Remembering Green Silk

Ever since I was old enough to understand, my master made me recite scriptures every day. He said I had committed too many sins in my previous life. I believed him, and to avoid going to the underworld, I chanted from sunrise to sunset, day after day. By the time I was twenty-two, my master had taken me on journeys through all four seasons, and I had tasted every delicacy the mountains and rivers had to offer. “Master, aren’t we supposed to be vegetarian?”

“Qiangqiang, haven’t I taught you not to cling to appearances?”

Later, my master said it was time for me to enter seclusion. He picked a blessed spot and settled into meditation. When I woke up, my hands and feet had transformed into long, narrow leaves. I figured my spirit had wandered off and not returned, so I continued meditating. No matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t move a muscle.

Ever since I transmigrated into this world, I’ve had a terrible time adjusting. Every day I’m exposed to wind and rain, sun and storms. Sometimes I even have to worry that some rabbit spirit will eat me. Whenever snakes, bugs, or ants crawl past, I tremble all over. The worst is that toad, who squats on my arm every day. At least there’s a camphor-elm tree over my head to keep me company and cheer me up.

After thirty or fifty years, the camphor-elm had grown from a tiny sapling into a towering tree.

A man in blue robes descended from the sky and channeled a burst of energy into me. I transformed into human form.

I decided my master had been right: don’t cling to appearances. Let your heart embrace all things.

“Little sister, I’ve searched for you for thirty or fifty years. I’ve let you suffer. Do you blame me?” Hengqing said, looking at the woman before him. Her eyes were bright with spiritual energy, yet she had no spiritual power.

“Me? ... Living here and absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, I can’t say I’ve suffered.”

Reborn as a spiritual herb, I eat for free and wait to die, know my place, and do whatever it takes to survive.