The Faith and Salt

David walked along that riverbank without any clear direction.

His travel bag and clothes were completely soaked. That heavy shotgun on his back was likely filled with water, too.

He knew that firing a wet gun was incredibly dangerous. Water trapped inside those steel barrels could easily cause the weapon to explode in his own hands, or it simply would not fire at all.

Even a wild animal that jumps out right now could easily knock him down and tear his weak body apart.

He started to blame Xiao Yan for dumping him halfway and suddenly vanishing.

It felt like he just did his bare minimum job and left.

A deep sense of loneliness washed over him, but he refused to just give up now.

The hardest part was already over. Right now, he only needed to find a road.

He told himself this was no big deal.

Finding a way out of here did not look much harder than surviving the dirty streets of London's East End.

He stopped walking to check his weapon. He broke open the gun's middle joint, letting dirty water spill straight out of its steel barrels.

He then pulled out the driest piece of cloth left inside his bag, pushed it deep through those metal tubes to wipe, and carefully cleaned the firing pins.

After pushing fresh shells into those chambers, he snapped his gun shut.

Holding his weapon up at a ready angle, he stepped very carefully along the muddy edge.

There was absolutely no one else on either side of this river. Heavy rain beat down hard on tall, broken reeds.

Grey mud kept sliding off steep banks into rushing dark water.

Dead tree branches rolled wildly in fast currents. Everything around him felt cold, wet, and completely dead.

A broken wooden dock seemed to stand in the distance.

Walking a few hundred steps closer, he finally saw it clearly. It was indeed a dock.

From where David stood, a traditional Chinese wooden building sat right above those thick pillars.

It looked like a local inn.

Faint yellow light leaked from its dirty paper windows, but this whole place looked extremely unnatural and unsafe. It stood there completely alone in the violent storm.

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Angry flood waters crashed hard against dark wooden posts.

That water line was already dangerously high, almost reaching its floorboards.

Looking at it, David felt any hidden monster could easily pull itself up from the river and climb straight into that house.

He had no other choice.

Even if this building was a deadly trap, he still had to find a way to survive inside it.

David kept walking forward. His soaked missionary robe felt incredibly heavy, slowing his movements down. He quickly decided to fix this problem.

He picked up a sharp rock from wet dirt and roughly cut open his tight sleeves. He then tore off that long bottom hem completely.

Now he needed a backup weapon.

He searched through thick mud and found a solid wooden branch. Next, he picked up a heavy river stone with a sharp edge. He placed that flat stone against one end of his branch.

Using those extra cloth strips, he wrapped his wood and stone tightly together.

He pulled that torn fabric as hard as he could and tied several strong knots to lock everything in place.

In just a few minutes, he had made himself a simple but solid stone spear.

Next, he needed to manage his weapons properly. He lifted his loaded shotgun and pulled its leather sling over his head.

He placed this heavy firearm diagonally across his back. He made sure its steel barrel pointed straight down toward the ground.

This position would stop falling rain from entering his metal tubes and ruining those shells inside.

He gripped his new spear tightly with two hands.

If anything rushed out, he could keep it at a safe distance using that sharp stone tip.

When things got completely out of control, he only needed to drop his wooden pole and swing his gun forward to shoot.

Just to be safe, he counted his remaining ammunition in his head.

His weapon was a classic Birmingham double-barreled shotgun.

He had fired two shots back on that boat and already reloaded both barrels.

Right now, he had exactly six thick paper cartridges left inside his bag.

That gave him enough ammo for just three more full rounds of shooting.

Feeling ready, he walked straight toward that dock building.

A large crowd seemed to be sitting inside. Loud talking and shouting drifted clearly through those dirty paper windows.

David took a deep breath.

Holding his sharp wooden spear tight, he stepped into the local inn.

All that loud noise stopped instantly.

Every single person turned to look at him. They stared blankly at this strange white foreigner covered in weapons and holding a primitive spear.

A young man who looked like a waiter walked up to greet him, speaking fast Chinese words.

David understood absolutely nothing. However, he managed to push out one single word: "Shui?"

He remembered this sound meant water.

His heavy dictionary was completely soaked inside his bag right now, so it was way too late to look up anything else.

The waiter and an older man behind a front counter looked at each other. They quietly exchanged a few short sentences.

A short moment later, someone brought him a large bowl of water.

David drank it all in one huge gulp, wiped his mouth, and said, "Xie xie."

He swallowed hard and stood exactly where he was, not knowing what to do.

People inside judged him with careful eyes.

This was not just because he was a foreigner. It was mainly because he kept holding tight to that simple stone spear, and his face looked highly nervous.

That innkeeper tried to talk to him in Chinese. This was clearly a total waste of effort. David did not even know that the man was calling him.

He only realized it when a waiter poked him while walking by with a large bowl of hot fish soup.

Then, the innkeeper tried to say something with hand signs. David still understood absolutely nothing.

He frowned deeply, trying his best to catch a single familiar sound from this heavy local accent.

Finally, the innkeeper let out a long sigh and seemed to give up.

David swallowed hard again.

Today was going to be a very hard day.