WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Raised by a Ruthless Swordsman ◈
Chapter 46: Waterway
──────
How far had we gone? Perhaps dawn was breaking, for the fog gradually began to thin.
Before long, the pale gray surface of the water cleared, and the hidden surroundings slowly emerged.
Pavilions and gazebos lined the shore, their eaves wreathed in morning mist.
Seeing them from afar on the road and seeing them while floating on the water were entirely different. If lanterns were lit beneath every one of those eaves, it would surely be quite a sight.
Before, I had thought boating parties nothing more than idle amusements for gentlemen with too much time on their hands. Only now did I think I understood why they went to the trouble of launching boats for such gatherings.
When I said as much aloud, Chae Ryeon laughed softly.
“If you come again, you should take a ride with me next time.”
For a moment, an image of myself on a pleasure boat with Chae Ryeon crossed my mind. I casually agreed and turned my eyes back to the scenery.
The boat crossed the broad lake and gradually approached one end of it. In the distance, where the shores drew together into a narrow entrance, a stone watergate stood.
The lake water, full to the brim, seemed to flow beneath that gate and into the waterways within the city.
When the boatman eased the pole, the boat slowly slid beneath the narrow watergate. Stone walls pressed close on both sides, and a brief shadow fell over our heads.
The current surged once, rocking the hull. Then the boat emerged beyond the watergate.
The scenery changed completely.
The pavilions and gazebos of the lake were gone. Houses built out over the water stood packed tightly together. Women came out carrying laundry, while boats large and small passed through the narrow waterways.
Stone bridges passed overhead again and again. Most were high-arched bridges, and the boat passed beneath them easily. But for a few low ones, the boatman warned us beforehand, and we had to duck our heads to get through.
We traveled through the city’s waterways for quite some time.
The channels twisted and branched so intricately that I could not tell where one led or where another began.
One alley gave way to another, and one bridge to the next. Yet the boatman traced those confusing waterways as if reading the lines of his palm, never hesitating once.
Meanwhile, the sun gradually rose. The dawn chill that had settled over the water lifted, and clear sunlight fell upon the eaves and laundry of the riverside homes.
As the narrow channels slowly widened, the boats became more numerous. Boats laden with cargo and boats carrying passengers passed busily by.
One passing boat caught my eye. Wooden crates were stacked upon it like a mountain, weighing the hull down until it seemed almost ready to sink beneath the water.
Would it not go under like that? As I watched it idly, Chae Ryeon spoke beside me.
“Isn’t it fascinating?”
I glanced over and found her smiling.
“You said you spent a long time in the mountains. You must be seeing something like this for the first time.”
“Is it all right to load it that heavily? The side of the boat is nearly touching the water.”
“Most cargo boats travel like that. That is nothing.”
Chae Ryeon answered casually, then added with a sly smile.
“Though sometimes they get too greedy and splash sink right in the middle of the river.”
“...Really?”
Startled, I looked back at the boat. Chae Ryeon covered her mouth and snickered.
I could not tell whether she was teasing me or whether such things truly happened.
Still doubtful, I examined the boat again. Yet it drifted farther away without a care, bearing its mountain of crates.
Before long, dark city walls rose in the distance as though blocking the waterway. A large watergate gaped beneath them, swallowing and releasing all the passing boats.
Our boat was carried along with that flow and entered beneath the gate. Thick city walls briefly blocked out the sky overhead.
As we passed beneath that dark, tunnel-like space, only the sound of rowing echoed dully against the stone walls.
That did not last long. Light soon appeared ahead, and the boat emerged beyond the city walls.
Beyond the bright opening lay a familiar forest of masts.
Porters carried crates across planks between boats pressed side by side, while on another boat, fresh-caught fish were being scooped up in heaps.
People who looked like brokers moved through the crowd, arranging deals. Elsewhere, people argued over fares and cargo, pointing fingers at one another.
“This is the busiest place. If you want to take a boat anywhere from Hangzhou, everyone gathers here.”
Chae Ryeon launched enthusiastically into an explanation I had not even asked for.
“I like places like this. West Lake is beautiful, of course, but somehow it is too quiet, isn’t it?”
