Ji Wendong, a man in his forties, dressed in mourning clothes, with tears in his eyes, knelt in front of the grave of his neighbor Aunt Zhang, who had just been buried, and refused to leave for a long time. This tall, handsome man had a miserable childhood. Without Aunt Zhang’s constant care and support, he might have died long ago. Not a relative, but better than a relative. Now that the old man is gone, all he is left with is the past that he cannot bear to look back on.
Wendong’s parents died within less than a year when Wendong was five years old. Before Wen Dong’s death, he tearfully entrusted Wen Dong to his trusted elder brother and sister-in-law, and handed over three tile-roofed houses, a cow, 300 yuan of savings, gold and silver jewelry and other properties from Wen Dong’s mother’s dowry. It is managed by the eldest brother and sister-in-law Dai Wendong. The eldest brother and sister-in-law swore to God that your child is my child! Don’t tell me that you left so many belongings, even if you don’t have any money, we will bring up the children, not to mention that we are a family to begin with! After hearing this, Wen Dong’s father smiled and closed his eyes peacefully. The village officials and neighbors present were moved to tears.
However, a few days after the funeral, neighbor Aunt Zhang heard Wendong crying as he was being beaten. And every now and then, I often hear the sound of Uncle Wendong and his aunt beating their children. The kind-hearted aunt came to persuade me more than once, but everything remained the same. Later, she discovered that the child rarely came out to play. She occasionally saw the child standing at the door, but she could not see the child’s smile. The aunt walked over to look at him and asked a few words. The child looked frightened and dared not speak. The aunt also found that the child had lost a lot of weight and had scars on his body and face. Seeing this, the kind-hearted aunt shed tears. Gradually, all the folks in the village came to know about it. When the village cadres came to question them, they were stunned and said that the child was disobedient. They are entrusted by the child’s father, so of course they have the right to discipline him, but they are not harming him. “You are really just a carrot and don’t worry about it, how can you manage it?” Indeed, no one outside has caught the fact that they abused the child. Have no power to interfere with them. Although everyone was angry and resentful, there was nothing they could do to help.
Year after year, the children gradually grow up. Aunt Zhang didn’t know how many times she had brought food to the child while they were away from home. Even if it was a steamed bun or half a potato, she looked at the child eating it with big mouthfuls and showed a happy smile. The child has grown taller, but he is still wearing the same short and worn-out clothes from a year or two ago. Spring, summer, and autumn were manageable, but in winter, whenever Aunt Zhang saw Little Wendong wearing stained clothes and pants, with half of his arms and half of his legs exposed, shrugging his shoulders and folding his arms, tears would well up in his eyes. . She quickly found her children’s old cotton-padded clothes and trousers, took them apart and washed, and added a layer of cotton joint fabric. After finishing them overnight, she had to put on a smile and give them to the uncle and aunt in Wendong, saying that her children didn’t like the cotton-padded clothes and trousers. , let you Wen Dong wear it! As he said this, he put it on Wen Dong with his own hands. Before the child grew into an adult, the old man made three sets of cotton-padded clothes for him, gave him food and drink from time to time, and sometimes gave him thirty-two cents of pocket money.
It was in this kind of family environment that Ji Wendong finally grew up and became a talented person. You can drive a car, tinker with a tractor, and repair everything. There were several girls pursuing him, and when he reached the age where marriage was being discussed, he finally proposed to his uncle that he could manage the family and live alone. Although he was reluctant, he could not and did not dare to disagree with the public opinion of a young and promising young man and fellow villagers. However, on the grounds of family difficulties, only three dilapidated and old tile-roofed houses were returned to Wendong, and all the furniture in the houses had already been moved out. The couple gave birth to six children in more than 20 years, and built new houses for their two sons.
Wendong did not complain at all. Instead, when the villagers complained about him and advised him to file a lawsuit, he said: “It was not easy for me to raise me. If they hadn’t taken me in, I wouldn’t be where I am today! Things and money are Isn’t it true that “good men don’t fight for farmland, and good girls don’t fight for dowry and clothes”? If you don’t learn skills and don’t do your job properly, you won’t be able to keep your wealth no matter how much you have. I must learn skills well and do something for our village. He is worthy of the love and care of the villagers, and worthy of the nurturing grace of the uncle and auntie.” All the villagers gave Wendong a thumbs up. Now Ji Wendong is the director of a village-run enterprise. His only son is studying in college in the city, and his family lives a happy life.
Let’s look at the family of the treacherous Uncle Wendong: he has four daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter died of kidney stones at the age of 29. The eldest son also contracted kidney stones at the age of 29 and died soon after. The younger daughter also contracted the same disease and died at the age of 29. The mother was so frightened that she was restless day and night. Three of the six children died. What else would happen next? Soon the younger son was sentenced to ten years in prison for fighting and gang robbery. He was already a frequent visitor to the “Sanjin Palace”. On the day he was sentenced, my mother, Wendong’s aunt, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. She lay paralyzed on the bed and suffered all the looks and scoldings from her children. Because she was incontinent, she was often soaked in feces and urine, and sometimes no one paid attention to her for a whole day. In this way, she lived for more than three years before she died tragically. Before the aunt died, the uncle suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Half a year after his wife died, he accidentally fell to the ground while walking and never got up again.
After the neighbors told me two stories about their hometown, they asked me again: Is this considered karma? Before I could answer, I said to myself, “People in our place say this is God’s punishment for them.”
I told her, just like planting crops, you will reap the fruits you sow. This is the law of nature. Even before the Buddha came to the human world to teach the Dharma, the law of cause and effect also existed in nature. We ordinary people did not understand it, so we were struggling in the sea of suffering and could not escape. The merciful Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have come back to the world with their wishes to explain the truth of the universe and tell us the way to escape from the sea of suffering. We must seize this opportunity to obtain a human body, practice according to the Dharma, and realize Bodhi early. This is the right path in the world.
