Once there was a magistrate who was quite powerful and proud. He was so proud that he demanded power and constant respect from his people. One night when the magistrate traveled through the mountains on a trip to gain favor for his son’s future marriage, with someone from the royal family. Then He came across an old man who was alone with his nose in a book, the old man ignored the horses and carriages passing by and simply chose to continue reading.
That made the Magistrate furious and he ordered the carriage to stop. However the old man did not look up from his book. Finally the magistrate walked right up to the old man “DO YOU NOT ßOW TO YOUR MAGASTRITE!!! The old man continued to read and did not even look up. The magistrate remembered a story about a sage who knew the answer to every question in the world and decided to ask him a question“who will my son end up marrying when he is older”.
The Old man looked through his book flipped to a page with weird symbols on it and said “Your son will Marry the grocer’s daughter”. And that made the Magistrate’s mind blow up with Anger. “ My son will not, I repeat will not marry the grocer’s daughter!” And so the Magistrate hired some of his soldiers to stab the grocer’s daughter with a knife, and that is what they did.
On The Magastrite son’s wedding day, the Magistrate’s son asked his wife why she always wore a headband around her forehead and she said that when she was a baby some crazy person stabbed her with a knife and she wears the headband to hide the scar.
Stories can make you joyful in bad times. The protagonist, Minli And her family lived in a small poor village next to the fruitless mountain and by the jade river. Minli’s village had barely any resources and the mountain they lived on was as dry as a desert. Minli’s village started to lose hope in getting a good fortune but not Minli. Minli’s dad’s stories gave Minli hope and laughter and love but if only Minli could share her joy with everyone else, including her mom, (who Minli refers to as Ma) was working hard every day and wished she had a better fortune. Minli’s Mom thought Minli’s dad’s stories were stupid but maybe if she listened to them she would be as happy as Minli was.
Stories can make you take risks. Every morning Minli thought “what a poor fortune we have. Every day ba and ma work and work and we still have nothing. I wish I could change our fortune” but then one day Minli thought about all the stories her dad told her including the one about the old man of the moon, by what the legend said that the old man of the moon knows the answer to every question in the world. And so that day Minli woke up in the middle of the night to try and find the never ending mountain so that she could meet the old man of the moon so that she could ask him a question and change her family’s fortune forever.
Stories can give you a happy ending. When the dragon passed by the fruitless mountain dragon felt like he was home so minli offered to walk the rest of the way. Because of Minli’s kindness she got to keep the stone ball when Minli reached her house she immediately went to sleep. When she woke up she saw her parents staring at her and then she hugged them. When her parents went into the kitchen her dad made this choking sound but not because he was choking but because that big stone ball she pulled off of the dragon’s head was a dragon’s pearl that was worth the emperor’s whole fortune. Later that day Minli and her parents see a crowd of people outside their houses and then they realize that the fruitless mountain was actually green, colorful, and full of flowers. The next day Minli has a crowd of people outside her house waiting patiently to hear all about Minli’s adventure. And at the end everyone in her village was happy all because of Minli’s dad’s stories.
Stories can be as powerful as you want them to be. In the end of this fantasy Book by the Author Grace Lin, Minli Made a new friend who happens to be a dragon, got the fortune she came for but not the way she thought she would, and learned that money is not everything. As you can see Minli had a really tragic and fun adventure.