No Food in Bed! Or...

Once Upon a Time… We asked students to come up with their own Beijing adaptation of their favorite childhood fairy tales. Thank you to all the students who have submitted their work. We’ll be publishing them online and selecting the best story that fits all the criteria to be included in the upcoming issue of Jingkids.

The Rice Under Twenty Mattresses

By Tiffany Zhao (French International School of Beijing (LFIP) CE2)

Once upon a time, there is a prince who wanted to marry a princess, a real princess. Since he has never met a real princess, he decided he would travel around to find one.

At the first stop, he went to the old farmer. The old farmer told him, “A real princess must have very sensitive skin.” Then the old farmer handed rice to the prince and said, “Put it under twenty mattresses, whoever could feel it is a real princess.” The prince smiled and said, “Thank you.” “Oh, and the princess must be kind and polite, too,” added the old farmer.

Since then, the prince set on a journey to find a real princess. But none of the princesses even passed the test of being kind and polite. Hopelessly, the prince returned with the rice the old farmer gave him. He hardly ate or slept, always thinking of how he could find a real princess.

One day, a storm came. The prince stared at the window, still thinking about how he could find a real princess. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The footman led a wet princess, for whom she called herself a princess, into the Forbidden City. She was polite to the prince and was kind even to the queen’s pet who lived in the garden. It came to nighttime, and the prince realized that he had put the rice into the rice congee some days ago. So, he decided to ask the old farmer if he would give him another grain of rice. Since he could not find out if this princess is a real princess, he didn’t eat his noodles with soybean paste that dinner. The next morning, when everyone finished their youtiao at breakfast, the princess left the Forbidden City after saying “Thank you” and “Goodbye”.

After the princess left, the prince set off to find the old farmer. The prince said, “Can you give me one more rice? I have lost it in the rice congee. The old farmer replied, “I am sorry. I cannot give you any more magic rice, it was you who lost the rice.” The prince sighed and said goodbye to the old farmer. Suddenly, the old farmer cried, “Oh! You can replace the test into being kind even to the poor.” The prince thanked the old farmer with a little smile, but he was still thinking about where he could find the princess as he forgot to ask her where she lived.

The prince searched for the princess all over the world. At last, he found her in a grand Chinese courtyard (siheyuan) in Beijing. He decided to test the princess if she was kind to the poor. However, he was not poor, he needed a beggar to help him to test the princess. But where could he find a beggar?

After a few days, the princess invited the prince to watch a drama in her siheyuan. There was an actor pretending a beggar in the show, and the prince had an idea. He would dress up as a beggar himself and knocked on the door to see if the princess would answer him politely. Besides, he decided to try the trick on the princess’ maid first.

Dressed in rags, the prince asked the princess’ maid, “I am a poor starving beggar. Can you give me a YILI bread?” The maid gasped, “Oh, you poor thing. I don’t have a YILI bread with me, but I have some gezhihe, do you want it?” The prince nodded his head with a smile, and the maid handed him a few gezhihe. The prince left, munching the gezhihe the maid offered him and thought, “Now I will try the test with the princess!”

It came to dawn, and the prince knocked on the door of the siheyuan three times. The princess maid opened the door. The prince said, “I want to see the princess.” The maid recognized him and said, “Aren’t you the beggar who asked me for YILI bread?” The prince nodded and said, “Can I have one grain of rice this time?” “A rice? What is it for?” asked the maid. “To eat,” replied the prince. The maid chuckled, “A rice to eat with!”. She smiled and handed the prince a grain of rice. As the maid turned around, the prince gasped, “Oh! You are the princess!”

The princess had found the old farmer the same day when the prince asked the farmer for another rice. The old farmer, was indeed, the princess’s father. Forgetting to give the test to the princess, he ran quickly to the princess, knelt in front of her, and said, “You are wise, kind, and polite. You are a real princess. Would you come with me to the Forbidden City?” The princess smiled and said, “Yes, and you know my father is the farmer.”

That same day, the prince brought the princess back to the Forbidden City. Since the prince still not very sure if the princess is a real princess, he asked the princess to sleep in the room next to his bedroom that night. On the bed, there are twenty mattresses, and at the bottom of these mattresses, of course, was the rice the princess gave him. That night, he heard some turning, uncomfortable, and tossing sound.

The next morning, the prince asked, “Do you sleep well last night?” The princess smiled and replied, “You are kind of making the bed with twenty mattresses, but I feel uncomfortable and could hardly sleep. There was a lump somewhere under the twenty mattresses.” The prince knelt down again and said, “You are a real princess! Would you marry me?” The princess nodded her head and smiled.

The wedding was held on the next day, and most of the food was made of rice. The celebrations had lasted for nine days. The queen, the old farmer, the princess real maid, the cook, and their friends were all invited to the party and were very happy.

After the wedding, the cook who cooked the rice congee with the first magic rice wrote a recipe book on rice. The second magic rice should be in the celebration, but it was lost. Look for it when you eat rice in Beijing, it may be the rice which has once been placed under the twenty mattresses!

THE END