There is a mud village not far from our city, and mud people live in the mud village. They are very peaceful. However, there are still some people or animals that don’t like them so much, especially the rabbit family, who have deep-rooted (dì) prejudices against them. Some clay figures believe that this is because an old rabbit once fell into a mud pit and was taken back to the mud village by the clay people as a mud rabbit (yuán).
It is said that the King Rabbit, who had just ascended to the throne this year, was very angry when he remembered that his father had been “humiliated (rǔ)” by the clay men. So he called on the rabbits to attack the mud village on March 3rd. The news was soon brought to the mud village by the lark (shāo) who was close to the mud people. What to do? The clay people are helpless (chóu). After thinking about it, I finally got an idea.
March 3 will be here soon. The rabbit army drove into the mud village. However, none of them met a clay figure! However, not every rabbit cares about the whereabouts of the clay figurines. Some rabbits found many flowers planted in the mud village. The flowers are so beautiful. The king also liked, “Bring all those flowers back to the palace.” The flowers were taken to the palace. But in the evening, the queen heard coughing and joking among the flowers in the garden.
“There must be a fairy in the flower,” the queen said to the king in fear. The king didn’t believe it.
“Don’t touch the clay figurines!” In the evening, all the flowers actually screamed.
“Quick! Send all these flowers back to Niba Village.” The king and queen were frightened.
At dawn, when the flower-giving rabbit left the mud village, the flowers all laughed. They pulled out the flowers that grew from their heads, and restored (huī) the appearance of a clay figure. It turned out that the clever mud people covered their bodies with flower seeds (zǐ), watered them again, and stood in the sun for a while. The seeds sprouted and flowers slowly bloomed on their bodies. Hey, no wonder the rabbits can’t find them.
