Gan Ning stood at the prow of the boat, singing at the top of his lungs. The world was utter darkness around them, as if the end of the world had come and the heavens and earth were facing destruction. Black clouds roiled as the little boat sailed toward the other shore of the yellow springs,29 invisible to the naked eye.
With Gan Ning’s upper half bare and his drenched long white pants translucent with water, it was as if he were completely naked, standing majestically among this world, with an odd beauty. Zhou Yu’s hat had long since been swept off by the wind and lost in the river.
“Why are you crossing to the other shore?” Gan Ning asked Zhou Yu loudly.
“To see someone!” Zhou Yu replied, equally loud.
“What family’s son needs to rush?” Gan Ning grinned roguishly. “Hurrying to marry?”
Zhou Yu shook his head helplessly and chuckled, then shouted back, “The Changsha prefect, the Sun family!”
The boat fought through the raging tempest, their two lives dangling from a single string. Zhou Yu no longer saw Gan Ning as a mere bandit. If in the next moment the boat was destroyed and they died, he and Gan Ning would both be buried in equal tombs at the bottom of the river.
Life was just like that. What of glory? What of honor? All of it had grown distant. There was only a single boat and the two of them in this world. All was laid bare, and nothing was worth worrying about.
“Sun Jian?!” Gan Ning asked.
“You know him?” Zhou Yu shouted back.
“You fucking bet I do!” Gan Ning roared. “Three days ago, I was heading back from Jiangxia, and he almost took my life!”
Zhou Yu had never expected he would receive a report of the situation of the front lines here. Ever since he’d gotten Fei Yu’s message, his heart had remained stuck in his throat, and he was terrified some accident had befallen Sun Ce. He traveled day and night, not caring for his own life, just to arrive as soon as possible.
“How is Sun Ce?” Zhou Yu asked.
A huge wave washed over them, almost sending the two into the water. Gan Ning staggered, and Zhou Yu hurried to steady him. With a strip of cloth, Gan Ning bound the two of them together, lashing them to the prow.
“Which son of a bitch is Sun Ce?” Gan Ning yelled.
Zhou Yu blinked.
“Sun Jian’s son!” he said.
“Sun Jian was shot to death by Huang Zu! I don’t know about the others! His son’s probably still alive!”
Zhou Yu had already guessed matters were pressing, but he hadn’t expected they would be so tragic.
“Was he killed by Huang Zu?” he asked.
“At Mount Xian!” Gan Ning roared. “He shouldn’t have chased Huang Zu! But he did anyway! He died to one of Huang Zu’s arrows!”
This was the worst possible news. The world spun around Zhou Yu, and the boat almost tipped over. Gan Ning grabbed Zhou Yu.
“Careful!” Gan Ning asked again, “Who are the Sun family to you?”
“Old family friends!” Zhou Yu said.
Gan Ning didn’t say more.
As they passed the center of the river, the wind and waves seemed to take pity on Zhou Yu and slowly calmed. In less than fifteen minutes, the waters became placid. The dark clouds parted, and a golden sunset shone down over them. Entirely sapped of strength, Zhou Yu realized his martial outfit was somehow even more soaked than before.
He untied the cloth strip, thanking Gan Ning.
With a curt laugh, still standing at the prow, Gan Ning smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes.
Zhou Yu leaned against the stern. He’d never encountered such a dangerous situation before. Sometimes, even if one ruled over the entire world and commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, if the heavens grew enraged, there was nothing one could do.
“You weren’t afraid of this old one sinking the boat and kidnapping you?” Gan Ning asked.
“I wasn’t,” Zhou Yu replied, not even lifting his head as he wrung the water from his robe. “Why would you kidnap me?”
“I’d kidnap you and take you home to be this bandit chief’s wife,” Gan Ning teased.
Zhou Yu flinched then began to chuckle. “Do you really get girls that way, by kidnapping them?”
“This old man often ferried women from good families to the center of the river,” Gan Ning explained, “but as soon as the boat got stuck, they couldn’t go up to the sky or down to the ground, so naturally they would have to come along with me. If you weren’t handsome, this old man wouldn’t have considered ferrying you in the first place.”
Embarrassed, Zhou Yu quickly moved on. “And then what?”
“And then?” Gan Ning asked. “Once we’re done, I let them go home.”
Zhou Yu thought about one lone boat on the vast Yangtze, stuck in the current, and Gan Ning enjoying himself with a woman on board, spending a spring night, swaying along the river. To be so wanton was ludicrous.
The small boat slowly approached the shore, and when Zhou Yu climbed onto land, he turned to say a few words of thanks to Gan Ning.
“Go,” Gan Ning said easily. “No need for any additional fuss. Don’t delay taking care of what you need to.”
“A great kindness cannot be repaid with words alone.”
On the shore, Zhou Yu bowed deeply to Gan Ning. With a flick of his hand, Gan Ning tossed the bag of ancient jade, the silver taels, and the golden leaves over.
Zhou Yu caught it. “Xingba-xiong, you cannot…”
Gan Ning ignored him. With a casual touch of his long pole against the western shore, he departed, backlit by the brilliant golden glow of the sunset. Humming a tune, he left behind the lone figure of Zhou Yu, lost in thought.