The Immortal’s Gourd

Just before I leapt from the summit, I happened to rescue an injured crane.

It transformed into an old man in white and sneered, "Why do good deeds when you're trying to die?"

He ordered me to carry him up the mountain.

Though the immortal on my back was as light as mist, my feet crushed the countless thorns below.

Then, amid the howling wind at the cliff's edge, he suddenly asked me:

"You're a million in debt. Do you know who you owe the greatest debt of your life to?"

As I stood there bewildered, he abruptly shoved me off the cliff.

When I hit the ground, I found myself sitting on the edge of my own bed, with a green jade gourd in my arms.

After drinking, my wife lost her footing, snatched the gourd, and gulped from it.

She coughed and said the wine was bitter, unaware that every drop of blood she spat out

bloomed into a life-saving lotus.