I live in Yangjiatungazha village, Alideersumu, Keyouqianqi, Xinganmeng, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. October 1, 2016 was my wedding day. I didn’t get blessings from my parents. Only my elder brother and some other relatives and friends came to celebrate. My father, Liu Baocheng died in the winter of 2014. My mother, Zhang Shuqing, left home for ten years because of her belief in the Almighty God cult. It’s the Almighty God cult that seized my mother away. She was absent from not only my wedding but also some of other important moments in my life such as senior high school entrance examination and university entrance examination.
It started in the year 2000. My mother had a special hobby, divination. In case of difficulties, she would ask wizards for divination. One day in August, she visited a villager named Chen Yinhua and met Bao Xiumin who had come to visit a relative. Bao told my mother that her ancestors practiced divination and she was good at it too. She seldom practiced, but this time she practiced it on Chen Yinhua. Chen told my mother secretly that Bao was very accurate about what happened to her in the past and must have a precise forecast about the future. Having good relations with Chen, my mother knew more or less what happened to Chen in the past. Seeing that Bao did indeed seem to know some details about her past, my mother lost her doubt about Bao and asked her for divination. Bao said solemnly, “for the sake of your relative, I made this exception. You have to listen to me. My life will shorten if you give away the secret. You cannot betray me.” Seeing that my mother promised what she asked, Bao said, “You did something wrong in the past and will face consequences by the end of this month. It will happen to your youngest daughter. However, in three days, there will be a chance to turn things around, and you must grasp this chance. Three days later, somebody will send you a treasure and you must receive it. Don’t go outside in three days, because there will be a disaster outside. Stay at home and wait for the person. If you receive the treasure, misfortune will turn into fortune. If you tell others, you will betray me and be revenged. You have to remember this.” What Bao said truly affected my mother who believed in Bao without any doubt. Three days later, Chen Yinhua came to my house with an umbrella and a book named “questions and answers about gospels”. She told my mother, “I dreamed about an elderly man with a white beard asking me to send this paradise umbrella to you. He said that this umbrella will protect you and ensure you a happy life forever. You have to receive it. Also, you have to do what the book says. Otherwise, you will not escape the disaster.” My mother was frightened and accepted the umbrella and the book. She stored the umbrella deep in a case and read the book each day, as instructed by Chen. She only had a primary school education and didn’t know many of the words in the book. She had to consult Chen and attended the “transport” held in the house of Chen.
At first, my mother was a normal person. She just read the book and visited Chen Yinhua. My father and I didn’t say much. My father even joked that she had fallen in love with studying and would become a college student someday and that he would have to work hard to earn more money, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition. Shortly after, my mother went to Chen’s house more and more frequently: from once a week to four or five times a week. Sometimes in the middle of cooking, my mother would go away at the call of Chen. My brother and I often ate leftovers or not fully cooked rice. Our clothes were often filthy and we became strange in the eyes of our schoolmates. My father was quite upset. He tried to communicate with my mother many times, but nothing changed. He gave up, hoping that my mother would lose her patience and quit one day. Unexpectedly, my mother was very persistent this time and even gave money as offerings. She would spend all her money on the offerings. The conflict between my parents escalated and a sense of war filled the air. Later, my mother refused to come back home and lived in Chen’s house. My father went to see her but she either refused to receive him or kept silent. She was indifferent to our begging and my father’s criticism. At last, she disappeared and I never saw her again.
After my mother left, my father had to raise us alone. He fell sick from overwork and died of disease in the winter of 2014. My brother had to leave school very young to go out to work. He is not married yet. With the support and care of my father and brother, I graduated from junior college. I realize that if my mother didn’t leave, if she didn’t believe in the Almighty God, we would have led another life. I haven’t been able to forgive her for 16 years. Why did she leave her young children alone? Why didn’t we enjoy a happy childhood like other children? It’s the Almighty God that took my mother away from us and made our life bleak. It’s the Almighty God that deprived me of my happiness and destroyed my family. I sincerely hope that my mother will correct her mistakes one day, give us an explanation and return a bright future to us.
(Editor in chief: CangHai)
