The endless reed marshes of Yazi Bay rustled softly in the wind.
Deep within the marshes, on a shallow mudflat far from the main shipping channel, several clusters of exceptionally tall and dense reeds had been bent down and tied together.
A dilapidated, abandoned boat lay stranded here. Beneath its tattered canopy, several young but sorrowful faces were deeply etched with the heavy burdens of life.
"The Dragon King incense money... has gone up by another thirty percent!"
Liang Badou let out a long sigh, his voice thick with helplessness. "The Golden River Gang clearly wants to suck the very marrow from our bones."
"My dad coughed all through the night," Li Hu said, his voice low and raspy. "We still don't have the money for his medicine. Most of the fish and shrimp we caught this morning went straight into filling that bottomless pit of Dragon King incense money... How are we supposed to survive like this?" As he spoke, the rims of his eyes turned red.
Hearing this, a look of profound misery washed over everyone's faces.
The exorbitant taxes and levies imposed by the government had already bent their backs, yet the local Golden River Gang still forced them to pay for the "Dragon King incense."
They called it Dragon King incense, but it was actually a water lantern fee.
At the beginning of every month, gang members would carry iron lanterns along the river, demanding payment from door to door. Painted on the lanterns was the blood-red character for "Transport," and the wicks were soaked in fish oil, emitting a foul, pungent stench when burned.
If a fishing family couldn't afford to pay, a bowl-sized hole would be gouged into the bottom of their boat that very night. The next day, an extra drifting "water lantern" would appear on the river--a floating lantern cobbled together from broken boat planks, with a corpse almost always submerged beneath it.
Those who paid received a single green fish scale to nail onto their doorframe, which was considered the "Dragon King's protection."
Yet everyone knew that this scale was stained not with divine grace, but with human blood.
"All our money at home went toward the Dragon King incense. We can't go on like this..." In the corner, Chen Qing frowned deeply.
He had transmigrated into this world half a month ago, born in this life into a destitute fisherman's family.
Their so-called home was merely two battered fishing boats tied head to tail, crudely lashed together with hemp ropes and rotten rags, the gaps between the planks stuffed with wet mud and reed fluff.
Father and son had made their living by fishing. A year ago, his father, Chen Wu, had been seized to work on the canal, and nothing had been heard from him since.
In this chaotic world where human life was as cheap as grass, the loss of a regular family's breadwinner was no different from a fatal disaster.
His mother, Lady Han, stayed at home weaving fishing nets, earning a meager pittance for her hard labor.
Their family, like the over two hundred thousand ant-like poor in Gaolin County, was pinned firmly to the very bottom of the muddy swamp.
Making a living in this world was harder than ascending to the heavens!
The government's taxes stripped them of their skin and flesh layer by layer, and then the local gangs used their knives to finely scrape out the remaining marrow.
Academy tuition? That was the exclusive domain of the gentry's sons.
If a child from a poor family wanted to learn a few characters, they had to chop wood by day and steal light to study bitterly by night, consuming a single bowl of thin porridge a day. Only after enduring this for twenty years would there be a glimmer of hope.
Want to learn a trade to make a living? You needed a guarantee of a "clean" family background spanning three generations.
If a poor boy tried to force his way up, having his legs broken in the dark of night was a common occurrence.
Meanwhile, among the kiln workers in the west of the city, mastering the "Fiery Eye Secret Method" could earn one an artisan registration and a few full meals, but the price was thirty years of apprenticeship under conditions akin to a beast of burden.
The poor struggled at the bottom, muddle-headed and bewildered, unable to glimpse a single ray of light.
But Chen Qing was different.
Suspended in his mind was a destiny: [Destiny: Heaven Rewards diligence; Success Is Inevitable]
Heaven favors the industrious, and every effort yields returns.
This meant that for him, no skill carried a threshold of natural talent, and no bottleneck could block his path.
After quietly groping his way forward for some time, he discovered that only by practicing martial arts could he utilize this destiny to its absolute limit.
Practicing martial arts would allow him to take the martial arts examinations, attain official status, rise above the crowd, and completely transform his life.
Most importantly, he would no longer be bullied.
However, learning martial arts was by no means easy.
"Hu'zi, Xiaochun, Ah Qing, Erya." Liang Badou spoke again, his voice low and solemn. "River bandits have been rampant lately. Although the chances of running into them are less than one in ten, this fishing trade is, after all, a dangerous way to make a living. Unless we accept our fate like Old Uncle Wang and escort boats as coolies, working like beasts of burden to fish in their 'fishing grounds'... what are your plans?"
The faces of the others were filled with bewilderment.
They were all children of the Yazi Bay fishermen and childhood playmates.
Liang Badou's family was the best off; his father was a barefoot itinerant doctor, his mother did odd jobs at a restaurant, and it was said they even had a relative in the Inner City.
