The story of the princess and the gardener

According to legend, once upon a time a king had a very lovely grown daughter.

　　One day, the king called his daughter to him and said, "My child, you are of marriageable age. I plan to hold a grand banquet soon, and invite the neighboring monarchs and my friends to the banquet, and then you will choose a suitable one. Husband."

　　On the day of the banquet, the monarchs came to the banquet with their whole families. The guests were crowded, and the princess took a fancy to King Garnett's son. She told her father her wish. The news quickly spread among the guests.

　　The son of King Garnett felt very lucky and was overjoyed. At noon, everyone sat down to the feast. There were fifty-seven dishes in total at the banquet, and the fruit snack after the dinner was pomegranate.

　　At that time, the guests of the neighboring countries had never seen a pomegranate, and the family of King Garnett had never seen a pomegranate at all. When the prince ate the pomegranate, he accidentally dropped a pomegranate seed on the ground. He thought it must be very valuable, so he leaned down and picked it up.

　　The princess had been looking at him affectionately, and when she saw this scene, her face flushed with anger, she got up, ran back to her room, and closed the door.

　　The king noticed that the situation was abnormal, so he followed his daughter out to see what had happened. As a result, he found his daughter crying in his room.

　　"Dad, I really liked that guy at first, but now I know he's a miser, so let's forget about him."

　　The king returned to the banquet, thanking the monarchs for coming, and saying goodbye to them. King Garnett's son was unbearably sad when he saw that things were broken. But instead of returning to China, he dressed himself up as a peasant and settled near the palace.

　　At this time, there was a lack of a gardener in the king's royal garden, and they were looking for a suitable person. The prince knew a little gardening, so he took the job. After the master and the employer agreed on the salary, and the master assigned the work to him, he became the gardener in the royal garden.

　　In the garden, there was a hut where he lived, and he moved a large box into the house. He said the box contained his own clothes, when in fact it was all gifts he had prepared for his fiancée.

　　The prince hung a shawl embroidered with gold thread from the window of the hut. The princess' window was facing the royal garden. When she looked out of the window, she saw the shiny shawl, and she called the gardener to her and asked, "Whose shawl is that?"

　　"Mine."

　　"Can you sell it to me?"

　　"Not for sale!"

　　So she sent maids to persuade the gardener to sell her the shawl. However, no matter how much the maids paid, or even promised to exchange other valuables, he still refused.

　　Finally, the gardener said, "I can give this shawl to the princess, but she has to let me stay overnight in the first room of her suite."

　　The maids couldn't help laughing when they heard it, and hurried back to tell the princess about it. Then, they discussed countermeasures together. The maids said, "Since he's so stupid, he just wants to sleep in the first room for the night, what's wrong with that? We can get that shawl without spending a penny or losing anything, why not?" So, the princess agreed.

　　At night, when the whole palace was asleep, the maids called the gardener to the room to sleep. The next morning, they went to wake him up again and led him out. The gardener handed over the shawl.

　　A week later, the gardener hung up another shawl, which was prettier than the original one. The princess wanted this shawl very much. This time, the gardener offered to sleep in the second room of the princess' suite.

　　The maids persuaded: "You can let him sleep in the first room, of course you can also let him sleep in the second room, there is no hindrance anyway." As a result, the princess agreed to his request.

　　Another week passed. The gardener hung up a long dress embroidered with gold thread and inlaid with many pearls and precious stones. The princess was fascinated by the dress, but to get it, she had to agree to let the gardener sleep in the third room of her suite. This room is the front room of the princess' bedroom. Since the gardener is a poor fool, what's there to worry about? The gardener lay on the floor, pretending to be asleep, as he had done the previous two nights. When everyone had fallen asleep, he pretended to be too cold to bear, shivering, humming, and fighting teeth.

　　Then he leaned against the princess' door, trembling all over, knocking the door like a drum. The princess woke up, and the noise prevented her from sleeping again. She told the gardener to be quiet, but he replied, "I'm cold!" He moaned, trembling even more.

　　The princess could not quiet him, and was afraid that others would know that the gardener lived in the palace and that the two of them had a strange deal, so she finally had to get up and open the door for him.

　　The princess thought to herself: This man is stupid, no accident will happen!

　　Whether the gardener is stupid or not, since that night, the princess has been pregnant. Angry and ashamed, for fear of revealing her, she told the gardener about it. He said, "You have no other choice but to run away with me."

