Chapter 71 If you can't get up, you'll fall...
Steward Chen and his two sons met them at the bottom of the boat. He looked at the geese with their feet tied and quacking loudly in the basket, and glanced at Meng Qing and Du Min several times.
"This is my son's goose companion. I brought it along to keep him entertained on the road," Meng Qing explained apologetically. "Won't it bother you, sir? If it's inconvenient, we can take the boat carrying paper offerings and funerary objects."
“My wife and several young ladies are on the boat, along with a few live geese that can’t understand what I’m talking to. It might be a bit of a hassle,” Butler Chen said with a troubled expression. “The boat behind us is for luggage and cargo. There’s a lot of stuff, so you can’t just wander around on it… Wait a moment, I’ll go ask the master what he thinks.”
Meng Qing nodded.
"How about we don't bring the goose?" Meng's mother suggested. She grabbed Wang Zhou's hand and said, "Look how many people are on the boat. If there's no food left, they'll eat your goose. Let's keep the goose at home, and Grandma will take care of it for you, okay?"
Wang Zhou pouted and leaned against Meng Qing's leg, staring silently at the geese in the basket.
"Wait a minute and see what the master thinks." Meng Qing looked at the ship. "If we sail for two or three months, he won't be able to read or write, and he won't be able to speak clearly. If he has nothing to do to pass the time, and he starts making a fuss, it will be my father and me who suffer."
A moment later, Butler Chen came down and beckoned to you, saying, "Madam is merciful and allows you to bring the geese on the boat, but you must keep them in check and prevent them from defecating everywhere."
"Oh!" Meng Qing was overjoyed. "I will definitely thank Madam when she has some free time."
Du Li carried two baskets of geese onto the boat first, while Meng Chun and his father helped carry the luggage up. Du Min stood below the boat guarding the remaining luggage.
"Mother, we're leaving now," Meng Qing said goodbye to her mother.
The tears that Meng's mother had just stopped started falling again. When Wangzhou saw this, he also pouted and burst into tears.
When Meng Qing saw Du Li come down, he gestured for him to quickly carry Wang Zhou up.
"Mom, don't cry. It's not like my sister and Wangzhou aren't coming back." Meng Chun shouted, "The child left happily, and you've made him cry so many times."
"Grandma, don't cry. Be a good boy and go upstairs with your dad." Meng's mother waved to Wangzhou. "Be a good boy and listen to your parents. Eat your food properly and don't be naughty, okay?"
"I want to go home, waaaah—" Wang Zhou swayed its tail and shook its head like a fish out of water in Du Li's arms.
“I went up too,” Meng Qing said.
Mencius' mother wiped away her tears and instructed, "There are many noble people in Chang'an. They have power and are narrow-minded. They can kill people at the drop of a hat. If you can endure it there, it doesn't matter if we, as a lowly family, suffer a little loss. Just don't act like you do at home."
Meng Qing nodded, "I know. I come from a merchant background, and my greatest strength is being flexible and adaptable."
Mencius' mother didn't believe this. She knew the child she raised. Meng Qing seemed to be flexible and adaptable, but deep down she was a proud and unyielding person, even more so than Du Min, the scholar. She could bow her head, but she couldn't keep it down forever.
"Second sister-in-law, it's time to board," Du Min called out.
Meng Qing bid farewell to her mother once again and followed Du Min onto the boat.
Meng's father and Meng Chun waited on the boat until the other passengers boarded before they got off.
As they passed each other, Meng Chun tapped Meng Qing on the shoulder and said resentfully, "You're so heartless, you brought the geese but not me. Come back soon."
Meng Qing laughed heartily, "I'm leaving now. You'd better expand your business."
She and Du Li left the Paper Horse Shop, and the shop no longer needed to keep a low profile.
The ship weighed anchor, and Steward Chen's two sons removed the ladder, allowing the ship to slowly leave the shore.
