I Pocketed All the Incense Money Meant for the Gods

Ye Miao wasn't born a liar. Until she was eight, she was the most devout little believer in Lanhe Village. Every morning, she was the first to offer incense at the Earth God Temple, giving the gods the only half a flatbread she had. Her mother suffered from a chronic illness that could only be cured by divine grace. But Lanhe Village was so poor that the offerings from the whole village in a year weren't enough to get the Medicine God to spare her a glance. One winter, when Ye Miao was eight, she knelt in the snow outside the Medicine God Temple from dusk until dawn. She gave away all her "devotion": every bit of faith a little girl could gather. The Medicine God heard her. The Medicine God did the math. The Medicine God never came. Her mother died that winter. As she lay dying, her mother held her hand and said, "Miao'er, don't blame the gods... I must not have been sincere enough..." At that moment, something inside eight-year-old Ye Miao shattered forever. It wasn't that you weren't sincere enough. It was that, in their eyes, your life wasn't worth the price. This is the story of a once most devout believer who, after discovering that the gods had judged her mother's life to be an "unprofitable investment," decides to tear out the entire system of faith by its roots.