Erya's family was in the preserved fish business, so she always carried a heavy, salty stench of fish.
Xiaochun's father was a boatwright who usually helped fishermen repair their boats with tung oil and lime putty, so they managed to get by.
Li Hu had lost his mother at an early age, and his older sister had already married out. He lived with his elderly father, making a living by fishing. Now that Old Man Li had fallen ill and was bedridden, the household relied entirely on him to stay afloat.
"My dad wants to send me to Wanbao Hall to be an apprentice," Xiaochun said in a low voice, keeping his head down. "Signing a ten-year flexible contract means we can get a three-year advance on my wages."
Wanbao Hall was a pawnshop. An apprentice was responsible for cleaning, moving goods, running errands, and learning to inspect merchandise; they couldn't hope to touch the account books within the first three years.
Liang Badou looked at Xiaochun in surprise and said, "I heard that to become an apprentice at Wanbao Hall, you have to slip ten taels of silver to the Second Manager..."
The faint light that had just kindled in the eyes of Li Hu and Erya instantly died out.
Ten taels of silver was enough for a household in Yazi Bay to survive on for an entire year. Who could easily produce such an amount?
Xiaochun hurriedly explained, "How could our family have any savings? That silver was raised by my dad scraping everything together, borrowing from everyone he could."
He deliberately emphasized "borrowing money." In this dog-eat-dog world, concealing one's wealth was the key to staying alive, even in front of childhood friends.
Erya sighed, "If you can endure it until you finish, it's still a way out."
Chen Qing nodded silently.
A manager was a master appraiser responsible for valuation and inspecting goods. Aside from their regular pay, they undoubtedly pocketed a lot of extra money.
Liang Badou turned to Li Hu: "A Hu, what about you?"
Li Hu took a deep breath, casting his gaze toward the muddy, distant river. "Running boats... I might go to the south. I hear the wages are a bit higher there."
Erya froze and asked again, "Go where?"
"The south." Li Hu's gaze pierced through Yazi Bay. "My dad... my sister will look after him."
Everyone fell silent once more. Old Man Li was injured, and the heavy burden of life now pressed entirely on Li Hu alone.
The river wind wailed as it buffeted the boat's canopy.
Erya then said softly, "My mother asked Old Woman Wang to put in a good word, hoping to send me to Old Master Guo's house as a rough-work maidservant... She said that since I have decent features and am quick with my hands and feet, my monthly allowance could be two hundred copper coins more." Her voice dropped even lower. "Actually, in a wealthy family, one can also see a bit of the world."
Liang Badou nodded and finally looked at Chen Qing: "Ah Qing, what about you?"
Chen Qing was concise: "I plan to practice martial arts."
Practice martial arts?!
The others all froze, as if they had misheard.
Liang Badou waved his hand and laughed, "Ah Qing, you're talking nonsense again."
Chen Qing said slowly, "I'm serious."
"At an ordinary martial arts hall, the apprenticeship fee alone is ten taels of silver, and they still have to inspect your bone structure and natural talent." Liang Badou frowned deeply, shaking his head repeatedly. "And that's not all. Food and lodging cost at least two taels a month, medicinal baths cost one tael, weapons... How could practicing martial arts be that easy?"
It was said that literature was for the poor while martial arts were for the rich, and this was by no means an exaggeration.
Entering a martial arts hall was merely the threshold; actually practicing martial arts was a bottomless pit that required a continuous supply of meat to nourish the body.
There had been people in Yazi Bay who indulged in such delusions before, only to waste their time and end up heavily in debt. The slightly luckier ones merely became gatekeepers or courtyard guards for wealthy families.
Erya and Xiaochun also shook their heads in secret, clearly believing that Chen Qing's idea was unrealistic.
Li Hu opened his mouth, but ultimately swallowed his words.
Erya looked at Liang Badou: "Brother Badou, what about you?"
Speaking of himself, Liang Badou's back straightened quite a bit unconsciously. "My Third Master is a clerk in the River Department. My dad said that I should first follow him to read and learn characters. In a few years when Third Master retires, he will find a way to recommend me..."
"Brother Badou, you're going to become an official?!" Erya's eyes lit up, her voice rising. "Then wouldn't that mean... you're going to strike it rich?!"
The faces of the others instantly revealed unvarnished envy.
To the poor residents of Yazi Bay, a job as a yamen runner was already an incredible "official," let alone a clerk who held actual power. To be able to study under one and succeed them in the future was a great fortune they wouldn't even dare to dream of.
"Nothing is set in stone yet; I'll just learn from Third Master first." Liang Badou was, after all, a youth, and the smile at the corner of his mouth could not be suppressed. "We all came out of Yazi Bay, so we should gather more often in the future to look out for one another."
