Opening by 
It is said that Mr. Renhe Ren, of Daochu village, in the province of Quan Shijie, in his forty-second year of life, was seized by a great rage because of his long-standing enemy, who was constantly working to hinder and ruin any of his activities and projects. Faced with the umpteenth abuse, Mr. Renhe Ren felt that his harmony and self-control were going to be lost. He was no longer able to feel the noble sentiments worthy of a superior man.
Then he remembered the words of the wise man. "Sit down along the river bank and wait, sooner or later you will see the corpse of your enemy pass". So, he left the village of Daochu and went down to the river. He found a willow with a wide foliage that bent gently over the water, and sat down in his shadow, determined to wait until the wisdom of the ancestors had brought a solution to his problem.
He awaited for days and nights, meditating. Sun, rain, wind and fog alternated tormenting him, but neither the heat, nor the cold, nor the humidity, nor the insects distracted him from his waiting. Time passed, until one day in late autumn, the stream swollen for the rains brought a corpse to its feet, face down. Mr. Renhe Ren shook himself from his meditation and leaned towards the muddy water, his heart finally calm.
Great was his surprise when he saw…
My Ending
...the mirage of meditation gone. Glancing between the ripples, his fluid reflection looked back, unchanged. For although his heart had settled in calm, for years his tribulations had etched his face with lines that would not fade lapping against the shore.
Mr. Renhe Ren returned to the village of Daochu, his sense of harmony and self control restored.
However upon his return, he realised his absence had created a vacuum, for his activities and projects had lain in neglect. In to this vacuum, Mr. Renhe Ren found, his enemy had slipped.
When the village had looked to Mr. Renhe Ren, the patient man they had seen persevere despite his obvious torments, and found him gone for so long, they had reluctantly turned to someone else. Although Mr. Renhe Ren was welcomed back, greeted jubilantly by those who declared him sorely missed, over the subsequent days he found his place had been filled. His activities, his projects, had been taken over in his absence. No one came to him for advice, for help with the carts, nor the animals; no one came to him at all.
His enemy had also changed in the eyes of the village; he was no longer held as the bitter, petty man who’s daily abuse of others had been gradually eroded his standing. Instead, the village of Daochu saw him as man labouring over hastily neglected projects, his previous malice unexpectedly forgiven.
A sense of uneasiness crept over Mr. Renhe Ren as he thought of the corpse, washed up in his meditation. Had he not sat by the bank of a river… surely that was what the wise man had meant..
Well under the word count, for once! I had a bit of fun with this one, and hope it came across. I wanted to suggest that Mr. Renhe Ren took words literally that were not meant as such, but I tried to weave in two possible interpretations of what the wise men had meant, and it may have been too much, so let me know what you think. Slightly edited the ending which hopefully helps. I grew up with a lot of fables, and do love the sometimes peculiar and ambiguous morals in them.
This is for 
Photo Credit by Pixabay User ildigo who has a wonderful collection of landscapes and nature shots perfect for the calm feelings of meditation