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A tall mouse squeezed forward and pointed his long finger at his rival. "You fatso! Ha! Ha! Ha! Who cares about big muscles? No one here is as tall as I am! Look, I have the longest legs and I will jump the highest and catch the handkerchief!'
The smaller mice could only lower their heads in shame and tuck their tails defeatedly between their little legs. From a corner Ming Ming watched, all the while smiling hopefully. And so a week later, hundreds of mice, all dressed in their best kung fu outfits, pushed and shoved and elbowed their way to the courtyard of the Mayor's mansion. The Mayor's beautiful daughter Mei Mei, blushing like a bride, came out onto the balcony. The crowd whistled and cheered, their applause shaking the ground like an earthquake. Mei Mei looked shyly at her suitors. Then, with her delicate hand, she threw the pink handkerchief.
Just as the tallest mouse was about to grab the fluttering handkerchief, a loud "Meeeoww!" startled everyone. Before anyone knew what had happened, a huge spotted cat leapt toward the tiny balcony, stretched his paw and hooked the handkerchief. As the cat fell, it knocked down the whole mansion, smashing it into little pieces. None of the mice wanted to be the cat's meal, so they ran as fast as if the sky were pouring boiling rain. Everyone except Ming Ming. Instead of scurrying away, he shrieked and dashed up to Mei Mei, grabbed her paw, and disappeared with her into a hole.
The next day the Mayor woke up in the rubble of his house. Feeling dazed, he looked for his daughter but she was nowhere to be found. But he comforted himself by thinking, "I saw her running into a hole, so she must have escaped and will soon come back to me."
Just then, the sun rose high up in the sky and shone on his sorrowful face. Feeling its warmth, he murmured to himself, "The sun gives out light to keep us from the cold and help things grow. I can't think of anything more powerful than the sun, nor more worthy to be my son-in-law."
Having decided, he climbed to the top of a wall, shaded his eyes and asked, "Mr. Hot Sun, are you the most powerful of all? If you are, you'll be my son-in-law."
Looking very happy, the sun exclaimed, "Wow! What an unexpected offer!" Just then a dark cloud lunged forward and shaded the sun's brilliant face.
Shocked, the Mayor exclaimed, "It's you! Mr. Dark Cloud!" Dark Cloud laughed so hard that he choked. "Ha, Ha, Harrr... Didn't you notice that when the sun sees me, he's like a mouse seeing a cat?"
When the Mayor was about to bow to Dark Cloud, a strong wind jumped high in the sky and kicked the cloud away!
Now the Mayor snapped his head around. "Wow! Mr. Cold Wind, you've just wiped the cloud clean!"
Cold Wind roared, "Sure! I can blow anything clean, houses, people—and you!" With cheeks swollen like two balloons, he blew his breath on the Mayor.
The mouse soared into mid-air, limbs flailing in all directions. "Aii-ya! Help! Help!"
A few seconds later, he hit the wall with a thump, then his bottom crashed onto a heap of rubble. Recovering from his fall, he looked up at the smiling wall with awe. "Ah, Mr. Tall Wall, so you're the strongest of all!" But the wall's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Puzzled, the Mayor asked, "What's wrong Mr. Tall Wall? Aren't you the most powerful of all?"
But now the wall looked so scared that he was unable to talk. He kept looking at one spot—a mouse peeking out from a hole. Finally, the wall stuttered, "Yes, I'm fearless, except for one thing-mice chewing holes in my stomach!" The Mayor followed the wall's eyes until he saw Ming Ming, and to his surprise and happiness, Mei Mei.
He dashed up to hug his precious daughter. "Mei Mei, where have you been? I worried about you till my heart broke!"
Mei Mei cast a long loving look toward Ming Ming and tenderly said, "Father, yesterday Ming Ming saved my life from the spotted cat." She paused, her face as pink as a peach. "Not only that, when Ming Ming loudly shrieked, the cat dropped my handkerchief and he grabbed it just in time before we ran away."
"Is that so?" The Mayor stared at the couple in disbelief. "Father, don't you see that we're safe and sound?" said Mei Mei. The Mayor turned to Ming Ming with a look of newfound respect. Mei Mei's face was now beaming with happiness and looked as beautiful as sparkling dew on a flower.
A month later, on New Year's day, there was a big wedding procession—the grandest the mouse village had ever known. It was all for Mei Mei and Ming Ming—the most beautiful girl and the bravest boy in the mouse village.
Every year since then, Chinese place bits of sesame, candy, and corn into holes and under their beds as New Year's gifts for mice—so that they will be busy celebrating Mei Mei's and Ming Ming's wedding anniversary and not eat the villagers' food.
Dream of the Butterfly
The weather was warm and the wind blew as lazily as a dog wagging its tail while dreaming of a bone. Under the cool shade of bamboo trees, Zhuang Zi, a learned scholar, dozed off and had a dream. In this strange dream, he was no longer a scholar, but a butterfly.
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