井水不犯河水
jǐngshuǐ bù fàn héshuǐ
Well water does not intrude into river water.
I'll mind my own business, you mind yours.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When I woke the next morning, it was to a throbbing headache. I could tell the barge was already underway by the swaying of the floor beneath me.

I lurched for an open window, feeling queasy.

Outside, the cool air and fresh spray from the river quelled my burning cheeks, and the queasiness soon vanished.

"Good morning!" Sanli chirped beside me. "You are just in time. We are almost to our destination!"

Sanli gestured behind me, and I turned to look.

Ahead of us the river widened out so much it was more like a lake. Wait, it is a lake, I realized. I had forgotten, the Zhang River emptied into Lake Lusu.

And in the middle of Lake Lusu stood...

"The City on the Water..." I said in wonder. Luzhou.

The Green Kingdom was famed for its prosperous and rich cities, that rivaled even the Golden City in splendor. Of the cities famous in the east, the most well known was Zhanghai, on the coast, lauded for its size and diverse trade. The next in size and splendor would be Linjing, the administrative center of the Green Kingdom.

The third city people usually spoke of when speaking of the Green Kingdom was Luzhou. The River City. The City on The Water.

Luzhou was as it was named. A city on the water. Constructed first at the edges of lake Lusu, instead of expanding inland, where steep mountains and precipices of stone waited, the city had moved out onto the lake. Over the years streets and homes and courtyards had been raised from the shallow lake bed and shored up with stone, creating a thousand small islands surrounded by canals and ponds.

Although not as large as Zhanghai, or as wealthy as Linjing, Luzhou held a charm all its own, and I wondered why I had stayed away so long.

I pulled myself up and out the cabin window. My toes curled on the wet wood of the deck. Sanli grinned at me as I walked past him to the prow.

Spreading my arms, I felt the wind across the lake.

The sky, the wind, the rain, the light as it fell through the clouds in strange angles across the lake.  The wind, catching spray from the top of waves and blowing it to my face, to mingle with the rain.

I took it all in, arms wide, breath deep.

And for a moment I had it. A small sense of what I had had before. The freedom. The adventure. The ability to go wherever I wished, do whatever I wanted. The possibility. Was this what I had missed?

And then the barge gave a great lurch, and my unsteady legs almost pitched me into the water.

As we got closer all the wonder of Luzhou came out to meet us.

Barges and ships and bridges, roofs and homes and balconies, all crowded with people. The city was just that, a city, but built on and above the water. Here canals were as common as roads, and many did business from their boats, pulling up to a low balcony of a shop to exchange goods and coin rather than walking in a door.

The canals were crowded with barges like our own. And over the canals, moon  bridges, their perfect rounded arches rising high and wide, allowed boats to pass two abreast beneath them.

In addition to the busy commercial areas, there were quieter residential areas. Beautiful gardens, built atop the water, traced with bridges that wound from villa to villa through floating leaves of lilies and lotus bushes alike. Like in Kageyama's pond, the lotuses rose from the mud, their blooms of white and sanded pink unfolding to reveal beauty akin to achieving enlightenment.

And, just like Kageyama's pond, golden and orange and white and grey-black, carp swam through the water around us. Not confined to a pond they could go wherever they wished. To the residential or commercial area, to scrounge the food that fell from merchant barges. Most cities had populations of stray cats and dogs, but Luzhou, Luzhou had a glimmering population of wild carp, and it added all the more to the city's beauty.

"I had forgotten, how beautiful Luzhou is," I said, not bothering to keep the wonder from my voice as I watched the city pass around us.

Beside me, Sanli said nothing, only smiled and took it all in with me.

We continued through the residential areas, until we passed a huge residence, with space for upward of twenty barges to dock in the small harbor before it.

Beside the wharf, great red doors studded with golden nails sat in the high wall that separated the outside city from the estate beyond. The doors were rounded, mimicking the moon bridges of the city.

"That's the royal residence," said Kageyama, as we passed. "We won't be staying there though."

I was glad. The Valley had been built recently (only three centuries earlier), but the royal residence of Luzhou was within my memory. The last time I had stayed there had been with Lu. He had spent most of the trip trying to find just the right words to depict the moon on Lake Lusu in autumn, while I had spent it roving the markets and eating whatever took my fancy.

