Here, Master Chi wants to share something deeply important — an insight I hope you’ll sit with and absorb before you sleep tonight.
If you feel that the road you’ve walked in this lifetime has not been easy, then I sincerely congratulate you. Every grievance you’ve endured, every act of mockery, every blow, every betrayal — these are rare and precious chapters of your life’s curriculum. They are destined to become your internal strength and your lived experience, slowly settling into your bones and seeping into your marrow.
This means that every tear you cried was not wasted. Every ache you felt was not wasted. Every sleepless night you pushed through was not wasted. All of it was worth it — and it is all destined to return to you, with interest, on some future day.
So whenever a friend or a client opens up to me about a devastating setback in their career, their relationships, or their finances, I feel genuinely happy for them from the bottom of my heart. Because it means that kind of deep wound — that level of pain — can no longer reach them. They will see it coming from a mile away and step aside.
Everyone’s life pattern (格局) has its peaks and valleys. Master Chi firmly believes in the phoenix rising from the ashes, and in the principle that a dragon who climbs too high will fall. Sometimes this world is simply a contest of who can swallow the most bitter medicine. But once you’ve endured it — life turns sweet all the way through.
There is nothing more natural in this world than wanting things to go smoothly. But too much smooth sailing will always lead to disaster. The wreckage caused by unchecked ease is something you and I have witnessed time and again.
Consider a certain kind of woman whose easy path came from her natural beauty. From a young age, men pursued her, cared for her, placed her on a pedestal. It seemed like a blessing — but in reality, it was a trap. She neglected to develop her own capabilities and depth. She grew convinced her charm was eternal. Then the day came when the last man who coveted her walked away, and she found herself like a phoenix that had fallen to earth — beneath even the common chicken. Her life was essentially a loan taken out against fate: she spent her pleasures in advance, and was left to repay the debt — principal and interest — in the years that followed. Would you say her life started smoothly? Smoother than most. Did it end well? It ended in ruin. You just may not have been around to see it.
The same applies to certain men. Through some stroke of circumstance, they achieved remarkable success at a very young age, touching heights most people never imagined. Such people exist — quite a few of them, in fact. But how many can you name? And where are those people now?
The truth is, when “smooth sailing” is built into your life pattern from birth, fate can carry you effortlessly — forward, outward, unopposed. But that very ease is also heaven’s greatest test: can you, even while being pushed forward by fortune’s tailwind, still find the discipline to examine your own mistakes, to refine your character, your virtue, your awareness? Very few can. Most of them end up as stubborn, arrogant relics clinging to past glories — disqualified from the game.
Was their early life smooth? Completely unopposed. Did it end well? They lost everything at the roots.
The men and women I’ve just described — without exception — enjoyed a long, uninterrupted run of ease from youth into middle age before arriving at their fate. They were without exception the center of attention in your circles, the subject of conversation, the targets of envy and aspiration. And now? The chances of them staging a comeback are not zero — but they are vanishingly small. The character traits that were baked into them have hardened beyond extraction. When you’ve only ever known shortcuts, rebuilding your understanding from the ground up is harder than climbing the sky. The best one can do is move forward while patching the cracks as they appear — finding small rebirths in small places, reforging character in the details.
As someone who has always been something of a rebel — and who has since witnessed the destinies of countless people — Master Chi has always believed this: every slap that fate delivers is not meant to humiliate you. It is meant to alert you. To wake you up.
After all, fate cannot sit you down and tell you exactly where you went wrong. So it simply uses outcomes and rough terrain to give you a small, precise wound. That is actually the most dignified way it knows how. Fate, in truth, is your greatest teacher and your most powerful noble benefactor (Gui Ren). Do not underestimate what you have accumulated through it.
Adversity, like ease, is a rare and unrepeatable opportunity. We always say: knowledge gained from books is shallow — true understanding requires living it yourself. No matter how much another person’s wisdom and experience is transferred to you, certain pain must be experienced firsthand before it truly penetrates. Do not ever believe that fate has been targeting you, tormenting you. It has been educating you.
Only after being used by a friend will you understand, to the bone, how treacherous the human heart can be. Only after being wounded by someone you loved will you grasp, with full clarity, how terrifying desire truly is. Only after being knocked down by failure will you comprehend, completely, how hard it is to actually accomplish something.
In other words — it is precisely you, the one who has stumbled and been taught hard lessons by the world throughout youth, adulthood, and middle age — who is best positioned to, when the right moment arrives, transform a lifetime of bitterness and adversity into a unique inner wisdom. That becomes the capital for your reversal, your comeback.
It is almost amusing, really — people never quite understand why so many of those who truly “explode” from the depths are people who have suffered the most. They don’t understand. But you understand. You know what you endured in those low valleys, every moment of it written in blood and tears.
So if you want to know what Master Chi’s genuine hope for you is — it is this:
Every sweetness this life offers, I hope you taste it, every last drop. But every bitter, sour, sharp, and scalding thing this life holds — I hope you drink that down to the last drop too.
I hope you endure suffering and despair that others cannot imagine, and that you ultimately outlast it — that you crawl your way out.
Because you must believe this: every drop of blood and every tear shed in your lowest moments is a lesson carved into your heart. It is the depth that cannot be taken from you.
And no person is destined to suffer in decline forever, with bad luck that never lifts. The moment you sense that first thread of dawn breaking through — everything you once endured will become the very capital with which you reclaim your destiny, and hold it firmly in your hands.
Like the woman who was once devastated by love — when she finally finds her match again, she will handle that relationship with flawless precision, making no mistakes. Like the man who was once cheated and exploited for money — when he finally gets back his leverage, he will command the full picture and every detail, advancing step by careful step.
On what basis? On the basis that they suffered. That they ached. That they raged. That they regretted.