The setting sun over Chang'an slanted across the tavern banners in the Western Market. Chen Mo gripped the ivory cue he had just finished polishing and looked at the curious Tang people in round-collared robes before him. Suddenly, he felt that transmigrating here might not be so bad after all.
Who could have guessed that the miniature billiards table in his suitcase would become the key to stirring up the Tang Empire? He set up his first wooden table in a corner of the market and taught foreign merchants and scholars to aim their cues at the colored balls. This novel game called "billiards" seemed to grow legs. First, the market boys kept asking, "When will you open the table again?" Then the sons of nobles came with copper coins to reserve it. Even the palace eunuchs quietly sent word through intermediaries, hoping to invite him to the Daming Palace for a game.
And Gua Yan, who was always squatting beside the table, watching him handle his cue, had a look in his eyes that Chen Mo could never quite understand. The young man, who claimed to know a little divination, was the first to recognize the "arts of offense and defense" in billiards. He was also Chen Mo's companion, standing by him from the days when the ward chief made things difficult for him to the day billiards tables were set up at the Qujiang Banquet.
When cheers for a table-clearing shot drowned out the pipa music of Pingkang Ward, and Chang'an's young dandies stopped competing in polo and started talking about "positioning" and "draw shots," Chen Mo gazed at the passersby carrying cues along Zhuque Avenue and suddenly understood: he had brought more than just a billiards table. He had brought a new way of life that would shake the entire flourishing Tang dynasty. But who could say how many fateful paths, unforeseen by either him or Gua Yan, this cue would open up beyond a new chapter in Tang entertainment?
