Chapter 5:
Life and Death
THE RAIN POURED DOWN in a torrent, and lightning struck wildly. Summer had begun in Jiangzuo. With it came a deluge, the heavens themselves dumping rain below with an angry roar. The waters of the Yangtze rose, and the monsoons grew stronger, so much so that every boat was forced to retreat into bays to shelter from the wind.
A lone figure headed southwest, wearing a bamboo hat, only to be halted at the riverbank.
“We can’t take the boats out today!” the shipmaster shouted.
Soaked through, the stranger led a horse behind him. No one knew where he came from. He was bedraggled, his hair, body, and clothes dripping with water. Pulling out a cloth bag, he shook out almost ten taels of silver and slid them onto the counter with one hand. The shipmaster had never seen this much silver before, and he stared dumbly.
As the traveler pushed his hat up a little, he revealed a handsome though ashen-white face—Zhou Yu. His hair stuck to his wet face, yet he was unwilling to take off his hat.
The shipmaster thought for a bit. “I can’t take this! My customer, I know that you have pressing matters, but with such strong wind and waves, and this flood, it’s impossible to cross!”
Zhou Yu pulled out three leaves of gold, pinching them between his fingers, before placing them on the counter next to the silver. They shone with a golden light, and the shipmaster stopped breathing. The wind on the pier was so strong it shook the wooden harbor, pushing it to the verge of collapse. The captains of the boats scurried around, their attention drawn to the two, but no one dared take Zhou Yu’s money.
“I can’t,” the shipmaster moaned. “I really can’t!”
Zhou Yu untied the ancient jade talisman hanging from his belt, placing it alongside the gold and silver.
“That’s what little I have left. Who’s willing to set sail?”
Zhou Yu’s “little he had left” was already enough for quite a few families to live a peaceful, happy life.
One of the boat captains chimed in, “Customer, we’re not trying to fleece you. Even if this humble one loses his life, this money is enough for this one’s wife and son to live off. However, if we take you across the river with these dangerous winds and waves, you, customer, might sink to the bottom of the river. This humble one would not be able to rest again, even as a ghost.”
“That’s right,” another said. “The wind and rain are too intense. After tomorrow, it will probably die down. Can you not wait a little longer?”
Hearing so many appeals, Zhou Yu understood these boat captains had no choice, so he started to put his money away. Suddenly, a hand snaked out, slapping down over the silver taels, the golden leaves, and the ancient jade. Shocked, the boat captains and the crowd quickly dissipated.
Zhou Yu’s eyes followed the line of that arm up, only to find a man over six and a half feet tall, his upper body bare. His build was not burly, but his muscles had been trained in the wind and the rain; he didn’t have too much, nor too little. He wore a lined jacket, and his hair was shorn very short. His face, slick with water, sported the grin of a ruffian. There was a tattoo of an odd fish on his back, and a mala28 of agarwood wrapped around his wrist. He was a very handsome man, but the air of a bandit surrounded him.
Not five minutes later, Zhou Yu was following that bandit along the river. He used Zhou Yu’s money to buy a boat from the shipmaster and dismissed the boat captain. Of the two ship companies at the Changya Ferry, none of the boat captains for any of their sixteen ships were willing to cross the river. Zhou Yu had been forced to buy his own and follow the bandit.
Wearing a pair of white pants cut off at his knees, his feet bare, he looked like a pounded-in nail, unmoving, as he stood on the rocks.
“You know how to swim?!” the bandit shouted at Zhou Yu.
Zhou Yu nodded.
“Life and death are predestined,” the bandit drawled as he brought the boat over, “and wealth is dependent on the heavens! Once you get on this boat, your life will be in the hands of fate! If you die, then don’t blame this old Gan Xingba! Let’s go!”
“Wait a moment!” Zhou Yu exclaimed.
The bandit’s surname was Gan, his courtesy name was Xingba, and his name was the single character, Ning. He traveled between Jing Province and Yi Province and was one of the overlords of the Yangtze.
At Zhou Yu’s words, he came to a stop on the rocks, not hurrying to get onto the boat. He watched Zhou Yu untie his bundle, take off his hat, and kneel down by the river, formally and properly kowtowing three times eastward.
“Let’s go!” Zhou Yu said once he finished.
The two of them boarded the boat. Gan Ning twirled the pole in his hand, pushing off from the shore, and the little boat sped into the air, shooting toward the center of the river like an arrow leaving a bow.
This single action shocked Zhou Yu. Gan Ning was no ordinary bandit. Zhou Yu had practiced martial arts and his sword skills since he was small, so any normal ruffian would be no match for him. He was also very good in the water, so he hadn’t been afraid of being robbed, but now he realized he had been too arrogant.
The wild winds churned the waves into tall peaks, the surface of the river a raging ocean. Each wave crashed down like a collapsing mountain.