I found myself nodding at her words.
It was something I had felt throughout the past few days beside West Lake. Its beauty was beyond question, but that surface, calm as though dead, had somehow left me feeling empty.
I had been born and raised by a shore where waves crashed against the coast. No matter how I looked at it, water so still and silent felt lacking.
Perhaps it was because I would soon see those waves again that a quiet anticipation rose within me.
Whether I felt that way or not, Chae Ryeon was too caught up in her own excitement to pause. That boat carried this, that boat had come from there. She chattered for a long while, pointing from one boat to another.
As I gave suitable responses and listened only halfheartedly, our boat gradually left the bustle behind.
The waterway opened up before us. The dense forest of masts receded behind us, revealing the main river, where yellow-brown waters curved onward in a powerful flow.
Only then did the boatman put away the pole and take up the oars. Once we entered the broad river, the boat moved deeper and more heavily through the water.
The boatman angled the bow upstream and headed toward the opposite bank, crossing at a slant against the current. Even so, the swift water kept pushing us downstream.
The boat rocked sharply beneath my feet. It had not been like this when we drifted along with the current at Lanxi, but as we crossed the river, the water struck the boat from the side and sent it pitching again and again.
After being tossed by the waves for a while, something felt strangely missing. When I thought about it, I realized I had not heard Chae Ryeon chattering for some time.
What was going on? I turned slightly to look beside me.
At first glance, Chae Ryeon seemed no different from usual. But on closer inspection, her lips were pressed tightly together, and her eyes kept cautiously moving between the side of the boat and the water.
Had the girl who said she liked rivers become frightened now that she was in the middle of one? Thinking this was a fine opportunity, I spoke lightly.
“Who was it that said she liked rivers?”
Chae Ryeon flinched and turned toward me. Perhaps she was annoyed that I had seen through her, for she pressed her lips together even more firmly and shot me a glare.
“I’m only a little dizzy.”
Even as she said that, one hand quietly gripped the side of the boat. Her prim expression was so amusing that I let out an involuntary snort.
Chae Ryeon was about to respond when the boatman suddenly spoke without looking back.
“You should hold on tight. The middle is the roughest part.”
The moment he finished speaking, the boat lurched hard.
“Eek!”
Chae Ryeon swayed sharply to one side. Without thinking, I reached out and caught her by the shoulder.
“Didn’t he tell you to hold on?”
“I, I was holding on!”
Though she snapped back, one hand gripped the side of the boat tightly while the other had somehow seized the sleeve of my arm. It seemed she was in no state to take a joke now.
I withdrew the hand that had supported her and lowered my own stance, settling my weight. It was a habit my father had taught me with a stern face and a hint of laughter whenever he saw me tossed about by the waves.
Just as the boatman had said, the middle of the river was truly fierce. Yellow water twisted into whirlpools and battered the sides of the boat, while the boat skipped atop it like a fallen leaf. Clenching their teeth, the boatman struggled to keep the bow from being caught and turned by the current.
We continued onward, tossed about for quite some time. At last, the current striking the hull began to ease, and the waves beneath our feet gradually settled.
As soon as the current eased, the hand clutching my sleeve quietly let go. Chae Ryeon cleared her throat once, then abruptly moved to sit near the bow as if nothing had happened.
She seemed to have completely forgotten how she had clung to my sleeve the entire time. Her back looked remarkably composed.
Suppressing the laughter threatening to escape, I raised my head and saw that the opposite shore was already close.
As we drew nearer, the ferry dock across the river filled my vision. Boats lined up there no less densely than in Hangzhou, while porters and travelers hurried busily on and off.
Beyond the dock, warehouses and inns stood packed together. People unloaded goods and set out on journeys in a constant stream. At a glance, it was clear that this place was no less bustling than Hangzhou.
Yet its atmosphere was quite different. There were no city walls or stone-paved roads, only the bustle of goods moving in and out.
I turned and looked back toward the shore we had crossed from. Across the river, Hangzhou’s city walls stretched long in the distance.
They were not impossibly far away, yet with the wide river between us, they somehow seemed distant indeed. Having crossed those fierce waters once, the distance that had looked close enough to touch now felt immeasurable.
