Chapter 6
For a long time, I could not sleep again.
Hazy moonlight lay beyond the window.
I put on an outer robe, opened the door, and walked a little way along the bank.
The river wind was bitterly cold, piercing me until even my bones ached.
Holding the rail, I made my way back aboard.
I don’t know how long passed before the boat suddenly rocked gently.
The sound of water rippled by my ear.
My eyes flew open. Only then did I realize that the little boat had left the bank.
The old man working the sculling oar at the stern was startled too.
“Oh! Miss, when did you get aboard?”
I quickly stood.
“I’m sorry, sir. I lost my way in the dark. I must have boarded the wrong boat.”
He stopped rowing, looked back at the wharf already receding in the distance, then at my thin clothes.
“Well, that’s awkward. We’ve drifted quite a way downstream. To turn back now…”
I felt through my hair, removed my only pearl hairpin, and offered it to him.
“There’s no need to go back. Let this pay my fare. Would you take me to Minzhou?”
He accepted it and examined it by moonlight, looking uneasy.
After a long hesitation, he finally nodded. “Miss, this one pin is worth a year’s earnings on my boat. Don’t worry. I’ll see you safely to Minzhou.”
Then he sighed again.
“Only, I hear there’s trouble around Minzhou. It’s dangerous for a young woman traveling alone.”
I was taken aback.
“Trouble? Haven’t we had good weather for the crops this year?”
In the capital, there had been nothing but songs and dancing in celebration of peace.
The officials had written no end of tributes praising this year’s bountiful harvest and tranquil realm.
Xiao Heng had spoken of it to me with immense satisfaction.
The old man worked the oar, his voice heavy.
“Up north, the Yellow River changed course and flooded more than a dozen counties. Fields gone, homes gone—who knows how many families fled south with everything they had?”
“Then they reached the south and found drought followed by heavy rain. Life was harder still.”
“The court says it’s sending relief grain and silver. But the people wait and wait, and nothing comes.”
“Some local officials suppress the reports because they’re afraid of being held responsible. Some granaries have long been empty, and they fill the bottoms of grain sacks with sand and dirt to fool people.”
“Why would the great folk in the capital care about any of that?”
I lowered my eyes to the moonlight on the water, broken by the oar into scattered fragments of silver.
Not long ago, the palace had been undertaking lavish construction to welcome the emperor’s beloved consort.
Under that same sky, people could not get even a mouthful of rice to keep themselves alive.
The old man continued:
“Around Minzhou, they say some disaster victims are starving enough to steal grain. River bandits mix in among them and commit crimes, and others rebel because they can’t survive. The authorities can’t cope. Merchant boats daren’t travel alone. A delicate young woman like you, without anyone to protect her—why insist on going there?”
I tightened my fingers gently around my cuff.
“I’m going to find my husband. He’s waiting for me in Minzhou.”
The old man’s expression softened a little.
“Then you ought to go. Husband and wife can’t stay parted forever.”
I smiled. “No. They have to be reunited.”