Composition: Four major folk stories: "The Legend of the White Snake", 350 words

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there was a vassal king who was extremely smart but cruel and immoral. The local officials could not do anything against him. He also has a hobby, he loves jade. He not only collects high-quality jade from everywhere, but also has many jade craftsmen who purchase beautiful jade and carve it himself.

One year, the vassal king collected a large piece of precious mountain material, and no one in the palace dared to do it. Some people said that the Wu family’s jade craftsmen were the best in the world, so they should go to Suzhou to hire famous craftsmen to work on it! The vassal king thought it was reasonable and ordered the Suzhou government to recommend the best jade workers.

At that time, the number one jade worker in Suzhou was Lu Zigang, and the number two jade worker was Wang Xiaoxi. These two people have high skills and high spirits. In comparison, Lu Zigang has a more tempered temper and has a quirk. Regardless of whether the owner wants it or not, all jade items produced by him must have a name on them. Wang Xiaoxi was born with a strange appearance and had six fingers on his right hand. Most people's sixth fingers are branch fingers, but his six fingers are extremely flexible. Because of this, Wang Xiaoxi's carvings are famous for their complexity and precision.

Lu and Wang have always refused to obey the other, and they always fight endlessly. When they heard that the vassal king wanted to recruit the number one jade worker in the Wu clan, whoever was selected would be assured of the number one throne. Naturally, All have to go. The two men were so quarreling that the Suzhou magistrate couldn't decide for a while. At this time, Wang Xiaoxi said: "Since we can't decide, let's just have a competition. We two will spend a day each carving a small vessel. Please let everyone know who is it." The skill is better. If Lu Zigang wins, I am willing to lose the Kun Dao to him; if I win, then Lu Zigang will never compete with me in this life."

It turns out that although Wang Xiaoxi knows that his skill is inferior to Lu Zigang. He is inferior, but he has a carved jade treasure, which is a Kun knife. Speaking of the origin of this knife, it happened a few years ago.

I still remember that day, when Wang Xiaoxi went for an outing in the countryside, he suddenly heard a crisp sound, and an old farmer working in the field muttered: "It's really unlucky, this piece of iron broke my plowshare." "

Wang Xiaoxi was surprised when he heard the sound, because the plows were made of fine steel and were very thick. The iron piece that could cut the plowshare must be a treasure, so he came over. .

The iron piece was dark and inconspicuous at all, but he tried it with bricks and tiles, and when he cut it, it was like cutting through putrefaction mud. But such a piece of iron was not easy to use, so Wang Xiaoxi found a blacksmith and wanted to change the piece of iron into a carving knife. Unexpectedly, the blacksmith lit the furnace and burned it for a long time, but the iron pieces were not even red, so he had to give up.

On this day, a Taoist priest suddenly came and said that he had a way, but the condition was four hundred taels of silver. The price was very scary, but when Wang Xiaoxi saw that the Taoist priest was confident, he gritted his teeth and agreed.

The Taoist priest asked Wang Xiaoxi to prepare a few grates. He would go to the streets every day to look for unkempt female beggars with long hair. After giving them a few small coins, he would use the grates to remove the dirt from the women's hair. After a few days, after collecting a full basin of hair dirt, the Taoist lit a fire, then coated the iron piece with hair dirt and put it in the furnace to burn. The fire burned for three days and three nights. When the scale on the iron sheet was completely burned out, it was repainted. When the scale on the iron sheet was completely coated, the iron sheet had also been burned red. The Taoist priest hit it with an oil hammer and successfully transformed it into an iron sheet. Handle carving knife.

Wang Xiaoxi was so happy that he paid the money and asked the Taoist what the iron piece was. The Taoist said: "This is the head of the ancient Kun sword. Because the Kun sword is impervious to water and fire, it cannot burn red. The oil on a person's hair can penetrate the heat." After the Taoist finished speaking, he drifted away. And Wang Xiaoxi got this Kun Jade Cutting Knife, and his skills improved a lot.

Lu Zigang had also seen this Kun Dao. When he heard Wang Xiaoxi’s offer, he agreed without thinking. When Wang Xiaoxi saw that he agreed, he was very proud and felt that he had a chance to win.

It turns out that although Lu Zigang's skills are slightly better than Wang Xiaoxi's, the final polishing of the jade requires fine emery, which is extremely time-consuming and cannot be completed in one day. Because Wang Xiaoxi had a jade cutting knife, he could save the time of polishing, so he would definitely be able to carve more exquisite jade than Lu Zigang in one day. It was precisely because of this that he dared to compete with Lu Zigang.

Competition

One day later, Wang Xiaoxi and Lu Zigang each brought a wooden box.

Wang Xiaoxi presented the box first. The prefect opened it and saw a variegated jade butterfly hairpin inside. Pure color jade is always more expensive. If the color is mixed, the price will not be high. It's just that Wang Xiaoxi's idea was very clever, and he carved the variegated part into a butterfly. In this way, the body of the hairpin still looks as white as suet, while the butterfly is colorful. What's even more amazing is that the hairpin is carved from a whole piece of jade, but the butterfly on the head of the hairpin can tremble slightly.

It turned out that Wang Xiaoxi was good at openwork carving, and then used a jade knife to carve the butterfly wings so finely that the originally hard jade could tremble in the wind after being carved.

The prefect was secretly surprised to see Wang Xiaoxi's advanced skills when Lu Zigang presented his box. The prefect opened it and saw a crab-shaped wine seat carved from sapphire. Although it seems that the knife skills are quite good, compared with Wang Xiaoxi's butterfly hairpin, it seems mediocre. The magistrate sighed secretly and was about to make a conclusion when Lu Zigang was neither humble nor arrogant. He stepped forward and bowed and said: "Sir, a great man has no dreams, and a great skill has no workmanship. Jade is a spiritual thing, and the villain who made this horizontal seat is also a spiritual thing. ."