The Birthday Gift Heist · chapter 6 of 6
The Empty Ridge
空空的山冈
Yang Zhi wakes to an empty ridge and a choice he never wanted. Far away, the seven friends raise their bowls, but Wu Yong knows the story is not over.
Read what you hear
- Narrator 第二天早上，太阳又升起来了。黄泥冈上，有一个人慢慢睁开了眼睛。
Dì'èrtiān zǎoshang, tàiyáng yòu shēng qǐlái le. Huángní Gāng shàng, yǒu yí gè rén mànmàn zhēngkāi le yǎnjing.
The next morning the sun rose again. On Yellow Mud Ridge, one man slowly opened his eyes.
- Yang Zhi 头……好痛……这是什么地方？我怎么会躺在地上？
Tóu… Hǎotòng… Zhèshì shénme dìfang? Wǒ zěnme huì tǎng zài dìshàng?
My head... it hurts... where am I? Why am I lying on the ground?
- Yang Zhi 担子！我的担子！十万贯在哪儿？
Dànzi! Wǒ de dànzi! Shíwànguàn zài nǎr?
The loads! My loads! Where is the hundred thousand?
Chapter 6 is part of SayMei Stories ($2.99 a month) and SayMei Premium. Chapter 1 of The Birthday Gift Heist is free, and so are The Second Cup of Tea, Mulan, The Butterfly Lovers, Journey to the West: The Monkey King, Cinderella, The Night of the Nian, Chang'e and the Moon, The Great Race: The Twelve Animals, Aesop's Fables, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, The Ugly Duckling, Pangu and Nüwa: How the World Began, Beauty and the Beast, The Magic Lotus Lantern, Alice in Wonderland, Zhong Kui the Demon Queller, The Odyssey, Robin Hood, Jiang Ziya Goes Fishing, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Kitchen God from start to finish.
- Yang Zhi 老都管！起来！挑夫们！都给我起来！
Lǎodōuguǎn! Qǐlái! Tiāofū men! Dōu gěi wǒ qǐlái!
Old Steward! Wake up! Porters! Everyone up, now!
- Old Steward 哎哟……我的头……杨志，出什么事了？
Āiyō… Wǒ de tóu… Yáng Zhì, chū shénme shì le?
Ow... my head... Yang Zhi, what happened?
- Old Steward 天啊！担子呢？十一担，全都不见了！
Tiān a! Dànzi ne? Shíyìdān, quándōu bújiàn le!
Heavens! Where are the loads? All eleven are gone!
- Yang Zhi 不见了……被他们拿走了。那些卖枣子的，都是强盗……
Bújiàn le… Bèi tāmen názǒu le. Nàxiē mài zǎozi de, dōu shì qiángdào…
Gone... they took them. Those date sellers were all robbers...
- Old Steward 都是你！你是队长！十万贯丢了，梁中书会杀我们的头！
Dōu shì nǐ! Nǐ shì duìzhǎng! Shíwànguàn diū le, Liáng Zhōngshū huì shā wǒmen de tóu!
It's all your fault! You're the leader! The hundred thousand is lost, and Liang Zhongshu will have our heads!
- Yang Zhi 不错，是我的错。我看了每一个人，最后还是喝了那桶酒。
Búcuò, shì wǒ de cuò. Wǒ kàn le měi yí gè rén, zuìhòu háishi hē le nàtǒng jiǔ.
You are right, it is my fault. I watched every man, and in the end I still drank that wine.
- Porter 大人……我们是不是……睡了很久？
Dàrén… Wǒmen shìbúshì… Shuì le hěn jiǔ?
Master... have we been asleep a long time?
- Yang Zhi 睡了一夜。我们睡了一夜，他们跑了一夜。
Shuì le yíyè. Wǒmen shuì le yíyè, tāmen pǎo le yíyè.
We slept a whole night. While we slept, they ran a whole night.
- Porter 那我们还要回去吗？大人会杀了我们吗？
Nà wǒmen háiyào huíqù ma? Dàrén huì shā le wǒmen ma?
Do we still go back? Will the lord have us killed?
- Old Steward 回去是死，不回去也是死！杨志，你说，我们到底怎么办？
Huíqù shì sǐ, bù huíqù yě shì sǐ! Yáng Zhì, nǐ shuō, wǒmen dàodǐ zěnmebàn?
Going back means death, and not going back means death too! Yang Zhi, tell us, what do we do?
- Yang Zhi 我回去，梁大人不会放过我。我不回去，我又能去哪儿？
Wǒ huíqù, liáng dàrén búhuì fàngguò wǒ. Wǒ bù huíqù, wǒ yòu néng qù nǎr?
If I go back, Lord Liang won't let me off. If I don't, where can I go?
- Yang Zhi 你们回去吧，就说杨志被强盗骗了。我……不回去了。
Nǐmen huíqù ba, jiù shuō Yáng Zhì bèi qiángdào piàn le. Wǒ… Bù huíqù le.
You go back and say Yang Zhi was tricked by robbers. I... am not going back.
- Old Steward 杨志！你要去哪儿？你不能丢下我们！
Yáng Zhì! Nǐ yào qù nǎr? Nǐ bùnéng diūxià wǒmen!
Yang Zhi! Where are you going? You can't leave us!
- Yang Zhi 我要查清楚，他们到底是谁。天下这么大，总有别的路。
Wǒ yàochá qīngchu, tāmen dàodǐ shì shuí. Tiānxià zhème dà, zǒngyǒu biéde lù.
I'll find out who they really were. The world is wide, and there must be another road.
- Porter 他走了……青面兽，就这样走了……
Tā zǒu le… Qīngmiànshòu, jiù zhèyàng zǒu le…
He's gone... the Blue-Faced Beast, just like that...
