Repentance

"Because he's a good-for-nothing."

The woman spoke haltingly.

"Anything else?"

"That's all."

Why is he so useless?

Ren Qushun continued to ask.

"The year before last, when the rice paddies were being irrigated, he couldn't even get a drop of water from someone else. It infuriated me!"

Although the woman was very weak when she spoke of this, her face still revealed an uncontrollable anger.

Seeing the woman's expression, Ren Qushun remained silent for a moment before saying, "You're still angry about something that happened two years ago? You're really angry about it."

The woman was so weak that she had to stop talking frequently. At this point, her husband said from the side, "She got sick because of a fight back then. Sigh!"

This rice paddy needs irrigation and drainage. Because it's planting season and everyone is busy with farming, people have to queue up for irrigation and water.

Two years ago, my neighbor cut in line to get water, which led to a conflict between the two families. Because the man in the gray short-sleeved shirt had a milder personality, he didn't win the argument.

The woman, who had liver cancer, was so angry that she started cursing in the paddy field. She was then pushed down in the field by the other person. Because she was angry and was in the mud, she fell and became ill.

"Then tell me, about what happened two years ago, you're still so angry and resentful, and you're practically dying now. Can't you forgive them? It was their fault, and you can't keep torturing yourself with that mistake!"

Ren Qushun seemed to be discussing something with the woman, or perhaps advising her.

"No way! They've bullied us too much! I'll haunt them even as a ghost! I'm so angry!"

The woman grew increasingly angry as she spoke, and she even struggled to get out of bed.

"Alright, alright. You probably can't even become a ghost, and if you do, you'll be a sick ghost, unable to harm anyone."

Su Ziyang realized that Ren Qushun was speaking the absolute truth! Every word he uttered pierced the heart!

It's like the flash of light from an electric welder, so bright it's almost blinding.

"Um?"

The woman was a little confused when she heard Ren Qushun say this.

What do you mean by that?

Even so, the woman still had a bit of a temper. She got a little angry when she heard Ren Qushun say that she couldn't even become a ghost.

"Yes. I'm saying if you keep getting angry, you'll only end up sick and dying. Only when you calm down can you become a powerful ghost."

Ren Qushun spoke without thinking. The woman, however, took it seriously and struggled to sit up halfway. "Uncle Shun, are you telling the truth?"

"Of course it's true, you didn't know I live in this village."

Ren Qushun was certainly highly respected in the village, and the women knew it too. Hearing Ren Qushun speak so earnestly, they immediately fell silent.

Everyone in the room fell silent, including Ren Qushun.

The woman, half-lying down and half-sitting, remained silent for a while before starting to cry, "If I leave, how will you live?"

These words were spoken to her husband. Upon hearing them, the man in the gray short-sleeved shirt had tears welling up in his eyes, but he struggled to hold back his grief.

"I'm so sorry. The money our two kids earned went to my medical treatment, and all the little money we've saved over the years went to my medical expenses. I'm so sorry. If I hadn't gotten angry back then, hadn't argued with others, and hadn't fallen like that, we might have built our house by now. I have such a bad temper! Waaah..."

After that, nothing could be heard clearly anymore what the woman was muttering.

The person was already weak, and after crying and talking so much, their voice became very soft.

After crying for about ten minutes, Su Ziyang suddenly felt that the atmosphere in the room had changed. The woman's face was originally deathly pale, but now, after being washed by tears, Su Ziyang was surprised to find that a faint life force was bursting out from the deathly pale face.

Su Ziyang rubbed his eyes and realized he wasn't mistaken. It was indeed a faint, ethereal life force.

"That's interesting."

Su Ziyang said softly.

After the woman stopped crying, she suddenly said she felt nauseous. Then she turned to one side and spat into the spittoon next to the bed.

A stream of foul-smelling, acidic water gushed from her mouth. This water was what the woman had just drunk, and now she was vomiting it up.

At first, she only vomited a few mouthfuls of foul-smelling water. Her husband quickly gave her water to rinse her mouth, but then the woman started vomiting again. This time, it was some yellowish-green stuff. Su Ziyang frowned and looked at it for a while, then realized it was something that resembled bile.

Although the room was filled with the unpleasant smell of vomit, Su Ziyang noticed that the heavy aura of death that had enveloped the room had dissipated.

"Alright, alright."

Ren Qushun said "okay" several times, then stood up from the bedside.

"Good that she threw up, good that she threw up. Dada, take good care of her, I'm leaving now. I'll come back to see her tomorrow!"

The woman was still vomiting, Dada couldn't attend to either of them. Ren Qushun didn't need him to take her home and went home on her own.

"Changing a person's mind, thereby affecting their body—brilliant!"

As they stepped outside, Su Ziyang couldn't help but praise it.

"Young friend, you've figured it out?"

Ren Qushun chuckled and said to Su Ziyang.

"I can see a little bit," Su Ziyang said with a light laugh.

Ren Qushun walked with his hands behind his back and said to Su Ziyang, "Greed, anger, ignorance, pride, doubt, resentment, hatred, annoyance, rage, vexation, disloyalty, filial impiety, inhumanity, injustice, and untrustworthiness lead to many diseases. These are the roots of illness, like the roots of a tree. To cure an illness, you must correct these roots. If the roots are not healthy, no matter how you prune the branches and leaves, you cannot solve the fundamental problem."

"A person's emotions have the greatest impact on them; resentment, hatred, annoyance, anger, and vexation—these negative emotions all have different effects."

Resentment harms the spleen – it can cause stomach pain, bloating, choking, vomiting, diarrhea, weak stomach, gastritis, gastric ulcers, gastric mucosal prolapse, and even stomach cancer.

Hatred hurts the heart—hatred can cause coronary heart disease, myocarditis, pericardial effusion, mitral stenosis, myocardial infarction, epilepsy, aphasia, and other diseases.

Anger damages the lungs—anger can cause asthma, coughing, spitting blood, lung deficiency, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other diseases. Rhinitis is caused by competitiveness, being argumentative leads to colds, offending elders can cause fever, and disobedience can lead to lung disease.

Anger damages the liver – Anger can cause dizziness, blurred vision, deafness, toothache, facial paralysis, stroke, hemiplegia, and liver and gallbladder diseases.

Worrying damages the kidneys—it can cause lower back pain, leg aches, abdominal pain, herniated discs, spinal tuberculosis, avascular necrosis of the Bones, diabetes, and uremia, among other diseases. (In short, the worse one's temper, the narrower one's capacity for tolerance, and the more depressed one's mood, the more susceptible one is to illness.)

"People get the kind of illnesses that suit their personality, that's never wrong. You understand, young man?"

Ren Qushun said with a smile.

Su Ziyang nodded as if he had just understood.