The winter gale commands the thatch to moan,
As worldly waves pile grief upon the bone.
A lonely path, the public shames collide,
The poison flows to block the golden tide.
Yet mercy’s force dispels the shroud of death,
A winter miracle restores his breath.
The axis stands, the inner mind stays bright,
The boundless Dao outlasts the freezing night.
The Gathering Shroud of Winter
The early winter of two thousand twenty-one arrived as the world remained caught in the frantic vortex of sweeping pestilence and societal unrest. Within the village, a northern gale howled through the thatched roofs, while thick fog blanketed the fields in a white shroud and freezing air crept through every narrow alleyway.
The entry of Hoa Long and his mother into the cultivation of the Great Dafa opened no tranquil corridor of ease. Instead, hidden layers of karmic debt began to surface. The Old Forces had long arranged destructive elements—monitoring practitioners entering the Fa-Rectification on one hand, while exploiting the guise of "crucibles" to test their resolve on the other. Those arrangements manifested not through roaring thunder, but through the bitter trials of daily life.
The Entrapment of the Mind
The first storm gathered around the household of his uncle—his late father’s younger brother. Following his father’s passing, the uncle had taken over the security guard role at the primary school where Hoa Long had once labored.
Trouble erupted when a school accountant discovered a large sum of money missing from the safe and immediately notified the local police. Seeking a quick resolution, authorities targeted the uncle’s young son—Hoa Long’s cousin—as a primary suspect. The young man, who had already been struggling with unemployment after returning from the capital, was brought in for questioning.
Without evidence, officers subjected him to severe intimidation and physical abuse in an attempt to force a confession. Finding nothing, they eventually released him.
The ordeal left deep, agonizing scars on the young man's spirit. Already devastated by his wife's recent abandonment, the humiliation of being wrongfully accused turned his pain into an unyielding hatred toward the school staff and local authorities. Seeking an escape from his unbearable shame, he turned heavily to alcohol.
In his vulnerable, intoxicated state, malicious, low-level entities—deployed by the Old Forces to obstruct the salvation of sentient beings—took control of his weakened mind. The cousin transformed into an unmanageable force of outrage. Day and night, he roamed the village streets, unleashing a torrent of bitter curses against everyone in his path: from schoolteachers and police officers to village elders and local officials.
The spectacle cast a heavy shadow over the entire community. Villagers, ignorant of the unseen interference, began to whisper mockingly: "Why are so many in that family losing their minds? If their practice is so powerful, why can't they save their own kin?"
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The cruel rumor created a severe obstacle for Hoa Long and his mother as they attempted to clarify the facts to their neighbors. Yet Hoa Long saw through the illusion. He recognized it as a calculated trap by the Old Forces to stir human attachments of shame and despair. Rather than falling into resentment, he and his mother intensified their daily practice, sitting firm in meditation and sending forth powerful Righteous Thoughts to dismantle the evil field manipulating his cousin.
The Threshold of the Abyss
Yet the winter fog grew denser as another wave of tribulation struck Hoa Long’s immediate household. The target of this attack was his elder brother—the soul who had carried deep psychological trauma ever since their father’s sudden stroke in 1999.
Driven by a naive longing for a peaceful home and prodded by malicious individuals, the brother unwittingly stepped into a humiliating trap. He foolishly whispered to a married woman that his family would give her ten bars of gold if she wedded him—a tragic falsehood born of pure desperation and mental instability.
When the truth surfaced that no gold existed, the woman publicly ridiculed him before a crowd of villagers. The contemptuous laughter and sharp mockery cut straight into his fragile heart.
Driven to utter despair by the public shame, the brother returned home believing his existence was a burden to everyone. Seeking a permanent exit, he grabbed a bottle of lethal Paraquat herbicide—the infamous "fast-acting weedkiller" known to every villager as an absolute death sentence.
In the realm of medicine, Paraquat is feared above all else: once swallowed, it relentlessly corrodes internal organs from within, causing irreversible organ destruction and pulmonary fibrosis that medical science is completely powerless to treat. Anyone who takes even a sip faces a horrific, inevitable death as their internal organs decay.
Without a single moment of hesitation, the brother drank the concentrated venom to the last drop.
The Miraculous Resurgence
Yet divine mercy had authored a decree far beyond human science.
The exact moment the devastating toxin entered his system, an extraordinary miracle unfolded. Protected by the boundless compassion of the Master of Dafa, the brother’s life was shielded. Divine intervention neutralized the lethal chemical reactions within his body, dissolving the dark karma and transforming what should have been a gruesome, agonizing death into a monumental testament of divine grace.
The deadly herbicide—capable of dissolving human tissue—left no lasting harm upon his internal organs. There was no internal decay, no lung destruction, and no organ failure. Within just five days, he stood up from his bed fully restored, vibrant and completely healthy, as if the shadow of death had never touched him.
The unbelievable recovery sent shockwaves through the entire region. Doctors and villagers alike were stunned into silence—a man surviving a full bottle of concentrated Paraquat without a scratch was an absolute physical impossibility. The chronicle of his survival spread like wildfire through the streets. "The Master of Dafa has preserved his life from the ultimate poison!"—the whispers transformed into an unyielding testament to the majesty of the Fa. Many villagers who had previously mocked them or harbored doubts were deeply humbled, coming forward to ask for truth-clarification materials with newfound awe and respect.
For Hoa Long’s wife, this extraordinary miracle shattered her remaining skepticism forever. Witnessing the naked boundary between violent death and absolute restoration with her own eyes, she recognized that her husband’s path was no mere human devotion, but a sacred truth capable of altering fate itself.
Emerging from the abyss, the elder brother returned with more than just a healthy body; his spirit was entirely renewed. The heavy depression that had bound him since 1999 dissolved completely, replaced by a calm, steady optimism and a profound gratitude for the Fa that had granted him a second life.
Canto LXXVII — Triumph Amidst the Tempest
The winter gale commands the thatch to moan,
As worldly waves pile grief upon the bone.
A lonely path, the public shames collide,
The poison flows to block the golden tide.
Yet mercy’s force dispels the shroud of death,
A winter miracle restores his breath.
The axis stands, the inner mind stays bright,
The boundless Dao outlasts the freezing night.