Xia Qingping sat cross-legged, tears streaming down his aged face once again. He placed both hands on his knees, soon smiled, and closed his eyes. He recited the incantation I had given him, while his face gradually turned gray and pale.
"Dad, in your next life, may you live in peace from beginning to end." I spoke softly, watching as he entered the six paths of reincarnation and his body lost all vitality. The two young men watched from the side, sobbing uncontrollably. It was clear how deeply Xia Qingping had devoted himself to these two children during the latter half of his life. To call him both teacher and father would be no exaggeration.
I looked at the two young men and said, "A-Ning, A-Dong, I'll leave my father's funeral arrangements to you. Both of you should have lives of your own, not waste them hiding from the world in this Taoist temple. Life is like grass and grain—fragile and easily broken. But if you stop moving forward because of that, you may comfort yourselves, yet you cannot change everything that lies behind you. Sometimes, we don't live only for ourselves. Parents, wives and children, and friendship are all reasons for us to go on living. This life truly holds many hardships, but isn't facing them and overcoming them precisely what we as human beings ought to do?"
The two young men hurriedly wiped away their tears, knelt before me, and sobbed as they promised that they would surely live good lives and would never fail my teachings, and so on.
I sighed faintly. In truth, I had seen through the course of their entire lives long ago, but this was all I could do for them. If they wanted to change their fates, it would depend on whether