The House of Life 3

by Vann Chow

  The Buddha frowned and shook his head. “Your kinds sure don’t have an ounce of regret over what you’ve done! Look!”

  Everyone followed the Buddha’s gaze. The Big Eye Fish was sitting on the Buddha’s palm. He moved it over the Fishing City. Below them among the ruins of the Fishing Castles were hordes of dead souls, innocent villagers and their animals fleeing and screaming away from the relentless, murderous Mongolian invaders they had roused from their century-long slumber.

  “Look at the disorder you have brought onto the Fishing City! It hasn’t been like this for centuries!”

  With his other hand, the Buddha picked up a Mongolian warrior between his index and his thumb and flicked him into the Yangtze River. The warrior screamed became muffled as he sunk into the bottom of the river.

  Michael dashed over to Elise’s side and looked up at the Buddha, “The Enlightened One, we are part of the Hong Kong Celestial Court. We were pursuing a rogue British imperial navy ship, the Imperieuse, which was smuggling fifteen crates of illegally seized properties of the dead under our care. As you can see, our small ship is not well-equipped for such a mission. We had no choice but to use a ruse with the help of the people from the Fishing City to corner the ship and its crew. The most respectable Gautama Buddha, we deeply regret the chaos that we have caused to the city and its people because of this.”

  “Deeply regret?” The Buddha did not look convinced and shook his head. “Are you aware that your actions have caused havoc to this realm? Members of the Celestial Court are not exempt from consequences, even in the pursuit of righteousness!” He bellowed.

  “Give us our men back, you old thing, and leave us alone!” A rock hit the Buddha in the face. He winced, not from pain but from the odd, tickling sensation. Who dared hurling rock at him?

  When he saw that it was the insolent girl, he laughed. “My dear,” he said with a low baritone, “You’re right, I’m not a God. I’m merely a man, once a prince, that has attained Nirvana.”

  “I know. I have learnt about the different pagan religion at school,” Elise replied back.

  “Pagan?”

  “Please forgive her, the Enlightened One,” Michael pled, “she has no idea what she was talking about. She is lost.”

  Elise turned around and shot Michael a severe look.

  “I hold no grudge against your disrespect for I sensed that your inner anger was not towards me, but to the system you’re trapped in, of endless cycles life and death for yourself and your friends that you have no control over. I have come to share my teachings to help sentient beings end rebirth and suffering, and now I bestow upon you an opportunity to gain my wisdom.”

  The Buddha spoke strange words Elise didn’t comprehend. It sounded like a load of nonsense uttered, believe it or not, by a giant rock. Maybe she had imagined it. Maybe she had imagined it all.

  “I won’t believe it, whatever that is that you wish to tell me. Dead or alive.”

  “What’s your name now, my child?”

  “Elise!” She answered, unsure why he used the word ‘now’, as if he had known her by other names before.

  “Elise,” he said, “I can see that you’re confused about the world. Reality is the consequences of one’s deed. What you’re experiencing is your own doing. Open your mind to the idea and stay receptive. You’re going to need it for your journey.”

  “I have lived a peaceful and quiet life. At such young age, still a student standing on the sideline learning the ways of the adult world, my life was snuffed out in a bizarre car accident,” Elise said. “It was a pitiful existence but it was also a trivial and guiltless one. How can you say that I am to be blamed for any of this?! I didn’t ask to come here. I didn’t want any of this!”

  Pfeeeewww.

  The Buddha blew the Big Eye Fish on its palm into a cloud of smoke coming out from his breath. It glided forward as if his hand was the surface of a river and the smoke mere fog hanging over the water on a cold winter morning.

  Elise lifted her head and looked around to find that the face she was speaking to was receding into the background as his voice was heard for one last time. “A test awaits you, Elise. Your comrades will be returned to you shall you pass the test, along with a special gift that will be most beneficial to you, my child. I wish you the best of luck.”

  “Gautama Buddha! Gautama Buddha!” Michael shouted after him. “The ruse in the Fishing City was my idea! I should be the one who should be tested!”