Meng Qing leaned against the ship's railing and waved vigorously. Du Li, carrying Wang Zhou, also came over. Wang Zhou was still sobbing with tears in her eyes.
With a "whoosh," the boat hoisted its sails, and the bustling ferry crossing, reflected in the clear river water, quickly disappeared into the distance. The people at the ferry crossing shrank inch by inch until they became a blurry shadow, and in the blink of an eye, the ferry crossing was no longer visible.
The boat left Wumen, circled half of the city wall, and headed northwest.
It wasn't until evening, when Wu County was no longer visible, that Meng Qing finally stepped off the deck.
"Mom, when are we coming back?" Wangzhou asked, her voice nasal. "I miss home, I miss Grandma, I miss Uncle, I miss Grandpa."
“We’ll come back when your third uncle passes the imperial examination.” Meng Qing hugged him and said gently, “Your father, mother, and third uncle will all be with you, along with the goose. We’ll go to Chang’an to see the city, and when you come back, we’ll tell your uncle about it. Your uncle really wants to go to Chang’an, but your mother won’t take him.”
"Is Uncle being disobedient?"
"Yes! He didn't listen to Wang Zhou."
Wang Zhou bit his lip and chuckled softly.
“Wangzhou is the most obedient, so I’m willing to take his goose friends to Chang’an to see the excitement,” Meng Qing coaxed.
Wang Zhou wiped away his tears, slid off Meng Qing's lap, and said, "I'm going to feed the geese."
Du Li immediately led him out.
For long journeys, stability is paramount. The official boat hired by Master Chen was a flat-bottomed boat with only one deck, nearly seven zhang long and two zhang wide. Everyone lived in the passenger cabins below deck. However, the master family lived in the aft cabin, while Meng Qing's family and Du Min lived in the fore cabin. The geese they brought could only move around in the front half of the deck, their claws tied with ropes to restrict their movement.
Du Li had already fed the geese enough to stop them from squawking. When Wang Zhou came to feed them again, they refused to eat. So Du Li led him to clean up the goose droppings.
After an incense stick had burned, Meng Qing came up to call for dinner, saying, "It's getting dark, and the wind is strong on the boat. Bring him down."
It was dark below deck, and through the planks, one could hear the gurgling of the water. Wang Zhou listened intently and whispered, "The water ghosts in the river are drinking water, making gurgling sounds."
Du Li slapped him across the face, "Don't talk nonsense."
Meng Qing chuckled softly.
Back in the cabin, Du Min was already waiting inside. Two oil lamps were lit, but they couldn't illuminate the darkness.
“You probably won’t sleep well tonight. Last year, when I took a boat to Dongdu, it took me four or five days to get used to the sounds of the boat on the water.” Du Min handed them chopsticks.
"How many days will it take to get to Luoyang from here?" Du Li asked.
“For the past two months, during the dry season, the boats have been traveling slowly,” Du Min said. “From Wu County to Luoyang, we have to pass through Changzhou, Runzhou, Yangzhou, Chuzhou, Sizhou, Suzhou, Songzhou, and Zhengzhou. We will stop to resupply there, and we can disembark for an hour or two. If our host is not in a hurry, we can stay for a day or two along the way. When I traveled with Mr. Qinglun, he visited six friends and paid respects to four friends along the way. He was also invited by a friend to lecture at an academy in Suzhou, and I studied there for more than half a month.”
“The favor you received came from Dr. Xu’s personal connections. When you return to your hometown after high school next year, remember to personally go and thank him,” Meng Qing reminded her. She whispered, “Whether he was authorized by Master Chen or not, the benefit you received is real.”
Du Min nodded, "Okay, I've got it."
Wang Zhou hurriedly swallowed the fish in his mouth, and pointed at Du Min, saying, "Third Uncle, be good."
Du Min was taken aback.
“Yes, yes, yes, Third Uncle is obedient. I will only take him with me if Third Uncle is obedient. I will not take him if your uncle is disobedient.” Meng Qing gave Du Min a wink.
