Chapter 596 — Bounty on the River Barge

CHAPTER 596

Bounty on the River Barge

The board at Reed Bend landing had been painted that week, and the ink was still bright.

WANTED, ALIVE. A RAGGED ALCHEMIST-SLAVE AND A MAD BOY. 3,000 STONES.

Below the words was a sketch of Shi Feng’s face, neat and clean, the way it had looked in Ning Zhe’s folder.

Shi Feng stood in the crowd with Ji Yuanhe on his back and read it twice.

So the old man is the alchemist, and I’m the mad boy, he thought. Very clever, Receiver Ning. Nobody hunting a mad boy will look for a 3 Mark. Still, they could have written “handsome”.

“Four hundred and six,” Ji Yuanhe said into his ear.

At the noodle stall beside the board, three men looked up at the same moment. Each of them had a gold front tooth, and all three teeth flashed together.

“Big Brother! That’s them!” Gou San shouted.

“That’s a beggar and his granddad,” Gou Er said, slurping his noodles.

“The granddad’s counting!” Gou San said. “The board says mad!”

“Three thousand split three ways is a thousand each,” Gou Er said, putting down his bowl.

“Split by rank, it’s fifteen hundred for me,” Gou Da said, standing up.

They were the Gou brothers, known on this stretch of the river as the Gold-Tooth Trio. Gou Er and Gou San were late Golden Core. Gou Da, the biggest, was early Nascent Soul.

Shi Feng could defeat them in ten breaths. That would give every witness a story to carry downriver. Ning Zhe would hear about it. He needed passage, not public admiration.

So he turned and ran.

He went along the bank at a beggar’s stumbling run, with Ji Yuanhe bouncing on his back. Behind him, the Trio piled into two skiffs and came after him down the river, oars flashing.

“One!” Ji Yuanhe said with the first stroke. “Two! Three!”

“That’s right, count their strokes,” Shi Feng said cheerfully. “If they ever catch up, we’ll bill them for the exercise. A morning run along the river, with an old man on my back. In Wanhe, that’d cost them a fortune.”

“Stop, you mad brat!” Gou San yelled from the first skiff.

“Trash! Stop running!” Gou Er shouted, rowing harder.

The first skiff swung in close to the bank to cut him off. Shi Feng stepped onto its bow as it slid past and took the Slag Weight out of his ring.

He set it down on the oar-lock.

Crack!

The oar-lock, the bow and a good piece of the hull went through the bottom together. Gou San and Gou Er found themselves sitting in the river up to their chins. Shi Feng put the Slag Weight back in his ring and stepped back to the bank.

“Twenty-two,” Ji Yuanhe said.

He kept running before the soaked brothers could see where he’d gone.

Round the next bend, a fat grain barge lay at anchor across half the river. Shi Feng jumped from the bank to its rail, scattering a dozen passengers.

Gou Da’s skiff came round the bend too fast to turn, and rammed the barge’s side with a loud bang.

“My paint!” someone roared from the stern. “Pole those dogs off!”

Five bargemen ran to the rail with long poles and began jabbing at the skiff. Gou Da grabbed a pole, came up it hand over hand and swung himself over the rail.

“Do you know who the Gold-Tooth Trio of Reed Bend ar—” Gou Da began.

Shi Feng took him by the collar and dropped him over the side.

Splash.

Nailed to the barge’s rail, right by Shi Feng’s hand, was another copy of the bounty sketch. While the bargemen and passengers were still cheering, he pulled it down, folded it and slid it into his sleeve.

The barge master came stomping up from the stern. He was a broad, sunburned man with a beard like a scrubbing brush.

“Mou Dagui. This is my barge,” Mou Dagui said. He looked at the rags, the old man counting on Shi Feng’s back, and his face soured. “Those dogs were chasing you for sport, eh? Beggars. I don’t carry beggars.”

“We’re not beggars, Master Mou,” Shi Feng said politely. “We’re customers.”

He took a single pale leaf out of his sleeve. It had silver veins and smelled of frost. Mou Dagui’s eyes narrowed.

“Appraise the leaf first, Master Mou,” Shi Feng said. “Then tell me what sort of customer you think I am.”

Mou Dagui only looked at the leaf.

“Stolen,” Mou Dagui grunted. “Three hundred. That’s charity.”

“Frost-Vein Leaf, Soul Formation-grade,” Shi Feng said with a bright, perfectly polite smile. “Three thousand stones at any Pavilion counter. You’re offering me a tenth. Let’s do the sum together. Three thousand, minus your three hundred, is two thousand seven hundred stones of charity from me to you.”

“Six hundred,” Mou Dagui said. “Nobody on this river buys leaves from beggars.”

“The salt boat behind you does,” Shi Feng said at once. “Its master offered me twelve hundred yesterday. His mother’s sick.”

Mou Dagui glanced upriver. No salt boat was visible, but he couldn’t prove that part of the story false. He looked back at the leaf, reluctant to let it go.

“…Eight hundred,” Mou Dagui said.

“Nine hundred,” Shi Feng said, “and passage to Wanhe for two, with rice.”

Mou Dagui chewed his beard for a while. Then he gave one short, grudging nod.

“Nine. Passage. Rice, no meat,” Mou Dagui said. “And you sleep by the grain sacks.”

“Deal,” Shi Feng said, and handed over the leaf.

[Cash: 900]

Shi Feng accepted the loss happily. A man who sold a rare herb cheaply looked like a lucky thief. Holding out for its full price would make people remember him. For now, ten days’ passage with Ji Yuanhe mattered more than the difference in stones.

Mou Dagui counted out the stones with the face of a man who suspected he’d been robbed and couldn’t work out how.

“Ten days to Wanhe,” Mou Dagui said. “Bring trouble on my deck, and you swim.”

Behind them, the three Gou brothers stood dripping on the mud, arguing about whose fault it was. Then Gou Da saw the passengers laughing at the rail, and stopped arguing.

The anchor came up.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Three iron grappling hooks bit into the stern rail, their ropes pulled tight. At the far end of them, Gou Da’s skiff was coming hard through the water.

“One,” Ji Yuanhe said, as the first gold tooth came over the rail.