(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Li Yuan and I am 14 years old this year. I attained the Fa with my mother in October 1998 and my happiness was indescribable. But in 1999, the evil started to persecute Dafa and the cruel reality was forced on me: I had to choose between Dafa and school. Without hesitation, I chose Dafa. Although the authorities wouldn't allow me to go to school, I learned from self-study. The spreading of Dafa is unprecedented. Our great compassionate Master is offering salvation to all sentient beings. How could I miss the precious opportunity that I have been waiting for millions of years! Assisting Master in Fa-rectification and validating the Fa are also my historical responsibilities.
Before I started to practice cultivation, a fortuneteller said that I would run into a car accident at the age of ten, that it was a tribulation I could not escape as part of my destiny. After I took up the cultivation, I had six frightening car accidents and two electrocution incidents, but I was unhurt. Under the protection of Master, I have repaid the debts that would have cost me my life.
On July 20, 1999, the evil started to persecute Dafa. My mother and I went to the provincial government office to appeal but were detained illegally for 4 hours. We were released when it was almost dark outside.
In 2000, through reading Minghui articles, my mother and I thought that we would go to Beijing to validate the Fa. So at 9:00 am on July 9, 2000 we arrived at the Appeals Office in Beijing but were detained by the staff members there. We refused to report our names and our address, so in the afternoon they sent us and other practitioners who also didn't tell their names to various police stations. We still refused to tell them our names. In the end, they found our address on a plastic bag in our carry-on luggage. They sent us to our local government liaison office in Beijing, and then ordered my mother's employer to take us back. We were sent back to the factory, where we were illegally detained for 15 days and extorted out of 1,600 yuan in cash. After we were released, we were illegally put under surveillance for half a year.
In mid December that year, my mother and I broke through the surveillance and went to Beijing again. We went directly to Tiananmen Square to hold up a banner to peacefully appeal. But as soon as we arrived on Tiananmen Square, we were forced into a police van. At 10:00 am, we were sent to Tiantan Police Department, where about 1,000 practitioners from all over the country were already detained. Among them, there were old people over 70 years old, as well as babies only a few months old. We recited the Fa together, spoke out "Falun Dafa is good" and one by one unfurled banners that we didn't get the chance to show to the public on Tiananmen Square. I was moved to tears by the pure, righteous, peaceful and compassionate practitioners, and by their courageous acts in the face of evil.
Around 11:00 am, those practitioners who refused to give their names were sent to various places. My mother and I were sent to Zhugezhuang Police Station in Tongxian County. The police there were all physically strong. They would torture practitioners who didn't cooperate with them. After being illegally detained for six days in the public bath-house of the liaison office in Beijing, we were taken back by my mother's employer and fined 2000 yuan. During the Spring Festival of 2001, my mother's employer followed the evil's order to abduct her and five other practitioners, and detained them for three months. After she was released, to avoid further arrest and harassment, my mother and I left our home behind and began a life of homelessness.
After we arrived at our provincial capital, we lived with a few practitioners from other areas. We studied the Fa, did the exercises and went out to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people every day. Later, we came to know many practitioners in a similar situation as us. They were very diligent in cultivation and I followed them to do Dafa related work.
On May 2, 2002, several big material centers in our area were damaged and over 20 practitioners were arrested by the police. This was a big loss. My mother and I were sent to a brainwashing class held in the provincial capital. I was illegally detained for almost 4 months. They isolated me by arranging a collaborator to follow me every minute, fearing that I would pass on the Master's new articles. However, I still managed to use wisdom to pass the articles to my fellow practitioners. I received much abuse from the police, and even the former practitioners that turned against Dafa under pressure could not bear to watch them abusing me. I refused to attend any of their activities or brainwashing sessions. Later on, practitioners published the story of my mother and me on the Internet. Maybe because overseas practitioners called in to voice their support to us, the officials dared not to continue jailing me. They brought in my father from a place 250 miles away and asked him to take me away. Just before my release, the officials still wanted me to write a "Guarantee Statement". They said, "It's OK if you do not write the statement, but you must write that you have lived well here." I replied, "Do you think it's good to live a life without freedom?" They were speechless and I left there without writing anything.
In December, my mother took me home and I went to enroll in a school three times. However, the school officials wanted me to write a "Guarantee Statement" or a "repentance statement," otherwise, they would not admit me. My mother and I clarified the truth about Falun Gong to them but they just wouldn't listen and were afraid of taking any responsibility. So in the end, I had to leave the school and study at home, which caused me difficulties.
Every school year I tried to go back to school but it was in vain. I love studying and am capable of studying well. But the authorities deprived me of my right to get an education. My mother worked at a far away place, so she had to leave early in the morning and come back home late at night. I had to stay at home alone. I felt lonely and had no one to communicate with. However, whenever my attachments popped up and I felt the injustice, I would recall my Master's teaching in the Lecture at New Zealand Conference: "Cultivation is the most righteous thing to do." [Unofficial translation] With my firm belief in Dafa and help from our Master, I survived the persecution and never bowed to the evil or cooperated with it, and thus left no stains on my path of cultivation. Compared to my fellow practitioners being illegally detained to do forced labor and suffer torture, my suffering is really nothing. Although I still have the competitive mentality, jealousy, and other attachments, I will strive forward diligently in my cultivation and do well the things I should do.
When I looked back at my past five years of cultivation and validating the Fa, I felt like it was as short as a blink of eye. However, during this period, I have borne suffering and ordeals beyond kids of my age. When I was only ten years old, I was arrested, detained, interrogated, monitored illegally and deprived of the right to go to school. I have personally witnessed the shameless evil of Jiang's regime. Each time I was detained, they tried to make a breakthrough on me, but I said nothing. So they threatened me that if I didn't answer their questions, they would send me to a juvenile center. But I replied, "What you said doesn't count!" In the end, the evil got nothing from me.