The Corpse Reader

9

Wang could have threatened to tear him to shreds, but Cí would have done anything necessary to find his sister.

He scrambled after Wang, who had dived into the crowds looking for a boat to rent. He didn’t have any luck until he came across a couple of young fishermen next to a skiff. They said they’d rent their boat, but when Wang tried to hire them to row, and when they heard he was going after bandits, they changed their minds: no way would they risk their lives or put their boat in danger. They would agree only to sell the boat—at a massively inflated price. Wang couldn’t change their minds, so he paid them and hopped onto the skiff with Ze. Cí tried to get aboard, too.

“Damn! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” cried Wang.

“My sister’s on your boat,” he said.

Wang looked over at Ze—clearly they needed Cí’s help.

“Fine, but if we don’t recover that damn cargo, I swear you’ll pay for it in blood, which I’ll beat out of you myself. Both of you, get the damn skiff ready, and I’ll go and find us some weapons—”

“Boss,” Cí interrupted. “Is that a good idea? Do you know anything about weapons?”

“By God, I know enough to cut out your damn tongue and eat it grilled! How would you suggest we stop them, eh? Offer them a cup of tea?”

“But,” reasoned Cí, “we have no idea how many there are, or if they’re armed. They probably have a better idea about fighting than a couple of old guys and a country boy like me. If we try and attack them with bows and arrows we have no idea how to use, they’ll slaughter us.”

“So we just go and ask nicely?”

“While you argue,” said Ze, “they’re getting away.”

“Damn you, Ze! Why don’t you just do what I say?” screamed the captain.

“The boy’s got a point,” said the old sailor. “And if we head off right now, we’ll find them within an hour. They’re bound to unload downriver. They’ll be in a rush, and they won’t have any transport. It will be easy to corner them.”

“And how do you know all that? A prophet as well as a sailor now!”

“They’ll see their cargo is wood, won’t they? And they must know that upriver, wood’s worth nothing, whereas down at Fuzhou they’ll get a good price. Plus they’ll want the easy way out—downriver, with the current.”

“And finding them in an hour?”

“The leak. The barge won’t stay afloat long,” said Ze.

“Yes! The leak!” said the captain. “They’ll have to make for shore, and as you said, how would they have transport—”

“Who knows, boss, but I think we should just look for the first inlet or tributary where they might be able to hide from prying eyes. If you happen to know of any—”

“I damn well do, as it goes! Come on, let’s get going!”

Cí loaded the materials they’d bought for the repair and jumped on board. Each of them grabbed a pole and began pushing the skiff in pursuit of the bandits.

Just as Ze had predicted, within an hour they caught sight of the barge making its way up a tributary. It was listing badly, and it moved slowly and close to shore. They had no idea how many were on board, but only one person was at the helm, which Cí thought was a good sign.

They pushed the skiff faster.

During the pursuit they had considered different strategies, and whether to board the barge as soon as they caught up to it or wait until it had been unloaded. When they saw that there were three bandits, they decided on Cí’s plan: he would pretend to be a sick merchant to awaken the robbers’ greed, and they would get as close to the bandits as possible. “The last thing they’ll expect,” Cí said, “is for two old men and one so ill to attack them.”

“Then, on my signal,” Wang said, “we’ll hit them with the poles and try to knock them into the water. But we’ve got to reach them before they dock.”

As they approached the barge, Cí covered himself with a blanket, and Wang smiled broadly in greeting to the three bandits and the prostitute.

From under the blanket, Cí could hear Wang asking the robbers to help with his wealthy master, who had suddenly fallen ill. They began discussing a price. Heart hammering, and nearly overcome by the rancid smell of fish in the skiff, Cí waited for the signal. But suddenly, silence.

Something’s wrong.

“Now!” shouted Wang.

Cí sprang to his feet, swinging a pole at the man nearest to him and hitting him in the gut. Wang did the same with the man at the stern. Both wobbled on the edge of the barge and, after receiving another blow each, toppled into the water. Ze wasn’t so lucky: the third man had drawn a dagger and was advancing on him. But Cí and Wang used their poles to push him into the river. Ze slapped the prostitute, pushed her to the deck, and stood over her. While Wang used his pole to keep the three robbers from reboarding, Cí ran through the cargo shouting for Third. He quickly grew desperate, but then heard a tiny voice from among the sacks. Under a sheet, there she was, clinging tightly to her doll. She looked even more ill than before and very frightened.

When Cí asked that the prostitute be allowed to stay aboard, Wang rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“They made her do it. And she saved my sister.”

“It’s true,” said Third, who was hiding behind Cí’s legs.

“You’ll believe anything! Open your eyes! This ‘flower’ is bitter and thorny—they’re all the same. She’ll say anything to try and save herself.”

They had pushed off from the tributary, staving off the bandits with the poles and heading to the far side of the river, where the current was too strong for the bandits to swim through.

Cí tried again to persuade Wang.