  Presently, the Big Eye Fish arrived at a pier and weighted anchor without anyone lifting a finger. The rope ladder unfurled itself, seducing the ship’s occupants on shore. Elise stepped down it and was immediately surrounded by the familiar sounds of people haggling and conducting businesses in Cantonese an open market. The smell of salted fish and shrimp paste, local delicacies, crowded her senses. She walked down the pier found herself on one of the tropical islands, Tai O, in Hong Kong.

  The Test

  The Tai O island was an ordinary fishing village turned into a popular tourist hotspot as Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula developed itself into concrete jungles. Political power shifts, technological advancement and the economic boom seemed not to have touched the village. It remained more or less in its simplistic, low-key ways where tourists from the outside come to reminiscent the old way of living in the early days of Hong Kong where most aboriginals relied on aquaculture and fishing to feed themselves and remind themselves of their simpler ancestral roots.

  A row of stilted house skirted the island, forming calm bays where fresh hauls of seafood were sold to its highest bidders from fishing boats. The fishermen hawked their catches and sent the merchandises up the buyers on the row houses with a basket tied to the end of long bamboo sticks.

  “Lady Tin Hau! The kind Goddess of Heaven! The protector of fishermen!” A young fisherman appeared at Elise’s feet and prostrated himself before her. “Please grant my wish for good weather this year. You’ll have my eternal thanks!”

  DON’T SAY A WORD. IF YOU WANT TO HELP HIM, DON’T SAY A WORD.

  What? Elise thought. The advice came out of nowhere, but it was clearly the voice of the Gautama Buddha, telling her the rules of his mysterious game. Instead of replying to the young man who had mistaken her as the Mazu Buddha, a female Buddha who was worshipped by the people of the sea all over Asia with names adapted into local languages, she looked for help instead.

  “Michael,” Elise called behind her, absolutely sure that he would be near to keep an eye out for her. Yet the Big Eye Fish had disappeared, along with its other occupants. She was alone on the island. Her feet were rooted also to the spot where she had stopped. Her hands were positioned in a permanent posture that was typical of the Tin Hau statues she saw in temples previously — her left arm was lowered with her palm facing the ground, while her right arm carried a red plaque with mysterious ancient inscriptions frozen in front of her chest.

  DON’T SAY A WORD, THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO DO TO PASS THE TEST.

  The voice repeated.

  Fine, Elise thought. That’s easy enough.

  “Lady Tin Hau, please grant my wish!” The young man kowtowed several more times piously. “I won’t leave until you show me a sign of confirmation,” he said stubbornly. Then suddenly, the young man saw flickering in the sky. They were the flashes from the distress signal the crew of Imperieuse were sending up. There was no doubt about it due to its particular and unnatural color.

  The young man was overjoyed. He jumped up and shouted, “Lady Tin Hau has showed her mercy! She has granted my wish! She has granted my wish.”

  Elise wanted to say something and she knew she could but she was too late. The young man ran with joy into the crowd at the fish market to spread the news of his spiritual experience. More worshippers came along in no time.

  “Lady Tin Hau,” a middle-age man sporting a flat white hat and a pair of round sun-glasses went on his knees in front of Elise and asked, “I know what you have granted to the man w
ho came before me, but please let the weather be exceptionally bad this year!”

  His unusual request surprised Elise. She listened on.

  “I have spent all my fortune and more to buy up all of the salted fish stock as a bet against good fresh fishing harvest. I’d go bankrupted if the weather turns out great this year! I have four kids at home and am a regular donor to various charities. The village school bears my name and needs my subsidies. Everything would go away should I suffer any financial misfortune! The whole town would be ruined!”

  Elise did not get a chance to reply him before he, like the young fisherman, saw the flares in the sky and decided that the Goddess had granted his wishes, and he got up to leave happily. Elise sighed. Despite the misunderstanding, Elise did not utter a single word, which meant she had stuck to the rules of the game, and she might just pass the test.

