Chapter 25 - 2#
He had clearly ordered all of Yanzhi’s things to be cleared out, yet the hall and the couch were still full of Yanzhi!
He was going to change these quilts; he was going to dismantle this couch.
He was going to tear down this palace and have the craftsmen build a new one!
Xiao Cuan fell back onto the couch and closed his eyes impatiently.
He wouldn’t look anymore. If Yanzhi ran away, then he ran away; he wouldn’t search.
Wasn’t it just playing hard to get? Wasn’t it just a feigned refusal?
He had experienced thousands of small worlds; he had seen Yanzhi’s trick from the very beginning.
He. Is. Not. Searching. Anymore!
*
The sky darkened gradually.
The second night after Yanzhi had left the Daliang Palace.
He arrived at the ferry crossing and boarded a cargo boat.
This cargo boat was carrying fresh melons and fruits from the south. With the New Year approaching, the people of Liang City would like these things.
But just as the boat arrived at the ferry, the weather in Liang City changed, and heavy snow began to fall.
Generally, shortly after snow begins, the river water is still flowing and won’t freeze that quickly.
But the boat boss feared the snow would get heavier and freeze the boat, so he didn’t dare delay. He offloaded the goods and, without waiting to fill up with other cargo, was about to return.
Yanzhi arrived at the ferry just in time to see this boat about to depart.
So he found the boat boss.
Yanzhi wanted a ride, the boat boss wanted to make money; the two hit it off.
Yanzhi brought Tanggao and Peanut Cake, paying five taels of silver to board the cargo boat.
The boat boss had his men clear out a cargo cabin for him to stay in, to take him south, and even provide three meals a day.
“Cast off—”
“Raise the small sail—”
At the boat boss’s command, the crew members sprang into action, raising the small sail at the bow halfway.
A north wind was blowing at that moment. The wind filled the sail, and the cargo boat soon left the ferry, sailing smoothly toward the south.
On the deck.
Yanzhi hooked Peanut Cake’s rope with his arm, holding Tanggao in one hand and his mother’s tablet in the other. Gazing at the receding riverbanks and mountains, he felt an indescribable emotion.
He had escaped.
The journey had been full of hardships and terrors; even a bird’s cry in the forest had made him think the Emperor had caught up.
Yet he had actually escaped.
While planning his departure, he had always been afraid.
Afraid because he had always stayed in the palace and had never traveled far alone.
Afraid because he had never walked mountain paths at night and might be snatched and eaten by wolves.
Afraid because he was clumsy and might die before reaching the south.
But looking at it now, these things weren’t so difficult.
His Majesty always said he was clumsy and thick-headed and couldn’t survive without him.
But…
He was alive and well right now.
Clearly His Majesty was wrong; he wasn’t stupid at all.
He could live perfectly well on his own outside.
The river water rippled beneath him. Suddenly, someone called out to him—
“Hey! Young Master!”
Yanzhi regained his senses and instinctively looked back.
The boat boss, a man in his forties or fifties with a warm and hearty personality, tossed something to him.
Yanzhi scrambled to catch it but failed; in the end, it was Tanggao in his arms who snapped its head and caught the object in its mouth.
The boat boss praised: “That’s a good dog you have!”
Yanzhi smiled and took the object from Tanggao’s mouth.
It was a copper key.
“Key to the cargo cabin you’re staying in,” the boat boss explained. “Go down from the deck; it’s the third one. Lock the door when you sleep at night; I won’t compensate you if you lose anything.”
“Okay, thank you.” Yanzhi nodded with a smile, holding the key with two fingers and quietly rubbing it against Tanggao’s fur.
It had its saliva on it; Yanzhi was a little bit disgusted.
His movement was very light, but Tanggao still noticed.
Tanggao turned its head and let out an unhappy “ao-wu” at Yanzhi.
Yanzhi continued to smile, stroking its head to comfort it: “I’m sorry, don’t be angry.”
The boat boss asked again: “Do you run a circus? With both a dog and a donkey?”
“No,” Yanzhi said honestly. “They’re just accompanying me.”
The boat boss didn’t ask further, walking to the gunwale and leaning his hands on the planks: “It’s lucky you found my cargo boat. Ordinary passenger boats wouldn’t let these things on board.”
“Mm.”
“Right. You boarded in a hurry just now; I still don’t know how to address you?”
“I…” Yanzhi paused. “My surname is Yu, my name is Yanzhi.”
His mother’s surname was Yu; he had always wanted to take her name.
“Young Master Yu.” The boat boss cupped his fists toward him. “My surname is Wei; I’m the boss of this boat. Just call me ‘Boss Wei.’ This is the first time this boat has carried a passenger; please bear with any inadequacies.”
Yanzhi smiled: “I’m already content that Boss Wei allowed me on board.”
Just then, a crew member came to say that the cargo cabin below was ready and Yanzhi could go see it.
Yanzhi then mimicked Boss Wei’s earlier gesture and cupped his fists: “I’ll go down first.”
“Fine, just say the word if you need anything.”
“Okay.”
Yanzhi followed the crew member below the deck into the cargo cabin.
The cabin had originally been piled with southern citrus; even with the cargo offloaded, there was still a faint, fresh sweet scent that Yanzhi quite liked.
The cabin was not large, but sufficient for sleeping.
The weather was cold, and the crew member also brought him a set of bedding.
Yanzhi thanked him and tied up both Peanut Cake and Tanggao.
