The Kingdom of Four Rivers

by Guy Salvidge

  “Okay,” Liang said, clearly surprised at her reaction. “But I think he listens to you more than he does me.”

  “I can't understand why Cheng would be interested,” Ji Tao said. “It's not like him to go for something risky like that.”

  “I'm surprised myself,” Liang said. “Usually it would be me suggesting such a thing, but now that your brother has suggested it....”

  “Bao Min does good business selling that junk. Do you think we could sell it too?”

  “Maybe we could,” Liang conceded. “It's just a change of direction for us, that's all.”

  “I thought you hated the trader life.”

  “I don't hate it, but it's boring. I'm just wondering whether this is such a good idea.”

  Ji Tao and Liang helped to pack up the stalls and load the caravan with potatoes. As it turned out, Tuan had found a last-minute buyer for the sugar, but the rate had been so poor that they might as well have kept it for themselves. As they were packing up, Bao Min came over, his pockets visibly loaded with coin.

  “Come to gloat?” Liang said. “We don't want to buy any of your trinkets.”

  “I've come to see Chen Tuan,” Bao Min said. “Is he here?”

  “What can I do for you?” Tuan said, coming out from the back of the stall.

  “Ah, Mr. Chen. Your reputation precedes you.” He bowed slightly. “My name is Bao Min; you may have seen my stall today.”

  “I am aware of your business,” Tuan said.

  “My products are in great demand. I have sold over one hundred items this morning alone.”

  “That is good to hear,” Tuan said, “but it is no concern of mine.”

  “That's precisely what I want to speak with you about,” Bao Min said.

  Cheng came over and shook hands with the trader. “Bao Min has a business proposition to put forward, uncle.”

  “You know of this?” Tuan asked. “Tell me your proposition, but do it quickly. I am a busy man.”

  “Bao Min wants us to go to Shulao with him,” Cheng explained.

  “Shulao?” Tuan said.

  “Let us not talk here,” Bao Min said. “Sir, please come to my house this afternoon so that we may discuss the matter further. Will you come?”

  Tuan considered the matter briefly. “If my nephew wishes, then I will consider your proposition. Liang, what is your opinion on this?”

  This was Liang's chance to speak his mind. He surprised Ji Tao by saying that they should give it their consideration.

  “Then it's settled,” Bao Min said. “Shall we say two o'clock?” It was agreed.

  For Ji Tao, it was another afternoon to fill in, but today she did not feel like going to the bar. Instead she paid a visit to Kalliyan's sister, who was holed up in the north wing. The twins were nowhere to be seen. Ambika looked harried, unkempt. Her clothes were rumpled and her face was lined with worry. After an introduction from Kalliyan, Ambika got straight to the point:

  “I don't think we'll be following your uncle to Shulao,” she said.

  “Will you settle here?” Ji Tao asked.

  “I think so. The jungle is dangerous.”

  “Why not stay in Luihang until we return? It will only be a few days.”

  “Yes,” Ambika said. “I'm not sure I like it here; the people seem to resent us. They curse us when the Chens are not around.” Ambika leaned closer. “Even here at the hostel,” she said.

  Ji Tao saw the problem that Ambika faced: to return to Baitang would be dangerous, but to stay might also invite danger. And yet Ambika had made up her mind not to follow the Chens to Shulao.

  “What about Kalliyan?” Ji Tao said. “Will you let her come with us, should she choose to?”

  Ambika nodded. “I cannot prevent her from doing as she pleases. It is a difficult position for us.” There was a touch of resentment in her voice.

  “Did Kalliyan tell you how we did at the market today? We can't go on like that.”

  “She did. The Chens will have to do what is best for the Chens.”

  That was the crux of it. The Chens would help the Amars as long as it remained beneficial for both parties. Where interests diverged, the Amars would have to go their own way.

  “Please come with us,” Ji Tao said.

  “I cannot allow it. Already my son has nearly paid with his life.”

  Ambika dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and said goodbye to Ji Tao.

