The Merchant's Courtyard
Albert Lin, Jaci Conrad
Each of the rows is a 13-tile Mah Jongg hand. In almost every case, the hand is one piece away from winning. For each line, take all possible potential winning pieces and add up their numeric values. Converting the sum to a letter gives a piece of the final clue phrase:
| winning piece(s) | sum | letter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: | 1 | 1 | A |
| 2: | 5 6 | 11 | K |
| 3: | 1 | 1 | A |
| 4: | [nothing] | - | |
| 5: | 2 3 4 5 | 14 | N |
| 6: | 2 3 | 5 | E |
| 7: | 6 8 9 | 23 | W |
| 8: | [nothing] | - | |
| 9: | 4 6 9 | 19 | S |
| 10: | 5 7 8 | 20 | T |
| 11: | 3 4 5 6 7 | 25 | Y |
| 12: | 1 4 7 | 12 | L |
| 13: | 5 | 5 | E |
The clue is "AKA NEW STYLE". In Mah Jongg, New Style is sometimes also known as Shanghai style.