Thought God

Ever since I could remember, all I had around me were my master and the clouds and mist of Yaoshan.

My master taught me to read and told me stories about the world below the mountain, but he never went down there himself.

He often gazed at me, yet said nothing.

Until one day, I heard a stranger say, “She can't gather the spirit of a Divine Maiden.”

So my master had been looking through my features, thinking of someone else from his past.

In the storybooks I had read, a stand-in was always useless. That day, I cried and asked him, “Did you adopt me because you were waiting for the Divine Maiden to return?”

He was silent for a long time, so long that the mountain wind turned cold.

Then he gently asked me, “A Chao, would you like to go up to the heavens and have a look?”

I cried even harder. He really was going to send me to my death.

He smiled, his voice gentle. “I mean, would you like to see where the immortals live?”

The soft glow of the setting sun fell across his face, making him look like an immortal in a painting.

It was only many years later that I understood.

My master had spent his whole life waiting for a god.

Waiting for a god who might never return.

[Reading Note]

A very short story.

A little angsty. A widower's memoir.

Theme: Keep living with all your might