Read Chapter 5: — THE RIVER GOD

Zhenjiang had changed less than Lin had.

The hills remained. The river remained. Beigu still rose above the water. But the laughter had gone out of him somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five.

He entered the city dressed as a scholar.

On a passenger boat he met a young man who seemed to possess the exact quantity of self-confidence Lin had lost.

The youth rescued a singer from a drunken merchant by distracting the man with a ridiculous argument about how wealthy boatmen could become.

Then he stole the merchant’s chicken leg while delivering the lecture.

Lin watched him with reluctant amusement.

A canal officer interrupted the youth’s performance.

“I am Su Shanhe, supervisor of transport at Zhenjiang.”

The young man immediately became polite.

Five minutes later, once Su had walked away, he muttered an insult behind his back.

Lin invited him to drink.

“My name is Lin Zuo.”

“Tang Zheng.”

The name struck Lin with no immediate certainty, only a small disturbance.

“You are from the capital?”

“I grew up there.”

“What brings you south?”

“I’m looking for my father.”

Lin’s cup stopped halfway to his mouth.

Before he could ask more, the boat lurched violently.

Passengers screamed that the river god was angry.

Dark shapes moved beneath the surface, bumping the hull.

Su Shanhe strode to the rail and shouted, “There is no river god.”

He jumped into the water.

Moments later the hull ruptured.

The boat began to sink.

Tang Zheng fell overboard and immediately proved he could not swim.

Lin went after him.

A young woman from the red rescue service helped pull Tang to safety.

Her name was Su Xiaoxi.

Tang opened his eyes, saw her, and forgot how to speak.

Lin recognised her first.

Ten years earlier she had been the little girl in Yagyu’s arms.

The angry boy beside her had been her brother, Su Shanhe.

The past, Lin realised, had not remained buried.

It had simply grown older.