Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Long ago, Da-A-Fu’s ancestors learned that Magistrate Tiger was angry with them. He believed they tricked him when they sent him the paper of happiness, and he sought to punish them by destroying their village (these are the same villagers from “The Story of the Paper of Happiness” in Chapter 15).

Hearing of Magistrate Tiger’s lethal plan, the patriarch of the family, Ye Ye, ordered the townspeople to prepare a picnic and fetch their kites—if this was to be their last day alive, they would not run away but would enjoy their final hours together. The townspeople embarked together to the mountain for a day of revelry. The children didn’t want to bring their kites down at the end of the day, so they cut the strings and let the kites soar toward the moon.

Afraid and sad, the people began their descent down the mountain, believing they were walking toward certain destruction. Then they found themselves in unfamiliar territory: the mountain didn’t look the same as it did before. Suddenly, they came upon their village in a new location but with everything just as they had left it, except for a shred of silk newly stuck in the gate. Ye Ye understood this to mean that the kites had delivered the villagers’ hopes and wishes to the Old Man of the Moon and that the Old Man had relocated their village out of Magistrate Tiger’s reach, saving the villagers’ lives.

Ever since then, the village has prospered in its new location and welcomes outsiders with open arms. Da-A-Fu are finishing their story when Minli first lays eyes on Never-Ending Mountain.

Never-Ending Mountain amazes Minli with its massive stature; it’s bigger than Fruitless Mountain and every other mountain she’s ever seen. With help from Da-A-Fu and Dragon, she builds a kite using the paper version of the “borrowed line” from the king, her two chopsticks, and Dragon’s string version of the “borrowed line” from the lion statues. She hopes to fly the kite high enough to get the Old Man of the Moon’s attention. Minli unleashes the kite toward the sky, but surprisingly, the red string keeps unfurling. Dragon identifies the red string as a “thread of destiny” (220), and the string appears to be never-ending.

Da-A-Fu decline the chance to ask the Old Man of the Moon for anything, asking, “‘Why would we want to change our fortune?’” (221). They turn back toward the Village of Moon Rain, eager to see their grandparents. Minli feels weight in her hands, as if the string has become heavier at the top. Then, the string begins to morph, first into a thicker cord and eventually into a woven bridge.

Back in Minli’s home village, Ma stares at the night sky, breathless in her anticipation for her daughter’s return. Ba senses her anxiety, and it reminds him of a story. In an unusual move for Ma, she asks him to tell it, and Ba obliges.

There was once a dragon who labored for many years to turn a large, white stone from the ocean into a pearl. When he completed the project, his tears gave the pearl its majestic luminescence. So beautiful was the pearl that, while the dragon slept, the Queen Mother of the Heavens ordered her servants to steal it. The dragon searched fruitlessly for his lost pearl, and one night, he saw a light in the sky and knew it was his pearl. The Queen Mother of the Heavens was showing off the pearl at a party, and when the dragon arrived to take it back, a chase ensued. The Queen Mother threw the pearl over the garden wall so the dragon couldn’t get it from her, and the pearl landed in the Celestial River which runs between heaven and earth. Heavenly Grandfather, Queen Mother’s father, decreed the pearl should stay where it landed since it did not belong to anyone but rather everyone should share it. This was how the pearl became the moon.

Ma smiles at this story and imagines what Minli’s reaction to the same story would be. Ma and Ba trade stories of the times they’ve seen pearls in person, and Ma wonders if it’s possible that one of them could have been a dragon’s pearl.

Dragon tests his weight on the bridge and finds he’s too heavy to climb it. Minli understands the sorrow on his face: After all Dragon has been through alone and all they’ve been through together, Dragon won’t be able to ask the Old Man of the Moon how to fly. Minli decides she’ll scale the bridge alone, but she promises to ask the Old Man of the Moon Dragon’s question for him in addition to her own. Touched by her promise, Dragon vows to wait for her and fly her back to her village. Minli summons her courage and begins the climb.