In the 1970s, an event involving karma and retribution occurred in Beijing involving a woman in her 60s named Mrs. Liu. She was a tall and robust woman, living with her family of six in a few rented rooms from their landlord. One room was for her mother-in-law, two for herself along with her youngest unmarried daughter and her granddaughter, while the remaining two were for her son and daughter-in-law.
Mrs. Liu’s husband had passed away before they moved to their current location. Her mother-in-law was not his biological mother; her husband had been adopted into the family to carry on the Liu name, as his mother had no biological sons. It was common in wealthy families at that time that daughters could not inherit property. If a widow had no son, she would adopt one from her relatives to ensure her property stayed within the family, rather than being inherited by more distant kin.
Mrs. Liu’s mother-in-law had once been a woman of means, but after the Communist regime seized her land, she moved to the city with her adopted son. After her son’s death, she continued living with Mrs. Liu’s family.
When they first moved into their current residence, the elderly woman lived a quiet, almost invisible life. Neighbors rarely saw her, and no one noticed whether she ate with the family. Mrs. Liu would simply bring food to her room. One day, the old woman fell and broke her hip, and from that point on, she was bedridden and neglected. No one helped her move, and she became incontinent, her body covered in bedsores.
The cycle of neglect
Her room, situated in the south part of the house, never saw sunlight. She was never taken outside to feel the sun’s warmth and gradually disappeared from the neighbors’ view altogether. Over time, people frequently heard Mrs. Liu complaining about her mother-in-law’s condition, and the elderly woman could often be heard crying out in hunger or thirst from her room.
Eventually, the neighbors heard that Mrs. Liu’s mother-in-law had died from starvation, and her body was found on the floor. It was said that Mrs. Liu, afraid of her mother-in-law soiling herself, often withheld food. On the day of her death, Mrs. Liu had placed the food just out of reach. The starving woman had fallen from the bed, trying to get the food, but died before she could reach it. The bowl remained on the floor, just out of her grasp.
But this was only the beginning of the story.
Karma returns
Mrs. Liu had a son and two daughters. Her son was her proudest achievement — he had graduated from the prestigious Peking Union Medical College as an attending physician, and Mrs. Liu had devoted her life to supporting him. After his marriage, she continued to help care for his wife and child. The son rose to prominence as a key doctor in his hospital and even became a district representative.
However, his success was tarnished by scandal. He was caught in extramarital affairs with both a female doctor from his hospital and women outside the hospital. One evening, a young woman arranged a meeting with him in a nearby park, where her husband and others confronted him, demanding 2,000 yuan [roughly equivalent to US$25,000 in purchasing power] in exchange for their silence. At that time, few families had such savings. When he refused, they took him to the police station, where he was unexpectedly sentenced to three years of re-education through labor. Upon his release, his once compliant wife no longer tolerated him and stopped showing any respect for Mrs. Liu.
Not long after, Mrs. Liu, once strong and loud-voiced, suffered a stroke, leaving her paralyzed with slurred speech. She was bedridden, just as her mother-in-law had been, and became incontinent. Her youngest daughter married and moved in with her in-laws, so she couldn’t take care of Mrs. Liu. Therefore, the eldest daughter, now retired, took her in, bringing her to her home in Qingdao.
The daughter, already suffering from high blood pressure, had to turn her mother frequently to prevent bedsores, but Mrs. Liu was a large woman, and the effort left her daughter exhausted and ill. Her son-in-law, feeling sympathy for his wife, insisted that this couldn’t go on, so the turning of Mrs. Liu became less frequent.
One morning, Mrs. Liu’s 50-something-year-old son, the esteemed doctor, failed to wake up. He had passed away in his sleep, supposedly from heart problems, despite having no history of heart disease. When Mrs. Liu noticed that her son hadn’t visited in a long time, she slurred her question to the family, and although they told her he was busy with work, their expressions gave away the truth. Mrs. Liu broke down in tears.
Divine justice watches over us
The true events of this story illustrate a fundamental belief: there are divine forces that observe our actions, and what we sow, we eventually reap. Mrs. Liu was destined to suffer the same fate she had imposed on her mother-in-law before moving on to the next life. Before he died, Mrs. Liu’s son had confided to a neighbor that a fortune-teller had predicted he would live to 76 years old, yet he passed away in his 50s. His widow remarried soon after.
Many historical stories remind us that immoral behavior, such as infidelity, can strip away one’s achievements, shorten one’s life, and even disrupt one’s legacy. The notion is not just superstition. Time and again, people believe they can act without consequences, and they commit wrongs with impunity. But countless examples demonstrate that higher powers are indeed watching, rewarding virtue and punishing vice. What one sows, they will eventually reap.
Translated by Eva
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