“Why should I?” continued Wang, exasperated. “She probably only looked after your little sister so she could sell her to a brothel. I ought to throw her in the water for the robbing, lying serpent she is. Stop arguing and help me with this wood.”

Cí looked at Peach Blossom, who was crouched down, appearing so pitiful she reminded him of a stray dog that had been beaten so mercilessly that it could trust no one. Her suffering seemed a reflection of his own.

“I’ll pay for her passage,” said Cí.

“Wait, is my hearing playing tricks on me? Did I just hear you say that?”

“I guess so,” said Cí, turning to his sister and taking the 5,000-qián note from her jacket. “This,” he said, thrusting it at Wang, “should get the three of us to Lin’an.”

“Why…you said you didn’t have anything else! Well, it’s your money. Do what you want with it. The harpy is your problem, but when she plucks out your eyes, don’t come crying to me.”

By midday, they’d repaired the barge: the bundles of reeds had been assembled and the straw and tar caulks had stopped the leak. Wang and Ze each took a celebratory swig of rice liquor. Meanwhile, Cí continued to bail the water that threatened to rot the wood cargo. He was almost done when Wang came over.

“Hey, kid. I wanted to say thanks.”

“I don’t deserve your thanks, sir. I was an idiot to let the girl come aboard like that…”

“Enough, enough. It wasn’t all your fault. I made you stay aboard, and my other sailor just wandered off. On the bright side, I’m rid of one useless sailor, we’ve got the boat back, and,” he said with a laugh, “we’ve been saved from a fair bit of paddling!”

Cí agreed. “The robbers did a good amount of that work for us!”

Wang examined the side of the boat. Looking concerned once more, he spat in the river.

“I don’t like the idea of stopping in Xiongjiang. There’s nothing to be gained hanging around this county—a slit throat maybe, if you’re lucky.” Parting his jacket, he showed a long scar running across his chest. “Robbers and whores, the lot of them! Not a good place to buy supplies, but we’ll probably have to do it anyway. That caulk won’t last much more than a day.”

After a quick meal of boiled rice and carp, they set off toward the City of Death, Wang’s name for Xiongjiang. As they traveled along the river, Cí’s thoughts turned to Feng—how much he admired the judge, and how he hoped Feng’s mission wouldn’t keep him away from Lin’an for too long—and then to his parents, the memory of whom saddened Cí immediately. Third came over to where he was sitting, and she could see something was wrong. He said he just felt a little ill and then cut her a slice of the ham. He carried her to the stern, where they sat together.

Soon the prostitute joined them. “I heard you before,” said Peach Blossom. “When you were defending me, I mean.”

“Don’t get involved,” he said. “I did it for my sister.” The prostitute’s proximity made him uncomfortable.

“Do you still think I’m going to trick you?”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“This is exactly what I mean!” she said, standing up. “I thought for a moment you might be different. That perhaps you’d seen something in me. You have no idea what a girl like me has been through. I’ve worked since I was a child, and all I have for it is this dirty, battered body, lice in my hair, beggars’ rags…”

She broke down crying, but Cí was unmoved.

“I don’t need to know,” he said, getting up and looking back along the boat at Wang. The old captain stood at the rudder; with his chin lifted and eyes half-closed, he radiated calm. Cí didn’t want to get into an argument with the prostitute. He didn’t feel like doing much at all.

As he watched over Third, Cí was surprised to catch himself glancing furtively at Peach Blossom every now and then. He was increasingly captivated by her graceful movements, the apparent delicacy of her gaze, the softness of her complexion, the very faint flush to her cheeks.

Why have I wasted the last of my money on her?

The next time he glanced over, he was shocked to find her looking straight back at him; it was like a sudden flash of light in the dark, illuminating his most intimate depths. He couldn’t break free of her gaze.

She seemed to float toward him in the dark, then took his hand and led him to the empty skiff, which was tied up alongside the barge. His heart trembled as she moved her hands underneath his shirt, and he quivered as they moved down his body. She trapped him with her kisses, absorbed him through her lips. Cí failed to understand anything—why he felt suspicious even while all his pain was being quenched, why he felt afraid when her sweet, honeyed body seemed to be dissolving his very senses—

“No!” cried Cí as Peach Blossom tried to take his shirt off.

She didn’t understand how embarrassed he was by his scars, but he let her take his pants off. Then she was astride him.

He thought he was going to die as the girl’s hips moved slowly and deliberately in a deep, continuous sway. She pushed down on him as though she would take every last bit of him inside her. She guided his hands onto her small breasts and moaned as he caressed her, sparking something in him, making him drunk with delight, transporting him somewhere unknown.

The next morning, Wang found Cí in the skiff, sleeping as deeply as if he’d been drunk. Wang woke him, laughing heartily.

“Now I see why you wanted to keep her, eh! Come on, get yourself together and help with rowing. The City of Death won’t wait forever.”