Karma Chapter 6: A Pure Seed of Kindness Ultimately Rewrote Her Life
Regarding Hu Xueyan's financial support for Wang Youling to go to the capital for the "Tougong" (a procedure for securing an official position in the Qing Dynasty), there is a more touching version: Hu Xueyan had scraped together over 300 taels of silver, with the remaining 100-odd taels surprisingly coming from a young woman named "Snail Girl" who made a living by groping for snails in the river. This girl, who earned her livelihood by groping for snails, helped Wang Youling four times—even risking her entire life for him. From the perspective of the "Law of Seeds", she can be called a "master of sowing kind seeds"; and her story also hides the truth that "destiny can be rewritten by kind deeds".
1. The First Encounter: Risking Her Life to Repel Creditors, Sowing the Seed of Fearlessness in a Crisis
Snail Girl lived on the outskirts of Hangzhou, making a living by groping for snails and mussels in the river. She had never met the down-and-out Wang Youling before.
As the New Year approached, Wang Youling was surrounded and beaten by more than a dozen strong men at his doorstep because of unpaid debts. While the creditors were fierce and menacing, Wang Youling, an emaciated scholar, was clearly at a disadvantage. It so happened that Hu Xueyan and Snail Girl passed by. After understanding the reason, they immediately stepped forward to mediate. However, the creditors, already blinded by anger, mistook the two for Wang Youling's helpers, and the situation escalated into a "ten-vs-three" fight.
According to Er Yuehe’s biography of Hu Xueyan, Hu Xueyan was so angry that he punched the leader of the creditors, while Snail Girl picked up a nearby wooden oar and "swept it around, hitting the flesh with every stroke, creating a whirring sound". She managed to repel the creditors with great effort. The three fled in the chaos—this was the first time Snail Girl helped Wang Youling. In the critical moment when Wang Youling's life was at stake, she sowed a "fearless kind seed" of risking her life to protect him, whose power was far beyond ordinary help.
2. The Second Rescue: Bravely Saving a Drowning Man, Continuing the Karmic Bond of Kindness Through Life-or-Death Ordeals
While fleeing, Wang Youling ran ahead. When they reached a bridge, he was exhausted and desperate. Thinking about his predicament and the humiliation he had just suffered, he seized the moment when he bent over to vomit and plunged into the river with a "plop".
Seeing this, Hu Xueyan immediately jumped into the river to save him, but he was not good at swimming. As soon as he got close, he was tightly hugged by Wang Youling, who was driven by a strong survival instinct. The two were about to sink together. At this critical moment, Snail Girl arrived in her small wooden boat—used for groping for snails. She rowed her boat at breakneck speed, first helping Hu Xueyan push Wang Youling onto the boat. However, Hu Xueyan used too much force when getting on the boat, causing the small boat to capsize directly.
It was only then that everyone saw clearly how good her swimming skills were: "From a distance, the girl emerged from the water first, quickly fished out one person, held him by the waist, and swam towards the small boat." The people on the shore couldn't help but clap and cheer. This was the second time she saved Wang Youling. The two acts of kindness, forged through life-or-death ordeals, turned the three into close friends from then on.
3. The Third Assistance: Donating All Her Savings, Sowing the Seed of Generous Kindness with All She Had
Later, Hu Xueyan and Snail Girl learned that Wang Youling needed 500 taels of silver to go to the capital for the "Tougong", so they raised funds separately.
A few days later, when they met, Hu Xueyan had barely managed to scrape together 20 taels, but Snail Girl took out a package of broken silver and a jade pendant. She said, "This is my private savings—I give most of what I earn selling snails to my father, and keep a small part for myself. Rather than letting my father take it to buy wine, it’s better to help Brother Wang achieve his goal. I found this jade pendant in the river; you can pawn it."
This was the third time she helped Wang Youling—she donated all her savings and even the jade pendant she had found by accident. It was an offering of "giving all she had". This kind of unreserved kindness sowed a seed with extremely strong power, far exceeding the help of ordinary money.
4. The Fourth Sacrifice: Selling Herself for a Bank Note, Sowing the Seed of Boundless Kindness Through "Threefold Emptiness"
But even so, the money was still not enough. A few days later, Snail Girl handed Hu Xueyan another bank note—with a face value of 100 taels.
Hu Xueyan was shocked and suspicious: "Didn't you already give away all your savings and the jade pendant? Where did this money come from?" Snail Girl only said, "First, I didn't steal it; second, I didn't rob it. I just wanted to do more for Brother Wang."
It was not until later that everyone found out the truth: This 100 taels was obtained by Snail Girl "selling" herself—she sold herself to a 40-year-old shipowner from northern Jiangsu as his wife in exchange for this sum of money. What she gave up was not just silver, but her youth, beauty, and chastity.
What's even more rare is her original intention: Hu Xueyan helped Wang Youling, more or less out of the businessman's mindset of "investing in the future". But Snail Girl was different—she helped Wang Youling not for reward, or even just for Wang Youling himself, but because she firmly believed that "Brother Wang is a good person. If he becomes an official, he can benefit the people in the region." This kind of purity—"not for oneself, not for the reward from the recipient, and not clinging to the thing being offered"—exactly conforms to the "Threefold Emptiness" (sunyata of the giver, the recipient, and the gift) offering realm in Buddhism: letting go of the notions of "the giver (herself)", "the recipient (Wang Youling)", and "the gift (silver)". The kind seed sown in this way is boundless.
5. Destiny Rewritten: The Blind Fortune-Teller Changed the Reading, and the Kind Seed Broke the "Snail’s Life"
After the three met, Snail Girl once took Hu Xueyan and Wang Youling to Chenghuang Mountain to consult a blind fortune-teller for a reading. Before that, she often gave snails and mussels to the blind fortune-teller, so they were quite familiar. At that time, the blind fortune-teller said that she had a "natural snail’s life and would only be able to muddle along in the river ditches for the rest of her life".
But when they came for a reading again this time, the blind fortune-teller firmly changed the result: "You will attain spiritual enlightenment even in humble circumstances and become a woman of great influence!" Snail Girl didn't believe it: "You said I had a snail’s life yesterday, but it changed today. Are you talking nonsense?"
The blind fortune-teller replied seriously: "A person's destiny can change—it changes with time and with one's actions."
This statement exactly echoes the core of the Law of Seeds: A person's destiny and blessings all come from "seeds"—when you use your body, words, and thoughts to help others, you sow a kind seed; when the kind seed takes root and germinates, your destiny will naturally change accordingly. Snail Girl helped Wang Youling four times, even risking her entire life in the process, sowing nothing but pure and powerful kind seeds. Her original "snail’s life" was naturally rewritten by this power of kindness.
Her story also tells us: The power of a kind deed does not lie in "how much you give", but in "how pure your original intention is". Even if a kind seed that seeks no reward and is only for others is sown "in humble circumstances", it can still grow into a future "where one becomes a person of great influence".