  “Lady Tin Hau,” a woman crawled to Elise’s feet, weeping. “My child is sick, and I do not have enough money for rent and medicine. Since I know money doesn’t come from thin air, I only hope that you return health to my son. He’s the only one we have, Lady Tin Hau. You have just met my landlord, and you know how important money it was for him, hence you must grant my wish to save my child’s life!”

  Her request was ridiculous. Elise couldn’t hold her tongue anymore, she opened her mouth and told her how she really felt about the whole praying-to-Goddess thing.

  “Use the money to buy him medicine! Take him to the doctor immediately. And tell your landlord to come back, also the young man before him. I need to tell them the truth, and the truth is I am powerless!”

  The woman fell back in disbelief, first on the account that the status of Tin Hau was actually speaking to her, and second, on the account that the Goddess herself was admitting to be a false piety. The woman ran away to tell what she witnessed to the villagers, but Elise waited and waited, she didn’t return.

  Then flew by really quickly on this island, a year had gone by and eventually, the young fisherman returned. He looked haggard. His clothes were in tatters. Elise already guessed what happened.

  “My fishing vessel was struck by lightning while I was fishing in the South China Sea not long after I had received your sign to go forth and fish. I drifted on a piece of wood for days until I was rescued by someone. Many a night I thought I was going to die floating on the unjust, cruel water. It was only by thinking of you and your prophecy of better days that I stayed alive.”

  Elise sighed. “You should have come back earlier so I could tell you the truth. I’m not a Goddess, I can’t give prophecy nor change the future. Did the mother with the young sick child not spread the words in the village? I told her exactly that!”

  “That mad woman?!” The young man exclaimed. He remembered such woman. “She was stoned to death for defiling you, Lady Tin Hau. You have watched over the village for centuries. We couldn’t let her spread false accusations about you!”

  “What?” Elise couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “This is terrible! I’m very sorry. I didn’t know she would…but how are you? Are you here to vent your anger at me?”

  “No, I am here to thank you!”

  “Thank me?”

  “You’ve fooled the village’s biggest landlord into bankruptcy. He put all the money he could borrow into the salted fish business and now his lands are being sold for cheap as he couldn’t come up with the money to repay his debtors. Despite my misfortune at sea, I was able to procure my parents land with what little money I have saved. I’m now my own landlord.”

  “How can that be? Did not one wants to buy his salted fish? I thought he said that bad weather would be good for business?!”

  “Well, I was not here when it happened, but the villagers told me that the summer rain poured and the wind howled for days on end. In the end, the roof of his salted fish warehouse collapsed. All of eleven thousands of these dead fishes were soaked through and through. Many started to rot. They were inedible. He was utterly ruined.”

  Elise felt uneasy but the young man was very happy about what had transpired. He thanked her and left, skipping happily.

  “Gautama Buddha, Buddha!” Elise called. “Did I pass or did I fail your test?!” She asked, expecting for the verdict to come.

  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

  “I think I failed. I didn’t listen to you and spoke to the woman. That was the cause of her death.”

  BUT THE YOUNG FISHERMAN WAS HAPPY.

  “His happiness was built not upon his own fortune but that of others’ misfortune. It was disdainful.”

  “Lady Tin Hau!” It was the voice of the business man. He cried her name and fell over her feet.

  “I’m very sorry about what happened to you!” Elise said, ashamed of herself. “I should have told you that what you thought was the Goddess’s divine intervention was nothing but an illusion.”

  “That’s not true, my Lady! You have saved our lives! And you shall not be so humble about it,” he said.

  “But I heard that you have lost all your land, as well as the factory!”

  “Yes! It was a miracle!” He said. “You must have known that the Japanese army was going to target the rich and wealthy once they landed on the island. Many fellows of my social class have been captured, tortured and killed, and all their properties seized.”

  “Japanese army?!” Elise said, suddenly realizing that she must have landed in pre-occupation Hong Kong circa 1937.

