Pu Zhuangzheng was a county magistrate in Hangzhou. One day a sorcerer treated him with drink. The sorcerer was over 90 years old but he still had a complexion of a baby. Pu inquired of the secret to keep youth.
“Well,” said the sorcerer, “It is simple and easy to follow. Just keep away from women, no other taboo.”
Pu meditated a while and said,
“Then what’s the use of living long without a woman?”
A rich talked to a poor,
“I have one hundred ounces of gold. If I give you twenty, will you flatter me for that?”
The poor man said,
“It is not shared fairly, how can I flatter you?”
“How about fifty to fifty?”, asked the rich man.
“We are equal by then, I will not flatter you.”, said the poor.
“Ok, I will give you all, what then?”
“If I have all, there would be no need to flatter you.”
A man married a woman who was older than him. But he did not know her exact age. The marriage lines read she was thirty eight. However from the wrinkles on her face, she looked like older.
No matter how the groom interrogated the bride insisted her age on the paper.
Late that night, when they were about to go to sleep, the groom said,
“Can you please go to cover the salt jar, or the rats will eat up the salt in it?”
The bride said,
“It’s funny, I’ve never heard of such thing for sixty eight years.”
It was late, the shopkeeper of the wineshop wanted to close the shop, but there were two customers still sitting and chatting even after they finished drinking. The guests showed no intention of leaving. The shopkeeper pretended to look outside and said,
“Looks like it is going to rain.”
Surprisingly the guest replied,
“Really, since the rain is coming, we’d better stay until it clears up after the rain.”
It began to rain, and it did not last for long. When the rain stopped, the shop owner said again,
“The rain stopped now.”
The guests were very happy and said,
“As it is not raining any more, we do not need to hurry to leave.”
