69. SLAUGHTER GOD

　　Powerful bronzed arms. Whiskers. A pair of blazing eyes. This was Gu Yanlong, known far and wide as the king of the cattle butchers. People would rather have run into a tiger than Gu Yenlung. He was called Slaughter God.
　
　　Slaughter God had two sons, just like their father. They were strong and rough. The neighbors were careful to stay out of their way. Not only that, but their mother, Mrs. Gu, was skilled with a butcher's knife, too. She could kill a cow as quickly and neatly as her husband.
　
　　This frightening family lived in a big, sparsely furnished wood house. The father and mother slept on a brass bed, but the boys slept on the floor. They kept a big stump in the house as a chopping block to kill cows on. The only other decoration was strips of meat hanging from hooks in the windows. Legs, heads, tails, and all the other parts of cattle's anatomy hung from the hooks.

　　With the whole family at work, naturally they killed a lot of cattle. Then one day, Slaughter God complained that his eyes hurt. He went to see all the doctors he could find, but none of them could do anything for him. Before long, he was totally blind.

　　Shortly after that, Mrs. Gu came down with a strange ailment. The skin all over her body seemed to rot and crack. She was in such pain that she could barely stand to get dressed. Even the touch of her cotton clothes seemed like the scraping of a knife.

　　One night, when her maid, Shen, was taking care of her, she heard the old lady say, "It's the court of Hell. They're teaching me how cattle suffer when we skin them for food.

　　"I never knew! Even when they're dead, their souls can feel the pain of the knife, the heat of the cooking fire. What agony! Oh, it hurts! It hurts! I wish it would stop!"

　　Shen was terrified, but there was nothing she could do to stop the torture that Mrs. Gu created for herself by years of mistreating animals.

　　Cattle never hurt anyone. In the old days, they pulled our ancestors' carts, and in many parts of the world, they plowed the fields. Is it fair to slaughter such nice animals?

69.屠神

　　黝黑有力的手臂、络腮胡须、一双明亮的眼睛,这就是古严龙，远近闻名的最能杀牛的屠夫。人们宁可碰到老虎都不愿意碰到他。他被叫做屠神。

　屠神有两个儿子，他们就像他们的父亲一样强壮粗野。邻居们都小心翼翼地躲着他们。不仅如此，他们的母亲，古夫人，用起屠刀来 也非常熟练，她能像自己的丈夫一样，迅速、干净利落地杀掉一头牛。

　　这可怕的一家住在一间宽敞的的木屋里，家具很少 。父母亲就睡在一张铜床上，儿子们就睡在地板上。他们在房子里放了一个树桩，当成杀牛的砧板。房里仅有的另一装饰，就是窗上用钩 子挂着的肉。牛腿、牛头、牛尾，还有牛身上的其他部位，就挂在钩子上。

　　他们全家人都杀牛，自然杀了很多头牛。有一天，屠神说眼睛疼。他去看所有他能找到的医生，但是他们都无能为力。不久，他眼睛全瞎了。

　　没多久，古夫人得了一种怪病。她全身的皮肤腐烂爆裂。她疼得连穿衣服都不能忍受，棉布衣服的碰触对她来说就像是刀割一样。

　　一天晚上，一个姓沈的丫环照顾古夫人的时候，听见她说， “这是地府的法庭。他们正在让我体验牛被剥皮吃掉时的痛楚。”

　　“我从未知道! 尽管他们已经死了，它们的灵魂还能感觉到刀割的痛苦，炉火的热度。好痛苦啊！啊，好疼啊!好疼啊！我真希望他们能住手!”

　　沈怕极了，但是她又不能停止古夫人的痛苦。那是她多年虐待动物造成的。

　　牛从来不伤害任何人。从前，它们帮我们的祖先拉车，在世界上很多地方，它们费力犁地。屠杀这么善良的动物，公平吗？