Chapter 177 The Rebirth of the Happy Prince
The little girl grabbed the match with her trembling hands and rubbed it gently on the wall. A pleasant "chichi" sound came out, the match was lit, and the weak firelight illuminated the little girl's surroundings.
"I wonder what kind of food people are enjoying in the beautiful big house next to it?" The little girl smelled the aroma in the cold wind and couldn't help but think about the delicious food.
In the faint flickering light of the fire, the little girl seemed to see a large dining table. On the plate were apples, peaches, grapes and other countless colorful fruits. There were also large bowls filled with fragrant roast duck, roast chicken and Roast goose.
The girl saw the fat and oily roast duck jumping out of the bowl. The duck with a knife and fork stuck on its back walked on the tablecloth, leaving a delicious and greasy chicken paw mark on the tablecloth with every step it took.
The little girl rushed forward and grabbed the plump roast duck.
She did catch the duck.
The warm and real touch tells the girl that this roast duck has appeared in reality.
In front of her, there was indeed a dining table with delicious food placed on it. Pure white snowflakes like goose feathers fell on the roast duck and fruits. Every detail was real.
"Is food really showing up?"
"Like yesterday's stove?"
The little girl couldn't wait to pull out the knife and fork on the back of the roast duck, quickly cut the duck into pieces, and put it into her mouth one by one. After finishing the roast duck, she went to eat the roast goose, grapes, juice and other delicious food next to her until she couldn't eat any more.
The little girl ate so deliciously, because her whole face was stuffed into the dinner plate, and her lips and face were covered with oil stains.
She felt this was the most filling and delicious meal she had ever eaten in her life. After eating, she felt warm all over.
Only then did the little girl have time to think about why a delicious meal suddenly appeared in front of her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the burnt match on the ground.
"It was the same thing yesterday. When I rubbed the match, my fantasy became reality."
"Could it be that these matches have magical powers?"
"That kind sister yesterday was a magician?"
Thinking of this, the little girl felt a little guilty:
"It's a pity that I can't find the sister and can't return the magic match to her.
"Well, I'll use a little first, and then I'll apologize to the sister when I meet her later. Return the remaining matches to her.
"If possible, I can do anything for her and ask her to give me a few more matches."
After making up her mind, the little girl stretched out her little hand that had regained its rosiness, and took out a match. There were dots of light on the match.
She lightly rubbed the match against the wall and heard a pleasant "chichi" sound.
Aurora, who turned into a bird in the sky, quietly observed this scene, wanting to see what the first wish the little girl would make after learning about the magic of matches.
"I want to see my grandma. I want my grandma to come back from heaven and see me."
The little girl whispered a wish in front of the faint firelight.
She thought of her kind grandma. Grandma was so kind to her, she was definitely the most loving person in the world. But one day, grandma disappeared, and everyone said that she had lived in heaven. She wanted her grandma to come back from that distant paradise and come see her.
She just stared at the weak firelight, until the flickering firelight was extinguished by the cold wind, but no miracle happened.
Aurora and the birds transformed into Rhine watched all this, with a touch of sadness in their hearts.
They all know that there is no magic to resurrect the dead in this world.
Some taboo necromancy magic may allow powerful magicians to be reborn in another place at the moment of death, but this is because their life essence is preserved elsewhere and they did not actually die when their bodies were destroyed; magic may also Block the immortal soul and turn it into a wraith, or trap it in gems and bottles, unable to be reincarnated - although in this case, the deceased is not considered alive at all.
However, even the most skilled magician cannot call back those souls that have been reincarnated and disappeared, so that the deceased can walk out of the grave in a normal posture.
"It seems that heaven is really a very, very far away place. Even a magic match cannot find grandma."
The little girl lowered her head sadly.
She looked at the shining matches in the matchbox, feeling sad in her heart. For a moment, she didn't know what to wish for.
Suddenly, the little girl had an idea.
"By the way, although matches can't help me find my grandma, they can help me find the swallow who gave me the sapphire!"
