Here is T'ien Ch'i's yarn for turn 3.
Late Spring in the Year of Good Fortune’s Coming
The cherry trees are in full celebration.
The white pines dance in the breeze.
I, X’ing Gao, take it upon myself to provide a written record of the tremendous events that are unfolding in our lands. Chi Chi Tzu, the Venerable Sage, foretold in his masterpiece, the Mou Mou Ching, of the Coming of Good Fortune, and it appears that all is happening as he foresaw.
I humbly offer myself as the perfect choice to write such a record, for I am the scribe of a country lord of T’ien Ch’i. I have withstood the rigorous training by our wise calligraphy masters, and my brush and ink has been blessed by Heaven. I am not boasting. I cannot. Indeed, the rigors inflicted upon me by the Masters has changed me ontologically. Any ink I use... any brush I touch... through me is blessed by Heaven... and the blessings worked through my skills are such that I am absolutely incapable of exaggeration or even writing falsehoods. (Now, I will admit this “blessing” is not always the most convenient of benefits. Once I was asked to write a poem praising the beauty of my former lord’s wife. Alas! To my distress and the demise of my then employed position, I could only write about the beauty of her shadow, the charm of her silence, and the elegance of her absence.)
So it should be that I am now the honored scribe of a young, impoverished country lord by the name of Zhaung Li Lou. His ancestors were great warlords, but the family’s holdings have been greatly diminished through eternal squabbles in T’ien Ch’i’s courts. So far as I can tell, he will treat me respectfully, and he wishes to do well by all those within his influence. But, he has been my lord for only 6 days. It was his acrimonious father, Zhaung Cow Jo, whom I served for the past two years, but this leads well to present events.
In the Mou Mou Ching (The Way of the Way), the venerable sage Chi Chi Tzu wrote that when the People follow the Way, Heaven will bless them, Fortune will walk the land, and the Warlords will unite. Well, reports had been coming to our village since early Spring that fortunate events were popping up in the Great City with impressive regularity. Common people found gold coins in their pockets after doing the laundry! Long lost pets suddenly found their way home! Even the street astrologers were popular because they read nothing but happy predictions.
Then suddenly She appeared out of the sky... the Goddess. Taller than the Temple of Heaven with an unnerving mixture of beauty and ferocity only found in the divine. She stood in the Park of the Eternal Ancestors by the Pool of Celestial Reflection and declared to His Majesty, the Highest Lord of T’ien Ch’i, “I bring you BLESSINGS and GOOD FORTUNE. YOU shall FOLLOW me. It is the will of HEAVEN that T’ien Ch’i shall rule the world THROUGH ME!” Then She stomped her foot and thereby shook the ground so insistently that everyone in the park fell to their knees, including His Majesty, the Highest Lord! Well... what else does one say to that but “Ok”?
Next She persuaded to His Majesty to call all the warlords to the Great City. And so it was, except for my master’s father, who saw this as an opportunity to wage war against his neighbors while they were away. My master pleaded with his father to stop bringing disgrace on the family. He would have none of it. Zhaung Cow Jo rampaged across the countryside, burning fields and taking booty. His son cried up to Heaven every night for two months wondering how such disaster could befall his family!
Ah... but Heaven was listening, and good fortune struck our little village right where it counts... or maybe I should write that good fortune struck Zhaung Cow Jo right were it counts! One evening while my master’s father was eating his dinner in his chariot, a mischievous breeze took it upon itself to waft an innocent silk worm into the ear of Zhaung Cow Jo’s horse. The horse squealed in surprise and leapt back right as my master’s father was taking his last bite of rice. He fell forward and somehow managed to choke on one chopstick while the other stabbed him in the greatest source of his pride. It happened exactly like that. I was there and cannot write a lie.
And so it was. With his father dead, my master became the lord of our village and swiftly made plans to leave for the Great City. We have been riding for two days. My Lord expects to reach the City by noon tomorrow. There is word that war has already begun.
May Heaven bless my master! May he find his way through the Way.
Humbly and truthfully,
X’ing Gao,
Honored Scribe of Lord Zhaung Li Lou