A Fist Full of Tigers

Human 101

Chapter Two: Human 101

The next day Wu Song wakes to the sound of heavy laughter coming from the floor below. He finds he is in a rented room and it is trashed. The room is one of the larger rooms which are more expensive, but usually available. I didn't want to say it, but the bed is in the shape of a heart. The first thing Wu Song checks is the change purse around his neck. It is still there, but it is almost empty, a hidden compartment had been left untouched where he keeps a couple of bills for emergencies. "I must have rented this room, but why a large room?" He thinks. The next thing he looks for is his staff, but it is nowhere to be found. Wu Song looks everywhere for the staff, he even tries to look under the mattress, but it won't budge so he feels confident it isn't under there. Suddenly he remembers putting the staff up as collateral the night before. He didn't remember staying at the tavern, but he didn't remember leaving it either. He must have gotten drunk and lost the staff to the bar tender. Still hope lingers that he simply misplaced the staff. That is until he silently moves the dresser from in front of the door so he can take a peek down stairs. 

As his head peeks out the loud chorus of laughter starts up again. Wu Song quickly ducks back into his room. Sure enough he is in the Three Bowls Tavern once again and he can't shake the feeling that the men downstairs playing mahjong are laughing at him. Wu Song curses under his breath as he tries to recapture the events of the night. For a moment he is sure he left the three bowls. He remembers feeling full and happy and drunk. He remembers looking at the stars and having a conversation with a very hungry tiger. With that Wu Song laughs. "Man what was in that wine?" he thinks. It must have been a hallucination, but the nightmarish truth had yet hit him. Wu Song reaches into his shirt and pulls out a carefully folded piece of paper, takes one last longing glances, stands up with a sigh, crumples the paper, and tosses it onto the bed. 

Wu Song had never been one to dwell on dreams. As with many dreams in his life they this one had come and for a moment it seemed real but eventually, as with all dreams, one must awaken. This dream had been lurking in the back of Wu Songs mind since he was a child and his staff was making it come true. Now he had lost the staff and any hope of living that dream and so he heads down stairs to the tavern with a smile on his face and his last few dollars to see how drunk he can get. As he begins his descent, he starts to notice that every muscle in his body is stiff he just shrugs this off and heads to the bar and tosses the entire coin bag to the bar tender. "What will that get me?" Wu Song asks. Fo fumbles through the purse and finds the money hidden inside. Fo then shrugs and pulls out a bottle of his best fifty percent. As it turns out even the watered down stuff is pretty strong.  

After making a deal to do some dishes, chop some wood, and a couple of other small chores, Wu Song is allowed to stay another night get a hot meal, get completely trashed and still have a hand full of coins left to play mahjong. If there is one thing in the world Wu Song is good at it is getting drunk, or rather staying sober if there is one thing he is not good at it is mahjong. Wu Song for some reason has a natural ability to drink more than most mortal men and the uncanny ability to lose every game of mahjong. He even loses to Celest. Many times Wu Song has seen his talent for drinking as a blessing, but with only a few coins left and no one willing to take his drinking challenges of loser buys the drinks, it seems like a curse. 

Wu Song had wanted to enter the competition, but it had also been a burden. Though tomorrow he might think differently today he is free, happy, and a little drunk. He plays a few more games of Mahjong, he listens to the story of how he ended up back at the three bowls from several different men, none of who tell it the same way. The final time the story is told he realizes that there is one unifying factor. He won the bet. Finally it dawns on poor, drunk Wu Song. "I won the bet!" Wu Song yells, leaping to his feet in surprise. Wu Song instantly rushes for the exit. As men question where he is going Wu Song only replies. "I won the bet!" The patrons of the Three Bowls are simply stunned. This time as Wu Song leaves he bumps into the same group of young men that bumped him when he first arrived. They stare at him shocked as they watch him run screaming down the road. The young men turn to the bar tender, which has been discouraging them from attempting the Three Bowls drinking challenge. The bar tender now beacons these boys to come in. They think their months of pestering the old man have finally paid off and now they will have their chance to be legends.