I am Wei Wei a simple man.
A simple fisherman.
I am also the happiest of man.
No ambition has ever disrupted my life from living it just as it is.

When I catch a fish I always ask his pardon with all sincerity before I sell him or eat him.

I always felt their forgiveness as we both knew that together we made a circle of karma, and the net connected us both to our destinies. Neither of us feared the other, and we both loved the sea whose creatures are a never-ending wonder to behold. Rising with the sun and seeing it play on the ruffles of the water 's surface was the only way I ever wished for any of my days to begin. The sunsets found me deliciously fatigued, and I was lulled into the gentle sleep as if the water was still swaying my small boat.

One day I had a remarkable dream about a turtle. I have known many, but this turtle was different. He was large and beautiful and he spoke. His dialect was from a northern province of China where I was born and I found it very pleasing. In the dream he told me that he is old, and that he has been observing me for a long time. He said that if I take my boat to the isle of the Forgotten Petals he would meet me there. The dream stayed with me long after I awoke, and I clung to its lure.

On one morning I got up earlier than usual, and arrived to the island of the Forgotten Petals by noon.

I found a shady cove and waited in silence for what seemed like an eternity…by dusk I was sure that this was not a good example of following your dream.

I walked back to my boat, and next to it floating on a luxurious leaf was a most beautiful tortoise. We greeted each other, and he went straight to his purpose. He said he has witnessed for years the way I treated all beings, and that he knew that in turtle and human years we were the same age.

He said that we were both old, and he would like to propose a pact. He offered that we would share a home, and take care of each other, and when the time came for one of us to die, he knew a way that we could continue to be in each other’s life in this harmonious way into eternity. I liked very much what he was saying, and he continued. He hoped that I may not be shocked at what he proposed, and that I will really try and understand. He believed that souls travel through lifetimes together, and take on different roles in each incarnation. The fact that neither of us had mates, but connected our lives closely to the sea, made us soul mates. He believed that we should merge our existences forever by eating the one who died first.

He wanted to be turtle soup on my table, and promised that if I was to die first, he would lovingly ingest me, and we would remain as part of each other always.

This is exactly what we did.

My dear friend Bihai (his name meant Jade Sea) did not wake up one day, and instead of mourning him I made soup. We merged as he intended, and I eagerly await to join him in the blue green heaven we both love.

… and also, from his beautiful shell I made a boat and until the end of my days on earth we shall go each day together to sea.

As retold by Valerie von Sobel