神笔马良(shén bǐ mǎ liáng)

A Magic Paint Brush is a story of greedy and desire.

Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang. He was poor but kind. He helped a rich man to tend cattle. He liked drawing and drew pictures everywhere.But he had not a pen, he used the branch and the rattan to draw with water. One night, he dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush and asked him to use it to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush in his desk.
From that day, he used the paintbrush whenever people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field and save a lot of time and energy. When he saw it was difficult for people to till lands, he drew a cow and the cow came to life. People could use the cow to till lands very easily. Ma liang helped a lot of people by used his paintbrush
Then many people knew about the magic paintbrush. But a few months later, a bad emperor wanted to steal the paintbrush from Ma liang. He knew that he could make a lot of money by turning things into life and keeping them. So he sent some people to the Ma Liang’s home and took him to the prison. He got the magic paintbrush and felt very happy. He drew a lot of pictures, but they could not become real. He wanted to draw the gold mountains but all of them became the stones.
He was very angry and asked some people to get Ma liang. When Ma liang came, he said to him, “If you draw some pictures for me and turn them to life, I will set you free.” Ma liang knew that he was a bad man. Of course, he did not want to help him. He had an idea. He said to the emperor, “I can help you, but you should obey your words.”

The bad emperor felt very happy and said, “I want a golden mountain. I will go there to gather gold.” Then Ma liang drew a sea first. Emperor was angry and said,” Why did you draw a sea? I do not want this. I want a golden mountain. Draw it quickly.” Ma liang drew a golden mountain which was far away from the sea. The emperor saw that and felt very happy. He said, “Draw a big ship quickly. I want to go there to gather gold.”
Ma liang smiled quietly and drew a big ship. The bad emperor jumped into the ship first and a lot of his family and ministers jumped too. When the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, Ma liang drew a large wave and it destroyed the ship. So they all died.
Finally, Ma liang lived with his family and kept on helping the poor people. So the magic paintbrush was known by everyone.