The others all nodded in agreement.
If Liang Badou truly managed to rise in the world, maintaining their friendship now would provide a rare avenue of opportunity in the future.
After chatting a bit more, Erya and Xiaochun's attitude toward Liang Badou became noticeably warmer.
After a short while, everyone left the reed marshes by small boat and returned to Yazi Bay.
Chen Qing walked quickly toward his family's connected boats.
This world was filled with gangs, and there were plenty of desperate criminals waiting to rob people on the roads. Danger lurked everywhere.
Just as Chen Qing was about to reach home, a harsh shout suddenly echoed from ahead:
"You dog! The upper reaches are the territory of our Golden River Gang, and you dare to go there?!"
"I'll show you what it really means to light a water lantern!"
Near his own dilapidated boat, the door plank of his neighbor Aunt Gao's house had a large crack ripped through it.
The old cloth curtain hung askew, several earthenware jars lay shattered across the ground, and the stench of rotting fish and shrimp mingled with a pungent odor hung in the air.
Aunt Gao sat paralyzed on the mud, holding her head and sobbing, while Uncle Gao was pinned firmly to the ground by two fierce-looking Golden River Gang thugs dressed in short tunics. His forehead was bruised and swollen, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were filled with humiliation and despair.
And the culprit behind all of this was none other than Qian Biao of the Golden River Gang.
He was stockily built, wearing a silk jacket left open to reveal a hideous scar across his chest.
Qian Biao was primarily responsible for collecting the "Dragon King incense" money from each fishing boat.
This Golden River Gang not only collected the "Dragon King incense," but also funeral fees, which they called "yin boat guiding silver," charging two hundred copper coins per corpse; otherwise, the body would be dumped into the middle of the river.
There was also the so-called "water ghost dowry," which forced the bride's family to pay up, or else a "water ghost" would come to snatch the bride.
As for these "water ghosts," everyone knew exactly who they really were.
Marriages and funerals--every single event was used to squeeze profit from the very bones of the poor fishermen.
Who dared to disobey? Their fishing nets would be slashed to pieces in the dead of night, dead rats would mysteriously appear in their cabins, or more directly, an "accidental" collision would send their fishing boat straight to the bottom of the river.
The fishermen of Yazi Bay hated and feared them, turning pale whenever they were mentioned.
"Oh, Ah Qing!" Qian Biao spotted Chen Qing and walked over with large strides. "Look at this, look at the mess Old Brother Gao has made."
He let out a sigh, looking as if he were the one who felt the most heartache. "That upstream fishing ground is the territory of our Golden River Gang. Old Gao broke the taboo... Sigh, there's really no choice, the gang's rules cannot be broken! My heart doesn't feel good about this either!"
Chen Qing also put on a look of deep distress. "Manager Qian speaks the truth."
"Ah, life is truly hard to endure these days. Look at how the price of fish has plummeted. Oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar--which of them hasn't gone up?"
Qian Biao changed the subject, the smile on his face becoming more sincere. "Ah Qing, has your family been able to get by lately? Seeing how difficult things are for you and your mother, my heart... truly doesn't feel right."
"If it's not enough, I can actually lend you a sum of emergency money. One hundred copper coins will accumulate two copper coins of interest daily, settled every day. The interest is crystal clear, and I absolutely won't cheat you. You just need to use your family's dilapidated boat as collateral!"
Chen Qing kept a smile on his face, but a sudden chill rose in his heart, and the sound of Aunt Gao's sobbing behind him seemed to grow clearer.
Behind Qian Biao's "righteousness" lay a cold calculation. One hundred copper coins accumulating two copper coins of interest daily sounded like small change, but when the interest compounded, the annual rate was terrifyingly high; it was practically sucking their marrow and crushing their bones.
The collateral had to be the Chen family's boat, which was the very lifeblood of a fisherman.
Qian Biao was dead set on the fact that this mother and son were weak and easily bullied, having long since viewed the Chen family as meat on the chopping board waiting to be taken.
Chen Qing's bitter smile deepened, and he clasped his hands repeatedly. "Thank you for your concern, Boss Biao! You are too benevolent! However, for now... we can barely scrape by. If it truly isn't enough, I will come to beg you."
Seeing that Chen Qing wouldn't bite the hook, the smile on Qian Biao's face instantly turned cold and stiff, his flesh merely twitching perfunctorily. "Fine. Whenever you need it, come find me anytime."
His gaze swept over Chen Qing, carrying a trace of imperceptible malice. "Hurry back, don't keep your mother waiting."
The words "waiting" were deliberately slowed down, sounding like care but feeling more like a cold threat.
"Ah, thank you, Manager Qian, thank you, Manager Qian!"
Chen Qing forced a grateful expression onto his face and walked quickly toward his family's two dilapidated, connected fishing boats.