Bai Zhao'en was an abandoned baby. He was left behind as soon as he was born, on a snow-covered mountain. An old man who guarded the forest found and rescued him, then raised him. The old man had no children of his own and treated him like a grandson, loving and cherishing him. That man was Grandpa! Grandpa told him that he wasn't the first to save him. That had been the chubby white cat. When they found him, the cat was keeping him warm with its body. Otherwise, he would have frozen to death.
The first word he learned to say wasn't Dad, Mom, or Grandpa. It was "Zhao." Until he was three, he called the white cat "Zhao." So Grandpa named him Zhao'en, with the surname Bai, meaning white, as in white snow. After he turned three, he started calling the cat "Teacher" instead!
By the age of two, he could recite many books: the Dao De Jing, the I Ching, the Diamond Sutra, the Great Compassion Mantra...
At three, he picked up a branch and learned to write. He also learned to draw all sorts of strange things.
He started school at six, and only then learned that cats couldn't talk. No wonder...
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
