The Warship and the Fried Dough

After returning the horses, Li Huowang walked into an inn. The journey had been long and tiring; he needed a proper rest before boarding the boat.

“Sir, your food is ready.” The waiter set down the dishes and turned to leave, but Li Huowang grabbed his arm.

“Wait. This fish and these shrimp—they’re still alive? How am I supposed to eat this?”

“Heh heh, first time in Huating City, sir, right? They’re not alive. This is raw-marinated. See, all the other patrons are eating it the same way. You can give it a try. If it’s no good, no charge.”

Li Huowang glanced at the other tables, then waved his gauze-wrapped right hand to dismiss the waiter.

Maybe it was because the city was near the sea, but the local cuisine was very different from what he was used to—mostly seafood.

It took some getting used to, but he had to admit it was fresh. The raw-marinated meat was sweet, with a distinctive flavor all its own.

After eating his fill, Li Huowang fell straight asleep and didn’t wake until the sun was high the next day. He shook his groggy head, climbed out of bed, and muttered, “Time to board the boat.”

Finding the boat headed for Apricot Island was easy. It was a medium-sized flat-bottomed fuchuan,* more than capable of carrying a few dozen people.

Just as Li Huowang was about to step aboard, the captain—unshaven and slovenly—called out to him. “Hold it! What’s your surname?”

“Er.”

“Quit jerking me around! There’s no such surname as Er. If you don’t give me a straight answer, get off. I don’t have time for your games.”

“...Bai.”

The captain looked him up and down again, then waved a hand. “That’s more like it. Next! What’s your surname?”

A stick of incense later, Li Huowang watched the distant harbor shrink and let out a slow breath. He was about to see Zhuge Yuan again, and his feelings were incredibly tangled.

Suspicion? Excitement? Joy? Curiosity? Maybe a little bit of everything.

He touched his belly, feeling slightly reassured. He wasn’t the same Li Huowang who had staggered out of Qingfeng Temple. Whatever happened next, he would be ready.

“Heh, not going inside for a bit? That sea breeze is cold.” A voice came from behind him.

Li Huowang turned his head and saw a young man with a dog-plaster patch on his forehead grinning at him, leaning against the railing beside him.

Li Huowang frowned. He couldn’t be bothered with this presumptuous stranger and shifted a few steps away.

“Since we’re on the same boat, it must be fate. It’s a six-day trip to Apricot Island. Come join us in the cabin for some leaf cards. We’re three short of a game.”

“Don’t know how to play,” Li Huowang replied coldly, walking briskly to the other side of the deck.

Seeing Li Huowang’s attitude, the man decided not to force the issue and turned back toward the cabin.

Just then, the sky suddenly darkened. Everyone looked up at once to see an enormous ship passing alongside them.

It was a massive vessel, like a small mountain. Its mere presence blocked out all the sunlight on the fuchuan. On its side, a row of brass lion heads, each the size of an octagonal table, hung on display.

The lions’ mouths were wide open, and something inside them glinted coldly, like fangs.

This was clearly a warship. The scars on its hull showed it had just been in a battle.

The moment it appeared, everyone on the deck hit the floor, trembling like sieves.

“The Great Liang’s ship? Who are they fighting?” As Li Huowang pondered this question, the oppressive warship slowly turned toward the harbor.

Only when the sun returned to the fuchuan’s deck did the others breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“You’ve got guts, not kneeling like that. If you piss off one of those soldiers, you’d be dead meat!”

The dog-plaster man walked back over to Li Huowang and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Where are they coming back from?” Li Huowang asked him.

“How should I know? But word in the city is they went overseas to look for something.”

“They mobilized all that—just to find something?”

Li Huowang immediately thought of the Heart-Turbid he and the Chief Recorder had been looking for. That was also a search.

“Could it be that the Heart-Turbid is just one of the things they want? What are they doing with all these heavenly treasures and earthly rarities?”

Li Huowang felt that something big was happening somewhere, but he had no clue what it was.

He shook his head, shaking off these irrelevant thoughts, and walked toward the cabin.

The next few days passed without incident. It was perfectly calm. But for Li Huowang, sitting on this ship that was slowly approaching Apricot Island, each day felt like a year.

“Jade Qilin.”

“Six Hundred.”

“One Hundred Thousand. Baldie, can you play any faster? You take forever, like an old woman.”

“Hey! Wait! I win! Pay up, pay up!”

Li Huowang leaned against the hull, silently watching the men play leaf cards to pass the time. After watching for a few days, he figured out the rules. Essentially, leaf cards were mahjong that you held in your hand.

But there were fewer pieces. Mahjong has over a hundred tiles; leaf cards only had a few dozen. The games were faster, and winning and losing happened quickly.

He didn’t just learn the rules, though. He also learned about the people. The dog-plaster man liked to cheat. But the bald, bearded man was the best player, winning the most through pure skill.

Li Huowang wasn’t the only one watching. The other bored passengers also gathered around the card game to pass the time.

“Motherfucker! So you were cheating! No wonder I lost every damn hand!” The card game soon turned into a scuffle, but that didn’t ruin the other passengers’ entertainment.

“Ah, ah.” A little girl, no more than four years old and still in split-crotch pants, toddled up to Li Huowang and tugged on his pant leg.

When she saw he was looking at her, she giggled and held out the half-eaten piece of fried dough she’d been gnawing on.

Li Huowang looked into her eyes. The little girl’s eyes were so clean, her heart so pure. She just wanted to share her treat, just like the simple-minded senior apprentice sister at Qingfeng Temple who had shared hers with him.

“Woof...” Mantou, the yellow dog, poked his head out from a corner.

The little girl was delighted to see the dog and immediately held the fried dough out to him instead.

Just as Mantou carefully opened his mouth to take it, a tentacle shot out from inside Li Huowang’s red robe and snatched the dough away.

Seeing the sticky black tentacle retreat back into his robe, the little girl giggled, completely unaware of what had just happened.

She propped her hands on Li Huowang’s knees and opened her mouth wide, babbling at the spot where the tentacle had disappeared. A pale-faced woman rushed over, scooped her up, and held her close.

Holding her struggling daughter, the woman bowed several times to Li Huowang before hurrying back to the women’s cabin.

Mantou looked at his motionless master for a moment, then tilted his head against Li Huowang’s leg, licking the sticky little handprint on the blood-red robe with his tongue. The print was just a little bit sweet.

Happy Children’s Day to all the big kids out there!! (Author’s note)