Painter Gu Yuan caught a chill in the rain, developed a high fever, and fell unconscious.
In the courtyard, the Gu Clan was still burning incense and praying. Inside, the room reeked strongly of medicinal herbs. Gu Yuan's sweat-soaked pillow seemed to accompany him into a dream; he struggled without stop, his face drawn with pain. All for a single painting, he had driven himself to such a state...
Within the dream.
Gu Yuan rode a tiny wooden boat, drifting with the current amid raging waves and muffled thunder.
He felt that he was not dreaming. It was as though he had returned to his childhood, when he had sneaked away from his parents to row a boat on the Kun River. A sudden downpour fell from the sky, and the little boat appeared and vanished amid white-capped waves. The spray rose high—so high that, to the child Gu Yuan, it resembled the hills beyond the city.
Beneath a black sky stretched boundless, towering waves.
The raindrops struck his face with icy coldness. The bow of the tiny boat rose high, then crashed back down. Waves poured into the boat, and his feet could clearly feel the frigid River Water.
"Someone... cough, cough... save me..."
Rumble!
Lightning tore through the vault of heaven, illuminating the black clouds and flashing so brightly that Gu Yuan's vision went white. He could see nothing.
Panicked, he clutched the gunwale tightly to keep from being flung out. The thunder shook his ears until they ached as if they were losing all sensation. The wet gale plastered his soaked clothes against his body. There were no oars, no shore in sight; he could only remain in the tiny boat and pray for Heaven's mercy.
"Help..."
His cries for help were swallowed by the waves and