(Minghui.org) Since July 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Dafa, the clothing shop that I own and operate has been a place to share cultivation experience and distribute Dafa truth-clarification materials.
Telling People the Truth about Dafa
If someone comes to my shop, I tell them the facts about the persecution. The shopkeepers in my neighborhood have all become my friends. Whenever I encounter problems, they try to help me.
A man from Northeast China came to my shop, and we talked about Falun Dafa. My husband was afraid of my being reported and told me that I had said enough. The man asked him, “What are you afraid of?” Then he pointed at me and said, “Look how great she is! Can you compare with her? Falun Dafa is really good and the CCP is bad. My neighbors also practice Dafa—they are good people.”
One day, a woman in her 40s came in, and I told her about government corruption, the history of the various campaigns carried out by the CCP, the Tiananmen Square self-immolation hoax, and what it means to withdraw from the CCP.
She quit the Party. I also gave her some truth-clarification brochures in the hope that she would tell her family. She later returned to my shop and gave me seven names, including her husband, her son, her siblings and her sister-in-law, and asked me to help them submit their names online to quit the CCP.
Cooperation Among Practitioners
Practitioners, including some from out-of-town, came to my shop to share cultivation experiences. It was common for three or five practitioners to meet in my shop. I helped many of them find practitioners to connect with near their homes.
A retired army officer from Beijing comes to his hometown every year to visit his relatives. Every time he came, he stayed in my shop for half a day to share with practitioners.
Practitioners from urban and rural areas also came to my shop to pick up brochures. I even gave a few of them a key to my warehouse in case I was not available. This created a problem, however, because when some of these practitioners were arrested, they revealed my shop information to the police when they were interrogated and tortured.
Refusing to Cooperate with the Authorities
When I opened the shop on the morning of May 3, 2012, more than a dozen police officers broke in and dragged me into a police car. At the police station, an officer said, “One of your fellow practitioners was arrested yesterday at the fair when he was distributing Falun Dafa stuff. He confessed that he had gotten them at your shop. Where did you get those things? Tell us the truth, and I’ll let you go home this afternoon.”
They asked many questions and ordered me to sign and fingerprint documents. I refused to cooperate and talked about Falun Dafa instead. They pointed to the large pile of materials they had confiscated from my shop and said, “Your shop is a window to Falun Dafa practitioners in this city, and you will be definitely sentenced to jail for a few years.” I replied, “What you say doesn’t count. Only my Master has the final say.”
In the afternoon, several officers took me to the detention center. I did not cooperate and asked Master to help me go home. At the entrance to the detention center, I laid down on the ground and refused to enter. They tried to carry me in, but I struggled and they couldn't budge me.
While the other officers discussed what to do next, the policeman guarding me whispered, “You are doing the right thing.” So they decided to let my son take me home. Before leaving, we were told to report to the police station at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. To avoid being arrested, I left home.
Two months later, I decided to return to the shop. Our local Dafa coordinator told me that I could not return to my shop, but I thought that, as long as I maintained my righteous thoughts, Master would arrange my path. So I went back to my shop and continued to do as I had done before my arrest.
Negating the Persecution
I saw practitioner Ms. Liang walking by the door of my shop in the summer of 2015. I wanted to talk to her, but she ignored me. After a few steps, she waved her hand and motioned for me to leave. I took a closer look and saw that she was wearing slippers. Her face was yellow and pale, and there was a policewoman in casual clothes next to her. There was also a man in front of them videotaping.
The shop owner facing my shop understood what was going on and took my truth-clarification materials to her shop.
Later, I learned that Ms. Liang had been arrested when she was handing out brochures. She told the police that she got her materials in the clothing shop area after the police tortured her. But she didn’t give my name or any further information.
On another occasion, practitioner Ms. Shen told me that the coordinator, Ms. Chen, was arrested and taken to a police station when she was distributing Dafa materials. She was handcuffed to a chair. When the police went for dinner, she slipped her hands out of the handcuffs and escaped. I contacted Ms. Chen’s husband and asked Ms. Shen to tell practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts. Then I hid the Dafa materials in my shop and went to Ms. Chen's home. I witnessed Ms. Chen and Ms. Fan being arrested.
Ms. Fan's house served as a truth-clarification material production site, so there was printing equipment and a lot of materials in her home. I arranged for Ms. Fan’s family to move everything related to Dafa immediately. The police did not find anything in Ms. Fan's house. We were able to avoid more losses.
Ms. Chen’s husband and six other practitioners were also arrested. Practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts and all were released within 24 hours.
Getting Rid of Attachments and Notions
My daughter-in-law accused me of having stolen a set of new clothes when I cleaned their house. She was very angry.
My son, daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law’s niece claimed that they had consulted several fortunetellers, who pointed fingers at me. My husband and my son both advised me to admit it if I did. My entire family knows that I have never valued money that much. What’s more, I follow Dafa's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Why would I take someone's clothes, especially since I would not even be tempted by gold bars?”
My daughter-in-law ran to the community common area, yelled and cursed, and called 911 to report me to the police and exclaimed, “Here is a Falun Dafa practitioner who prints words about Falun Dafa on paper currency.” She acted crazily for three days and divorced my son. She got our two houses and all our other properties. Out of the four shops, she seized three; my son got one. My husband and I had nothing.
We are both in our 60s, and we lost everything. I calmed down and looked inside. I realized that I had not let go of my attachments to fame, self-interest, and sentimentality. But, I thought there must be a deeper reason.
“The old forces have always wanted to ruin my place as a window and platform for practitioners,” I thought, “but it has never succeeded, despite arrested practitioners pointing to my shop. I have never held grudges against practitioners, and I continued to provide the materials to them as usual.
“Over time, this platform has taken on more tasks and played a more important role. Almost every practitioner in this area depends on it. At the end of each year, practitioners always make a lot of Dafa materials, including calendars, amulets, and brochures.
“My shop is an important place to distribute those materials to practitioners in this area. The evil entities in other dimensions must be so eager to destroy my shop that they used my daughter-in-law to create so much trouble.”
I knew I must completely remove my attachments to fame, self-interest, and sentimentality; the evil would then no longer be able to interfere.
I said to my husband, “Give her everything. We will start from scratch.” I rented a house and got ready to move. When my son found out, he said, “Mom, she won’t take your house anymore. Please don’t move.”
Four weeks later, I asked my grandson if his mother had found her missing clothes. He said that she had found them a few days before. The huge storm suddenly blew over. My son and daughter-in-law remarried.
Practitioners still share with each other in my shop as if nothing happened. After the incident, my environment improved.
I feel that no matter what kind of difficulties one encounters, we must face them with righteous thoughts. No matter what form of persecution we face, we must completely negate it.
Don’t be afraid of any forms of evil, no matter how powerful they may seem, because they are all illusions. No matter what situation we are in, as long as we follow Master, everything will eventually turn into a good thing.
