[The story is taken from Goenggeq gangj gojgaeq Bwz Licuh, At Grand-father’s Knee - Zhuang Folk Tales from Wuming - 主編白丽珠 ; 副主編李作应. The storyteller is Cim Naibing from the town of Fucheng in Wuming County, Guangxi]

---

Once there was an old widow who had no family at all. She lived in a house all by herself. One day when she was out she found a fish. It was a carp, and she brought it back home and put it into a large water crock.

Now most people play with their children and grandchildren, but the widow entertained herself by watching her fish. Every day when she went out, whether to the market or out in the village, if ever she got a cookie or cracker or a bit of candy, she always brought it home to feed to her fish..

The neighbors liked to tease her. The neighbor boys mocked her saying, "You don't have any children or grandchildren, but whenever you get a bit of candy or cookies you just give it to that fish of yours to eat. Come the day you die, is that fish going to bury you?".

The fish grew and grew under her care. It outgrew the water crock, so the old widow got a bigger one for it. After a while i grew so big that its tail would no longer fit down into the water, so she cut its tail short to make it fit. But the fish kept on growing..

Finally there was no longer any way to keep the fish in a container in her house. She told the fish, "There's nothing more I can do. I have taken care of you up until now, but there's just no way for you to live here any longer. I will take you and let you go into the river and swim on down to the sea. You'll be on your own now." So she took the fish out and released him..

By that time she was really very old. The neighbor boys still mocked her saying, "You dote on your fish, so let your fish carry your body out of your house when you're dead!„.

Well, the old widow did die. And on that night the wind blew with great force and lightning bolts split the sky. Suddenly a whirlwind swirled around the widow and swept her away. In the morning the next-door neighbors went to look for her, but she had disappeared..

Every year since then, the weather has been very windy and rainy between the beginning of Pure Brightness and the end of Grain Rain. People go out during that period to sweep their ancestors' graves. Stubby Tail also comes back to take care of the widow's grave. Every year at the Grain Rain Festival, Stubby Tail returns as the blowing wind and the driving rain to sweep her grave..