Fog
Copyright© 2025 by qiuchengwei30
Chapter 1
In 1888, the fourteenth year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign, on a cold winter night in Changsha, on the banks of the squire, a baby boy was born in the Li family mansion. He was supposed to be the fifth son of Master Li, but the midwife’s exclamation shattered the festive atmosphere.
He recalled the descriptions of the Gu Diao in ancient books-a monstrous creature resembling a bird but not quite, with a cry like that of a baby. Enraged, he pointed at his concubine Cuihuan’s nose and cursed, “You wretched maid! What kind of thing have you given me? Quickly throw this ugly beast to the roadside and let it fend for itself!”
Cuihuan was a weak concubine, but how could she bear to abandon the child she had endured ten months of pregnancy? This was her own flesh and blood! She dared not defy the lord’s authority, yet she was powerless to carry out his cruel orders. That night, she secretly wrapped the child tightly and quietly carried him out of the mansion.
Instead of throwing him into the roadside weeds, she placed him at the entrance of Guangji Temple, a quiet Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the city. “Child, you were born unusual; perhaps only Buddha can protect you.” With tears in her eyes, Cuihuan kowtowed three times in front of the temple gate and ran into the night without looking back.
The abbot of Guangji Temple, whose Dharma name was Kongwu, was a monk who had seen through the vanities of the world but was also tainted by worldly desires. He was not a kind-hearted person and usually only cared about his own leisure, and he was perfunctory in begging for alms.