Kageyama steered our ship slowly along the canals, coasting with the slow, natural current, until we stopped outside a small home of dark wood stretched along the canal. It was not large, no more than a few rooms on the second floor and few on the first, but the house  was situated on a corner. This meant the rooms opened up with views of the canal on one side, and a quiet lagoon on the other filled with thick-leaved lotuses on another.

"We will stay here," said Kageyama, leaping to the small dock before the home and tying the mooring rope through the iron ring.

I studied the dark eaves of the long house. No, it was not ornate as some of the residences we had passed, but it's location and solitude gave it a certain stately charm, and I longed to see the view from the upper floors.

"And whose residence is this, Lord Kageyama?" I said, stepping to the dock.

Kageyama looked up from the knot he was tying. "Mine."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kageyama gave us a quick tour. From the docks a narrow walkway led around the house and to the courtyard behind it. There the house made up two sides of the courtyard, a simple stone wall a third, and the fourth was taken up by a long low building that Kageyama declared the 'baths'.

I peered through the dusty pane of the low building. Inside I saw a small, cramped tile lined tub, that made even the small bath house at the valley seem palatial. But I supposed it was better than no bath at all.

I turned to see the two men contemplating a tree growing from the middle of the courtyard. "I planted it when I bought the house, before you were born," Kageyama said, pointing out the tree. "It is a sakura. A blossoming cherry. The seeds were brought from my homeland."

Kageyama went on to explain how he had bought this house and planned to live out his years here, when his oath to Lu finished.

"And so once I'm dead, you'll move here?" Sanli asked bluntly. Causing both Kageyama and I to wince.

"Yes. I suppose I will," said Kageyama slowly.

Inside Kageyama's Luzhou home was as sparsely decorated as his rooms elsewhere. There was no more than a chest of drawers or table in each room, with one simple item placed on it or in the decorative alcove. A vase, now empty, or a hanging scroll with some righteous phrase in calligraphy containing words such as 'diligence' and 'honor'.

In one room there was one scroll that caught my eye. There is much to be learned from a rainstorm the bold black slashes of ink read.

I liked it so much I asked Kageyama if I might have this room as my own during our stay. It was on the second floor, overlooking the canal below, where I could watch the barges pass.

Kageyama shrugged. "It is one of the smaller rooms, but if you want it, you are welcome. Bedrolls are in the closet." He gestured to the sliding doors.

"I want to stay in this room as well," Sanli said, attempting to follow me in. Kageyama wrapped an arm around the prince and dragged him down the hall, admonishing Sanli against being needy.

I placed my things in the corner carefully beside the single chest of drawers, resolving to keep them neat. There was something to be said for Kageyama's dedication to empty space. It helped clear the mind.

I made my way to the balcony, feet pattering across the smooth, varnished wood floor. Below a barge piled high with bright green cabbages passed, the boatman humming merrily to himself beneath his broad brimmed straw hat.

I had been surprised at first that Kageyama had chosen to buy a home for himself here in Luzhou. Kitsune were not known for their love of the water. But listening to the sounds of the water birds and watching the fish move through the canal below, I understood the charm that must have taken Kageyama.

"It is peaceful, isn't it?"

I looked up. Kageyama stood in the doorway.

I agreed with him, and he came to stand beside me on the balcony.

"Sanli and I are in the room beside you. Let me know if you need anything. A maid comes to clean regularly, but I do not keep servants here." Kageyama said, also contemplating the canal below.

"I will, thank you."

Kageyama sighed, but it was a sigh of contentment. "I always enjoy coming here. It feels apart from the world."

I laughed. "I am surprised. Your kind is not known to like water. And what need have you for a house? Don't you plan to kill the gods and return to Wa?"

Kageyama smiled bemusedly. "Do you really think I would attempt such a thing? That I would throw the whole of the empire into chaos just for my own gain?"

"I would," I said, smiling back at him.

Kageyama snorted. "I'm sure you would." He turned back to the canal. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you like. Even after Sanli and I return to Linjing," said Kageyama, surprising me.

I smiled. "Oh? The little prince told you I am planning to leave soon, didn't he? I would have thought you'd be eager to be rid of me for good, Lord Kageyama."

Kageyama just smiled and folded his hands before him, continuing to look down at the river below. A long black carp flicked it's tail and dove deep into the canal.