“Yes, Uncle, you must listen to me too.” Du Min cooperated fully.
Wang Zhou opened his mouth, waiting for his father to continue feeding him.
"You're so obedient," Du Min praised.
Wang Zhou's mouth gaped even wider.
Du Li chuckled and obediently scooped up a little more porridge to feed him.
After the meal, Du Min left. He lived next door. Although he lived alone, there was not much room to move around. Du Li and Wang Zhou's luggage were piled up here, as was the half bag of rice they ate on the goose road.
The ship was pitch black, and the boatmen were all unfamiliar faces. It was not suitable to leave the cabin at night, so Meng Qing and Du Li took Wang Zhou to wash up and go to sleep.
Just as Du Min said, the night was quiet, and the noise from the river was amplified. It was in the fore cabin, and the boatmen were walking on the deck, so no one could sleep well at all.
They couldn't sleep well at night, had no energy during the day, and felt sleepy as soon as they ate. As a result, Meng Qing, Du Li, and Wang Zhou spent the ten days of their voyage in a daze.
"We're about to leave the Jiangnan section of the river. Next, the boat will enter the Yangtze River. Come out and see, Yangzhou is not far away." Du Min knocked on the door.
Meng Qing responded, and after a stick of incense had burned, she and Du Li led Wang Zhou onto the deck. A wide river appeared in front of them. Under the dark sky, the water was silvery with a bluish-gray tinge, like a large fish revealing its silvery-gray back.
"The river ahead is a naturally formed channel. The Jiangnan River was dug by laborers. It was left over from the previous dynasty and has been widened today," Du Min explained with great interest.
“I know that every year when we perform corvée labor, we dredge river mud, which means dredging the mud from the canal. In another month, the river level will drop another three to five feet, exposing the silt above the water. We dredge it up and carry it to repair the city walls or create farmland. The following spring and summer, when the river rises, the banks are empty, and the river water washes away the silt in the middle, pushing it to the sides. The following winter, when the river level drops again, we come back to dredge.” Du Li gestured.
Du Min turned around and looked at the endless silvery-white river line, muttering, "How many people would it take to dig to the end?"
"Didn't you see it when you were on the boat last year?" Du Li asked.
Du Min shook his head. "I left the ship in mid-October last year and traveled with Mr. Qinglun through the prefectures along the way, mostly by land."
“You’ll see it this year, if there’s still a canal ahead,” Du Li said.
“Yes, after Yangzhou is the Huainan Canal,” Du Min said.
The boat entered the Yangtze River. The Yangtze was deep and the wind was strong, so the boat traveled quickly and arrived in Yangzhou in two days. Du Min stood on the boat and saw many scholars gathered outside Yangzhou. Some people came to ask the boatman where the official boat was going and whether they could board it, but Master Chen refused them all.
Du Min suddenly felt a sense of urgency and began to keep a book in his hand every day, no longer bothering to watch the boat or feed the geese.
In early October, when the boat reached the middle section of the Huainan River, the water level suddenly dropped, and the riverbanks were filled with laborers covered in mud. The overseer's whistle emitted one sharp and piercing sound after another, urging the laborers to walk faster and dig the mud with more force.
“The year Wangzhou was born and the year before, I was doing this kind of work during my service.” Du Li looked at the laborers sweating in the cold wind, holding Wangzhou in one arm and holding Meng Qing’s hand in the other. He said to her, “If it weren’t for you, I would have had forty-one more years of corvée labor, a total of eight hundred and twenty days.”
Last year, Meng Qing bought six bolts of silk to pay off Du Li's twenty days of service, and he did the same this year.
“Wangzhou, you must be successful.” Du Li told the child, “If you are not successful, your children and grandchildren will appear among these people after they turn twenty-one.”
Wang Zhou couldn't understand, but Du Min did. He carried not only his own destiny, but also the destiny of his descendants and Wang Zhou's descendants.
If you can't get up on this journey, you'll fall down.
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