Fortunes given to the players
- Dorje Mr Ji happily calculates. He has many tables, charts and a funky little wooden thing that looks like a cross between an abacus and a colour wheel. After ten minutes he says "Ahh. Qi Men Dun Jia is always good, I remember when I was young I had to leave out bits like 'your son will be a great flyer' because aeroplanes had not been invented! Ha ha! Now is time for your fortune!"
"You will not always be a monk."
"You have travelled only a fraction of the distance you must go."
"You must show the people that they are following the wrong path."
"Only you can tell which tree holds the fruit."
"You will very soon be seriously hurt."
He looks up at Dorje with smiling eyes and says "This last I will help you with! We must protect the Celestial Stem, and move it through the doorway." He looks among his materials and takes out a pen and an ink stone. He gets a small piece of rice paper and quickly draws a complex and beautiful Chinese character with bold, decisive strokes. It is unfamiliar to everyone there.
"Put this inside your robe and carry it, you will know when you no longer need it as it will tell you. I do this because my great aunt was helped by your people long ago. Long ago."
He smiles and hands Dorje the paper.
"Next please."
- Edie
Mr Ji looks at Edie's hand and takes the money, it disappears into his sash without him taking his eyes from her palm. "You too skinny girly, you never have babies if you don't eat more. Let me see. You travel lot, look at your thumb!" He points to her thumb, assuming Edie will somehow know what he's talking about. "Love line is crossed all over place. You are not married for a while yet, sorry! Mr Ji say that he . . ."
He looks at Edie's hand and then looks up at her eyes, he has an incredibly penetrating stare and he's holding her hand in a vice grip. "Show me other hand."
He looks at her hands and then calls down the narrows stairs. "Sister-in-law! Come here, Mr Ji want you!" He turns back to Edie, not letting go of her hands, and puts on the fakest smile you've ever seen. "Just one minute."
A tiny woman slowly mounts the stairs. She'd go a bit faster if she wasn't carrying a toddler and appeared to be fairly blind. She comes into the room at a snail's pace and bows. To Mr Ji she barks in rapid fire Wu a question that is totally lost on anyone not speaking the language at birth, and is answered in a torrent of equally incomprehensible Wu by Mr Ji. She shifts the toddler to her hip and casually looks at Edie's hands, still held by Mr Ji's bird claw-like hands and swears.
She dumps the baby unceremoniously in Ash's lap and holds Edie's hands in her own. Mr Ji says another torrent with which she appears to be answering (they also appear to talk over the top of each other a lot). They both look up at Edie and put on a smile.
"You live long life and be happy, marry a good man," she says in a mangled English. "But you do as we say, because you not be too happy otherwise. You not go out alone for five day. You not eat anything you not see cooked. You not drink anything that is left unseen. You keep these men with you for five day. You stay away from numbers six and nine. If you see a man with dragon tattoo you run like hell."
Mr Ji adds, as if nothing is wrong, "next please!
- Sam
Mr Ji, seemingly no longer interested in Edie, claps his hands with delight as the two men almost run into each other. "So much enthusiasm for Mr Ji's fortunes! Ah, we have the name and time?! This is good." As he talks, his sister in law, having reclaimed the toddler, makes her slow way down the stairs talking loudly to the women below.
Mr Ji rearranges his astrological equipment and goes to work, mumbling and muttering as he calculates the time. He has a rather battered US Rand McNalley atlas which he consults to find out exactly where Britain is and adjusts his calculations. He turns the wheel a few times, each time muttering. He finally comes up with a solution he likes and claps his hands.
"Ah hah! Mr Ji have fortune for you! You say to him earlier that a man look for you, but is two men. They are here, in this column, and they cross your column here! See that? That is 'conflict'. No big surprise for you! But the opposite column say 'allies' or 'league', so two men have ally in Shanghai! Now Mr Ji tells fortune for two men, and he tell you they meet 'betrayal'. Now, if Mr Ji young and stupid like most fortune teller, he think they be betrayed, but Mr Ji tell fortune for very long time. This mean 'betrayer', probably official because 'crown' is higher in column. Other wise future not very clear for Sam McCabe; there is much happening in this room. You are all involved here in each other's fortunes, and Mr Ji can see that this woman in this column here is missy over there and her 'danger' that involves you is same danger sister in law mention for her. Very crowded, very confusing. Worth more than one pound!"
He rattles the abacus part of the wheel and adds "next five day involve trip. You will win a great treasure and give it away. You have to overcome 'betrayer' or very bad fortune for you."
Mr Ji rubs his eyes wearily and looks over at Algie. "Mr Ji do your fortune now, you no have to wait! Very good! Only one pound!"
- Algie
Mr Ji motions to Dorje and says "way up in the mountains past his people, but you no go there. No one go up there. This stuff is dangerous, it damages you just by having it. You should take this to the monks and have them destroy it."
He settles himself down a bit, shaking his head and muttering. "Now, let Mr Ji see. That's right, you want your 'thing' back. You don't know what your 'thing' is though, so you think it is something unimportant that you lost. Wrong! Mr Ji see something very important, and everyone appears in his fortune! Chinese know time like you lǎowài don't. Mr Ji look forward to your fortune, but when you get there you look back to Mr Ji. I see your history that is not yet, so it is made by looking." Mr Ji leans back and adopts a scholarly attitude, shaking his stylus in emphasis as he speaks. "Little things are not in your fortune, because they small and easily changed. This thing you lose, that not important! This," he points to the wheel "is important"
"You lǎowài and you," he points to Maw, "and you," he points to Dorje, all have this in your fortune! The Dragon Skin Man, The Black Tree, The Blue Demon. All in your fortunes! Some times they just looking, sometimes they doing things. All doing the same thing; looking for The Red Key. This is what you look for, and you saw it last night."
"Ahh, Mr Ji tell fortune, not give history lesson. Go see head monk about The Red Key and The Twenty-Eight Sided Box."
"Next please!"
- Ulbrecht
Mr Ji says nothing until Ulbrecht produces the required money, and then starts in on his calculations. He's obviously quite tired, at his advanced age he must tire very easily, and he squints as he looks at the charts and paraphernalia.
"Hmm, Mr Ji has good fortune for you! You are going to die tomorrow." __________________
