(Minghui.org) I was born into a poor peasant family in a mountainous village in west Liaoning Province in 1957. I was a girl, the third child in the family, and sickly from the time I was born.

Like many other children in the village, I contracted meningococcal meningitis when I was around eight or nine. Many died, but I survived. However, I became crippled and could not walk for a couple months, and my mother had to carry me around on her back. I eventually learned how to walk again, but I always had pain here or there. Nobody knew why I was having such pain.

Unusual Stomach Problem

I developed a strange stomach problem in 1997. Whenever I tried to eat something, or even drink half a glass of milk, my stomach would bloat to the point that I could hardly lie down. As soon as I lay down, I would have trouble breathing and I had to sit up even at night.

I had all kinds of exams and tests in the provincial hospital, but the doctors could not find anything wrong. In the end, some even suggested that I should seek “external” help, meaning that I should seek help from shamanic treatments.

I then tried Traditional Chinese Medicine and took heaps of herbal medicine. Nothing worked, and I became very skinny, weighing only about 45 kgs with a height of 168 cm. I felt weak and had to sit on the ground from time to time to regain the strength to keep going again.

My poor health was a huge financial burden for my family. I felt hopeless and thought of ending my life of misery. I told my husband that if I died, he should give our two daughters to relatives, as it would be too hard for him to take care of them on his own. His eyes were wet as he listened to what I was saying.

I walked down to the sea near my home the next day while my husband was at work. I was ready to commit suicide by drowning myself.

It might have been some form of telepathy, because my husband felt something was wrong, so he rushed home. When he saw I was not there, he ran straight to the seaside and grabbed me in time.

He was afraid of leaving me alone and stayed home to keep an eye on me. His colleagues heard about my attempt to commit suicide. One of them was a Falun Gong practitioner. He came to see me and said, “You might like to practice Falun Gong. It has miraculous health benefits, and many terminally sick people have regained their health from doing the practice.”

Having been brought up an atheist, my husband did not believe what his colleague said. Seeing how bad things were with us, this man again tried to encourage me to practice Falun Gong, and, not wanting to hurt his feelings, we reluctantly went to his place to give it a try.

We heard some beautiful music as we neared his house. It was truly beautiful, like nothing I had ever heard before. As soon as I stepped inside, I felt as if someone pulled a sheet of black leather off my body, and all of a sudden I felt enlightened inside my heart and the stubborn pain in my stomach was completely gone!

The colleague and his friends were doing the second Falun Gong exercise, so I imitated them as soon as I walked in and practiced for 20 minutes. I was sweating all over, but I didn't feel tired at all. In fact, I felt very relaxed.

When I told the colleague how I felt when I entered his house, he said, “It seems you have an affinity with Dafa and that Master has already cleansed your body.” I was really happy to hear that.

After my husband pushed me home on his bicycle, I felt hungry for the first time in a long time. My husband made me some millet porridge right away. I didn't dare to eat much and just ate half a bowl, but I felt absolutely fine and had no problem.

The next day, I was able to ride the bicycle to his colleague's house to do the exercises with the group. Not long after, all my health problems disappeared and I felt light and healthy.

Living by the Principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance

After I started practicing Falun Gong, I tried to act according to the principles of the practice in my daily life.

Once a neighbor came to return the 100 yuan I had lent her. But when I went shopping, I was told the bills were counterfeit. I was really surprised, as I had never come across anything like that before. I asked someone to check them for me, and it was confirmed that the money was counterfeit.

I didn't take it up with the neighbor because I knew I was a Dafa practitioner and I should always consider others first. The neighbor might not know that the money was fake, and if I took it back to her, it might cause her financial difficulties; if she managed to spend the money, someone else would be hurt. So I just tore the bills into pieces and threw them away.

On another occasion, my nephew found a counterfeit 100-yuan bill in the cash from his business. “Give it to me. I'll be able to spend it,” he said.

“No,” I said. “What if you do spend it? If the one who gets it is rich, it won't matter much. But what if a poor person gets it? Think about what a hardship that would be for him?” My nephew seemed to understand, and I tore up the bill and threw it away.

Another time, my husband gave me his salary as soon as he got home. I counted it and discovered an extra 2,000 yuan. I checked it again and I was right. I told my husband and then said, “The accountant might have made a mistake. I'm a Dafa practitioner and we should not keep money we don't deserve.”

“But if I take it straight back and if the manager finds out, he will sack the accountant,” my husband said.

“Don't worry,” I said, “I 'll take it to her quietly.”

I went to the accountant's office and called her out. “You gave my husband the wrong amount in his salary,” I whispered to her.

She put on a stunned face and said, “How much short?”

“You didn't short him—you gave him an extra 2,000 yuan.”

Her face turned red with embarrassment. She took the money and walked back into the office quickly. Before she went in, she seemed to remember something and turned. Still embarrassed, she said quietly, “Thank you.”

My husband started a small factory in 1999, and we hired a few workers. They were all immigrant workers from the countryside. We provided them with full board and I treated them like family members. Sometimes I also cleaned up their dorms.

It was pretty hard at the beginning, as their dorms were very dirty and messy with shoes and clothes lying around all over the place. The smell of their dorms was also quite offensive. I didn't mind it and just cleaned the dorms and folded up their clothes neatly. Sometimes I also washed their clothes.

The workers were rather embarrassed, and after a while they started paying more attention to hygiene and tidiness themselves.

We never made any deductions from their wages and would give them full pay even if they only worked half a day, because we understood how hard it must be for them to leave home to earn a living for their families.

We made sure that they ate well by hiring a cook, who fed them well.

One day after they went to work, I saw that someone had poured leftover food and steamed buns down the drain. I got rather angry, thinking, “I don't mind providing you with plenty of food and treating you as family. But you took more than you could eat and then threw away what you could not finish. What a waste!”

I went home, and as I read the book Zhuan Falun, I calmed down and felt peaceful inside. The next day, I said to the workers at lunchtime, “I would like to tell you a story while you are eating.” They all looked very happy.

“Do you know about the 'root of good fortune?'” I asked them. “It means what is left over after each meal. The last bit left over is your good fortune, and old people usually call it the 'root of good fortune.' Gods are keeping a record of it, and if you keep throwing away your leftover food, you will have less and less good fortune, and when you get old you may be poor and have nothing to eat.”

After that, I never saw any discarded leftovers.

Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has changed me from a selfish person into someone who can always take others' interests into consideration and can conduct myself by those principles in daily life.

Looking back on the path I have traveled in cultivation, my heart is filled with immense gratitude to our compassionate Master. Thank you, Master!