Pandemic Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva Stories #18
End of series. The bilingual collection Bodhisattva 18 will soon be available in dBook (NFT book) format. Stay tuned!
When the great epidemic struck, the Healer thought he had prepared himself to wrestle back every life from the hands of the plague demon. This was the resolve he had when he decided to become a doctor in his youth. Over the past twenty years, the Healer worked tirelessly, day and night, treating all kinds of patients, rescuing many from the brink of death. As a result, he earned the reputation of Saintly Healer. Because he was so engrossed in his work and had no time for anything else, the Healer did not marry until he was forty and soon had a son. It was when his son turned two that the century’s great epidemic descended.
The Healer led the hospital’s medical team, vowing to fight a decisive battle against the great epidemic. But at first, no one knew how to respond. It was a novel virus, unprecedented, unpredictable, and once it started, it was unstoppable. Within two weeks of the outbreak, not only had the number of patients doubled, but their conditions also rapidly deteriorated, and one by one, even the medical staff began to fall. The protective measures that had been effective in the past completely failed, and as for treatment plans, they were groping in the dark, without a shred of certainty. After more than twenty years of practicing medicine, the Healer felt panic for the first time.
Seeing the hospital overrun, a shortage of beds, patients waiting in the cold wind, and even dying in the streets, with unattended bodies lying everywhere, the Healer’s heart ached tremendously. But he knew he had to turn his heart to stone and face the situation calmly; otherwise, he would collapse. Out of compassion for all beings, he had to become ruthless. Some of his more emotionally fragile colleagues had already suffered mental breakdowns, losing their ability to fight. The Healer knew he was a leader; the morale of his team depended on him, and he could not retreat in the slightest.
Thus, the Healer worked twenty hours a day, changed his protective gear three times, ate alone, and slept in his office. He hadn’t been home in three months. The patients continued to die, with no turnaround in sight; it seemed he wasn’t saving others but merely trying to save himself. Just keeping himself uninfected was already an exhausting task. Then, he received news that his wife and son had been infected. They were taken to another hospital, and he couldn’t visit them, let alone take care of his loved ones himself. Not much later, his mother was admitted to the intensive care unit, and just as he was about to see her for one last time, he found out he had been infected.
The second red line on the rapid test device was the first manifestation of the Epidemic Bodhisattva to the Healer, but he did not realize it at the time. He thought it was the plague demon flaunting its power. As a doctor trained in Western medicine, to consider a biological virus as a demon was already beyond the realm of science and reason. But the Healer could no longer maintain his rationality. He was running a high fever, struggling to breathe, in pain all over, lying in the intensive care ward, indistinguishable from the ordinary patients. He had lost the abilities and privileges of a physician. For some reason, aside from the physical pain, his spirit became lighter, or perhaps it was more apt to say he became indifferent.
The Healer entered a long dream, no, his soul left his body, soaring to the clouds above. On the endless expanse of the white sea of clouds, there lay a female figure like a celestial being. The celestial woman opened her arms to him, and he plunged into her embrace without hesitation. They entwined tirelessly, in the throes of life and death, several times nearing suffocation. Then, he felt the flow of life spilling out, his shell becoming hollow and deflated, collapsing. His gaze passed through the clouds, descending slowly, and he could see countless fires burning on the ground. He felt someone holding his hand, cruising in the sky, the spectacle of a human purgatory unfolding scene by scene before his eyes.
Those were the innumerable plagues throughout history. Whole villages vanished overnight, entire cities were destroyed, whole kingdoms crumbled. Swelling, stench, decay; groans, wails, and lamentation; desolation, silence, and horror. He felt an icy chill spreading to his hand; turning his head, he saw that the figure leading him in flight was a skeleton. He quickly let go of the skeleton, only to see it grow countless arms behind it, waving blood-stained ritual instruments, and its face transformed into a wrathful countenance with a ferocious expression. The Healer suddenly realized what the Epidemic Bodhisattva wanted to tell the world.
Fortunately, the Healer’s wife and son also recovered, and he himself narrowly escaped death, but he developed long-term sequelae. He hadn’t been to work for half a year; every morning, with the help of his wife, he would do his rehabilitation exercises in the park near his home. After walking for less than ten minutes, he would be gasping for breath and had to stop to rest. At that moment, the morning light filtered through the treetops, and he looked up, as if seeing something in the clouds, but it could also have been a blur due to lack of oxygen. The Healer removed his mask and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
End of series. The bilingual collection Bodhisattva 18 will soon be available in dBook (NFT book) format. Stay tuned!