"I would also like to thank it for giving me such a beautiful sapphire!"
The little girl rubbed another match and lit it. , praying against the fire:
"Please take me to find the swallow that gave me the gem."
The warm fire grew bigger and bigger, covering the girl's whole body in it.
The little girl felt very warm. In the firelight, she saw a square - the highest square in the center of the town.
She saw a gray and tattered sculpture of a boy on a tall column in the center of the square.
The little girl remembers that her grandma took her here a long time ago when her mother and grandma were still alive.
It was a warm spring day, and she was sitting on a chair with her grandma, looking at the golden sculptures on the towering stone pillars.
She remembered that at that time, the exterior of the sculpture was plated with gold, the sword was inlaid with rubies, and the eyes were made of blue gems. Under the sunlight, the sculpture shone so brightly that the girl couldn't open her eyes.
"Who is that person standing on the column?" the girl asked her grandmother curiously, pointing to the sculpture on the column.
"He was a prince from our country a long time ago."
Grandma told the girl: "He lived in the palace and lived a carefree life. The walls of the palace isolated him from all the ugly and dark things. People called him the Happy Prince. After his death, people made a statue of him." ”
"Then why do people place the Happy Prince so high?" the girl asked, "why not put him within the walls of the palace?"
Standing at such a high place, the Happy Prince would definitely see all the ugliness and pain in this town, and he would never be happy again... the girl thought.
However, now, the Happy Prince looked completely different from the girl's memory.
There were only holes left in the prince's eyes, and all the chips on his body had fallen off, leaving only a gray patch. Even the ruby on the hilt of the prince's sword disappeared.
The little girl then remembered that the sapphire the Swallow had given her was exactly the same as the one in the Happy Prince's eyes!
The little girl walked to the foot of the Happy Prince's pillar. She wanted to return the beautiful sapphire to the prince, but the gem had been taken away by her father, and she was very sad about it.
At this time, she saw that the swallow that helped her before flew over again and stopped at the feet of the Happy Prince.
"Swallow, thank you for the gem you gave me. But the gem seems to be the eyes of the Happy Prince. Grandma told me that you should not take away other people's things. I want to return the eyes to the prince, but I have already given the gem to My father.”
The girl raised her head and said to Yanzi.
But the swallow shook his head and told the girl: "No, the prince asked me to give the gem to you."
The swallow told the girl that he was only flying over the city temporarily and wanted to follow his friends to a warmer place to spend the winter, but the Happy Prince retained him.
On the first night, the Happy Prince let the swallow peck away the ruby on the hilt of his sword, and gave it to a thin and haggard mother with needle holes in her hands; on the second night, the Happy Prince let the swallow peck away the ruby from his eye socket. A sapphire for a man who lives in a shabby attic and writes for the theater The young man who wrote the script - the young man was so hungry that he could no longer write without a fire in the fireplace; on the third night, the Happy Prince asked the swallow to peck out the last sapphire in his eye socket and give it to a man without shoes. The little girl who sells socks and sells matches—that girl is her.
And today, the Happy Prince asked the swallow to take away pieces of gold leaves from his body and give them to the starving children in the city - the children sitting at the door of the mansion begging, shivering under the bridge with the cold A trembling child, a child who is so hungry that his face is pale and dying...
In this way, the Happy Prince lost everything of value and became the ugly sculpture he is now.
"Oh my God, when did the sculptures in the square become like this?" In the distance, several adults were heard discussing.
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"Yes. That sculpture is too ugly. We should knock it down and melt it." Another adult said.
The little girl burst into tears when she heard the adults arguing about how to dispose of the lead water after melting the prince, whether to make a statue of the mayor or some other big shot.
She threw herself in front of the towering column and cried loudly. She felt that the Happy Prince was as good as her grandmother and did not want him to melt and go to that distant paradise.
"By the way, I still have matches."
The little girl then took out the box of matches with twinkling stars from her tattered clothes, and cried as she took out a match.
