All a Misunderstanding

In the twenty-first century of our universe, getting from Hangzhou to Xuancheng by car took a little over two hours. But in Da Ming, even riding hard, it took a full day to get there. Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had lingered in Nanyuan Village for a day and a night, and when they rode out of the village it was dusk again. The villagers had wanted them to stay another night, but they worried about their schedule and set off in a hurry. In those days there were no streetlights or such things; nighttime visibility basically depended on the moon in the sky. If the weather was good and the moon was full, it was tolerable; if dark clouds covered the moon, then the road was pitch black, and even if you carried a lantern or held a torch, the illuminated range was genuinely limited. Sun and Huang were lucky that night—a bright moon hung high in the sky, and moonlight poured down like white silver. Even so, their speed was far slower than by day. Traveling along the official road, hurrying all the way, they had covered barely a dozen li by the zi hour (one li is about 550 meters). Just as weariness began to set in, a post station appeared up ahead. They hurried to knock on the door until it was opened, slipped the attendant a small "tip," and settled in for the night. Nothing happened that night. The next morning they set out again and finally reached Xuancheng by the shen hour. Xuancheng was not as prosperous as Hangzhou, but it was still a fairly large county seat, and naturally it had a High-Speed Rail Gang branch. This time, Huang Donglai had learned his lesson. He did not let Sun Yixie go buy tickets alone, but went along himself. Unfortunately, there were still no direct tickets from Xuancheng to Luoyang. The two returned to the inn and discussed it. Since the two horses they had stolen from the mountain bandits were still spirited enough to run for days and nights, they decided simply to ride to Wuhu themselves, then cross the river by boat and head for Luzhou. From Xuancheng to Wuhu was still quite close—half a day's ride—so Sun and Huang stayed only one night in Xuancheng and reached the banks of the Yangtze River the next day. Sun Yixie had been in this world for quite a while, but this was his first time seeing the Yangtze River. In fact, in his former world he had never stood this close to the riverside looking at it. There was a saying: "The great river comes from the west—what year? Rushing straight down from Mount Min's peak." Amid the ten thousand li of wind, before the magnificent scenery, Sun Yixie could not help but be moved with a thousand feelings, and poetic inspiration struck. But unfortunately he had not a scrap of learning, and all he could squeeze out was one line: "Motherfucker, this Yangtze is really wide." This earned him a round of mockery from Huang Donglai, beginning with "Nonsense." To make a long story short, these two were not short of traveling money. They casually found a large boat at the ferry crossing and prepared to cross the river. However, they did not know that before they had even boarded the ship, they had already caught someone's eye…… …… On a fine, sunny afternoon with gentle waves on the river. A sailboat moved slowly on the river surface. This boat was specially used to ferry passengers across the river. It was very large—not only people, but even horses could be led aboard. Besides the boatman and some workers, there were about thirty passengers, including Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai. Normally this trip would not take very long—an hour with a favorable wind—but the accident……eventually happened. When the ferry reached the middle of the river, someone on one side of the gunwale started shouting. Immediately the crowd there began to shout and cry, wailing to heaven and beating the earth. Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai went over to look, and when they saw, they realized it was because on the river surface on that side, four fast small boats were now approaching quickly. Those four boats—sharp prows, tight sails, many oars, light frames—to someone like Sun Yixie, who often dealt with water, it was obvious at a glance that they were neither fishing boats nor passenger boats, but most likely pirate ships used by river pirates for robbery. Of course, even if you were not an expert, anyone who often traveled on this river could tell these people were not up to any good; otherwise they would not have had the reaction just now. Clatter—— As the four ships drew near, there was the sound of chains trembling one after another, and then eight "cross-chain hooks" were thrown one after another onto the large ship on this side, tightly hooked onto the gunwales. These hooks served not only to fasten the small boats to the large ship, but for experienced river pirates, they could