I was reading the story behind the idiom "愚公移山" and I came across these 2 lines specifically which sort of confused me with their grammar. They are:
1."看到愚公一家人正在挖土，云石，就嘲笑愚公说"
and
In sentence one shouldn't the bolded 嘲笑 have a 着 following it as he is going to say something after it?
My final question is in the second sentence, because I'm not really sure of the bolded 4 characters and why it doesn't say maybe "智叟听到后，感觉很惭愧" or something like that.
I appreciate any help.
in sentence one shouldn't the bolded 嘲笑 have a 着 following it as he is going to say something after it?
[verb 1] + 着 + [verb 2] means [verb 1] and [verb 2] happen at the same time continuously (verb 2 while verb 1).
[verb 1] + [verb 2] means both actions happen one immediately after the other or simultaneously, but not in a continuous state
Examples:
跳着大喊 (yell while jumping)
跳起来大喊 (jump up and yell)
why it doesn't say maybe "智叟听到后，感觉很惭愧" or something like that.
感觉很惭愧 = feel very ashamed (惭愧 here is an adjective for 'ashamed')
惭愧不已 = be ashamed greatly (惭愧 here is a verb for 'be ashamed')
不已 (can't stop) is an adverb function the same as 'very' or 'greatly'.
You can use 十分 or 不已 as the adverb for a verb, but not at the same time, saying 十分惭愧不已 is like saying "be very ashamed greatly" in English
