to act very friendly towards her.
Don't argue with her, obey her every wish, and treat her
like a queen."
Li-Li was so happy. She thanked Mr. Huang and
hurried home to start her plot of murdering her
mother-in-law.
Weeks went by, and months went by, and every other day,
Li-Li served the specially treated food to her
mother-in-law. She remembered what Mr. Huang had said
about avoiding suspicion, so she controlled her temper,
obeyed her mother-in-law, and treated her like her own
mother. After six months had passed, the whole household
had changed.
Li-Li had practiced
controlling her temper so much that she found that she
almost never
got mad or upset. She hadn't had an argument in six
months with her mother-in-law, who now seemed much kinder
and easier to get along with.
The mother-in-law's
attitude toward Li-Li changed, and she began to love
Li-Li like her own daughter. She kept telling friends and
relatives that Li-Li was the best daughter-in-law one
could ever find. Li-Li and her mother-in-law were now
treating each other like a real mother and daughter.
Li-Li's husband was very happy to see what was happening.
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