also be used to board the ship. Tat-tat-tat…… Sure enough, in a short while, those people on the small boats stepped onto the chains one after another and jumped aboard. This bunch—some were bare-chested, some wore only a short jacket. Their trousers were mostly cut to seven-tenths length, tied with hemp rope or a belt, and their feet were all bare (so they could jump into the water and swim at any time). At first glance, none of them looked particularly burly, but every one had clearly defined muscles, bulging temples, puffed cheeks, and each held a short curved knife (convenient to hold in the mouth while swimming)……compared to the mountain bandits of Zouma Stronghold, these river pirates were undoubtedly much more formidable. "Quiet, all of you!" After steadying himself, the leader of the river pirates stepped forward two feet, roared loudly, and silenced the wailing passengers. "Grandpa I am a righteous bandit who robs the rich to aid the poor and does the will of heaven; I never indiscriminately kill the innocent. Those who know what's good for you come over here and kneel before me. Once we're done, we'll leave. Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite!" Hearing this, everyone on the big ship, whether workers or passengers, hurried over and knelt before them. The boatman knelt in front and led the shout: "Heroes, spare us! We boatmen have it hard too, earning our hard-earned money. Look at the fact that I have an eighty-year-old mother above and a nursing child below, and please show us mercy……" "Enough, enough. Grandpa wasn't coming for you anyway. Stay kneeling, don't speak." The river pirate leader impatiently interrupted the boatman's stock jianghu lines. Then his gaze swept over and settled on Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai. He couldn't help but notice them, because those two were the only ones not kneeling. Not only were they not kneeling, they were sitting on the opposite gunwale chatting and laughing, as if the river pirates boarding the ship had nothing to do with them. "Ha!" Seeing this, the river pirate leader actually laughed. He turned and exchanged a glance with his men nearby, then walked over to Sun and Huang. "Good brats. It seems you two already know…… Grandpa is here to find you?" Huang Donglai said nothing, gazing into the distance. Sun Yixie looked up at him and continued: "Which crew do you run with? Give your name first." "Hey!" The other was furious and laughed scornfully. "Guts, brat. You dare ask me to give my name?" He stepped back half a step, slapped his chest with a whap, and announced loudly, "Your grandpa I am a descendant of Gan Ning, Gan Xiongba. I am called 'One Flood Dragon on the Yangtze, Twin Absolutes of Sword and Bow, Gan Feihong.' Robbing the rich to aid the poor, doing the will of heaven……" "Ptooey!" Before Gan Feihong could finish, Sun Yixie spat a mouthful of phlegm to interrupt him. "You, a petty river thief, call yourself a Flood Dragon? I've never even heard of you. First tell me, where do you rank in the 'Thirteen Paths'?" These words changed Gan Feihong's expression. The so-called "Thirteen Paths" was a standard on the greenwood way for dividing territory and status. By status, on land there were four paths: "Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, Yellow"; on water there were four paths: "Universe, Primal Flood, Chaos, Wilderness." By region, they were further divided into four paths: "East, South, West, North." For example, in the Hebei area, when asked about the "Thirteen Paths," a top-tier greenwood hero could answer—"Sky high, clouds light, geese flying alone to the north." That meant he was of the "Heaven" tier among "Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, Yellow," operating in the "North," as "one person" alone. Another example: a third-rate band of water bandits who had banded together on the Jinsha River in Shu. When asked this question, they would answer—"Setting sun, west wind, sworn brotherhood as Primal Flood." That meant they were of the "Primal Flood" generation among "Universe, Primal Flood, Chaos, Wilderness," in the "West," a "group of people" gathering together. In short, as long as you included those key words in your answer, you could phrase it however you liked, depending on your own level of education. Furthermore, since it was called the "Thirteen Paths," besides the twelve characters mentioned above, there was naturally one more path—one singled out separately, called the "Dog Path." "Dog" in the underworld slang meant a dog. This path was specially assigned to those who had once been recognized by the "Thirteen Paths" but later did something so heinous, so inhuman, that even the greenwood way was ashamed to acknowledge you as a person, and would collectively hunt you down. So which path did Gan Feihong belong to? He belonged to no path at all…… Every trade