Once upon a time there was a little girl - a very cute and beautiful little girl. But she had to walk barefoot in summer because she was very poor. In winter, she dragged a pair of heavy wooden shoes and her insteps were ground red, which was very uncomfortable.

In the middle of the village lived an old female shoemaker. She sat down with the old red cloth and sewed a pair of shoes with all her best efforts. The shoes looked quite stupid, but she had a good intention because the shoes were sewn for this little girl. The girl's name was Jialun.

On the day her mother was buried, she got the red shoes. This was her first time wearing them. Indeed, it was not something she wore during mourning; but she didn't have any other shoes to wear. So she stuck a pair of barefoots in and followed behind a simple coffin.

At this moment, a large old car suddenly drove over. An old lady was sitting in the car. She saw the little girl and felt very sorry for her, so she told the pastor (Note: In the old Europe, the orphans had no home, so they were taken care of by the local pastor.)

"Leave this little girl to me, I will treat her very well!"

Andersen's fairy tale

Jialun thought it was because of her red shoes. However, the old lady said that red shoes were annoying, so she burned them off. But now Jialun was wearing clean and neat clothes. She learned to study and do needlework, and others said she was cute. However, her mirror said, "You are not only cute; you are simply beautiful."

Once the queen traveled across the country; she brought her little daughter with her, and this was a princess. The common people rushed to the palace door to see her, and Jialun was among them. The little princess was wearing beautiful white clothes and stood in the window to see her. She neither dragged her back nor wore a golden crown, but she wore a pair of gorgeous red tan leather shoes. Compared to the pair made by the female shoemaker for Jialun, these shoes are of course much more beautiful. There is nothing in the world that can be compared with red shoes!

Now Galen is already very big and can be trusted. She will have new clothes to wear; she will also wear new shoes. A wealthy shoemaker in the city measured her little feet—this was made in his own shop, in a small room of his own. There were many large glass shelves, with many neat shoes and brightly polished boots on it. They were all beautiful, but the old lady's eyes couldn't see clearly, so she was not interested. Among these many shoes there was a pair of red shoes; it was exactly the same as the one worn by the princess. How beautiful they were! The shoemaker said that the shoes were made for a lady of an earl, but they did not fit her feet well.

"That must be made of patent leather," said the old lady, "that's why it's so bright!"

"Yes, Liang!" said Jialun.

The shoes fit her feet very well, so she bought them. But the old lady didn't know that they were red, because she would never let Jialun wear a pair of red shoes to receive the faithful gift. But Jialun went.

Everyone was looking at her feet. When she walked towards the door of the hymn sing class in the church, she felt as if the statues on the headstones, the priests wearing hard collars and black robes, and their wives were staring at her red shoes. The priest rested his hands on her head, talking about the divine baptism, her vows with God and the responsibility of being a Christian. At this moment, she only thought about her shoes. The organ played solemn music, the children's pleasant voices sang hymns, and the old captain sang, but Galen only thought about her red shoes.

That afternoon, the old lady heard everyone say that the shoes were red. So she said that this was too nonsense and too unconventional. She also said that from then on, Jialun had to wear black shoes when he went to the church again, and it didn't matter if it was old.

The communion will be held next Sunday. Jialun looked at the black shoes, then looked at the red shoes again-looked again, and finally decided to wear them.

The sun shines very beautifully. Jialun and the old lady are walking on the trail in the fields. There is some dust on the road.

There was a disabled veteran standing on a crutch at the entrance of the church. He had a strange long beard. The beard was rather red than white - because it was red. He bent his waist almost to the ground; he replied to the old lady, could he wipe the dust from her shoes. Jialun also stretched out her little feet.

"What a beautiful dance shoe!" said the veteran, "It's the most suitable for you to wear it when you dance!" So he knocked on the soles of the shoe with his hands. The old lady gave the soldier a few silver tines, and then took Jialun into the church.

Everyone in the church looked at the red shoes of Galen, and all the portraits were looking at them. When Galen knelt in front of the communion table, holding the golden communion cup in her mouth, she only thought of her red shoes - they seemed to float in the communion cup before her. She forgot to sing the hymns; she forgot to chant pray.

Now everyone walked out of the church. The old lady walked into her car, and Jialun also raised her feet and stepped into the car. At this time, the veteran standing next to her said, "What a beautiful dance shoe!"

Jialun couldn't stand this praise: she had to jump a few steps. At the beginning, her legs kept jumping up. The shoes seemed to control her legs. She jumped around a corner of the church - she couldn't stop. The coachman had to run behind her, grabbed her, and carried her into the car. But her feet were still jumping, and she kicked violently at the kind-hearted wife. Finally they took off her shoes; thus, her legs were quiet.

The shoes were placed in a cupboard at home, but Jialun couldn't help but go and take a look.

Now the old lady is lying down. Everyone says she probably won't be cured. She needs someone to take care of her, but this kind of work should not be done by others but by Galen. But at this time there was a grand dance party in the city, and Galen was invited. She looked at the old lady who couldn't get well, and then looked at the red shoes - she felt that it was not harmful to look at them. She put on these shoes - it was not harmful to wear them. But in this way, she went to the dance party and started dancing.

