The useless bean

Old Badger was a farmer, and for generations the Badger family had worked the farmlands to provide the freshest vegetables for the inhabitants of the small forest country.

"Remember, hard work makes you rich!" Children!"

The old badger would gather his children together every day after dinner, smoking a hookah and proudly telling them.

They had a neighbor, the fox.

The fox had been very resourceful as a child, and was the first student from their town to be admitted to college in a neighboring metropolis. The journey was very long and due to the lack of transportation in the surrounding area, a fast flowing river valley separated it from the surrounding area. In order to get to school, Fox had to take a long detour by wagon to a town up the river valley, then take a boat downriver, and then a wagon to get to the steam train station for the neighboring big city. The trip would take several days, so the fox seldom came home during the school year.

Once, while playing cards with the fox's father, the old badger learned that the fox was attending the University of the Arts, which was very expensive.

Art? Can art be a meal?

The old badger scoffed at the idea, thinking that art was all worthless. He wished his family's children would stay here and work diligently to help work their family's fields.

"Remember, hard work makes you rich!

Then the plague broke out in the village and both of the fox's parents died, while the fox was still at school at that time, and it was the old badger who paid for their funeral - and the fox still didn't come. The fox returns some time later to sign the inheritance papers, after which he rushes back to college.

This made the old badger dislike the fox even more; was taking that art class so important?

After that, the fox came back from graduation, and his parents left him some inheritance, but not much. Meanwhile, due to the lack of art jobs in the town, Fox never found a decent job, and had to set up a stall on the street to paint people's portraits, which didn't earn him much money - and even if he did earn a little money, he would spend it quickly, and his inheritance would soon be at the bottom of the heap - so he had to borrow money from his neighbors.-So he had to borrow money from his neighbors. This made the old badger despise him even more.

"Remember, hard work makes you rich，children！ And not become like the fox! "

The old badger began to say this to the children every day.

One day, the old badger won the forest dwellers' crop contest with the vegetable beans he had planted. The Lion King rewarded him with many magical beans brought by his messenger, Crane, from the far eastern lands. The old badger was so happy that he returned home and boasted to his children: "See? Hard work pays off！"

However, the old badger was not happy for long, the beans given to him by the Lion King grew very fast - the beanstalks were as thick as big trees, and ordinary stands could not stand them up at all. The old badger had to pay an orangutan blacksmith to make reinforced stands. On harvest day, he was even more disappointed. Despite the thickness of the beanstalks, the pods were shriveled and small, and the beans were so sour and astringent that they were inedible.

Well, since the beans are inedible, let's cut the stems down and use them for firewood, the badger thought. The old badger thought so, and then he realized that the surface of the beanstalk was covered with a thick and hard layer of wax, and he used the axe for half a day, but it didn't make a scratch. The badger's whole family took a hacksaw and sawed all afternoon before finally cutting a beanstalk - because of the thick waxy skin, the beanstalk couldn't be burned, it was like a stone pillar.

Instead of making money but also lost a lot of money, the old badger is very angry, go to the bar to drink wine to kill their sorrows, through the strength of the wine scolded the lion king is a dimwitted king. The fox heard about this, and took out the money earned from painting during the day to offer to buy the rest of the beans from the old badger. The old badger thought that the fox was silly, what was the use of buying these beans? He simply gave all the remaining beans to the fox. When he got home, he couldn't help laughing loudly at the fox for being such a fool.

Is this really the case? It turned out that the fox had studied not only painting but also architectural design abroad! Using the beans he had asked for from the old badger, he built an apartment on a rocky ledge at the border of the forest. Sturdy bean vines act as stairs, so that rabbits and voles, who can't climb up the rock face, can live in a high-rise house with a great view. In addition, the foxes used the beanstalks to build a bridge to connect the two sides of the cliff. This way, trade with neighboring countries could be carried out without having to take the long way around the dangerous river valley.

The lion king was so happy that he betrothed the princess to the fox. The fox also got more beans, and he set up the Magic Bean Construction Company to sell the harvested beans as building materials. The price was hundreds of times more expensive than ordinary beans, and the fox became the richest man in the country.

The old badger went to the market to sell vegetables when he saw the fox's prosperity, that day he closed much earlier than usual.

After a hasty dinner, he smoked a hookah and looked at the several large bags left on the wagon in the yard of the best quality vegetable beans that he had spent decades researching.

He called his children to his side.

"Remember, hard work makes you rich!"

This time, he wasn't so confident.

*The main character,old badger is obsessed with teaching his kids how important hardworking is.