had its rules. It wasn't that you were a "Flood Dragon" just because you said so, nor "Twin Absolutes of Sword and Bow" just because you said so. Otherwise Sun Yixie could give himself eight nicknames at any time, and after announcing them, the Martial World Alliance Leader would have to kneel before him. On the greenwood way, you had to be recognized by people in the trade before you could have a name and title. And the way to be recognized was that you first had to accomplish enough or significant deeds over a period of time, regardless of whether they conformed to Da Ming law, but at least enough to make your peers think you were a "good man"……before you could enter a path. So someone like Ma Si would never be acknowledged by the greenwood way from the start; he didn't even qualify to become a "Dog Path." Of course, he probably never intended to let others acknowledge him anyway. As for Gan Feihong……whether he was actually a descendant of Gan Ning was hard to verify, but he himself believed he was. He indeed wanted to do "robbing the rich to aid the poor, doing the will of heaven," and his brothers followed him with that idea. But he had only been out for less than half a year and had done nothing big. Nothing more than robbing these civilian ships on the river that looked especially rich and unkind, keeping some of the money and distributing the rest to the poor nearby. If you really asked him to rob an official ship, he wasn't afraid, but he had normal intelligence and knew that was taking his brothers to their deaths, so he didn't go. In short, with Gan Feihong's current "deeds," entering the "Thirteen Paths" was probably still a bit off, but he understood those rules of the greenwood way. Right now, asked by Sun Yixie like this, Gan Feihong immediately concluded that the youth before him was probably also from the path, because an outsider wouldn't ask about that the moment he opened his mouth. "I……" Gan Feihong felt it was embarrassing to admit straight out that he hadn't entered a path, so he stammered, "Does that concern you? Who are you?" "Ha!" Sun Yixie jumped to his feet at once, raised his eyebrows, and blurted out, "You'd better stand steady!" He also shouted loudly, "I…… am known as 'Pillar Holding Up the Sky, Jade Column Stirring the Surge; Golden Beam Spanning the Sea, Radiant Jade, Vast Sky'…… good brother of Hao Jingyu, the overall boss of the greenwood way water route, Sun Yixie." The first half of his statement almost scared Gan Feihong piss-less; the second half left him confused. But actually, Brother Sun wasn't completely lying. He did know Hao Jingyu. Because the overall boss of the greenwood way water route definitely had to come to Jiangnan to travel around; coming to Jiangnan meant coming to Hangzhou; coming to Hangzhou meant he had to deal with the fish trade here. To deal with them, you definitely had to curry favor with Brother Sun, this dock boss. Otherwise, whether you were a big boss or a small boss, you couldn't even get a mouthful of fish, right? So after some dealings, the two had met a few times. That was why Sun Yixie knew these underworld slang terms of the "Thirteen Paths." As for calling each other "brother," though……Hao Jingyu was thirty-six years old this year. In those days, he was more than old enough to be Sun Yixie's father. Moreover, even if age wasn't an issue, their friendship wasn't at the "brother" level. At best they were acquaintances on the surface, nodding friends. "What's wrong? Your expression says you don't believe me." Sun Yixie said. "Fine, then you just serve up board-knife noodles and wontons or whatever, and you wait and see if my Hao brother comes to avenge me after I die. Come on, come on…… hurry up and strike right here." As he spoke, he had already struck the pose of a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, pulling open his collar to bare his neck. Gan Feihong had no idea that Brother Sun's shameless acting and his gift for talking nonsense had merged into one perfected art. Seeing how confident the other was, that he knew the underworld slang and could even say Hao Jingyu's name, he didn't think too much and just believed it. "Wait wait wait…… Brother! Brother Sun! You're my brother!" Twenty-five-year-old Gan Feihong said to seventeen-year-old Sun Yixie, and grabbed Sun Brother's arm, supporting him. "This junior had eyes but did not recognize Mount Tai, mistaking the great brother for a passing wealthy bully. This brother deserves death." Huang Donglai stood to the side listening to their conversation, already laughing so hard he was about to crap himself, but he had to hold it in and keep looking at the river scenery. "Heh~ That's right." Seeing his deception succeed again, Sun Yixie beamed with joy, then put on a look of heroes admiring heroes and laughed. "We're all brothers, just a misunderstanding, hahaha……"