Finally, he placed his mother’s tablet in a corner where it wouldn’t be knocked over, and took out the bean paste cakes and meat patties from his bundle, placing them before his mother.
“Mother, we’re on the boat.”
“Boss Wei says if the wind is favorable, we’ll reach the south in half a month.”
“Then, Mother will be able to eat even more delicious snacks.”
Just then, the cargo boat seemed to encounter a small wave and rocked gently twice.
It seemed as if his mother were nodding gently to him, praising him for doing well.
Yanzhi touched his cheek in embarrassment and turned to make the bed.
The bedding the crew member gave him was clean, spare stock from the boat.
He had also brought some thick clothes himself; with them added on top of the quilt at night, he certainly wouldn’t catch a cold.
He found a corner to set up the bed, talked to his mother for a while longer, and then the crew member came knocking to call him up for dinner.
Yanzhi hurriedly answered.
“I’m coming!”
“Mother, I’m going to eat.”
“Tanggao, Peanut Cake, I’m going to eat; I’ll bring some back for you in a while.”
Just as he was about to leave, Tanggao gave an “ao” to catch his attention.
When Yanzhi turned around, it looked at him pitifully.
“No, a little dog can’t eat with everyone else…”
Yanzhi held out for less than a breath.
“Alright, but you can’t be on the table; you can only eat on the floor.”
Only then did Tanggao cheer up, wagging its tail vigorously.
Yanzhi untied its rope and picked it up.
On the deck, the boat boss and several crew members were already seated, waiting for him.
Normally on the boat, eating dry rations was most convenient, but now there was a guest and the weather was cold, so they had cooked something hot to warm up their bodies.
“Young Master is here? Come, come!”
“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Yanzhi jogged forward holding Tanggao. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Oh, the little dog came too?” Boss Wei said while fishing a bone out of the meat soup and tossing it before him.
Tanggao didn’t mind, pouncing forward and clutching the bone to gnaw on.
Yanzhi saw it was eating happily and didn’t bother with it further, simply tying it to a boat post before taking a seat.
The crew members brought him a bowl and chopsticks. Boss Wei said: “Coarse tea and simple food, not comparable to those passenger boats; I hope Young Master won’t mind.”
Yanzhi shook his head repeatedly: “I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all; I like it very much.”
“That’s good then.”
Tonight the wind and waves were calm; the river was without a ripple.
After dinner, Boss Wei sent one crew member to keep watch on the deck, while the rest took shelter from the wind and kept warm in the cabin.
Charcoal braziers could be burned on the boat, but a bucket of water had to be kept nearby to immediately extinguish any fire that might start.
Yanzhi took some hay back to feed Peanut Cake, then held Tanggao and returned to the cabin as well.
He was also afraid of the cold and wanted to warm himself by the fire.
The group huddled around the brazier, blowing on their hands and keeping warm, listening to the well-traveled Boss Wei tell stories of his journeys.
“Some years ago, before the states of An and Chen were destroyed, I followed cargo boats doing silk business among various countries.”
“That night, it was also a windy day like this. I was on the deck watching the bow. Just around the third watch, when the sky was darkest, while I was dozing off, I suddenly heard someone singing on the mountain on the opposite bank.”
Presumably this story had been told too many times; the other crew members were uninterested, but Yanzhi was fascinated. Holding Tanggao, he instinctively leaned forward.
“And then?”
Seeing Yanzhi’s interest, Boss Wei lowered his voice and continued: “I was young and strong then, and besides, being woken from my nap made me irritable, so I roared toward the bank—”
“‘Singing what singing? You’re noisy as death! Won’t you let people sleep!’”
“Later, the next day at dawn, I spoke of this to others on the boat. Only then did they say I had encountered a water ghost that pulls people under. If a person answered it, they’d be dragged away by the water ghost.”
“I said, well I did answer it; why didn’t it drag me away?”
“They said, you were scolding it, not answering it.”
“Wow—” Yanzhi couldn’t help but exclaim in wonder.
Boss Wei was so brave!
When he encountered the mountain ghost calling him during the day, he hadn’t dared scold it.
If only he had met Boss Wei then; it would have been good to have Boss Wei help him scold that annoying mountain ghost.
He must learn from Boss Wei!
Seeing him looking a bit dazed, several crew members clapped their hands before him to snap him out of it.
“Young Master, don’t take it seriously; the boss is always talking nonsense.”
“Exactly, he’s told this story eight hundred times; he tells it to every new crew member.”
“If there were water ghosts in the world, how could we, who live and eat on the boat year-round, not know?”
The boat boss straightened up and said mysteriously: “When you reach my age, you’ll understand. Many things in this world just can’t be explained or articulated.”
Yanzhi smiled with eyes curved, lifting Tanggao’s paw and firmly siding with the boat boss: “I think so too!”
“See, the Young Master has insight, unlike you lot, making a fuss over nothing.”
The crew members exchanged glances, feeling somewhat helpless.
The north wind howled, sounding like the wailing of ghosts and the howling of wolves.
Meanwhile, in the Taiji Hall.
The curtains before the couch fell in layers. Xiao Cuan sat cross-legged on the couch, arms folded.
He lowered his eyes, gazing into the pitch darkness before him.
So—
On Yanzhi’s favorability panel, who is this Boss Wei?
Who is Xiao Chen? Who is A-Si? And who is A-Ping?
These names that suddenly appeared, one by one—who the hell are they?
WHO. ARE. THEY?!