The apocalypse-era dad earns merit by changing diapers. Staring at a crack in the ceiling at three in the morning, Wu Xia had an epiphany:
> The Buddha’s “practice of patience” has nothing to do with meditation. It’s about the tiny tyrant in his arms, writhing like a pretzel and wailing in dolphin-song.
The baby bottle is a ritual implement, the diaper a kasaya, and his merit progress bar is stuck at 0.01%... until he weaves a glowing pacifier from “merit-gold thread.”
3:17 a.m.
Wu Xia felt as if his brain were being slowly ground up in a cheap juicer. The eight-month-old human baby in his arms, codenamed “Wu Xiaobao,” was unleashing dolphin-like shrieks loud enough to shatter glass, precisely targeting the last shred of his consciousness...
