Author: Zhou Churen, pen name Wenyu Qiong. The story is set in ancient Zitong County in Xikang Province, now known as Xichang and Qionghai. It is said that long ago, a young woodcutter lived with his mother. He earned their living by chopping wood and buying rice to support her. Each day, on his way to gather firewood, he rested at Dishui Rock. Beside it was a pond, and by the pond stood a whetstone where he sharpened his axe. One day, while sharpening it, he accidentally cut his finger, and his blood dripped into the pond. Over time, the blood in the water turned into a little earthworm. Whenever the woodcutter stopped to rest and eat, he tossed some food to the earthworm. As the days went by, it grew bigger and bigger, until the food he brought each day was no longer enough to feed it. The woodcutter said to it, “Little earthworm, you keep getting bigger, and the food I bring isn’t enough for you anymore. I make my living chopping wood and have to support my elderly mother. How am I supposed to afford to feed you?”
That night, the earthworm appeared in the woodcutter’s dream and said, “Tomorrow morning, get up early and clean your house. Put some rice in the big jar where you keep it, then go to the reeds by the sea. There you’ll find seven white pearls called the Wonder Pearls. Take them and bury them in the rice jar. Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone.” When the woodcutter awoke, he did exactly as the dream had instructed, then went out to chop wood as usual. The next morning, when he got up to cook and lifted the lid of the rice jar, it was filled to the brim with rice. Overjoyed, he was clearly delighted. But somehow, a wealthy neighbor found out and gathered some men to go to the woodcutter’s home. The woodcutter swallowed the seven pearls in the rice. His throat grew dry, so he went into the sea to drink and was transformed into a dragon. Then he traveled along the sea.
