The summer sun shone brightly, warming the earth. Beneath the heavens, was the pinnacle of the breathtaking Eagle Cliff. The gem-like rocks and towering cliffs overshadowed the majestic Pearl River, winding to the east. Yet when the water reached the village of Yumin, it became inky and murky, filled with waste.
On the edge of Eagle Cliff, stood the exquisite Lo-shen, the Chinese goddess of rivers. She swayed her bouncy, glossy hair in the wind. Shimmering in the sun, her Sapphire blue dress and her golden shawl blew gently in the summer breeze. Her diamond headpiece shone brightly. Yet her eyes were red and swollen, with little streams pouring out of them. Drops of salty water rolled down her cheeks into the polluted, garbage-filled water below.
Crying sorrowfully, she gasped, “My river, my beautiful river. What have those horrid humans done to you?” 
Wiping away her tears, Lo-shen considered what she should do. “Should I go and talk to the people? No, they won’t listen... but I’m a goddess!  I can say whatever I want, and the people should listen,” she thought to herself. “I’ll just go talk to them.” She then gathered her servants, and a gust of wind swept her off her feet, bringing her to Yumin.
In the village Lo-shen approached a man. Seeing Lo-shen, one of the most powerful goddess walking over to him, his face became pale and he trembled.
Lo-shen said to him, “I am Lo-shen, goddess of rivers. I am here to speak to your chieftain.”
Heart pounding wildly, the man pointed his trembling finger at the Buddhist temple. There, she found the chieftain sitting at a table daydreaming. “What a scruffy fellow,” she thought. Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw a box full of rubbish. On the box was written, “to be dumped in river.”  Lo-shen was furious.
As the chieftain looked up from his table, he saw a pair of icy, cold eyes glaring at him and nostrils flaring. A stunning woman with her hands in fists, bent over him, scowling at him.
“Chinese Ghost month has past ages ago. Get out of that costume and get back to work!” the chieftain yelled, thinking Lo-shen was one of the commoners from the village.
Lo-shen shouted impatiently, “I am Lo-shen, the goddess of rivers. Not a commoner!”
Still not believing her, the chieftain cheekily quipped, “Of course your highness, and I am the Jade Emperor, so you must bow down to me, peasant. Now enough of this drama and get back to work!”
The goddess calmly pointed her finger at the chieftain. Before he could react, he was drenched in river water from head to toe.
Realizing his mistake, he stuttered, “Oh, of course, you are our beautiful goddess. How are you this fine morning?”
Pointing at the box of garbage, she demanded, “What do you have against my river? Why are you and your people polluting my rivers? Do you have any idea how hard I work to make them flow smoothly? Water is a valuable resource. All life depends on water for survival, including you. This rubbish you are dumping will kill all aquatic life. If polluted, my streams will be contaminated and will not be potable. Do you understand?”
The chieftain was speechless after hearing what Lo-shen said.

He slowly came back to his senses and responded respectfully, “Of course your majesty, I completely understand.” He bowed down low to the goddess. “I will immediately inform the people.”
“I would really appreciate that,” Lo-shen declared.
Swaying her golden shawl briskly, she disappeared into thin air.
As soon as Lo-shen left, the chieftain snorted and muttered to himself, “Oh that high and mighty goddess, just barging in here and ordering us around. I don’t care what she says. Who is concerned about her and her stupid rivers? I am not. I’m in charge around here, not her.”
He then continued daydreaming.
That night, the people silently came again carrying tons of trash. Bucket by bucket, they dumped into the water reeking piles of food, shards of broken glass and used paper.  Instead of flowing smoothly, the water became choppy and turbulent.
The next day, when Lo-shen went to check on the Pearl River, her eyes widened with horror as hot steam poured out of her ears like waterfalls.
Raising her voice, she declared, “That man, he lied to me! My poor, contaminated river. I will tell Fu-Hsing.”
She proceeded up alone to the Eagle Cliff where all the other gods lived and found Fu-Hsing, the God of Happiness, resting after the whole day of making people happy. As she started telling him the whole story, tears trickled down her bright red cheeks.
He responded by jubilantly saying, “Look at the positive side. It’s only one tiny river. Not a big deal. Just relax and be happy.”
Poor Lo-shen looked to the ground and thought, “It’s pointless talking to him. He’s always so cheerful and has never quite understood how much rivers mean to me.” Tired and frustrated, she plopped down on the cold stony ground and started wailing, while Fu-Hsing merrily kept talking.
The following day when she looked down at the Pearl River, not only did she see her river piled up with trash, she also saw fish and seagull corpses floating on the surface of the water, as the pollution had killed them. She cried and cried. As waterfalls of tears poured out of her eyes, the liquid dropped down into the valley below, forming a river. As Lo-shen wept, the water level slowly rose more and more.

Many days passed. Gushing down the mountain was a huge cascade of water. The valley was already full of water, but Lo-Shen was still wailing. She continued crying and the river overflowed. Water burst into the village, terrifying people who fled for their lives. Yet, the water still kept coming until everything was wet and everyone was soaked from head to toe. The news quickly reached Fu-Hsing who went to find Lo-Shen to tell her how much damage she had done.

“Lo-Shen, you have to stop crying. You are putting people in danger,” Fu-Hsing sighed as he pointed to the flooded village.

The moment Lo-shen heard him, she stopped crying and looked towards the village.

“What! How did that happen?” she gasped in horror.

Fu-Hsing explained, “You have been crying non stop for a few days now. Your tears drizzled down into the valley and formed a river, which overflowed and flooded the village below.”

“Oh no!” exclaimed Lo-shen.

Lo-shen went down to the village to talk to the people. Everyone was on wooden rafts and boats. It was a total disaster. When they saw Lo-shen, they started scolding her.
 
“This wicked lady! She caused this to happen to us,” the villagers told each other, pointing their fingers angrily at the goddess.

One, staring straight into Lo-shen’s eyes, snapped, “Why did you do this to us?”

“You have been polluting my river. Water is a very valuable resource and we should treasure it. I am surprised your brilliant chief did not tell you this,”  Lo-shen responded sarcastically. 

”Who does she think she is? She cannot criticize our chief!” the villagers muttered to one another.

“Now stop this!” Lo-shen exclaimed in anger. “I shall still help you, but you must have a punishment!” She gazed to the sky and at a snap of her fingers, Lo-shen sent the water in the village into the sky where it became water vapour.

They now knew what Lo-shen was capable of and were too scared to pollute her rivers ever again. The second the water was gone, they immediately went on their knees and begged Lo-shen for forgiveness. Some younger ones even started to sob.

Finally, the chief stood up and pleaded with the Goddess, “This is mainly my fault, and I am very sorry Lo-shen. I should have listened to you. We will stop polluting the river. Please do not punish us more.”

Lo-shen pitied them, but what they did was wrong, so she softened up a bit and responded, “You will be punished, but only once a year.”

Before anyone could argue with Lo-shen, she and her servants were gone. No one knew what the punishment was or when it would occur, so they just had to be prepared for anything.

The next winter, when the sun was shining brightly in the sky,  Lo-shen decided it was time to punish the people for polluting her river. She sent storms and typhoons to the village, trenching it with water in between the months of June and September. Even till nowadays, Lo-shen still remembers to punish the people, sending tempestuous storms, which soak everyone and everything in the region.