The Husband Hill

In China, most of the fables and legends handed down are said to be true. Some are still there for the generations to wonder and ponder.

HUSBAND HILL LOOKOUT
A Chinese legend
Retold
By
May Fam

In a remote fishing village in China, lived an orphan, Su Ling. She lived with her grandma in a broken down shack. Su Ling’s parents died when she was 6 years old. They were out fishing when the storm hit their old boat; they never came home.

Her mother always told her, ‘Never marry a fisherman, the risks are high, and the returns are small’. When Su Ling was 16 years old, she found that all the males in the village were fishermen. She had no choice but to fall in love with a fisherman.

Wu Hin, also an orphan,was a hard working man; he took risks, going into storms when on one else would go. The villagers called him,
‘Looi koong’ meaning ‘thunder’ in Cantonese. He sold his fish in the market square every week.

Su Ling, working for a wealthy family, was often asked to do the shopping. Su Ling would say to Wu Hin, ‘My mistress likes your fish very much, and said this is always the best she has eaten. She told me to buy from your stall and no other’.

Meeting and talking every week, they soon fell in love. When her grandma passed away, they got married and were very happy. There were times when Wu Hin would see that his wife was sad. One day, he asked her, ‘Is something bothering you, you have been edgy the past few days’.

Su Ling with tears in her eyes said, ‘It’s the weather, there is going to be storm, it brings back memories of my parents. I wish you would not go out the next few days till the storm is over. I also wish you would change your work, do something else, and give up your fishing. I do not wish to lose my husband to the sea.’

Wu Hin replied, ‘Have no fear, I’m blessed by the gods, even the villagers call me ‘looi koong’. I was born a fisherman; I don’t know any other work. I know there are always dangers when we go out in a storm, I can only promise you that from now on, I won’t go during a bad storm. I’ll be very careful.’

When the wind and rain subsided Wu Hin and his friends went out to sea. Three days out to sea and the weather changed, the winds and rain came down in torrents. After the fifth day, the day when her husband usually came home, she went to the hill at the back of their house.

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Copyright© by May Fam 2005.