Once a long long time ago, a family grew famous for their happiness. Even though

aunts and uncles, cousins and grandchildren lived together, there was never a cross word or unhappy noise. Stories of their happiness spread like seeds in the wind, sprouting and blooming everywhere, until finally even young Magistrate Tiger heard of them.

When Magistrate Tiger first heard of the happy family, he scoffed, " Impossible. The stories are exaggerated. No family can be that happy.” Even so, he was curious and sent an emissary to the family to observe. The emissary returned, awed. He said, “The family circle is one of complete harmony.” At first the magistrate thought it was impossible. But as he thought about it, the more he began to wonder. What was the secret that the family had? He began to covet the family’s happiness. So he called his emissary to him and presented him with an empty, heavily encrusted chest. “Return to the family, and tell them that I want the secret of their happiness put in the box. If they do not do so, have the soldiers destroy their family.”

The jacket was multi-colored, made of large patches sewn together. As the family waved goodbye to her, she saw each of them had missing material in their sleeves. Her goodbyes froze in her throat as she realized her warm coat was made of pieces cut from the family’s own clothing. When Minli invited two of the kids from the family

to go with her to see the Old Man of the Moon, they just laughed and said, “Why would we want to change our fortune?” And when Minli finally got to see the Old Man of the Moon, she discovered another shocking fact- she was only allowed to ask one question. If she was only allowed to ask one question, she could not ask Dragon’s question for him. Minli felt like a fish gasping for air. As she was wondering what she should do, she saw the king’s borrowed paper, and there was a single line of words running down the entire page. The line was only made of one word, and that word was Thankfulness.

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