  Sitting on her bed, Ji Tao wondered what would come of this. Tuan had agreed to allow the Amars to travel with his family as a favour to them. As far as he was concerned his obligation ended here, now that Kalliyan and the twins had been safety reunited with Qiang and Ambika. It was unfortunate that there could not be an agreement on this matter, but what could be done?

  I need to talk to Kalliyan, Ji Tao thought. But where was she? Where, in fact, was anyone? Liang and Cheng had gone to Bao Min's with Tuan, but neither Kalliyan nor Sovann were at the hostel. Looking around, all Ji Tao succeeded in doing was running into Rong Li and Ping in the dormitory.

  “Ambika says the Amars won't come to Shulao,” Ji Tao told Rong Li.

  “I hardly blame her,” Rong Li said. “What does her husband say?”

  “I didn't ask.”

  “Then they will have to stay here in Luihang.”

  “We must help them somehow,” Ji Tao said. “We can't just leave them here.”

  “I do feel for Ambika,” Rong Li admitted. “If they choose to stay in Luihang, then Ping and I will stay to make sure they come to no harm.”

  “Mother!” Ping said.

  “Be quiet, my child,” Rong Li said.

  “I don't know why we have to protect them,” Ping said.

  “Go and find Yi Min,” Rong Li told her daughter. “I need to speak with Ji Tao alone.”

  Her face red, Ping ran off.

  “Now,” Rong Li said, “come and sit down. I want you to tell me what happened last night. Omit no details.”

  Ji Tao recounted the main events of the previous evening, downplaying her own drunkenness. There was little use in pretending that Liang and Kalliyan had not been together. Ji Tao explained how she had overheard Cheng and Bao Min talking about Shulao.

  “It is not like your brother to jump into things,” Rong Li said. “I would expect that kind of behaviour from Liang, but not Cheng. What's in it for him?”

  “I've no idea,” Ji Tao said truthfully. “But I agree it's odd.”

  “I will have to convince Ambika that Kalliyan should stay here too. I don't want her hanging around my son when I'm not there to supervise him.”

  “I don't think Ambika has any authority over Kalliyan,” Ji Tao said.

  “What about Qiang? Does she respect him?”

  “It doesn't seem to work like that in their family. Once they become adults, they are free to make their own decisions.”

  “Then I will have to convince her myself,” Rong Li said.

  Ji Tao left the hostel and went out onto the street. It was not long before she found Sovann and Kalliyan sitting in a park near the river.

  “Ji Tao!” they called out to her. “Over here!”

  Ji Tao went over to them. “I've been looking for you two,” she said, sitting down on the grass next to him.

  “Ha!” Sovann said. “I thought you'd have gone back to bed!”

  “I just felt a bit tired this morning, that's all,” Ji Tao said. “But hey, what about you, Kalliyan? What did she get up to last night, I wonder?”

  “She's told me all about it,” Sovann said.

  “I didn't sleep with him,” Kalliyan protested.

  “But you wanted to!”

  “I didn't say that!”

  Ji Tao laughed. “There's nothing to be ashamed of. I wanted to tell you that Ambika says the Amars won't come to Shulao.”

  “That's good for her,” Kalliyan said. But she wasn't smiling any more.

  Ji Tao continued: “And Rong Li says that you will have to stay here in Luihang too, Kalliyan
. Apparently Rong Li and Ping want to protect you.”

  “Kalliyan is coming with us,” Sovann said. “I don't care what the old bitch says. Sorry Ji Tao.”

  “If your aunt wishes me to stay here....” Kalliyan faltered.

  “No! She just wants to keep you away from Liang,” Sovann said. “What's next? Next will be, 'Ji Tao and Sovann must stay in Luihang too. For their own safety, of course.'”

  “There's no way I'm staying here,” Ji Tao said.

  “That's what they'll try to make us do,” Sovann insisted.

  “Then we need to make a stand.”

  “That's what I've been saying!”

  “Okay,” Kalliyan said. “So what do we do now?”

  “Ji Tao must talk to uncle Tuan,” Sovann said. “He will listen to her. All you have to do is convince him that it isn't fair for us to have to stay here.”

  “Well, it isn't fair,” Ji Tao said. “Rong Li has no right to force Kalliyan to stay. If Kalliyan and Liang want to get married, then no one can stop them.”

