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“That Could Have Been Me”

January 19, 2016 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Minghui.org) I was sitting in my jail cell listening to a woman on death row tell her story. Her name was Song Jia and she had an eight-year-old son, the same age as mine.

She said her husband had had an affair, divorced her, and married the other woman. Out of vengeance, she and her nephew broke into their home, killed the other woman and her mother, strangled their six-month-old baby to death and left the body in a closet.

Song Jia sat there in handcuffs and shackles, calmly telling her story. There was not the slightest sign of remorse on her face. She said when she picked up the baby, the baby even smiled at her. I stared at her, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up in horror. I thought to myself, "That could have been me." That night while in bed I couldn't stop crying. I said in my heart, “Thank you, Master; thank you, Master; thank you, Master!”

Falun Dafa Saved My Husband

I married my husband because he was an honest man. When we were first married, neither of us had a job, but we got along just fine. I started selling vegetables in a farmers' market to make money. He later found a job, too. I loved him with all my heart. I saved good food for him, bought nice clothes for him, and spend very little on myself. I got worried when he came home late from work. Things were going well. We had a son, and our lives were improving.

Then one day he told me that he was having an affair with someone he'd met while accompanying his boss to a karaoke bar. It had been going on for a while.

My world collapsed, and I didn't want to live anymore.

He said he would end the affair, but instead he stayed out even more. One day he came home, went straight to bed, and fell asleep. Anger overtook me, and I thought of smashing his head in with an ax.

There was an ax in the kitchen, just few steps away. My heart was about burst out of my chest as I reached for the ax, when I heard my Master's voice in my head: “For practitioners, we have set the strict requirement that they cannot kill lives.” (Zhuan Falun)

I suddenly seemed to wake up, every ounce of strength drained out of me. I knew that I was a practitioner of Falun Dafa and I could not kill. Slowly but surely the thought of killing him left me as I read the Falun Dafa book.

Persecuted for Practicing Falun Dafa

I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa in 2000. I was arrested and detained at Yilan County Detention Center. I was told that both my husband and his employer would be affected if I didn't give up practicing Falun Gong.

I could not give up my belief, but I didn't want to implicate my husband or the people from where he worked. In the end, I signed the divorce papers in the detention center. I had lost the family that I had wanted to protect the most. I remember walking back to my cell with the divorce papers in hand, covering my face with my jacket and sobbing.

I was arrested in Mudanjiang City in 2002. The police tortured me in every way they could think of: They put mustard oil in my eyes, nose, ears and mouth; they covered my head with plastic bags to suffocate me; they slapped my face repeatedly; they churned a stick around in my mouth until it bled.

Two days later I was sent to Mudanjiang Detention Center, where I met Song Jia. She and her nephew were later executed.

In May 2005, I was transferred to Mudanjiang Women's Prison. I learned that many women there had committed crimes because their husbands had left them for other women. I knew Falun Dafa had saved me and my family. I could have been one of them if it weren't for Falun Dafa.

Over the years, I have developed compassion for my ex-husband. He had a good nature and has worked hard all his life. Even though he divorced me, he never said one bad thing about Falun Dafa. When I left prison in 2009, he helped me to set up a small business to make a living. I am blessed to practice Falun Dafa, and so is my family.