45. THE PRICE OF BREAKING LAWS
In 1836, the government of Jiangyin county announced a new law forbidding farmers to kill frogs, because frogs eat many harmful insects and protect the crops,so people shouldn't kill frogs to eat.
When this law was posted, someone told Zhang Axi about it. He made his living catching frogs to sell in the market as meat. He couldn't read, so he didn't know about the new law. When they told him, he didn't like what he heard.
"Well, I'm not going to obey that law. Why waste good frogs?" He was so rude and so stubborn that his friends finally gave up trying to get him to change his ways. He killed many frogs.
He always liked to use some of the money he got from selling frogs to buy some liquor and get drunk. Then he would say, "What's wrong with catching frogs? Look, I'm getting along fine, see?"
His' friends would tell him, "Yeah, but it's not too good, because it is against the law, after all."
That would make Axi mad. "What's so great about the law? Lots of people break the law, not just me."
But then one stormy night, Zhang Axi disappeared. The next morning, when the storm had blown over, the villagers found him. He had fallen into the river and drowned. That could happen to anyone. But what was strange was that hundreds of frogs had come to eat his corpse, in revenge for all of their relatives that he had sold for food.
Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. They realized that even though you may get away with breaking the government's laws for a while, you can never get away with breaking the laws of the universe.
Sooner or later, your good deeds will be rewarded, and your bad deeds will catch up with you.
45. 违法的代价
1836年的时候，江阴县颁布了一条法令，不允许捕捉青蛙，因为青蛙吃害虫，保护庄稼，所以人们不应该捉青蛙来吃。
当布告贴出来后后，有人告诉了张阿喜。他是靠捉青蛙到市场上卖来挣钱的。他不识字，所以他不知道这个新法令。当他知道后，很不高兴。
“好吧，我不会遵守那条法令的。为什么要浪费那么好的青蛙呢？”他既残忍又顽固，他的朋友只好不再劝他改变他谋生方式了。他杀了很多青蛙。
他常常用卖青蛙的钱来买酒喝。然后他总是说，“抓青蛙有什么错？看，我不是过得好好的吗？”
他的朋友对他说，“是的。但是那不太好吧，毕竟这是违法的啊。”
听到这些阿喜会发火，说，：“法律有什么了不起？那么多人违背法律，又不是只有我。”
但是一个风雨交加的夜晚，张阿喜不见了。第二天，当风雨停了以后，村民才找到他。他已经掉到河里淹死了。这种事也可能发生在其他人身上。但奇怪的是上百只青蛙跑来吃他的尸体，为那些被张阿喜卖掉的亲属报仇。
没人见过这种事。他们相信如果你违背了官府的法令，可能暂时逃得掉，但是违背了宇宙的法则，你永远也逃不掉。
善有善报，恶有恶报，不是不报，时候未到。
