Aligator v podobi lepotice

Besedilo

Aligator v podobi lepotice

Zhang Fu of Xingyang was returning by boat when he stopped beside a remote stretch of water. That night, a very beautiful young woman came up in a little boat of her own and sought shelter with him. “It is late,” she said, “and I am afraid of tigers. I dare not travel by night.” Fu said, “What is your surname? How is it you travel so lightly equipped? You have no rain hat, and the rain is coming down hard. Come aboard and take shelter.” They began to flirt, and before long she came into Fu’s boat to sleep with him, tying her little craft alongside. Around midnight, the rain stopped and the moon came out. Fu looked at the woman and saw instead a huge alligator lying with its head pillowed on his arm. He sprang up in alarm and tried to seize it, but it slipped away into the water. What had seemed to be a little boat was a length of dead wood, more than ten feet long.