There was a treasure mountain on the sea, where there were many, many rare treasures shining with brilliant light and dazzling the eyes.

　　A seaman1 got a pearl of 1 can (1/30 metre) in diameter, which glistened2 brightly. He took a ship to take it home.

　　But before the ship had sailed for 100 li, all of a sudden black clouds rolled all over the sky, and a strong wind blew to unleash3 huge waves. The ship was tossed about violently. A flood dragon was seen emerging from the stormy sea and looking very terrifying.

　　The crew advised the seaman: "It seems that the flood dragon wants to have your pearl. Please throw it into the sea at once; otherwise you will get us into trouble."

　　At the moment, the seaman was in a dilemma4. He couldn't bear to part with the pearl; on the other hand, he was afraid of the imminent5 disaster. His head was covered with perspiration6 from anxiety. After a while, with his teeth clenched7 to endure the pain, he gouged8 out a piece of flesh from his thigh9 to conceal10 the pearl there. The storm on the sea subsided11 at once.

　　As soon as the seaman got home, he took out the dazzling pearl immediately. But not long afterwards he died of the festering wound in his thigh.

　　海上，有一座寶山。寶山上，有許許多多奇珍異寶，光芒四射，非常耀眼。

　　一個海員得到一顆直徑一寸的明珠，金燦燦的，便乘船把它運(yùn)回家。

　　可是，航行不到百里，突然間，滿天烏云滾滾，刮起了大風(fēng)，掀起了巨浪，船身顛簸得很厲害。人們只見一條蛟龍，在驚濤駭浪中出沒，樣子非常可怕。

　　船工勸告海員說：“看樣子，這條蛟龍想要得到您的這顆明珠啊!請您趕快把它拋到海里去吧，否則就會連累了我們。”

　　這時候，海員左右為難：丟掉吧，實(shí)在舍不得；不丟吧，又怕大難臨頭，急得滿頭大汗。過了一會兒，他咬緊牙關(guān)，忍著痛，剜開大腿上的一塊肉，把明珠藏了進(jìn)去。海上的風(fēng)浪立即小了。

　　這個海員回到家里后，連忙取出了耀眼的明珠。但是不久，他因大腿的傷口潰爛而死了。