The Faith and Salt

David stared down at the scattered silver coins on his wooden table.

All three had landed on tails.

A sharp sense of displeasure hit him. He quickly decided to make it best two out of three and tossed them once more.

His result remained the same. Three tails.

He frowned deeply. This felt almost like a dark miracle, making him suspect there was something physically wrong with his money.

Had he completely forgotten these were rigged trick coins from his old gambling days?

To test his theory, he threw them casually one last time. This throw showed two heads and one tail.

David aggressively scooped up the metal pieces and shoved them deep into his pants pocket.

What an absolutely stupid idea.

He glanced over at the thick Morrison Chinese Dictionary resting inside his travel bag.

Whatever happened, he was definitely making this trip.

Carrying his bag and shotgun, David left the local inn and headed straight toward the docks to find a boatman. However, he soon discovered his original boat had already left.

Every single boatman working along the water stared at him with cold, open hostility.

A small wave of regret washed over David. He probably should have asked Archie to come along. But this was no sightseeing tour. If he brought that old Scot, what if he ended up getting someone else killed again?

Or is it destiny?

Anyone who tries to help me ends up in trouble...

Am I just a jinx?

A selfish asshole?

Having no other choice, he had to ask every single person he met. "Yangzhou? Yangzhou?"

He just hoped his pronunciation did not sound like something else entirely. He really needed them to understand he wanted to travel to Yangzhou, rather than insulting them for being incapable or something worse.

Most boatmen, however, completely ignored him. Those who did answer did not look like they were saying anything nice.

Finally, one fisherman seemed to take pity on him and waved him over.

"Yangzhou?" this man asked.

David glanced at his tiny boat. It had nothing except a cheap bamboo shelter, making him feel a bit nervous.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But thinking back, the main canal was packed with armed merchant ships and heavily guarded. The worst possible outcome was getting robbed. Yet who would ever bother robbing such a piece of trash?

The most dangerous option was actually the safest; he calmed himself.

"Yangzhou."

The fisherman held up three fingers.

David had no idea what kind of currency this man wanted. He only had those three life-saving silver coins on him.

Keeping his hand hidden in his pocket, he rolled those metal pieces between his fingers as if deep in thought. He was completely unsure. Since he had not paid for a single meal or bed so far, he knew absolutely nothing about local prices.

After making up his mind, he pulled out those three silver coins.

The fisherman's eyes instantly lit up. He clearly did not expect this foreigner to pay so generously. Even other boatmen got distracted and glanced over in surprise.

Just as that man reached out to take them, David asked, "Hao?"

"Hao!"

David placed his coins into that rough hand, then watched them get stuffed deep into a dirty bag.

He looked around.

There were too many people standing nearby. He decided to wait until they actually set sail to pull his money back.

Sorry. I’ll pay you afterward, just not now, not with these coins.

The boat set sail.

He took his silver back without letting the boatman notice, because the boatman trusted him too much and put the bag unguarded.

David felt guilty.

I'll pay him back. He comforted himself.

But not for long; David realized there were absolutely no other boats on that main canal.

Theirs was the only one.

This did not look good.

"Hey—" David tried his best to squeeze out a single Chinese sentence, but nothing came out of his mouth.

Perhaps this whole trip was just a terrible idea. Today did not seem like a good day for sailing anyway.

Flipping nervously through his thick dictionary, he tried to figure out how to say "go back."

He finally found it and read those exact letters off the page. "Hui Qu?"

That fisherman frowned deeply and waved a rough hand.

David quickly went back to his book, searching for another word.

How should he say "give up"?

"Fang Qi?" He had no idea if he said it right. These strange sounds held absolutely no real meaning to him.

His boatman grew even more impatient. Waving both arms wildly, the man clearly tried to tell his foreign passenger to stop bothering him while he worked that heavy pole.

"Ting!" David shouted as a last resort.

That fisherman finally stopped pushing. However, he looked deeply confused and leaned his head down, trying to listen to something below.

Only then did David notice that Huai'an city had already faded so far into the distance.

Dark water began to bubble heavily around them. Something large seemed to be moving underneath.

A violent jerk suddenly shook the whole boat. David lost all his color and let out a cry of fear.

Right after that, their tiny boat began drifting straight toward a smaller side branch entirely on its own.

River currents turned unnatural. It felt exactly as if something beneath the surface was physically carrying them forward.

Heavy gray clouds covered everything. A massive rainstorm was clearly coming.

David leaned carefully against the bamboo cover and looked down into the dark water.

Several child-sized things swam just beneath those waves.

Thick, wet slime completely covered their strange bodies. They had huge, swollen eyes and sharp, dark fins on their backs.

What terrified him even more was a quiet figure standing in the distance under this terrible weather. A young girl with a dead, pale face stood there, her eyes shining a bright, bloody red.

David did not even dare to look her straight in the face.

Another violent shake suddenly hit their boat.

He froze completely in place. It felt exactly like a bad nightmare where he wanted to scream but had absolutely no voice.

Losing his balance due to the long bamboo pole in his hand, that poor fisherman fell hard into the rushing currents.

David quickly crawled out and reached out his hand to pull him back.

A dead chill washed over his entire body.

I’m so sorry. His mental defense finally cracked.

Thick red blood had already dyed that entire patch of water.