On the last day of March, I sat twenty meters above the ground and gazed into the distance. Occasionally, a breeze called the spring wind brushed against my face, carrying with it bursts of unseasonable chill and an unusual odor.
Skinny stood behind me holding his nose and grumbling discontentedly, "Anywhere is better than this! Coming to a garbage dump for a spring outing..."
Fatty swatted a prematurely active mosquito that bit him on the face with a smack and couldn't help shouting at me at the top of his voice, "Boss, today is not a public holiday. Why on earth aren't we running our business and instead came here? It's dirty, smelly and there are even mosquitoes!"
"If you're dissatisfied, feel free to leave. No one's tying you down with a rope," I lazily replied.
The place where I'm sitting is a small hill, but most of its body is submerged in all sorts of garbage – household waste, construction debris, and a colorful array of discarded items. These useless abandoned materials have accumulated over time, creating the illusion of continuous mountain peaks. It's a sight watchable from afar but definitely not meant for close exploration.
In the beautiful March springtime with picturesque scenes everywhere, I had hung a sign at the entrance of my "Unceasing" shop early in the morning, which read "Owner has business to attend to, closed for two days." Then, I took Fatty and Skinny to a place near Welcoming Moon Mountain in the suburbs. This place has been unregulated for years and has eventually become a customary natural garbage dump. Just as we arrived, an unlicensed and unmarked slag truck surreptitiously dumped a whole load of waste and nonchalantly drove away.
Climbing to the top of the garbage mountain, one can see the Welcoming Moon Mountain guarding the surrounding area at a glance. It's a real unbroken mountain range, and there's also the Welcoming Moon River, which has a beautiful name but has actually been polluted into a foul-smelling ditch.
Fatty and Skinny looked at each other in dismay. They wish to leave but naturally don't dare because they know I have a hundred ways to keep them here without needing a rope.
"Boss, can you at least tell us the reason for coming here?!" Fatty shuffled up to me wearing a mournful expression, "I wonder if I will get lung cancer if I inhale this stink too much."
"With your EQ and IQ, it's really hard for me to explain to you at the moment," I shook my head and looked up at the sky. The sun is shining brightly today, and fluffy clouds floated in the sea-blue sky. However, the entire Welcoming Moon Mountain is shrouded in a gloomy, dull gray haze, blocking out the sunlight.
Of course, humans can't see this layer of gray haze; at most, they might feel that this place is colder and gloomier than elsewhere. But I'm not a human being, nor are Skinny and Fatty. That peculiar gray haze drifted and gathered in our eyes, extending from the surface of the Welcoming Moon River straight into the sky.
I pointed to the sky directly above the river and asked, "Do you see that rift in the sky?"
Fatty and Skinny followed my finger and looked over. They saw a faint, serpentine, gray-black rift, hidden in the part of the sky much darker than the rest, meandering its way through. It was well concealed by the clouds, making it difficult to notice without a closer look.
"That's called Sky Rift[1]," I lowered my hand. "Heaven and earth are connected through mountains and rivers, and mountains and rivers give rise to spiritual energy. If this pure spiritual energy born of mountains and rivers is lacking, there will be less support between heaven and earth and the balance will be lost. Over time, heaven will be deficient and earth will be damaged, and there will be imbalances. At the best, there will be erratic winds and rainfall, and at the worst, it'll cause repeated disasters in the world, with sufferings for all living beings. There's already a Sky Rift over the Welcoming Moon River and it's expanding."
Skinny and Fatty instantly turned pale. They had recently watched the legendary movie "2012." The two guys grabbed my hand in unison, "Boss, don't tell me…you want to copy Nuwa[2] Mending the Heavens? That's a pretty technical job!"
"If I'm going to mend anything, I should start with your brains!" I shook off their paws, stood up, and looked at the lifeless landscape at my feet. "The landscape here has lost its spiritual energy because it no longer has a deity protecting it."
Skinny rolled his eyes: "Are you talking about things like Grandpa Mountain God and Grandma Mountain God?"
"I could bury you alive here, and no one would ever find your body," I said solemnly as I leaned in close to Skinny's ear. He swiftly backed away about five meters.
"Well, since we have some free time, how about I tell you a story?" I turned around and gazed at the Welcoming Moon River below, which had lost its original beauty.
I have a hundred-year pact with someone. Today is the day to honor that agreement.
Footnotes:
[1] tiān=sky; heaven; day. quē=lack; deficiency.
[2] Nüwa is a god in Chinese folk religion and Taoism. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. You can read Nüwa Mends the Heavens here(Wikipedia).
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