So much could differ across a single river.
Once we left the broad river, the boatman set down the oars and took up his pole again. Pushing against the riverbed with the long pole, he slowly guided the boat toward the pier.
At last, the side of the boat touched the pier at an angle. The boatman pushed once more with the pole to bring us close, then threw the mooring rope and tied it around a post.
There were more waterways ahead, so why were we tying up here?
As I stared in puzzlement, Chae Ryeon spoke as though she had read my thoughts.
“This boat only comes this far.”
She went on to explain that the boats that crossed the river were different from those that traveled the inner waterways. We had to unload here in Seohung and transfer to a boat bound for Yeongpa.
The more I watched her, the more it seemed there was nothing this girl did not know. She knew which waterways led where and even where we had to change boats.
“You know a great deal. Have you been this way before?”
Chae Ryeon looked back toward Hangzhou across the river and smiled faintly.
“I’m supposed to be Young Master’s guide. What use would I be if I didn’t know at least this much?”
Though she answered that way, there was something strange in the look she gave Hangzhou across the river.
“If you want to go back, you may.”
“Oh my, are you planning to leave me behind and go alone?”
Chae Ryeon narrowed her eyes at me.
She truly was an expert at teasing people.
Instead of answering, I shook my head and adjusted the sword slung over my shoulder.
“...Let us go.”
Chae Ryeon laughed softly and stepped off the boat first. I followed soon after, and the boatman who had docked us bowed deeply to Chae Ryeon.
“Travel safely, Miss.”
“Thank you.”
Chae Ryeon lightly bowed in return. The boatman immediately readjusted the pole, turned the empty boat around, and poled it back toward the river.
As I stood for a moment watching the boat recede, Chae Ryeon shook out her skirts lightly and turned around.
“Now we need to change boats. This way.”
I followed her into the dock. Before long, Chae Ryeon stopped before a passenger boat.
It looked different from the one we had boarded in Guju and from the one we had taken in Hangzhou. Its hull was long and low, with a long roof built over it so that passengers could sit inside.
It seemed suited for traveling far through narrow waterways.
When Chae Ryeon approached, the boatman who had been tending to the side of the boat greeted her. They exchanged a few words, and the boatman took our luggage aboard.
There was no sign of bargaining over the fare or even asking where we were headed. It seemed everything had been arranged beforehand.
Was this boat also Haomun’s?
Chae Ryeon entered beneath the roof first and took a seat, then looked back at me.
“Come aboard. We still have a long way to go from here.”
I followed her onto the boat. The narrow deck swayed lightly beneath my feet.
Soon, the boatman untied the mooring rope and planted his pole. The boat quietly left the dock and turned into a narrow waterway that stretched east.
Beyond the dock receding behind us, Hangzhou’s city walls lay hazily across the river. Once we rounded a bend in the waterway, even they vanished from sight.
* * *
The waterway ran between empty fields on either side. Dry rice paddies with only stubble left behind, bare trees stripped of all their leaves, and reed beds withered beside the water slowly passed by.
A wind blowing upriver was sharp enough to make me pull my collar close.
Chae Ryeon seemed to have completely adjusted to the waterways by then. Sitting beside me, she chattered without pause. What those fields were used to grow, what town lay beyond that mountain, where this waterway branched and how far it led.
She even told me that we would reach Yeongpa in six days.
She explained clearly not only the things I asked, but even the things I had not asked.
It was astonishing to hear. She knew which village had suffered a poor harvest, what goods were plentiful in which market, and even which dock had fallen quiet.
For someone who had supposedly grown up only within walls, she knew the affairs of places a thousand li away as if they lay in the palm of her hand. They said there was nowhere Haomun could not reach. It seemed all that news had found its way to this girl as well.
As I listened to her chattering, the short day was already waning. Around the time the water was stained red by the setting sun, the outline of a large town appeared beyond a distant bend in the river.
Long city walls encircled it, and dense roofs filled the space within. It did not seem as large as Hangzhou, but it looked far bigger than Guju.
“It seems we will stay in Shaoxing tonight.”
