In Tonton valley, a boy trudged through the wind and rain with only a sled full of wood and the clothes on his back.
The wind was so strong that he could barely walk 10 meters every minute.
He had long lost count of the times he had almost been blown away by the wind.
Every muscle in his body was aching.
His skin had cracked and his feet were bleeding.
The only thing that kept him moving was the fact that without this wood, he wouldn't be able to eat for the next 3 days.
In fact, even with this wood, he would only be able to afford 2 meals. Even with this realization, he continued forcing his way against the wind. If not to eat, then to prove his resolve to himself.
After an hour of fighting bitterly against the wind and the rain, he had made it back to the village. Although small, the village walls provided some much needed protection against the wind.
It was much easier to make it home without the wind blowing against him. Closing the door behind him, Zhou Fan collapsed on his bed, gasping from exhaustion. It had been a long time since he had felt this tired. To no surprise, he fell asleep soon after pulling his blanket onto himself.
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The next day, he awoke at noon to the sound of his own stomach. Crawling out of bed, he made his way to the small yard in front of his house. Miraculously, both the sled and the wood had made it through the storm.
Dragging the sled, he made his way over to Old Man Yang's carpentry store. Since the village was small, it took only 3 minutes to make it to the small store. However, when the store came into view, Zhou Fan saw an incredible sight. Directly in front of Old Man Yang's store, there was once a tree. It had always been the biggest tree within the village walls. However, now, no tree stood in front of Old Man Yang's store. Instead, a smoldering tree trunk no more than 2 meters in size replaced the old tree.
It was unfathomable to Zhou Fan how this could have happened. After staring in awe at what was once a proud tree, he noticed an old man standing right next to it. The old man was Yang Zhuwei, also known as Old Man Yang. " Old Man Yang, what the he** happened here here?" "Hey boy", he said,"I'm not too sure myself." It seemed he himself was as dumbfounded as I. "Have you ever heard of this before" I asked. Old Man Yang was the oldest and most experienced person in the village after all. " Not at all", he said.
Suddenly, the middle aged woman across the street shouted at us," I saw what happened!" Looking over at her, we saw her haggard appearance. "The storm had kept me up all night" she said, "I was looking out the window when all of a sudden, a lightning bolt struck the tree."
"Hisssss." Sucking in a breath of air, Old Man Yang's face paled. It was something too shocking to hear after all. While they had seen and heard lightning strikes before, none of them had ever seen something that had been hit.
Later, after we had all calmed down, I sold the wood to Old Man Yang. He handed me 5 copper coins for the entire load. It was a reasonable amount that would allow me to buy three meals. One more than I had expected. Luckily, meals were one of my only expenses. The house I live in was passed down to me by my parents after they died from the disease outbreak years ago. I was only 6 years old then. 4 years have passed since then and I have been surviving on my own. Luckily, there were people like Old Man Yang and Auntie Sung, the lady across from Old Man Yang's store, to help me before I was old enough to do hard labor.
After buying some bread, I found myself once again standing in front of the tree. It was something truly unbelievable. Lightning is something that no one in this village, or perhaps the entire world, understands. Where does it come from? Why does it only come on stormy days? How powerful is it?
While asking myself these questions, I found my hand moving towards the tree. Touching it, I felt a zap. For a single moment, it felt as if my mind had become clearer. I felt as if everything in the world had become just a bit more understandable. Just as fast as it came, it went.
Even though it lasted a single moment, I felt as if I had understood something of the world. And of myself. Without knowing why, I found myself sitting against the tree, curling up my legs and putting my hands together in a clasp. I felt as if there was something else in the world. Something that I could neither see nor touch. Since I couldn't see it, I decided to close my eyes. Falling into the depths of my mind, I found my mind had become clear of all thoughts. With the sole intention of sitting and breathing, I could no longer sense the flow of time. After an unknown amount of time, I saw something. Not with my eyes but with my mind. It looked like a speck of dust. Grey and tiny. So tiny one would never see it. However, in the infinite darkness of my mind, it was as glaring as the sun. When I saw it, I instinctually took a breath. Not with my body, but with my mind. The grey speck slowly floated over to me. Although I could no longer feel the passing of time, this brief moment felt like an eternity. Eventually, the speck reached me. Flowing into my body, I felt as if a whole new world was appearing in front of me.