#14 Day of the Dragon King

Morgan sent Jack and Annie to the ancient China giving them a bamboo strip written in Chinese on it and a book titled ¡®The time of the First Emperor¡¯. Morgan said, ¡°This research book will guide you and remember in your darkest hour, only the old legend can save you.¡±

When they got to China, their clothes had changed magically; baggy pants, loose shirts, straw shoes, and round hats. Out the window of the tree house, they saw farms and a walled city. Over 2,000 years ago, China was ruled by its first emperor, Dragon King. He chose the powerful dragon as his symbol. The Dragon King forced his subjects(½ÅÇÏ) to build a wall to protect China from invaders. It was called ¡®The Great Wall of China¡¯.

A cowherd boy asked Jack and Annie a favor of sending a message to a silk weaver and told them where the Imperial Library was. When they gave the message to the silk weaver, she gave them a ball of thread and said that making of silk was the most valuable secret in China so anyone who stole the secret would be arrested and put to death.

They went into the walled city hiding in an oxcart. The cartdriver was a scholar. Scholars were great readers, listeners, and the most honored citizens in China. He told them that the Emperor planed to burn all the books because the Emperor was afraid of the power of scholars¡¯ books and learning. He wanted his people to think only what he wanted them to think. Along the way to the Imperial Library, Jack and Annie found that the roofs were curved to get rid of bad spirits. Because bad spirits could travel only in straight lines.

When they got to the Imperial Library, people were burning bamboo strips on the bonfire by the order of the Dragon King. Annie snatched a bundle of bamboo sticks. The Dragon King ordered to arrest Jack and Annie. So they ran away as hard as they could. The scholar shouted Jack and Annie to run through the burial grounds because the soldiers feared the spirits of the ancestors. Jack and Annie went inside of the tomb. There were thousands of clay soldiers, swords, daggers, even life-size wooden chariots with horses. The Dragon King had 7.000 life-size clay figures made for his burial tomb. Surprisingly no two soldiers had the same nose, the same eyes, or the same mouth.

When they lost in the tomb, they remembered what Morgan told them that only the old legend could save them in their darkest hour, so they shouted ¡°Save us¡±. Then the roll of thread guided them to the entrance of the tomb. So they finally got to the tree house safely. In the tree house Morgan got a bamboo book from Jack and Annie, she told the story written on the bamboo strips Jack and Annie saved from the burning bonfire. It was about a silk weaver and a cowherd.

This is the story. Long ago, the silk weaver and the cowherd were heavenly beings who lived in the sky. When they came to earth, they fell in love and got married. But when they returned to the sky, they were so happy that they refused to work. The king and the queen of Heaven grew angry and seperated them by the Milky Way. But once a year, they are together on the seventh day of the seventh month. Magpies make a bridge between them over the Milky Way.