Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang. He was poor and kind and liked drawing so much that he drew pictures everywhere. 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 on his desk.

From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever poor 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 to help their crops grow. When he saw the hard working farmers struggling to feed their families, he drew more food for them to eat. Soon, many people knew about the magic paintbrush and were very grateful to Ma Liang.

But in the village, there lived a rich man who was mean and decided to steal the paintbrush from the young man so that he could use it to become even richer. So he sent his servants to Ma Liang's home to steal the magic paintbrush.

Once he had the paintbrush, he felt very happy and he invited his friends to come to his home so that he could show them his new possession. He drew a lot of pictures, but none of them would come to life for him. He was very angry that the paintbrush would not work for him so he sent for Ma Liang.

He said to the young man, "If you draw some pictures for me and bring them to life, I will set you free."

Ma Liang did not want to help such a bad man, but he h

ad an idea.