In early summer, Liu Acheng, Wu Fusheng, Liu Huzi, and Gao Heng sat their horses side by side at the mouth of the Cao'e River, gazing out over the vast sea.
They were not, of course, performing some ritual of forming a clique and declaring their ambitions. Rather, Liu Huzi and Gao Heng, both northerners, had never seen the local customs and scenery of Kuaiji, or even experienced summer so far south. They were curious about everything, naturally including the southern sea in summer.
So Wu Fusheng, as the local, naturally had to show his two visiting relatives around.
As for Liu Acheng, he had learned that Liu Huzi was bringing men to collect the goods and had come specially to see him. He had simply happened to join them.
Since he was already there, as the saying went.
Yet once he actually arrived, he really did grow bored. It was not as though he had never seen the sea at Kuaiji. He had dug for crabs several times, along the coasts south, north, and east of Kuaiji. More troublesome still, the three beside him seemed especially reserved, perhaps because this was their first meeting. Wu Fusheng and Gao Heng, in particular, had such staid dispositions despite their youth.
Even Liu Huzi, normally fairly lively, seemed to have grown reserved under the influence of this atmosphere.
There was nothing Liu Acheng could do about it. He could only stare into space along with the other three.
This time, however, Liu Acheng really had missed what lay right beneath his nose. He had never realized that his arrival was precisely what had made the atmosphere so stiff... A moment's thought made it obvious: to Gao Heng and Liu Huzi, this fellow's rise and transformation had simply been too rapid.
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