Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Kite Soaring High (Part Five)

Shaoxing County’s waterways were complex and interwoven, with many junctions. The night ferry traveled all the way toward the Qiantang River, eventually merging into the ancient canal system of eastern Zhejiang, becoming a lone boat beneath the starlit sky.

This was the first time Yu Manyi had ever left Shaoxing. And for her first time, she went as far as Shanghai. No woman in her family had ever been there; even her third uncle had only gone twice, accompanying Old Master Yu. She lay in the recessed part of the cabin, smelling the lingering fishy scent trapped in the wooden seams and hearing the sound of water stirred by the oars outside.

At first, Song Qi didn’t speak much with Lu Xiangcang. But once the boat entered the canal, they gradually started chatting. Yu Manyi lay on her side, a coat draped over her, and she could hear the two men’s voices coming intermittently—talking about matters as large as the political situation and as small as school life and next year’s curriculum.

Some of what they said she could understand; some she couldn’t. Their voices were low, carrying a lulling quality that made her drift in and out of sleep. At some point, she heard Song Qi come inside, lie down on the side of the cabin to rest for a while, then go out again to take over from Lu Xiangcang.

He moved very quietly when getting up, but she still opened her eyes, half-awake. The cabin wasn’t lit, but there was a crack in the roof through which starlight shone, outlining Song Qi’s silhouette. Yu Manyi watched him leave, then shifted her gaze to that crack, through which she saw the brilliant Milky Way outside.

There were so many stars in the sky—more than she’d ever noticed while living in the Yu household—so dazzling it felt like they might spill out and fall into the rivers beyond the horizon. She committed the starry scene to memory, heard the faint sounds of other boats gathering, then turned over and went back to sleep.

The boat sailed through the night, and Yu Manyi was woken early the next morning by noise.

Outside the cabin, it was as loud as a market—louder than even the town’s market—with hawking calls mixing with the sound of paddles stirring the water. She struggled to sit up, just as the curtain of the cabin was lifted. Outside, Song Qi and Lu Xiangcang were standing on the gunwale, just having docked, speaking to people on another boat.

She wiped her face with her sleeve and, still drowsy, walked out and saw someone on the other boat handing over three bowls of thin noodles, spooning toppings over each before passing them to Song Qi and Lu one by one. When it came to the last bowl, Yu Manyi tactfully reached out and received a steaming hot bowl of Hangzhou Pian’er Chuan noodles.

She’d slept through the night and had arrived from Shaoxing to Hangzhou.

The boat selling Pian’er Chuan had a pot on board—its entire stretch of water was its storefront. Yu Manyi stood on the deck, quickly finishing the soup noodles. The vendor boat returned to collect their empty bowls from some dockworkers. Boats moved constantly around them, and many spoke with Shaoxing accents. Some wore long robes, others short coats, all with the dampness of having spent the night on the river.

Their own boat pushed forward a little further and finally docked beside the wharf. Someone was already waiting onshore, extending a hand to help Lu Xiangcang up and patting him on the shoulder in greeting. Yu Manyi could tell from the conversation that this man was Lu Xiangcang’s childhood friend from Shaoxing.

“This your classmate?” the man asked Lu Xiangcang, pointing at Song Qi and Yu Manyi. His accent had slight differences."Yes," Lu Xiangcang said, "once we cross the river, I’ll leave them to you. I still have to return the boat."

"Lu classmate isn’t sending us off?" Song Qi was already on shore. As he turned to help Yu Manyi up, she held onto his arm and asked this question.

The two of them used force together, and with Song Qi’s help, she was pulled up onto the shore. She heard him say, "I can’t send you any further. We have to cross the Qiantang River now, so we need to switch to another boat. Once we cross the river, we can take the train."

"So roundabout," Yu Manyi said. "Didn’t you go straight from Shaoxing to Shanghai last time?"

"That time I had to take a detour because of circumstances. Even going to Shanghai, you still have to transfer midway," Song Qi said. "Going by water first, then taking the train — that’s the fastest way."

It was lively on the water, and even more crowded on the shore. The people crossing the river were bustling, most of their accents from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, though slight differences could be heard. Yu Manyi and Song Qi followed that childhood friend of Lu’s, walking across a series of planks laid out over the muddy bank. The boards were long and narrow, and the morning fog was thick. From a distance, it looked like line after line of silhouettes, as if they were crossing the Bridge of Helplessness.

Lu’s childhood friend worked in the business of river crossing. Taking people across the Qiantang River was just one of their services. As luck had it, the wind was favorable today, so the ferry didn’t need to be rowed — with the sail hoisted, it could head toward the opposite shore.

There were a few porters on the boat, and two gentlemen in long robes. Only after them did Song Qi and Yu Manyi board.

Yu Manyi stared dazedly at the two gentlemen, suddenly thinking that Teacher Su had said he would go to Hangzhou first. He must have also worn a long robe, transferred at the same dock just now to a river-crossing boat, and was now enjoying the river breeze of the Qiantang River on a boat just like this.

She resented how irresponsibly he had fallen for Sister You, and how irresponsibly he had left. But as she looked out at the vast river, she suddenly felt how small people were. Such small people, daring to admit their helplessness and pain at the moment, and then leaving behind a stable life to reforge themselves in a wider world — that was clearly a very brave thing to do. She shouldn’t blame him.

As the ferry approached the other shore, the fog began to lift. Behind the dock was the train station, and the sound of the ferry horn overlapped with the prolonged whistle of a train arriving.

Yu Manyi stood on tiptoe, peering through the heads of people in front of her, and saw someone in uniform shouting loudly through a rolled-up paper megaphone, using both hands and feet to direct the congested passenger boats:

"Those going to the train station, this way!"

"The train to Shanghai is about to depart — if you’re going to Shanghai, hurry up!""If we don’t go now, we’ll be late! There’s a shortcut here, I’ll lead the way. Anyone else going to Shanghai? If not, we’re leaving!"

He called out the train number like a death knell, and the passengers leaping onto the dock crowded so tightly it was almost suffocating. Amidst the chaos, a young female voice distinctly different from the others rang out, crisp and loud.

"There are still some!" Yu Manyi raised one hand high to attract attention, while tightly gripping Song Qi’s hand with the other, dragging him out of the crowd—

"We’re going to Shanghai too!"