Starry River of the Sky

The only way to help the toad is to cut off its injured leg, and in response to Rendi’s shouted protests, Madam Chang calmly explains that “sometimes the best decision is a painful one” (186). Madam Chang continues the story of the man whose wife ate his immortality pill. The man holds onto his anger, which brings him no joy and torments him night and day. One night, the man dreams of a sage who leads him to the palace of misery, where gaunt people are unable to eat the lavish meal before them with the five-foot chopsticks they’re forced to use. Next, he goes to the palace of joy, where well-fed people use their five-foot chopsticks to feed one another. The sage offers the man chopsticks, but he cannot grasp them because his hands have turned to claws.

After having this dream, the man changes and becomes kind and generous. Years later, he climbs the tallest mountain in hopes of seeing his wife on the moon once more. When she sees him, she runs from him, and the man’s heart breaks, making him glad that he never took the immortality pill because “an eternal life of missing her was more than he could bear” (193).