Wang Daya was an abandoned baby, fished out of a wooden tub by a widow. She was dim-witted from childhood and couldn't even embroider.
When she was fifteen, a wandering Taoist "sold" her up the mountain for a silver ingot. There, she spent three years practicing under an old woman who loved nothing but playing mahjong.
In those three years, aside from sweeping and carrying water, all she learned was how to play mahjong.
When she came down the mountain, she discovered that her village was long gone and her mother was nowhere to be found. All she had left was a mahjong tile engraved with her mother's smiling face, tucked against her chest.
She'd planned to wander wherever her feet took her, but somehow she ran into the pilgrimage party.
From then on, the Three Realms' whole way of doing things changed.
The White Bone Spirit wants to eat Tang Sanzang? Sit down for a round first.
You lost? Come with me to the Western Heaven. You can be my mahjong buddy on the way.
Red Boy blocks the road with fire? Sit down for a round first.
You lost? Call me Auntie and come along.
The Bull Demon King comes looking for revenge? Sit down for a round.
You lost? The whole family comes with me.
The three demons of Lion Camel Ridge, the Yellow Brows Monster, the seven spider spirits, the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord, the Nine-Headed Worm, the Jade Rabbit Spirit... She recruited them all along the way, and the pilgrimage party grew from four people to forty thousand.
When they reached Lingshan, Tathagata asked her what she wanted.
She said, "I want to open a mahjong parlor."
And so the immortals of Heaven came, the Buddhas of the Western Heaven came, and even the kings of the underworld came. The big shots of the Three Realms lined up, waiting for her to turn over their tiles.
In the end, she led her tens of thousands of demon mahjong buddies back to the long-abandoned Luocao Village.
The crooked stone marker at the village entrance, with the words "Luocao Village," had been carved anew. Beside them, a small line had been added:
"The Three Realms' Number One Mahjong Village. Welcome!"
As the sun set, golden light spilled over Luocao Village.
Inside the mahjong parlor, the tiles clattered as they were shuffled.
This is the story of how one mahjong set changed the Three Realms.
