改編童話: 《石磨妖精》

大家都知道，荷蘭的磨坊是一個風車，風車推動裡面的大石磨，可以為高山上的村民磨麵粉。安徒生童話就有這樣的一個荷蘭風車，不知在甚麼時候開始，也許受了日月精華的影響，裡面的大石磨有了思想和生命。中國人說的百歲妖精有生命會思考，一千年後就能變成一個活人，也許就是那個樣子。這個石磨就是一百年間有了思考的能力，自稱荷蘭石磨。

荷蘭石磨生活在荷蘭高原上面，本來就是很受歡迎的。常常有人帶了一些穀物過來，打磨成粉之後就拿回家做食品。草原上也常常有牧童放羊，小牧童會邊唱歌邊放羊，咧唏嚎、咧唏嚎的放大嗓子學著山羊叫。後來石磨就學了這種咧唏嚎的叫聲，一邊磨粉一邊發出酷似山歌的叫聲。自此以後就有人傳言磨坊有鬼，但是由於生活緊逼，即使有鬼也阻不了村民使用石磨。

有一次，不幸的事發生了。一位年輕的女孩磨粉時一個不小心，把頭栽在大石磨上面撞死了。女孩的父母怪責石磨不安全，但是也沒辦法封了磨坊，因為大家都沒有證據說是磨坊鬧鬼。只是因為女孩也很無辜，她死後變成了野鬼住在磨坊裡面。石磨妖精不知道她叫甚麼名字，叫她做咧唏嚎，讓她躲在石磨底下過夜，但是石磨鬧鬼的傳聞自此就越鬧越旺了。

後來荷蘭開始隨著時化進化了。先前拉著木車上來的牧童不再來了，換了的是四周林立的工廠和房屋，還有混凝土道路上面行走的汽車。生活改善了的村民不再上來磨粉，反而一些靈異學者偶爾帶來了甚麼紅外線、熱能探測器上磨坊捉鬼。可是咧唏嚎女鬼很膽小，只會四處躲藏逃避追蹤。所以多年來捉鬼都沒有成果，而咧唏嚎就幾乎好像永遠都離不開磨坊。

但是世界一直向前走，不知不覺荷蘭走進電腦時代。有一天磨坊發現一個大鐵鎚打碎了他的風車和屋頂，就連牆壁都被人有系統地挖走。自從那天開始石磨妖精每天都哭，從前石磨的『咧唏嚎』叫聲變成『嗚嗚』哭喊聲。哭多了就連女鬼都不理他，反正石磨的底盤都給挖走了。也好因為工程師對石磨的變聲很著迷，他把磨坊重建成為小博物館，把石磨放在玻璃箱展覽。

咧唏嚎女鬼走了，因為她的舊居現在是一間電腦工房，裡面的一個電腦室又陰森又冷。而且她發現沒有肉體的她可以跟電腦進行思想溝通，令她學到電腦時代許多知識。電腦讓咧唏嚎女鬼打開心扉，了解人間的喜樂無常。她唯一一次回去找石磨妖精的時候，她告訴石磨妖精她想通了輪迴之道，她決定離開鬼界再次投胎做人。當夜死神把她帶走，從凡間消失了。


接著兩件怪事就發生了。其一是石磨因為失去唯一朋友，自此再也不發出任何聲音，變回一塊巨大的石頭了。其二是荷蘭小村有一位神童出生，小小年紀就精通樂器和唱山歌，村民暗地裡都說是咧唏嚎女鬼投胎成人了。可是沒有能夠搞清事實。也許生命只要有目的，就可以維持下去。沒有了生存目的的石磨，最後只是一塊大石頭而己。

小朋友，你有人生志願嗎？

Everyone knows that a Dutch mill is a windmill, which drives a large stone mill inside to grind flour for villagers in the high mountains. There's a Dutch windmill in one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Perhaps influenced by the essence of the sun and moon, the large stone mill inside gained thought and life. The Chinese saying that a hundred-year-old fairy can think and become a living person after a thousand years might be similar. This stone mill gained the ability to think within a hundred years and called itself the Dutch Stone Mill.

Living on the Dutch highlands, the Dutch Stone Mill was already very popular. People often brought grains, which were ground into flour and taken home to make food. Shepherds often sang songs while herding sheep, making loud, guttural noises like goats. Later, the stone mill learned these guttural sounds, making sounds resembling mountain songs while grinding flour. From then on, rumors spread that the mill was haunted, but due to the hardships of life, even if there were ghosts, it couldn't stop the villagers from using the stone mill.

One day, tragedy struck. A young girl accidentally fell headfirst into a large millstone while grinding flour and died. Her parents blamed the mill for being unsafe, but they couldn't close it because no one had any evidence that it was haunted. Since the girl was innocent, she became a wandering ghost and lived inside the mill. The mill spirit didn't know her name, so it called her "Lie-Xi-Ha" and told her to hide under the mill at night. But the rumors of the mill being haunted only grew stronger.

Later, the Netherlands began to evolve with the times. The shepherds who used to pull their wooden carts up the mill stopped coming; instead, factories and houses lined the surrounding area, and cars drove on concrete roads. Villagers whose lives had improved no longer came to grind flour. Instead, some paranormal researchers occasionally brought infrared and thermal detectors to the mill to hunt the ghost. But the Lie-Xi-Ha ghost was timid and would only hide and evade pursuit. So, for many years, the ghost hunts were unsuccessful, and Lie-Xi-Ha seemed to be forever inseparable from the mill.

But the world keeps moving forward, and before they knew it, the Netherlands entered the computer age. One day, the mill discovered that a large sledgehammer had smashed its windmill and roof, and even the walls had been systematically dug away. From that day on, the millstone spirit cried every day, its former "screeching" sound turning into a "wailing" cry. After crying so much, even the female ghost ignored it, since the millstone's base had been dug away anyway. Fortunately, because the engineer was fascinated by the millstone's changing voice, he rebuilt the mill into a small museum, displaying the millstone in a glass case.

The screeching female ghost left, because her former home was now a computer workshop, one of the computer rooms being eerie and cold. She discovered that without a physical body, she could communicate with computers, learning much about the computer age. The computers opened the screeching female ghost's heart, allowing her to understand the impermanence of human joys and sorrows. The only time she returned to see the millstone spirit, she told it that she had understood the cycle of reincarnation and decided to leave the ghost realm to be reborn as a human. That night, Death took her away, disappearing from the mortal world.

Then two strange things happened. One story tells of a millstone that, having lost its only friend, never made a sound again and reverted to being a giant stone. Another story tells of a child prodigy born in a small Dutch village, skilled in musical instruments and folk songs at a young age; the villagers secretly believed it was the reincarnation of a howling female ghost. However, they couldn't ascertain the truth. Perhaps life can be sustained as long as it has a purpose. Without a purpose in life, the millstone is ultimately just a large stone.

Child, do you have a goal in life?

,@2026 by NovellaHK