Walking the Pool

As people walk through this world, they face birth, aging, illness, death, parting from those they love, meeting those they hate, wanting what they cannot have, and the burning of the five aggregates.

All living beings suffer. Heavy karma breeds evil spirits; as evil spirits and resentment pile up, resentment flows and gathers into a pool.

It was raining the day Xun Jingliu met Yi Yanhui. The handsome man was almost aggressively good-looking, dressed all in black, with black hair and a black umbrella. Carrying the heavy dampness of the rain, he asked, "Have I met you before?"

Xun Jingliu thought it over and declined the overly precise attempt to strike up a conversation.

The next day, the man became his new neighbor.

The new neighbor had the good fortune to tour Xun Jingliu's house. His gaze discreetly passed over the evil energy filling the rooms, the figure appearing and disappearing in the mirror at the corner, the fish floating belly-up in the water tank, the wooden chair on the balcony that had opened its eyes...

Yi Yanhui said, "Have you ever thought there might be something wrong with your home's decor?"

Xun Jingliu turned around. Everything in the world looked normal to him.

He said, "No."

But Yi Yanhui seemed to have brought the dampness in with him. From the day they met, Xun Jingliu began to hear the sound of dripping water.

The pool is not a pool, the water is not water, and a passerby is not a passerby.

He is someone who has come home.

Yi Yanhui x Xun Jingliu, younger man and older man

Theme: An unemployed young man finds work again through his own efforts. He'll have both bread and love