The Faith and Salt

The canal was incredibly wide, with the heavy branches of weeping willows drooping so low from the banks that their tips almost dragged in the current.

A chaotic mix of vessels crowded the channel.

Heavy timber rafts, southbound grain barges, northbound salt boats, and the type of passenger express boat David was currently riding all navigated the same busy stretch of water.

Whenever two boats drifted close, the boatmen would shout casual greetings to each other in Chinese.

However, the moment their eyes caught sight of the foreigners sitting inside the cabin, their expressions immediately hardened into deep, wary frowns.

Having barely slept the night before, David kept nodding off.

Yet the foreign scenery outside the window constantly pulled him back awake, keeping his curiosity alive.

Beside him, Archie was either still nursing a massive hangover or simply exercising his daily habit of falling dead asleep anywhere, at any given time.

By now, all traces of the city had vanished from the banks.

A strange sensation washed over David.

It felt as though the strict boundary between land and water had completely dissolved.

Rivers, irrigation ditches, and ponds covered the entire landscape.

Houses sat like isolated islands surrounded by massive rice paddies.

Inside them, local farmers wearing bamboo hats stood knee-deep in the mud, quietly planting seedlings.

Sometime later, the view suddenly blew wide open.

A massive lake appeared ahead, so vast that its distant waters seemed to blend seamlessly into the sky.

Flocks of water birds burst from the thick reed beds, taking flight in huge numbers.

Local fishermen stood at the sterns of their small wooden sampans, casting out their nets.

Everything about life along the canal appeared entirely peaceful and orderly.

Taking in the quiet scenery, David felt a strange mix of calm and deep unease.

He remembered Wei Yuan's stark warning from the day before.

"This journey will be extremely dangerous. Though I cannot travel alongside you, I will do everything in my power to ensure your safety."

Drifting smoothly down the waterway, David sensed absolutely no danger.

And in his experience, that was rarely a positive sign. More often than not, it was simply the dead calm before a brutal storm.

Later that day, the boat made a brief stop near a city called Gaoyou.

To David's eyes, the place looked largely identical to Yangzhou, only slightly less crowded and prosperous.

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Stepping into a teahouse right by the docks, David and Archie unsurprisingly became the immediate center of attention for every local in the room.

David had never managed to get used to this kind of open, hostile staring. Unlike the magnetic weight of Xiao Yan's gaze, the heavy glares from these locals only made his skin crawl with discomfort.

A quiet wave of melancholy washed over him.

What is Xiao Yan doing right now? he wondered. Has he already left Yangzhou?

It felt as though their lives had only collided for a single day before completely tearing apart to follow their own separate timelines once again.

Back in London, sitting by the window of a busy coffee house in Covent Garden and watching the endless stream of pedestrians outside, David used to have the same thought.

Every single person carried their own self-contained world, and those worlds only ever intersected in incredibly rare moments.

After that brief contact, all the intense joy, heavy emotion, and meaning simply evaporated, drifting entirely out of reach…

How sad was that?

The night finally fell, and the hired guards urged both men to sleep inside the boat cabin for their own safety.

Only a single, dim lantern hung inside the cabin, burning cheap, foul-smelling lamp oil.

Looking out the window, dozens of similar swaying lights floated across the dark surface of the river.

A cold night wind blew in, carrying the heavy dampness of the water.

For the first time since they set sail, David felt a genuine spike of tension regarding the canal.

Archie was still asleep.

The older man had been entirely relaxed for the whole journey.

Unlike most people his age, he seemed to possess an endless capacity for sleep.

Despite his brief unease, the overall quiet and steady pace of the boat still offered David some relief.

It allowed him to empty his mind.

He no longer felt tormented by his messy thoughts and obsessions, nor did he have to face those seemingly impossible problems.

Occasional barks from village dogs or the sharp cries of night birds drifted from the banks.

But mostly, the only sound in the dark was the rhythmic splash of the boatman's oars cutting through the water.

It was, admittedly, a perfect atmosphere for sleep.

Reaching into his leather satchel, David pulled out his heavy copy of Morrison's English-Chinese dictionary.

A sudden guilt hit him.

He had barely studied the local language during the entire voyage, and only now was he desperately trying to cram in some vocabulary.

It is never too late, he told himself.

When daylight finally broke the next morning, David woke to find himself slumped over the open dictionary.

The boat was already moving again. They had entered a stretch of water entirely overrun by ducks.

The ducks were absolutely everywhere along the banks.

As hundreds of them rushed into the river at once, their frantic splashing made the water look as if it were boiling.

In fact, it was that massive noise that had jolted David awake in the first place.

As they pushed further north, the landscape underwent a drastic shift.

The thick tree lines along the banks thinned out.

Though the land remained wide and open, the sprawling farmlands gradually disappeared.

The earthen dikes grew noticeably higher, and the wind began to carry a heavy, salty stench.

Stone locks and fortified dams manned by soldiers continuously sliced the canal into segments.

David noticed these troops were heavily armed and stationed in large numbers.

He even spotted cavalry units and earthen batteries mounting old-fashioned cannons.

Such a heavy military presence was definitely not meant for dealing with common canal smugglers.

Finally, after countless stops and strict checkpoint inspections, a massive stretch of city walls loomed in the distance.

Leaning into the cabin, the boatman spoke to them for the very first time.

"Huai'an," he said in Chinese. David understood him perfectly.

This was Huai'an.

Just looking at the outer walls, the stark contrast with Yangzhou was immediately obvious.

The architecture was far more imposing and rough. It looked heavily fortified and radiated a tense atmosphere.

Outside the gates, the docks were densely packed with boats.

These were all merchant vessels, yet they were heavily armed with makeshift guns.

Rows of thick, woven rattan shields lined their gunwales for extra defense.

Even the local merchants walking around carried swords at their hips. Donkey carts on the docks were actively hauling heavy, oversized matchlock rifles.

Aside from the heavy weaponry, the place was just as chaotic and busy as any other canal port David had seen.

The smell of cooking food mixed thickly with sour human sweat and wet river mud.

Staring out at the heavily armed city, a tight knot of tension formed in David's stomach.

It’s happening.

The real adventure has begun.