From the book "The Kitchen God's Wife", I think it is a kind of nice.<P>In China long time ago, There was a rich farmer named Zhang, such a lucky man. Fish jumped in his river, pigs grazed his land, ducks flew around his yard as thick as clouds. And that was because he was blessed with a hardworking wife named Guo. She caught his fish and herded his pigs. She fattened his ducks, doubled all his riches, year after year. Zhang had everything he could ask for - from the water, the earth, and the heavens above.<P>But Zhang was not satisfied. He wanted to play with a pretty, carefree woman named Lady Li. One day he brought this pretty woman home to his house, made his good wife cook for her. When Lady Li later chased his wife out of the house, Zhang did not run out and call to her, “Come back, my good wife, come back.”<P>Now he and Lady Li were free to swim in each other’s arms. They threw money away like dirty water. They slaughtered ducks just to eat a plate of their tongues. And in two years’ time, all of Zhang’s land was empty, and so was his heart. His money was gone, and so was pretty Lady Li, run off with another man.<P>Zhang became a beggar, so poor he wore more patches than whole cloth on his pants. He crawled from the gate of one household to another, crying, “Give me your moldy grain!”<P>One day, he fell over and faced the sky, ready to die. He fainted, dreaming of eating the winter clouds blowing above him. When he opened his eyes again, he found the clouds had turned to smoke. At first he was afraid he had fallen down in to a place far below the earth. But when he sat up, he saw he was in a kitchen, near a warm fireplace. The girl tending the fire explained that the lady of the house had taken pity on him - she always did this, with all kinds of people, poor or old, sick or in trouble.<P>“What a good lady!” cried Zhang. “Where is she, so I can thank her?” The girl pointed to the window, and the man saw a woman walking up the path. Gee! That lady was none other than his good wife Guo! Zhang began leaping about the kitchen looking for some place to hide, then jumped into the kitchen fireplace just as his wife walked in the room. Good wife Guo poured out many tears to try to put the fire out. No use! Zhang was burning with shame and, of course, because of the hot roaring fire below. She watched her husband’s ashes fly up to heaven in three puffs of smoke. Wan!<P>In heaven, the Jade Emperor heard the whole story from his new arrival. “For having the courage to admit you were wrong,” the Emperor declared, “I make you Kitchen God, watching over everyone’s behavior. Every year, you let me know who deserves good luck, who deserves bad.”<BR>From then on, people in China knew Kitchen God was watching them. From his corner in every house and every shop, he saw all kind of good and bad habits spill out: generosity or greediness, a harmonious nature or a complaining one. And once a year, seven days before the new year, Kitchen God flew back up the fireplace to report whose fate deserved to be changed, better for worse, or worse for better.”