  “I never said I wanted to marry him,” Kalliyan said. “At least, I don't know yet.”

  “My cousin is a good man,” Ji Tao said.

  “Kalliyan will need time to think it over, of course,” Sovann said. “But remember our pact. We said we'd work together and stand up for ourselves. Well, here's our chance.”

  “I've just had a thought,” Ji Tao said. “We're all assuming that uncle Tuan will decide to go to Shulao. What if he doesn't?”

  “Then we'll go ourselves,” Sovann said. She appeared quite serious. “I've had enough of people telling me what to do.”

  Everything fell into place. When the men returned from Bao Min's, the look on Cheng's face said it all. He was beaming. Ji Tao could not remember her brother being quite so happy. The Chen and Amar families assembled for a big meeting in the men's dormitory.

  Ji Tao made sure she got in a quick word with Tuan before the meeting started. She explained the situation.

  “I hadn't intended on asking you to stay behind, Ji Tao,” Tuan assured her.

  “What about Kalliyan? Rong Li says she has to stay.”

  “Kalliyan can decide for herself, I'm sure.”

  The meeting began, and Tuan began to speak:

  “Bao Min will lead us to Shulao. He will provide the experience and expertise, and we will provide the caravans and gaur. Upon our return, we will split the proceeds fifty-fifty.”

  “You're going to give Bao Min half of everything?” Sovann asked.

  “He says that most of the city has been looted already,” Cheng said. “He knows where the remaining treasure is.”

  “You've been swindled,” Rong Li said. “Why do you need Bao Min at all? You could go there yourselves.”

  “Half of what we find will be ten times more than we can make selling potatoes,” Tuan said. “We must not allow greed to rule us.”

  “Tuan, my family will not be following you to Shulao,” Qiang said softly.

  “I understand,” Tuan said. “But I am led to believe that Kalliyan intends to come with us. Kalliyan, if this is your desire than you are most welcome to join us.”

  “Thank you, Chen Tuan,” Kalliyan said. “I would be honoured.”

  Rong Li glared at Kalliyan. “Ping and I will remain behind with the Amars,” she said.

  “Are we coming?” Roshan asked.

  “No,” Qiang replied. “It's too dangerous.”

  “But Yi Min gets to go!” Rame protested.

  “Silence!” Qiang said.

  “What about me, Papa?” Yi Min asked Cheng.

  “We will discuss that later,” Cheng said.

  So the party travelling to Shulao numbered eight: Bao Min, Tuan, Cheng, Liang, Ji Tao, Sovann, Kalliyan and Yi Min. They would take all three caravans, but most of their possessions would be left in Luihang, as insurance against the possibility of them not returning.

  The following morning, the party made for the north gate. They took only enough food and supplies with them to last a week. It was the morning of the ninth day.

  Chapter Four

  Things progressed smoothly on the first day out of Luihang. The river did not flood so readily here, despite the persistent rain. By the time the light began to fade, Tuan estimated that they were more than half way to the ruins of Jianyang. With luck, they would camp in Jianyang tomorrow night, and cross to the west bank of the Wu the following morning. Then Bao Min would lead them into Shulao.

  Setting up camp for the night, Ji Tao realised how onerous these daily tasks really were. Usually Rong Li coordinated all this, ordering her family this way and that. Rong Li would supervise the building of the fire, tell the men where to pitch the tents, and prepare a meal. Now this fell to Ji Tao, Sovann and Kalliyan. They found that it took much longer than usual for things to get done, despite having enlisted Liang's help.

  “Not like that!” Sovann said. “You need to cut the meat into thin strips, or it won't cook quickly enough.”

  “Sorry,” Liang said. “This knife is blunt.”

  “There should be a better one around somewhere,” Ji Tao said, rummaging around in the back of the caravan.

  As it turned out, Kalliyan was the best cook among them, and Ji Tao soon found herself deferring to the Amar woman. It was not long before Kalliyan was cutting the meat and heating the oil in the wok herself.

  They had set up camp near an unusual mound of earth, just metres from the bank of the Wu. The trees were smaller here, as though they had been cut down years before.