- Old Steward 别看了。我们回去，就说强盗太多，我们也没有办法。
Biékàn le. Wǒmen huíqù, jiù shuō qiángdào tài duō, wǒmen yě méiyǒu bànfǎ.
Stop staring. We will go back and say there were too many robbers and we could not help it.
- Old Steward 青面兽，也有走投无路的一天。十万贯，唉……
Qīngmiànshòu, yě yǒu zǒutóuwúlù de yìtiān. Shíwànguàn, āi…
Even the Blue-Faced Beast comes to a dead end one day. A hundred thousand strings, sigh...
- Narrator 那天晚上，东溪村的院子里，树上挂满了灯，桌上放着红红的枣子。
Nàtiān wǎnshang, Dōngxī Cūn de yuànzi lǐ, shùshàng guàmǎn le dēng, zhuōshàng fàngzhe hónghóngde zǎozi.
That night, in the yard in Dongxi Village, lanterns hung all over the tree and red dates lay on the table.
- Liu Tang 干杯！晁大哥，这是蔡太师的生日礼物，现在是我们的了！我一辈子也没见过这么多宝贝！
Gānbēi! Cháo dàgē, zhèshì Cài tàishī de shēngrìlǐwù, xiànzài shì wǒmen de le! Wǒ yíbèizi yě méijiàn guò zhème duō bǎobèi!
Cheers! Brother Chao, look at all this treasure! I've never seen anything like it in my life!
- Chao Gai 别忘了，这是大家的功劳。吴先生的头脑，白胜的酒，刘唐的胆子。
Biéwàngle, zhèshì dàjiā de gōngláo. Wúxiānsheng de tóunǎo, Bái Shèng de jiǔ, Liú Táng de dǎnzi.
Don't forget, this is everyone's work. Teacher Wu's brains, Bai Sheng's wine, Liu Tang's nerve.
- Wu Yong 还有晁大哥的胆子。没有胆子，再好的计策也没有用。
Háiyǒu cháo dàgē de dǎnzi. Méiyǒu dǎnzi, zài hǎo de jìcè yě méiyǒu yòng.
And Brother Chao's nerve. Without nerve, the best plan is useless.
- Liu Tang 那杨志呢？他那么聪明，他会不会找到我们？
Nà Yáng Zhì ne? Tā nàme cōngming, tāhuì búhuì zhǎodào wǒmen?
And Yang Zhi? He's so clever, will he find us?
- Wu Yong 他不会，可是官府会。梁中书丢了十万贯，一定会派很多人来找。
Tā búhuì, kěshì guānfǔ huì. Liáng Zhōngshū diū le shíwànguàn, yídìng huìpài hěnduō rénlái zhǎo.
He won't, but the officials will. Liang Zhongshu lost a hundred thousand strings, and he'll send many people to search.
- Chao Gai 那我们就不能留在这儿了。去哪儿好呢？
Nà wǒmen jiù bùnéng liúzài zhèr le. Qù nǎr hǎo ne?
Then we can't stay here. Where should we go?
- Wu Yong 我知道一个地方，水多，山高，官兵很难进去。那就是梁山。
Wǒ zhīdào yí gè dìfang, shuǐduō, shān gāo, guānbīng hěnnán jìnqù. Nà jiùshì Liángshān.
I know a place with plenty of water and high mountains, where officials can hardly enter. Mount Liang.
- Liu Tang 梁山？就是那个有好汉的地方？
Liángshān? Jiùshì nàge yǒu hǎohàn de dìfang?
Mount Liang? The place full of outlaw heroes?
- Chao Gai 好！就去梁山！明天一早就出发！
Hǎo! Jiù qù Liángshān! Míngtiān yì zǎojiù chūfā!
Good! To Mount Liang! We leave at first light tomorrow!
- Wu Yong 不过，梁山上的好汉愿不愿意收我们呢？我们得带一份大礼去。
Búguò, Liángshān shàng de hǎohàn yuànbúyuànyì shōu wǒmen ne? Wǒmen dé dài yífèn dàlǐ qù.
But will the heroes on Mount Liang take us in? We will have to bring a big gift.
- Liu Tang 那这些枣子怎么办？我还想吃一颗呢！
Nà zhèxiē zǎozi zěnmebàn? Wǒ hái xiǎng chī yìkē ne!
And what about these dates? I still want to eat one!
- Chao Gai 吃吧吃吧，兄弟。这些枣子，是我们的好朋友。明天路上还要带着呢。
Chī ba chī ba, xiōngdì. Zhèxiē zǎozi, shì wǒmen de hǎo péngyou. Míngtiān lùshàng háiyào dài zhe ne.
Eat, eat, brother. These dates are our good friends. We'll take them along on the road tomorrow.
- Wu Yong 走以前，我还想说一句。杨志这个人，我们以后一定还会再见的。
Zǒu yǐqián, wǒ hái xiǎng shuō yíjù. Yáng Zhì zhège rén, wǒmen yǐhòu yídìng háihuì zàijiàn de.
Before we go, one more thing. I feel sure we'll meet that man Yang Zhi again.
Hear the chapter
What changed in the story?
- What does Yang Zhi discover when he wakes?
“担子！我的担子！”……“十一担，全都不见了！”
- Why is the steward so afraid?
“十万贯丢了，梁中书会杀我们的头！”
- What does Yang Zhi decide to do?
“我……不回去了。”
- Why must the seven friends leave the village?
“梁中书丢了十万贯，一定会派很多人来找。”
- Where do they plan to go?
“水多，山高，官兵很难进去。那就是梁山。”