There was a pounding of feet from the hall and Sanli slid into view. "Let's explore the city, Ao!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

We spent the next few days exploring Luzhou. I enjoyed strolling through the markets, trying every kind of grilled meat imaginable. Running my hands over silks and jewelry alike, without the fear of being chased off. After all, I had a prince at my elbow. And though my prince wore the guise of a poor trader, his purse certainly did not match a poor trader's.

Sanli offered to buy everything I showed interest in, but aside from food I refused him. I would be leaving soon after all, possessions would only slow me down.

The prince and I spent our days wandering the city, disguised in trader's clothes, Kageyama close behind. I enjoyed all of our exploring, save one thing.

Sanli had gotten into his head that it was a good idea to pray at every temple and shrine in the city.

"I told you, there are no such things as gods," I finally said one day.

We stood before one of the smaller shrines, tucked into a crumbling wall with the roots of a great willow tree twining around the five familiar figures.

"There are," Sanli said simply, bending to kneel on the block of stone set before the shrine for that purpose. "If you believe in them."

"Hah!" I laughed. "If I get on my knees and pray to you right now, will that make you a god little prince? If I believe in you, will it be so?"

Sanli looked up from his folded hands, face mischievous. "Well, if you get on your knees-"

I smacked him round the head before he could finish. Sanli laughed uproariously, knelt before the shrine of the gods he claimed to worship.

Then he bent his head to prayer. "Please let Ao decide to stay, and if not, keep her safe on her travels."

My jaw tightened, but I let it pass. Over Sanli's bent head, I studied the mildewed statues. A tiger, a dragon, a turtle. A kirin, positioned in the center to show honor to the god of this realm, and finally a wide winged birds resembling a swan, but with a crest of feathers flaring from its crown and tail.

Sanli stood, dropping a coin into the locked coin box as offering. We left, Kageyama pushing off the wall where he had waited to follow us.

We made our way along a quiet canal, willows thick on either side. The leaves had unfurled, bright green, so green it seemed the color seeped into the very air around us.

As we walked, we passed two young women dressed in identical green robes. Ah, little nuns.

There was a large temple ahead, and I realized by the broom and dustpan one of the nuns carried, and the key around the neck of the other they were probably going to clean and collect money from the shrine we had just left.

"You will have more time to spend with Ming Lang when I am gone," I said to the prince beside me.

Sanli smiled. "Oh no. I will be far too busy missing you to do anything."

My eyes narrowed. "You love her, just admit it. She is the one you named Wo You Nai for."

Sanli shook his head and his smile broadened. "No, I had already named Wo You Nai when I met Ming Lang."

I frowned. Ah. "Then it is that little maid you and Zhangyu both liked. Sunshine."

Sanli shook his head again. "I had named it before I met Sunshine as well."

I was confused. "Well who then?" Perhaps there had been someone else? Another pretty maid he had fallen in love with? His reason for living after his mother died?

At that moment I tripped. I was dressed as a boy, so could not blame my too-tall shoes. I looked down. One of the paving stones had been pushed up out of line, no doubt by the roots of the nearby willow.

Sanli had caught my arm, to steady me, and now he slipped his hand down to my own. His thumb traced over my rings, and then he lifted my hand to his lips.

"I named it for you of course," Sanli said, eyes mischievous. "My goddess. My reason for being. Everything I have, everything I am, everything of my heart is yours."

I knew he was jesting. I knew that if I did not laugh, or joke back, it would look as though I took his foolishness to heart.

But for a second I could think of no reply.

I was saved from having to think of one, because at that moment a shrill scream cut through the air.

Sanli and I turned. The sound had come from the way we had just walked. Kageyama, who had been following a little way behind us, was already jogging back toward the source of the noise. Sanli drew out his seal and rested a hand on Tenzetsuto where it rested beneath his shirt.

We followed, and found the two nuns we had passed earlier beside the canal.  One had fallen, and the other was frantically trying to help her up and away from the canal, as though some terrible demon creature was crawling from the water.

"What happened?" asked Sanli, squatting beside the nuns. "It's alright, you're safe."

I instead went to stand beside Kageyama, who was looking down at the canal.

I saw what it was that had scared the nuns so.

"What is it?" Sanli called, still trying to comfort both the nuns. The initial shock over, the girls had both started sobbing.

"Just a body," I yelled over my shoulder.

"Just a body?!" said Sanli in disbelief.

"Yes," I replied. "It's had all it's fingers cut off."

*~*~*~*~*~*