  “It was a pity that many of my former renters have become their targets after acquiring my land. The young fisherman was one of them.”

  Time had advanced forward again with Elise realizing. So much had happened while Elise was talking to the Buddha.

  “Lady Tin Hau, let us speak later!” He said. “Our first order of priority is to find a place to hide you, for your body is made out of pure white Jade of the highest quality. The Japanese militia will want to seize you and take you back to Japan as their loot.”

  Presently, Elise body was chopped into four big chunks of white jade blocks and transported by horse drawn carriage into separate hiding grounds.

  “Gautama Buddha! Gautama Buddha!” Elise said. “I understand now why you wanted me to experience this. I have failed your test and I admit defeat. I accept my faith.”

  YOU HAVE PASSED THE TEST.

  “But how?”

  The Buddha laughed.

  Presently, Elise gasped and opened her eyes. She had been transported back into her own flesh and bone body, lying on the deck of Big Eye Fish. “Elise!” Michael crouched next to her and said. “I’m so glad you’re back!”

  Two armored bodies were seen flunk out of the clouds above them onto the deck. They were none other than Noqai and Maide. Noqai landed expertly on his feet with a loud clatter from his armor while Maide rolled two times before landing in a graceful crouched stance on board, his rattling chainmail vest heaving up and down over his panting chest.

  “Young Master, we’re back!” The older of the twin smiled at Michael. “Miss Elise has saved us finally.”

  Gift

  “I have done the test before,” Elise’s back was propped against a rustling pillow filled with warmed berry seeds. “I have met Gautama Buddha before, and not only once.”

  Michael smiled. “It’s possible. A soul goes through many cycles of reincarnations unless it achieved the state of Nirvana, or decided to take a position in the Heaven’s Court.”

  “That must be why the Buddha said I have other names, but if my true self is not Elise Chow, who am I? What’s my real name?”

  “Name is just a transient concept in the grand scheme of things. You, are you, whatever you want to call yourself,” Michael said mythically.

  “No,” Elise torn off the blanket over her feet and put them down on the ground. “Tell me, who am I? You can trace my soul back in the Book of Life and Death, can’t you?”

  From the look on Michael’s face, Elise sensed that he had already done so. She gave him a condemning frown.

&n
bsp; “Like I said, you, are you. You have many other names from your past lives, mostly Chinese, but some are of other minor ethnicity. One was Manchurian. Mostly names from the central plains.”

  “Whoa, really? And all of them in China. So I was never an Indian Princess or a Russian Oligarch?”

  “Our reincarnation channels stay within the realm of modern day China,” Michael explained matter-of-factly. “But the diplomats from Ministry of Heavens Affairs are busy negotiating with other countries for open soul exchanges. It would be a logistical nightmare at the beginning, but in the long run, it’s better for the people to have more options in their after-lives. An open border would broaden their and enrich their souls, apart from the more obvious stimulation to the economy from free trade and free movement of souls.”

  Elise’s mind was boggled by the mention of economic activities in the realm of the dead. Were there also politicians and financiers here?

  “So, is it true that I failed the Buddha’s test every single time in my past lives?” Elise asked.

  “Yes,” Michael said, “but the Buddha never gave up on you, or anyone for that matter. You have been enlightened, finally.”

  “So you basically just said you understand the objective of the test, that you admit defeat, and he lets you go? That sounds too simple,” Chad, sitting on the side listening to their conversation, said. He was sanding down a twig into a catapult under Maide’s instruction.

  “I was wondering as well why he let me go so easily,” Elise ruminated. “What did I do differently this time?”

  “You’ve accepted your fate,” Noqai said, pacing down the side of the ship. “The Buddha wanted to show you that no matter what you say or do, someone, or something would invariably always go against your will. Existence, is suffering. The world moves in its natural order, with or without our interference. And if we care too much about how things are changing, we would only cause ourselves misery, for everything except our attitude is beyond our controls. That’s the core of his teaching, that a soul should remain peaceful and at ease with the world, no matter what happens.”