No Longer Trapped by Money

On our way home, Li Guang called me.

"Sanhe, I saw your message. Is there really an opportunity this good?!"

I could clearly hear the delighted surprise in his voice.

"Yeah, the job doesn't require much English, and the pay is pretty good, but it's real physical labor. It'll be tough." I glanced at Mr. Cai as I spoke to Li Guang.

Before Li Guang came over, I had to make sure I repeatedly explained the reality of the situation, so he wouldn't come dreaming that Singapore's streets were paved with gold and he could get something for nothing.

"No problem, no problem!" Li Guang said with a hearty laugh. "I've got plenty of strength. Don't worry, I definitely won't make you look bad!"

Li Guang spoke so loudly that Mr. Cai heard him beside me. He nodded and said, "You can tell just from his voice that he's a straightforward fellow. If there are no issues, put in the application to bring him over!"

"What documents do we need?" I asked.

"His résumé, passport, and diploma," Mr. Cai said succinctly.

"That simple?"

"Yes."

One look at Mr. Cai's expression told me he knew this process inside out.

Li Guang sent his documents over right away, and I forwarded them to Mr. Cai.

I still hadn't figured out the meaning of the fortune verse from Lingyin Temple, but that did nothing to dampen my soaring ambitions.

Although I was still eating noodles boiled in plain water, just as before, I had known from that earlier flash of insight that money would no longer keep me trapped.

Once our awareness awakened, we could clearly see the strength that filled us.

The blows poverty dealt us were like a toddler just learning to walk, pummeling our legs with tiny fists.

We could choose to rest content in the present, or choose a different life whenever we wanted.

The choice was in our own hands.

At that moment, I had simply chosen to rest content in the present.

In a classroom at school.

"Sanhe, are you an idiot?!" Bai Zhigao demanded, his voice so shrill with agitation that it cracked.

Before coming to Singapore, he had been a teacher like me, except he taught politics.

When he discussed political systems, he could reel off theory after theory, but he rejected anything metaphysical outright.

"You moron! You can barely afford to eat, and you're still grinning every day!"

"I'm blessed with good fortune!" Since I couldn't get through to him anyway, I could only answer with something inexplicable.

"You idiot!" He curled his lip disdainfully and lectured me. "Our fate is in our own hands! Everything in our future comes from the work we do with our own two hands!"

I didn't enjoy socializing and had few friends. Du Le was one, and Bai Zhigao was another.

I really hoped Bai Zhigao would have a bright future.

I spoke to him earnestly. "The Art of War says, 'What allows rushing water to carry stones along is its momentum.' Against the broader tide of events, individual effort plays only a small part. You certainly can't get anywhere without trying, but effort alone probably won't get you the results you want either."

He looked at me as though I were an idiot and said, "After all those years of schooling, did everything you learned go into a pig's brain? You don't even believe in your own two hands?!"

If I hadn't known he was such a bookworm, I would have suspected he was making a dirty joke.

Anyone who didn't know how to ride the tide faced a worrying future. I sighed helplessly and said, "How about we make a bet?"

I wanted so badly for him to see the world objectively.

"A bet? What kind of bet, you moron?"

"That no matter how hard you work, your luck won't be as good as mine," I said with certainty.

I said that because I hoped time would help him understand that the world did not bend to any individual's will.

Effort needed the right conditions.

What I hadn't expected was that, after we went our separate ways, I failed to keep track of how he was changing. When we met again, he had swung all the way from one extreme to the other-from utterly rejecting the metaphysical to becoming a complete fatalist.

Getting him back on track took a great deal of effort all over again.

But that was a story for later.