There was not a glimmer of light in the distance. Darkness enveloped everything around them.
Only the little boat had a lamp burning.
"What brings you to Far Mountain Ferry? Looking for relatives or visiting friends?" the boatman asked casually.
"Neither. Just going to have a look around," Li Ping'an said.
"Have a look around?" the boatman asked in puzzlement. "What's there to see in a place like that?"
"Nowhere worth visiting?"
"With war and chaos everywhere, what could be worth visiting!" the boatman said. "Just staying alive is good enough. If that's what you have in mind, you'd best turn back sooner rather than later."
"Well, I'm already here."
The boatman rambled on. "There was constant fighting at Far Mountain Ferry a few years back. Plenty of people died.
"They say the whole ferry landing was stained red with blood.
"Lonely souls and wandering ghosts often drift around there. Frightening stuff.
"Later, the big battles stopped, but it stayed a mess, with little skirmishes breaking out all the time.
"Mounted bandits and thieves murder people and steal their goods..."
Li Ping'an nodded slightly, his head lowered as he drank his noodle broth.
Cold gusts blew over them from time to time.
"If it's so chaotic, why do you stay here, boatman? Why not move somewhere else?"
"Me? I'm waiting for my son!"
"Oh?"
"My son's made something of himself. He went to the capital to sit the imperial examinations.
"He could recognize characters at three and was studying at five. It's no easy thing for a poor family to raise a scholar."
The boatman's face beamed as he spoke of his son.
Kitten's nose bobbed up and down, as though catching the scent of something rotten.
Kitten turned to look at Old Ox.
*Had Niu Niu been secretly farting