A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces

That night Mother, Father, and I had croaker braised in ginger, green onion, peppers, and rice wine for dinner. The flesh of the fish was soft and tender, and each bite fell apart in my mouth, fragrant. But shortly after dinner, my stomach began to ache so terribly that I was unable to even sit up properly.

Concerned, Mother took my pulse and checked my temperature. "Too much yang in your body," she said. "Your body is more inclined towards yin, so the ginger and pepper in the fish today must have given you too much yang energy."

She then made me a cup of hawthorn berry tea, which she said increases the amount of yin energy in your body to balance out any excess yang energy. I always enjoyed the tanginess of hawthorn berry tea, but tonight I noticed something off about the aftertaste of the tea. Usually, hawthorn berry tea was tangy with a softer, fruity aftertaste, but tonight's tea had a bitter aftertaste. But I didn't think twice about the strange aftertaste. Perhaps the herbs Mother used for the tea today were going bad.

Once I drank the cup of herbal tea, Mother had me go to bed early that night. As she tucked me into bed, I told her about how everyone was saying that the stowaway was working for a man named Zhu Wan, but strangely enough, instead of listening to me like she usually did, she hushed me, told me to not spread rumors of things I was not well informed about.

I wanted to tell her more about my day, but before I could do so, my eyelids grew heavy, and before long I fell asleep.

At first, my mind had slipped into one of those deep, dreamless sleeps where you dreamt of nothing but darkness. But soon, voices began speaking in my sleep. There were multiple voices, several familiar, others only vaguely so. I immediately recognized one of the voices to be Mother's.

"Here is the medicine for your Young Master's ailment," she said. "My husband has prepared a boat for you and Chao to escape on. Here is some money for when you reach land."

"A thousand thanks to you and your husband," another voice said. "I wish I could repay you for your kindness, but all of the money I had brought with me was taken by Baldy Li and his men."

It took me a moment to realize who was speaking to Mother. It was the stowaway.

"But I promise," he continued. "One day, your kindness will be repaid. My master is Duke Xu of the Xu Clan. We reside in the Southern Capital of Nanjing. Please, take this pendant, and if in the future you ever need help, seek us out and show us this pendant."

"There is no need for that," Mother said. "I just merely want to build up good karma."

"I insist, please take it!"

"It is time to go now," someone else cut in. This time it was Father who spoke.

"Stay safe," Mother said. "Don't let them catch you."

"Even if they catch me, my skills are far too valuable for them to kill me off. Don't worry about me and just get some rest."

After that, the voices spoke no more. There was the sound of quiet footsteps, but soon those faded into silence as well. Before long, my mind slipped back into the previous dream of quiet and darkness.

My peaceful sleep continued until sunlight poured in through the windows of my home, gently waking me up.

Mother was already up and was packing up several herbs, probably for another delivery. But this morning, Mother looked tired, with dark under eye circles and a pale face. When she saw that I had woken up, her face softened.

"Zhuhua," she said. "Eat up, I made rice porridge for breakfast. I need you to run several deliveries for me this morning."

Once I got dressed and scooped myself a bowl of rice porridge, I sat down and began eating. The warm and comforting scent of rice porridge mingled with the scent of the herbal medicine -- ginkgo biloba, astragalus, goji berries, gotu kola, and a hundred other herbs. Everywhere I went, the fragrance of each of these herbs clung to my clothes, marking me as an herbalist's daughter.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Mother asked.

I looked up from my rice porridge. "Yes, I did. But I had a strange dream."

"What was the dream?"

"I dreamt of darkness, but I heard voices. I heard your voice and Father's voice, and strangely enough, I also heard the stowaway's voice."

Mother stopped packing the medicine for a second.

"Zhuhua."

I stiffened at this. Anytime Mother said my name short and curt like that, I knew I was in trouble.

"Yes, Mother?" I tried to sound as polite as possible, hopeful that I wouldn't incur anymore of her wrath.

"Promise me you will never speak of what you dreamt of last night to anyone."

I blinked, confused. "Sorry?"

"Do you promise me?"

I nodded, grateful that I wasn't in trouble.

"I promise."

*****

Today something was amiss amongst Baldy Li's men. I was running through the barracks to make another delivery for Mother when I found that Baldy Li's men were more solemn than usual. On any other day, Baldy Li's men often played board games together, sparred with one another, or sang lively tunes in gruff, off-pitch voices. But today, there was none of that. The men spoke in low voices, and I felt as though each man was glaring at each other as they passed by one another.

I crossed paths with the two men who had been playing a game of xiangqi the previous day.