　　"Run away with you? I'd rather die than do it."

　　"Okay, then you stay in the palace and end up being notorious."

　　As a result, the princess had to listen to his advice and decided to run away with him. She packed her belongings into a small bag, brought a little money, and one night they fled on foot.

　　Along the way, they crossed fields and pastures and encountered shepherds and cattle herders.

　　The princess asked, "Whose are those flocks of cattle and sheep?"

　　"King Garnett's."

　　"Oh, I'm so unfortunate!"

　　"Why? What's the matter with you?" the gardener asked.

　　"Because I refused his son to be my husband."

　　"That's a shame!" said the gardener.

　　"Whose land belongs to?"

　　"King Garnett's."

　　"Oh, I'm so unfortunate!"

　　When they reached the boy's house, they were exhausted. The boy told the princess that he was the son of King Garnett's steward. It was a small room blackened by smoke, with an old bed, a stove, and a fireplace. Next door to the house is the barn's chicken coop.

　　The young man said, "I'm hungry, go kill a chicken and cook it for me." The princess had to do so. They spent the night in the small house. In the morning, the young man said he would go out and not come back until dark. The princess stayed alone in the hut.

　　Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door, and she opened it. At the door stood the son of King Garnett, who was dressed from head to toe in a royal uniform. He asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

　　"I am the wife of your chief son."

　　"That's possible. But you don't look like an honest woman to me. Maybe you're a thief? People keep sneaking here to steal my chickens."

　　Then the prince called the chickens over and counted them. He said, "One is missing! How did you do it? There was no shortage of one at this time yesterday." He rummaged and searched the house, but found chicken feathers in the stove, which was missing from the previous night. The hen killed by the princess. "So you're a chicken thief! I caught you on the spot! Fortunately, I caught you, and I won't send you to jail!" Just as the prince was clamoring, his mother came.

　　When the queen saw the young woman with tears in her eyes, she said to her, "Don't be afraid, my son is such a strange temper. Just help me with some work. I'm about to have a little grandson, and I have to prepare some small clothes for the child. Help me with needlework." So the queen led her to the palace to make nightgowns, coats and trousers for the baby.

　　In the evening, when the gardener came home, the princess cried and told him about the day, and rebuked him, and asked him to take her out of here immediately. The boy calmed her down and persuaded her to stay here.

　　The princess said, "But what shall we do? The child is about to be born, and we don't even have an inch of cloth!"

　　The young man said, "Tomorrow, when the queen asks you to make clothes again, you secretly put the child's nightgown in your arms."

　　The next day, the princess went to the palace. While she was waiting for the queen to turn her head, she quickly grabbed a nightgown and stuffed it in her arms. After a while, the prince came in and said to his mother, "Mom, who are you working with! It's the chicken thief? She can steal anything!" After saying that, he reached out and took the child's nightgown out of her arms.

　　The young woman was so ashamed that she almost rolled on the ground, but this time it was the queen who helped her out. She said to her son, "These are women's affairs, you don't need to meddle in your own business!" She comforted the young woman, she cried, her heart was breaking, and the queen told her to string a few more pearls tomorrow.

　　In the evening the princess went back to the hut and told her husband about the grievances she had suffered during the day. The gardener said, "Don't take it to heart. That king is a cheapskate. Tomorrow, you must try to hide a string of pearls in your pocket."

　　The next day, while the queen was not looking, the young woman stuffed a string of pearls into her pocket. But then the prince came in, and he said to his mother, "Did you give the pearl to this thief? I bet you'll find at least one string of pearls in her pocket!"

　　The prince reached out to her pocket, and found the string of pearls, and the young woman fainted with fright. The queen put smelling salts on her nose to revive her, and comforted her, telling her not to be afraid.

　　The next day, while working in the queen's room, the princess felt a prenatal pain, and she had to lie down. The queen helped her lie down on the prince's bed, where the princess gave birth to a beautiful boy.

　　At this moment, the prince came in. "What, mother, this thief is lying on my bed?"

　　"Well, child, stop acting." The queen went on to say to the princess: "My good daughter-in-law, my son is your husband. You refused to marry him for a little pomegranate seed. To get you, he dressed up as a gardener."

　　Now, everything was revealed. The prince held banquets and entertainment for three days in a row, inviting the princess' parents and all the monarchs to attend.