But when she was about to turn right, her shoes danced to the left. When she wanted to go up, her shoes danced down, down the stairs, all the way to the streets, and out of the city gates. She danced, and had to dance, all the way to the black forest.

There was a light in the woods. She thought it must be the moon because she saw a face. But this was the veteran with a red beard. He was sitting, nodding, and said:

"What a beautiful dance shoes!"

At this time she became scared and wanted to throw away the red shoes. But they were tightly clasped. So she pulled her socks, but the shoes had already grown on her feet. She danced, and had to jump to the fields and grasslands, in the rain, in the sun, in the night, in the daytime. The most terrible thing was to jump at night. She jumped to a church cemetery, but the dead there did not dance: they had better things to do than dance. She wanted to sit down on the grave of a poor man covered with sinacea, but she couldn't calm down and had no way to rest. When she jumped to the open gate of the church, she saw Angil in a white robe. Her wings were dragged from her shoulders to her feet, her face was solemn and calm, with a bright sword in her hand.

"You have to dance!" she said, "dance in your red shoes, until you are white and cold, until your body is shrunk into a bone. You have to jump from this door to that door. You have to knock on the door where some proud and arrogant children live, so that they can hear you and be afraid of you! You have to dance and dance constantly!"

"Please spare me!" Jialun shouted.

But she didn't hear Angel's answer, because the shoes took her out of the door, went to the fields, and took her to the main road and on the small road. She had to dance constantly. One morning she jumped over a familiar door. There was a sound of singing hymns inside, and people carried a coffin with flowers on it. Only then did she realize that the old lady was dead. So she felt that she had been abandoned by everyone and was punished by Angel of God.

She danced, and she had to dance—dance in the dark night. The shoes carried her through the wild roses of thorns; these things made her bleed. She danced in the wasteland and jumped to a lonely little house. She knew that there was an executioner living here. She knocked her finger on the glass window, and said:

"Please come out! Please come out! I can't come in because I'm dancing!" said the executioner:

"You may not know who I am, right? I am the one who cuts off the bad guy's heads. I already feel my axe trembling!"

"Please don't cut off my head," said Galen. "Because if you do this, I can't repent for my sins. But please cut off my feet in red shoes!"

So she told her guilt. The executioner cut off her feet in red shoes. However, the shoes took her little feet and jumped into the fields and went all the way to the black forest.

He gave her a pair of wooden feet and a crutch, and at the same time taught her a hymn that death row prisoners often sang. She kissed the hand holding an axe, and then walked towards the wasteland.

"I've suffered a lot for these red shoes," she said. "Now I'm going to the church so that people can see me."

So she quickly walked towards the church gate, but when she got there, the red shoes danced in front of her, making her scared. So she walked back.

She spent a whole week sadly, she shed many sad tears. But when Sunday came, she said:

"Oh, I've been suffering and struggling for a long time! I think I'm no different from those in the church now!"

So she walked out boldly. But when she had just walked to the church door, she saw the red shoes dancing in front of her again: she became scared and immediately walked back, and at the same time she devoutly confessed her sins.

She walked to the pastor's house and asked to be a servant in his house. She was willing to work diligently and do her best. She did not care about wages; she just wanted to have a place to stay with good people. The pastor's wife pityed her and kept her for work. She was very diligent and thoughtful. In the evening, when the pastor was reading the Bible aloud, she sat down quietly and listened. The children in this family liked her. But when they talked about clothes and were as beautiful as the queen, she shook her head.

The next Sunday, the whole family went to the church to worship. They asked her if she was willing to go too. She looked at her crutch miserably with tears in her eyes. So the family went to listen to God's admonition. Only she returned to her small room alone. It was not too wide, and she could only put a bed and a chair. She sat here with a collection of hymns and read the words in it with a pious heart. The wind blew the sound of the church organ to her. She raised her face, which was moistened by tears, and said:

"God, please help me!"

At this time the sun was shining brightly. An Angel in white, the one she had seen at the church door one night, appeared in front of her. But she no longer held the sharp sword in her hand, but a green branch full of roses. She touched the ceiling with it, and the ceiling rose very high. Wherever she touched, a bright star appeared. She touched the wall, and the wall separated. Then she saw that

The organ playing music and some ancient portraits of the pastor and the pastor’s wife were painted. The worshipers sat in very particular seats and sang the poems in the hymns. If this was not the church that came to the poor girl in this small room automatically, it was that she had already arrived in the church. She sat in the seat with the pastor’s family. When they finished reading the hymns and looked up, they nodded and said, “By the way, Galen, you are here too!”

"I've been forgiven!" she said.

The organ played music. The children's chorus was very nice and cute. The bright sunlight warmly shot from the window to the seat where Jialun sat. Her heart was filled with so much sunshine, peace and happiness, which made it burst later. Her soul floated in the sun's light and flew into the heaven. No one asked again*? Her red shoes.
Chapter completed!