"Did something happen?" I asked. "Why is everyone so serious today?"

One of the men looked at me. His stern expression softened when he saw that it was just me, the local medicine delivery girl.

"The stowaway and Chao escaped last night. Xu Liu was found earlier this morning completely knocked out."

"Someone had to have helped them escape," the other man chimed in. "We suspect that someone amongst our men helped them escape. But we haven't a clue who."

"Whoever it is, he must be a spy for that bastard Zhu Wan."

I had heard the name Zhu Wan mentioned several times now, but I still had no idea who he was. I had forgotten to ask Father about it, so I asked the two men, "Who is Zhu Wan?"

"Young child, it's better if you don't know the affairs of adults."

"But Uncle," I protested. "I can't stay ignorant to the affairs of the world forever."

The man laughed at this. "Well, if you put it like that, then I suppose I have to tell you. Zhu Wan was appointed as the Grand Coordinator by the Ming Court to get rid of us sailors and merchants at Shuangyu Port."

"Why does the Ming Court want to get rid of you all?"

"Our Illustrious Emperor does not allow for foreign trade, believing that such trade would bring chaos to the Great Ming, but we at Shuangyu Port dare to defy the will of the heavens," the man said.

"For many of us," he continued. "We had long been trading with foreign nations before the trade bans were enactef. Even after the Emperor enacted the trade bans, we had no other means of living to turn to. Thus, we continue to trade, even if it incurs the wrath of the Ming Court. But in order to stay afloat, Baldy Li decided to form an alliance with other naval merchants and traders like the Gold Elder and the Xu Syndicate. Now we all operate under the Xu Syndicate."

The other man chimed in, "We may all work under the Xu Syndicate, but every man in these barracks are first and foremost loyal to Baldy Li. If Baldy Li wants to work under the Xu Syndicate, then we will also work under the Xu Syndicate. A smart man he is. Operating in a large group like this will make it easier to trade with other countries."

"Why don't you just ask the Emperor to lift the trade bans then?" I asked.

Both men laughed at this. I was unsure of what exactly they were laughing about, but I knew they were laughing at me. My face grew hot from embarrassment.

"The innocence of youth," one man said. "If only things were that easy."

"We had once tried diplomacy," the other man said. "But they had our envoy tortured and executed!"

"A shame, a shame, what a fine man he was."

"But our Illustrious Emperor must be going senile. To share our creations with other nations and to learn from theirs, what is the harm?"

"Maybe one day, the Great Ming will open up her doors to trade with other nations."

"Possibly, but first we need to worry about finding the stowaway and the traitor who helped him escape."

I thought of the dream I had last night, of Mother and Father speaking to the stowaway. Then I remembered my promise to Mother. Father had taught me the importance of keeping your word. Each promise sworn, he had told me, carried the weight of a thousand gold pieces. He who betrayed his word would in turn betray his allies.

I thanked the two men for telling me the happenings of Shuangyu Port before darting off to finish this morning's deliveries.

Once I finished the deliveries, I returned home. But when I arrived home, the front door had been kicked down. I nearly called out to Mother, but I bit my lip, remaining silent. I had a gut feeling in that moment -- if something dire had truly happened to Mother, I had to quickly go get Father. I had to remain silent, an unknown presence, if I wanted to be able to go and alert Father.

I silently peeked inside to find Mother surrounded by several dozen men. They were Baldy Li's men, each of whom were gruff and hardened by battle and life at sea. Several were interrogating Mother, while a few others were searching the house.

"Speak," one of the men said. "Was it not your medicine that made Xu Liu lose consciousness?"

"He was supposed to drink the medicine before he went to bed for the night," Mother said. She was calm and unfazed. Her narrow eyes were sharp and intelligent, and her lips did not quaver as she spoke. "Proper rest is needed to cure his cough, so I had merely added Valerian Root to his medicine to help him sleep better at night. I didn't know he would take the medicine while guarding the stowaway."

Mother's explanation had seemed reasonable enough, and the men had seemed convinced. But then one of the men who had been searching the house exclaimed, "Then what is this?"

He held up a wooden pendant that had been tucked away in a drawer of dried jujube. Inscribed onto the pendant was a character I couldn't read.

"It belonged to the stowaway!"

"So she did help the stowaway escape!"

"We must report this to Baldy Li immediately!"

My heart pounded like firecrackers, and my legs trembled. But I couldn't continue to stand there awestruck by fear. I had to go get Father.

Then, with every ounce of willpower in my body, I rushed towards Father's workshop.