Chae Ryeon looked toward the town as she spoke. Shaoxing. If it was a city of that size, we would likely have a comfortable place to sleep that night.
Before long, the boat reached the town’s dock. Though evening was approaching, people still moved busily about.
When we stepped ashore, the boatman made no move to follow. Wondering why, I learned that the boatman could not leave the boat and would simply spend the night aboard it.
Chae Ryeon quietly said something to the boatman, then led the way toward an inn.
The dock remained crowded even as darkness fell. Porters unloaded cargo from newly arrived boats, while laborers took the loads on their backs and hurried somewhere else.
Warehouses stood along the water, and beyond them, lamps shone here and there from inns and small guesthouses. Carried on the wind beyond the smell of the river was a sour yet savory scent from somewhere nearby.
Chae Ryeon moved through the dockside streets with familiarity and entered an inn not far away. Inside was rather lively with travelers eating dinner.
Chae Ryeon called over an attendant and asked for two rooms. Then she turned to me and asked what I wished to eat.
But what did I know? It had only been a little over a month since I came down from the mountains. I had sampled some proper meals in that time, but I had eaten whatever was set before me. I was still not used to choosing from names on a menu.
“Anything is fine. Order whatever you wish to eat.”
Chae Ryeon smiled faintly and named several dishes to the attendant.
The attendant bowed repeatedly, then hurried off toward the kitchen. As I idly watched the attendant leave, something suddenly came to mind.
“Is that person also from Haomun?”
When I asked in a low voice, Chae Ryeon covered her mouth and burst into laughter.
“What would you do if every inn attendant in the world belonged to Haomun?”
As her laughter faded, she lowered her voice slightly.
“Not everyone who works for a living belongs to Haomun. In fact, far more people know nothing at all. In this town, a tea house serves as the branch office. All the news gathers there.”
That was true enough. If they planted their people everywhere they went, even a thousand would not be enough.
Before long, the food arrived. There was dark-braised freshwater fish, tiny shrimp stir-fried whole, and black pickled vegetables.
It looked quite plain, but when I picked up a piece and put it in my mouth, it was unexpectedly good. The salty, deep flavor clung to my tongue. After enduring cold river winds all day, I quickly finished a bowl of hot rice.
Chae Ryeon must have been hungry as well, for she moved her chopsticks diligently. For some time, neither of us spoke, and only our chopsticks moved. By the time the dishes were nearly empty, we both set them down.
Once my stomach was full, the tension finally left my body. I was about to suggest discussing the rest of our journey when Chae Ryeon rose before I could speak.
She said that we should rest, since we had to set out early the next day.
This journey was nothing to me, but Chae Ryeon had suffered from motion sickness all day and had traveled roads unfamiliar to her. She must have been quite tired. With a small laugh, I nodded.
“Let us do that.”
With that, we went upstairs and entered our separate rooms.
The room was simple. Bedding was laid out on one side, with a single lamp by the pillow and a small table for setting down luggage. That was all.
When I opened the window, I could see the darkness in the direction of the dock. The sour smell drifted in again with the cold wind.
What in the world was that smell?
Thinking I would ask Chae Ryeon tomorrow, I stood my sword beside my pillow and lay down without changing clothes.
As I settled into the warmth, the boatman suddenly came to mind.
At this hour, the boatman must be hungry as well. Bound to the boat, the boatman must have prepared something to eat.
Still, imagining the boatman chewing on dry food in the cold boat made me uncomfortable after having just eaten my fill of hot rice.
Whatever calculations those people had, the boatman had come along solely to bring me to Yeongpa. Considering his effort, it seemed only right to bring him even a few bites of warm food.
It was not as though it would take much effort.
I got up from the bed. If there was a place selling dumplings near the inn, I thought I would buy a few and give them to the boatman.
With that, I took up my sword and left my room.
From beyond the second-floor railing, I could see the main hall below at a glance. The dinner guests still occupied their tables, eating and drinking as they talked noisily.
Then, someone crossing through that bustle and leaving the inn suddenly caught my eye.
They wore a dark outer robe with their head covered. Yet their slender frame and the way they walked looked strangely familiar.
Was that not Chae Ryeon?
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
