Stories of reincarnation have always been an intriguing topic. I’d like to share one about how a creditor reincarnates to collect a debt.
Some years ago, when I was working in a county hospital, a young pregnant woman was admitted to the obstetrics ward. She was past her due date to deliver, but all her test results were normal, indicating a healthy pregnancy.
This young woman’s husband and a few of his good friends owned a profitable tile factory, and so he could afford to arrange a private room for his wife with assigned doctors and nurses for the delivery.
It was the first baby for the Wang family, and the entire family, especially Wang’s parents, was very excited. Many visitors crowded the room in anticipation.
Although the young woman was well past her due date, there was no sign of labor. After standing by for several days, the long-awaited medical team was exhausted. They decided to take a break and told the family: “Call us if anything happens,” before returning to their quarters.
That night was the 9th day of the 12th month in the lunar calendar. When the on-duty nurse saw me, she frowned and commented: “It’s so strange. Wang’s wife is in labor, and even though we gave her oxytocin, she still hasn’t delivered!”
“Why wait?” I asked. “Just perform a C-section!”
She responded: “We have told Wang to look for Chief Liu. She’ll know what to do.” Chief Liu was the best OB/GYN doctor in the hospital.
But when the time came to find him, Wang anxiously said: “I don’t know where Chief Liu’s quarters are!”
When I said I knew where they were, he dragged me along to help find her place.
As we walked through the gate of the living quarters, a dense fog suddenly emerged out of nowhere. The mysterious fog formed very quickly and enveloped us like a curtain. It was so thick that I could not see my fingers; it was as if I were blind.
Wang was as frightened as I was and called out my name a few times. He finally got hold of my hand, which made us both feel a little bit safer.
I calmed myself down and then coughed loudly, attempting to activate the sound-sensor lights in the building. But the lights remained off — not even the entrance light in the building was on!
Just then, I suddenly saw some light beaming near me. Looking through this strange light source, I saw a house with several people inside. As I looked closer, I noticed five or six people sitting on sofas, but I didn’t recognize any of them. One of the young men, who appeared to be in his late 20s and was quite good-looking, caught my eye. He stood out because he had a quarter-sized strawberry birthmark between his eyebrows.
The young man stood up as if he was about to leave. As he did, the others stood up to see him off, and one of them asked: “Which family are you going to?”
The young man frowned and answered in a disgruntled voice: “The Wang family. This guy is no good. When he started his tile factory, he did not have enough funding, so he asked me to lend him $8,000. I loaned him the money, and because we were classmates, I didn’t ask him for a credit note. After I passed away, my wife had financial difficulties raising our son, but he never considered paying back the loan. Not only that, he even attempted to sexually abuse her several times.”
Hearing this, the group was angered and said: “This type of person is an animal. When you get there, be sure to make him pay for what he has done.”
The young man waved to the group, smiled, and left.
The fog disappears as the boy reincarnates
As he pushed a door open and stepped through, the fog around me vanished instantly, just as if it were blown away by the wind.
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Where was the house? What did I just see? I shivered, as a chill shot up my spine.
At that moment, Chief Liu walked down the stairs. Wang stepped forward hurriedly and urged: “Chief Liu, my wife is ready to deliver. Could you please take a look?”
When we got back to the delivery room, I sat outside the entrance and pondered what had just happened. Suddenly, I felt someone rushing by. As I looked up, I saw a figure running by very fast, and then he drifted into the room!
The very next moment, loud cries broke out.
The nurse came out of the room, smiled, and said: “The baby is born.” She then frowned and continued: “But he has a quarter-sized strawberry mark between his eyebrows.”
I was immediately reminded of the young man with the same mark and recalled what he had said about Wang.
Wang was ecstatic over his newborn son. I went into the room and took a look at the little pinkish baby. He had a strawberry mark, almost the same size and position as that of the young man I saw in the fog!
The mark on the baby’s forehead bothered Wang, and he found a well-known fortune-teller to ask what it was about.
The birthmark is a mark of debt
It turned out that the fortune-teller was my uncle. I told him privately about what I saw in the fog, and he replied: “That mark is a mark of debt.”
My uncle explained further: “The bond between parents and children can be categorized into four types: to return favors, to avenge past grievances, to collect a debt, and to repay a debt. This child comes to collect a debt.”
From the time he was young, the child was often sick. As he continued going in and out of the hospital, Wang’s hard-earned money was quickly spent, just as my uncle had predicted.
Wang soon began to suspect that his son’s birthdate characters could mean bad luck, so he asked another fortune-teller to analyze them.
The fortune-teller laughed as soon as he saw the child’s birthdate characters and said: “He will leave when he gets back what you owe him.”
When the boy was in primary school, he often visited a pancake stall in front of the school. Even though the taste of the pancakes was not that great, he insisted on getting pancakes from this stall and would not go anywhere else.
When he was 9 years old, the boy became seriously ill. The treatment for the illness nearly exhausted all of Wang’s savings, but even so, they still could not save his son’s life.
With his last breath, the young boy made one final request: “I want to eat a pancake from the stall in front of my school one more time.”
Filled with sadness, Wang went to buy the pancake for his son. When he got to the stall, he realized that the owner was the wife of his classmate, whom he had refused to pay back the $8,000 he borrowed.
He cried: “My son has been eating your pancakes for a few years. It is his dying wish to eat a pancake from your stall one more time. Won’t you give me this last one for free?”
When Wang brought back the pancake to his son, the boy smelt it and said: “Eating this pancake means I will finish helping you repay the $8,000 debt that you owe. But how come there is no taste of human kindness in it?”
Immediately, Wang returned to the stall owner and paid for the pancake. When he returned home, his son finally left with a smile.
