Mutated Tao

Six-year-old Miao Guihua lay in bed. Her head felt dizzy and foggy. She was simply too hungry.

At first, she cried loudly out of hunger, begging her mother to find food. After two days, she couldn’t cry anymore. Her eyes were filled with hunger, and her mind was consumed by a single thought—finding something to eat.

There were people in the city, and her mother had carried her around while searching for food. Although she had money, she couldn’t find any food.

They had heard there was Guanyin clay[1] to eat outside the city, so Miao Guihua had gone there with her mother. However, too many people were digging by the river, and the two of them couldn’t squeeze in.

They managed to dig up some grassroots, which ran out eventually.

There were grassroots in other places, but by then, the lack of food had weakened them too much to walk that far.

After being hungry for more than ten days, she became numb. Her stomach no longer growled, and she needed a stick just to walk.

“Mother, I’m hungry...” Miao Guihua weakly called to the woman lying on the ground beside her, but she didn’t respond.

She wanted to cry, but no tears came out. She looked around, then used her fingernails to scrape off some white wall plaster before chewing on it.

The wall plaster tasted bitter and absorbed moisture. After just a few bites, her mouth felt dry.

Guihua picked up a stick from the ground and shakily approached the water jar. She leaned forward into the moss-covered jar and scooped with a gourd ladle, yet didn’t get a single drop of water.

She turned back and weakly called out to the woman on the ground, “Mother, the water’s gone too.”

Guihua still got no response from her mother. She leaned on her stick to walk over and push her mother with all her strength.

Guihua started to panic when her mother still didn’t respond. She had seen adults suddenly stop moving and then never speak again.

In her panic, she hurried to the door to call for help.

“Master.” Guihua imitated her mother and called out to a monk who was pushing a wheelbarrow. “Master, my mother won’t move. Can you help her?”

The monk walked into her house. After a while, he carried her mother out, placed her in the wheelbarrow, and left.

“Master, where are you taking my mother? Can you wake her up?” Guihua followed behind the wheelbarrow with her stick for support.

Guihua walked slowly, but the kind-hearted monk would wait for her whenever she was about to fall behind. More and more people were piled onto the wheelbarrow.

Finally, Guihua followed the monk into a temple. Her mother had told her about this place. It was the place where people prayed to the Buddha, and her mother had prayed there before she got pregnant with her.

The monks here were good people, giving out meat soup daily. Her mother had once been lucky enough to get a bowl, but she gave all of it to Guihua without taking a sip herself. The soup had been delicious, and she had licked the bowl clean.

“Master, where are you taking my mother?” Guihua was in a state of panic when she saw her mother disappear into the temple. She started crying helplessly, feeling something was wrong.

After a while, the monk who had pushed the wheelbarrow returned, picked her up, and carried her into the temple.

The monk placed her on a stone bench. “Be good. Wait here, and you’ll soon have something to eat.”

Guihua thought she was being good, so she waited as the monk instructed.

Before long, the monk came out of a red building with a bowl full of meat soup.

Guihua reached out her hands to take it just as another monk ran over and whispered something to him.

The monk looked at her with a complicated expression and repeated, “Be good. Wait here, and you’ll soon have something to eat.”

Shortly after, a group of bald monks came out with many wheelbarrows and carts. It seemed as if they were getting ready to transport something.

It wasn’t just monks only. Soon, some young and strong men started coming in from the temple gate.

While they all looked hungry, at least they didn’t need sticks to walk. Everyone gathered together, their faces filled with anticipation as though waiting for something.

Guihua was wondering what they were doing when the sky suddenly split open.

A bag flew out from the opening. She heard cries and shouts as everyone rushed over. Guihua tried to see what was happening, but her efforts proved futile.

Another bag flew out, though it wasn’t full. She saw golden millet spilling from it and realized the bags must have been filled with food.

Bag after bag of food fell from the sky, piling up rapidly. Eventually, a man in red came out, holding two bags. Guihua joined the adults, kneeling on the ground and bowing to him.

Guihua heard the adults cry out and learned that this man was called Bodhisattva, the one her mother had said could do anything.

Soon, the deity came over, helped her up, and handed her a bun. Guihua forgot about everything else and started to devour the bun.

She had finished half of it when she looked up and asked, “Bodhisattva, can I have another one? My mother is still hungry.”

After she received another bun, she ran to the monk with the wheelbarrow and said, “Master, where’s my mother? I have food now.”

Guihua followed the monk’s trembling hand and ran into the kitchen.

She saw her mother on the table. She climbed onto it and tried to stuff the bun into her mother’s mouth.

“Mother, there’s food now. Eat it so that you won’t be hungry anymore.”

Guihua saw that her mother was still unresponsive. She turned helplessly to the red-robed Bodhisattva at the door. “Bodhisattva, can you help my mother? She’s not eating.”

The deity didn’t move, and Guihua seemed to understand. Her lips trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. “Bodhisattva, is my mother dead?”

“Child, I’m not dead. I can still eat.”

She looked up in surprise and saw her mother’s eyes open.

Guihua's eyes welled up with tears of joy as she threw herself into her mother's embrace. "Mother!"

1. A type of clay people ate to survive during times of famine. It can curb hunger but cannot be digested by the body ☜

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