The Yin Eight Sects

The day I was born, a winter that had never known rain was suddenly swept by fierce winds and torrential downpour, with lightning and thunder overhead. Rain poured down like water from a broken dam, turning day into night. The lightning seemed to have eyes, striking at my family’s old home. Even the hundred-year-old locust tree by our gate was split in two. My grandfather pointed at the sky and cursed furiously, swinging his butcher’s knife left and right as he screamed at the heavens. To prolong my life, Grandfather found me an ugly child bride with a “King of Hell birthmark.” But after we married, the ugly girl turned into a stunning beauty, only to run away that very day. Grandfather cursed himself for being outsmarted by a gosling and told me to act like a fool until the old locust tree sprouted new buds. Only then would my life be safe! Later, Grandfather disappeared and my family fell apart. I kept pretending to be a fool until I turned eighteen, when the old locust tree put out a fresh green shoot. I left the old home, determined to search every corner of the world for my grandfather. And my wife? She’ll pay me back too!