Overseas Students and the Maoshan Firebrand

Hooooonk!

The enormous blast of the steam whistle scattered the gloom over the docks.

Moored at the riverbank was a large passenger ship called the Blackwater.

It was an aging steam paddleboat, three stories tall, with a wooden hull and a steam boiler brought by foreign powers at its heart.

Black smoke belched from its funnel, carrying the smell of coal cinders.

Yellow talismans were pasted all over the ship. A huge taiji diagram covered the rumbling steam boiler in particular. The combination looked absurd, yet it had an aesthetic distinctly its own to the Great Xin Dynasty.

"Tickets! Move it!"

The sailor at the ticket checkpoint had one eye and carried an iron rod as thick as an arm. He kept order with a vicious glare.

Li Xiang handed over a second-class ticket.

The one-eyed sailor glanced at it, and his manner softened a little. He pointed toward the stairs. "Second deck, on the left. Room B-3. Don't get lost."

Li Xiang boarded without trouble.

There were plenty of passengers aboard, from all walks of life.

The cabins were dim, the passageways narrow, and yellow kerosene lamps hung along the wooden walls. Compared with steerage, where people were packed together amid a reek of sweat, second class was much more pleasant.

First class was better still, but it cost ten silver dollars. Only people of real status and standing bought those tickets.

The upper crust laughed and talked together; no common folk passed among them.

A mere scrap picked from beneath their fingernails would be enough to sustain an ordinary person for life.

Li Xiang found his room on the second deck and pushed the door open.

It was small, with six metal bunks stacked in two tiers, but it was clean. A round porthole offered a view of the river outside.

"This is second class? The gap between rich and poor in this era is even wider than I imagined."

After stowing his luggage, Li Xiang felt the Golden Cicada in his belly start making a fuss again. It definitely had nothing to do with his having skipped breakfast.

"Were you a starving ghost in your last life?"

Helpless, Li Xiang rubbed his empty stomach and headed for the ship's dining room.

Second class had a small common room with a few round tables, where simple meals and tea were served.

Quite a few people were already seated there, mostly chatting idly to pass the long journey.

Li Xiang found a breezy corner by the window and ordered five steamers of buns, a bowl of plain noodles, and a dish of fennel beans.

"All that for one person, sir? Aren't you afraid you'll burst?" The waiter's eyes widened.

"I'm still growing. I get hungry fast." Li Xiang brushed him off, but his chopsticks never stopped. Food vanished into his mouth like leaves before a gale.

As he ate with his head down, a rough voice rang through the cabin's speaking tube.

"Listen up, everyone!"

It was the captain, an old hand who had sailed the Blackwater River for sixty years.

"We're bound for Linjiang County. Even with the current, it'll take a day and a night."

"Those who travel the Blackwater River often know its rules, but I need to warn the greenhorns."

Li Xiang stopped chewing.

The captain's voice brooked no argument, with a threatening edge to it.

"First, don't go crowding the rail during the day. If you fall in, not even an immortal can save you. The things down on the riverbed are mighty hungry."

"Second, and most important: after nightfall, no matter what you hear—even if your own mother and father knock on your door, or someone screams for help—you must not open it. And you sure as hell must not leave your room!"

"If anyone breaks the rules and gets somebody else killed, I'll be the first to throw them overboard to feed the fish. Is that clear?!"

When his voice died away, the whole cabin seemed to grow quieter.

Li Xiang looked out the porthole. It was still early, yet vapor hung thick over the river, turning everything gray and hiding both banks from sight.

The Blackwater River was even more dangerous than the rumors said.

Now and then, a massive piece of driftwood floated past the ship, looking vaguely like some enormous creature's back.

Those things on the riverbed... Water Ghosts and river monsters? Or fish that have turned into monsters?

In times like these, stepping out the door is a trial by tribulation.

Li Xiang complained inwardly, but he ate faster.

An impassioned discussion at the next table caught his attention.

Several young people in their early twenties sat there, wearing the Zhongshan suits that had become popular in the south. They had cut off the queues of the old dynasty, and their faces shone with the spirit and indignation of youth.

One look at their clothes said they were well-off young men and women who had read the new books.

"Friends, in going to study in the Eastern Seas, we bear the great responsibility of saving our nation!"

A young man in gold-rimmed glasses rose to his feet, speaking with passion and sweeping gestures.

"Look at what we've seen along the way! Warlords divide the country from within, foreign powers circle it from without, the court is corrupt and useless, and the people are ignorant and numb. Yet those old fossils still cling to their rotten codes of hierarchy and morality. It's sheer stupidity!"

"Exactly!" A young woman with ear-length hair chimed in, her eyes full of longing.

"A senior who's been to the Eastern Seas told me they've learned the technology of the Western powers. They have mechanized factories everywhere now, and automobiles run through the streets. People value science and reason. Meanwhile, we're still mired in feudal superstition, burning incense and praying to Buddha for safety."

"We're going abroad to study and find the truth that will save our country." Another bespectacled young man pushed up his glasses. "Only by completely overthrowing this rotten old world, ****, can our country find a way forward. If we stay here, we'll only be buried with it!"

"Right! The Great Xin Dynasty is rotten to its roots. We have to find a new path!" The young man in gold-rimmed glasses even slapped the table. "Tradition, rites—those things devour people!"

"What we must do is sweep all the trash of the old era into history's dustbin!"

"We'll build a brand-new world, a scientific world without superstition!"

"Maoshan, Mount Longhu, and the rest are relics of the old era, holding back civilization! If I meet any of those Daoists, I'll teach them a lesson and show them what science is. Truth is written in books!"

Their voices were loud enough to draw glances from the other diners.

Some looked disdainful, dismissing them as children talking through their hats.

Some were unmoved and kept their heads down over their soup.

Others shook their heads to themselves, sighing at young people who had no idea how high the sky was or how deep the earth ran.

Li Xiang nibbled his fennel beans and listened with interest.

Their words sounded harsh and naive, but he had to admit the light in their eyes was sincere.

It was the light of idealists, though it seemed rather fragile in a world with Profession holders.

The new Profession system brought by foreign powers suggested that mechanical science alone might be one path, but it certainly was not the only one. Besides, was the foreign powers' Mechanical Ascension really so clean?

"Well said!" One of the young men raised his cup. "To our ideals, and to overthrowing this rotten Great Xin Dynasty. Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Just as their fervor reached its peak, a cool voice cut in.

"If you think the Great Xin Dynasty is failing, then help build it. If you think the people are ignorant, then enlighten them."

The young people in the middle of their impassioned speeches froze and turned.

In the shadows of a corner sat a young Daoist, drinking tea.

He looked rather battered. His robe was torn in several places, as though by sharp claws, and gauze covered part of his face. He watched the young people coldly.

It was Lin Xuanguang, the Maoshan disciple Li Xiang had briefly encountered at the docks.