She rubbed the wall, lit a match, and made a wish to the match.
The ruby reappeared on the hilt of the Happy Prince's sword, larger and brighter than before.
But the Happy Prince's eyes were still ugly holes, and his body was still dull gray.
"No, one match doesn't have enough magic power."
The little girl poured out all the sparkling matches and kept scratching the wall with the matches. The walls were heated by the matches and the matches burned one by one.
In the eyes of the Happy Prince, new sapphires grew out, more stunning and clear than before. Pieces of gold foil appeared on the Happy Prince's body, becoming more dazzling than before.
In just a few minutes, the Happy Prince transformed back into the beautiful prince, even more dazzling than before!
The little girl now only has one match left.
She used the last match left to make a wish to give the swallow warmth to survive the cold winter - because she saw the swallow shivering in the cold wind and might fall at any time and fall into eternal sleep.
The swallow, glowing with a faint firelight and feeling warm all over, flew into the girl's palm and kissed the girl's face.
The Happy Prince also looked at the girl and thanked her.
The little girl happily bid farewell to the Swallow and the Happy Prince, left the square, and headed towards home.
At this time, the little girl remembered that she had not even sold a match, and all the matches that could make a wish had been used up!
The snow was falling heavier and heavier, and goose-feather-like snowflakes covered the girl's hair and shoulders, making the girl who had just had a good meal shiver from the cold again.
"What should I do? All the magic matches are used up."
The girl knew that her father would beat her once she returned home.
But she was actually not afraid, because she had the most filling and delicious meal in her life today and helped the kind-hearted Happy Prince and the Swallow, and she had no regrets anymore.
"It's a pity that I only have a box of magic matches." The little girl thought sadly.
If she had many boxes of matches, she would have many more wishes to make. She wants to be like the Happy Prince, helping the beggars in front of the mansion, the children under the bridge who are too hungry to sleep, and the poor writers who work all night in the attic.
The little girl walked all the way back to the shabby home, mentally prepared, waiting for her father to beat her severely.
"Little girl, your father is dead!" A neighbor shouted to the girl when he saw her.
"Yes, those creditors caught him before and asked him to repay last year's gambling money. But he didn't have a penny, so the creditors beat him to death. I saw it with my own eyes." Another neighbor said .
The little girl failed to react and stood there blankly.
After a long time, the little girl opened the door.
It was empty inside, and the cold wind slipped in through the window.
At this moment, the little girl suddenly saw that there were a table full of matchboxes on the table!
Each matchbox is the same as the previous box of magical matches, glowing with little bits of light!
The little girl walked to the table in disbelief and found a letter under the matchbox. The girl was illiterate, but unexpectedly found that she could understand the entire content of the letter.
"My name is Aurora, I am the sister who bought a box of matches from you last night, and I am also a magician. You have proven your kindness with actions. Everything on the table is a gift from me. Please accept it..."
After reading all the letters, the little girl looked at the whole table of wishing matches on the table, and tears of excitement welled up from her eyes.
……
After successfully harvesting the power of wish, Aurora followed Rhine and returned to the palace of Rose Kingdom.
"Teacher, I'm thinking about a question."
Aurora looked at the flowing clouds on the horizon, thinking of the snowy kingdom, with a deep expression on her face:
"The power of magic is so powerful that it can create delicious food, warm stoves, thick clothes and big houses, and things that people need out of thin air.
"Theoretically speaking, does it mean that as long as we have powerful enough magic, there will be no more hunger and cold in the world?"
Rhine understood what Aurora meant and nodded gently: "Her Majesty the future Queen, you are right. On this continent, magic is indeed the primary productive force."
Immediately afterwards, Rhine's tone became slightly heavier:
"It is very easy to use magic to help one or a few people. However, if you want to use magic to help thousands of people, you have to face a more complicated dilemma and cannot completely adopt the original method."
"What's the dilemma?" Aurora pricked up her ears and waited quietly for the teacher's answer.
(End of chapter)