  “I have seen mounds like these,” Bao Min said, picking meat from his teeth. “There are more like it on the way to Shulao.” Bao Min chuckled to himself. “Legend has it that the mounds contain buried treasure.”

  “Really?” Liang asked. “Surely you jest!”

  “The treasure is thought to be guarded by ancient spirits.”

  “I am not afraid of ghosts,” Cheng said. “Perhaps we should start digging.”

  “No,” Tuan said. “If this is a tomb of our ancestors, then we must not disturb it.”

  “What do you think Shulao is, Father?” Liang said.

  “'What is Shulao?' my son asks.” Tuan stirred the noodles in his bowl and began to speak: “Shulao was an ancient city, even in the so-called 'old times.' It was a place of extraordinary wealth, situated on what was once a fertile plain. A hundred generations of farmers tilled this earth.

  “The people of this proud city always retained their independence, despite being a part of the Middle Kingdom. Even though Four Rivers was but a province of that great empire, the people here always thought of themselves as being different. Isolated from the other major cities in the east, Four Rivers had its own customs, dialect, fashion and cuisine. It was a Kingdom within a Kingdom. Four Rivers had declared its independence on several occasions over the course of history, always in times of great turmoil, but it was always brought back into the fold. That is, until the Great Thief came.

  “In those dark days, when a man saw his brother he did not recognise him, and when a child was born it spurned its mother's breast. The minds of men were twisted by the catastrophes that engulfed the whole country. Each province of the broken empire fought its neighbour, dreaming of one day reuniting the Middle Kingdom with itself as capital. All the Hundred Wars achieved was exhausting the spirits of the people even further.

  “Four Rivers did not dream of reuniting the Middle Kingdom, for it knew it was already a Kingdom in itself. But when the Great Thief took rain from the east and gave it to the west, the east turned rapidly into a desert wasteland. Millions starved, and millions more turned their hungry eyes west. Thus came the last and most terrible of the Hundred Wars. It was thought that the great city of Kinshao could be defended on the bank of the Great River. Its citizens had many months to prepare their defence. But there were too many invaders. Although the Great River filled up with so many corpses that it is said that you couldn't see the water, more came. Kinshao fell, its great shield
destroyed.

  “Shulao trembled. If Kinshao could fall, then surely Shulao would fall too. To the people of Shulao, the invaders seemed like the undead, and their leader the commander of Hell. The invaders were malnourished from years of starvation, and many fell in the march west. Plagues spread through their number, decimating their ranks. But for every one that fell, two more took their place. Small towns were razed to the ground by the invaders, and larger towns occupied. By the time the invaders reached Shulao, there were millions of foreigners in Four Rivers. Our own Baitang was briefly occupied, and Luihang laboured under new masters for almost two years.

  “The Battle of Shulao took place over four days and four nights. The citizens of the city gave their lives to the defence, and for a time it appeared that the resolve of the attackers might crumble. But then, on the third day of the battle, a terrible event changed the course of history. The Great Shield of Shulao, which the people had fought so hard to protect, was splintered by enemy bombs. This is known as the Eternal Sorrow. For this crime, the people of Four Rivers have never forgiven the eastern kingdoms. That is why enmity between east and west has been perpetuated for centuries. On the day that the Great Shield was destroyed, the old world died. This, my son, is what Shulao represents.”

  “Your father knows much about the old times,” Bao Min said. “But I know something of the new. I will tell you about how Shulao has slumbered through the years known as the Everlasting Peace.

  “In the decades after the war, Shulao's population dwindled. These were the years of fever, in which the climate of this once-fertile land was changing rapidly. Malaria and other diseases swept across the land, crippling those who tried to make their lives in the ruins of the city. In every crack in the pavement, a blade of grass pushed skyward. Over time, the roads were eaten up by weeds and foliage, until they were barely distinguishable. Vines and creepers began to colonise the buildings, like the slow unfurling of a clenched fist. Trees grew insidiously in the middle of streets. The wood-framed dwellings on the periphery of the city began to rot and decay. Within fifty years, Shulao was abandoned, its survivors retreating beneath the shields of Zhenghe, Luihang and Baitang.