Chapter 385: The Travels of Xu Xiake

After the fleet rested for one night, it arrived at Palembang the next day, both to replenish supplies and to maintain deterrence.

When the Sultan of Banten heard that the Great Xia fleet had arrived, he personally led his men aboard to pay his respects, his demeanor utterly servile.

No joke.

Last time the Great Xia fleet came, it defeated the Sultan of Aceh, Muda.

This time the Great Xia fleet came, it defeated the Dutch and Sultan Agung of Mataram.

The two most powerful sultans in the entire Malay world had both been crushed by the Great Xia fleet.

The Sultanate of Banten's geopolitical position was sandwiched between Aceh, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and Mataram — originally bullied on all sides, the weakest sultanate, having done nothing at all, and in the blink of an eye its powerful enemies had all fallen one after another.

Before the Sultan of Banten could even feel delight, he learned that the Great Xia fleet had already sailed up to his doorstep, and nearly pissed himself in fright, terrified that Great Xia had come to casually wipe him out as well. That was why he scrambled aboard the ship in a panic, wailed and wept before Lin Qian, and swore oaths of loyalty for an hour. Still not reassured, he also presented Lin Qian with one hundred thousand jin each of black and white pepper.

Two hundred thousand jin sounds like a lot, but in fact the Sultanate of Banten was the main producer of pepper — two hundred thousand jin was nothing but a drop in the bucket.

Lin Qian didn't take it for nothing either; at the local market price, he gave some gold and silver in return, as if purchasing the pepper outright.

Only after the Great Xia fleet finished replenishing and departed did the Sultan of Banten finally let out a long sigh of relief.

After leaving Palembang, the fleet sailed northwest along the islands at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, then reached Patani, crossed the Gulf of Siam, and passed successively through Xin Quan and Hoi An before returning to Guangzhou.

Fortunately, they hugged the coast the whole way, proceeding with care and caution; though they weathered several storms, the losses were not great.

When they reached the open sea off Guangzhou, Bai Qing finally found the little minke whale she had been longing for.

This creature was at most three zhang long, weighing six to seven hundred jin, like an oversized dolphin, roughly the same size as an Eagle Ship, and always traveled alone. Though numerous, they were not easy to find on the vast open sea.

Bai Qing was, after all, the commander of the North Sea Fleet, so Lin Qian still wouldn't let her do it herself.

The Great Xia fleet had a great many former Tanka boat people aboard, so there was no shortage of whalers. Several former Tanka boat people piloted an Eagle Ship, approached the pod of minke whales, and hurled harpoons. Struck by the harpoon, the minke whale, in great alarm, dove rapidly, dragging the abaca rope and empty wooden barrels down into the sea with it.

The deeper the minke whale dove, the more empty wooden barrels fell into the water, and the greater the buoyancy on the harpoon. After roughly a little over half an hour, the minke whale, exhausted from struggling, floated back up to the surface.

The whaling process was uneventful and without danger, exactly as Bai Qing had described.

That evening, the entire fleet ate whale-meat sampan congee.

Minke whale meat was deep red; though it lived in the sea, it was completely different from fish meat.

Aside from a slight fishiness, the meat had no particular flavor, with a texture between beef and horse meat — very chewy. It wasn't exactly delicious, but for poor common folk, it was absolutely a rare treat.

Its most important oil was found in the belly and back, pale yellow in color, very thick. A single minke whale of nearly six hundred jin yielded over one hundred twenty jin of oil.

The Zhulong burned and rendered the oil aboard ship that very night. The finished oil was also pale yellow; used as lamp oil it burned steadily, produced no black smoke, and was bright without being harsh on the eyes — nearly on par with white insect wax, except for a slight fishy smell.

Compared to its cheapness and high yield, that slight fishy smell was entirely within tolerable range.

Lin Qian immediately ordered his men to catch two more, haul them ashore, and render them into oil for Fo Ye to test.

By the end of the seventh month, the fleet finally sailed into Guangzhou city. A mountain of spices, rice, and whale meat was unloaded, and the city of Guangzhou immediately plunged into frenzy — the people spontaneously danced dragon and lion dances and held celebrations.

When Lin Qian and the senior naval officers came ashore, they received a hero's welcome. The streets were lined with all kinds of flowers, commoners packed shoulder to shoulder along the roadside, some stood on second floors leaning over railings waving at the troops, and a few even sat directly on the rooftops.

Throughout the streets and alleys, dragon and lion dance troupes were everywhere, and the sound of gongs and drums never ceased from morning to night.

In recent times, Great Xia had not only won victories on Java Island — Guizhou, Sichuan, and Huguang had also scored successive major victories.

Reports of victory poured into Guangzhou like flowing water every single day.

From morning to night it was win after win after win, and the people of Guangzhou were almost numb from winning. Guangzhou, along with all of Guangdong, had taken on an air of a golden age.

During the victory celebration, a passenger ship stopped before the port of Guangzhou.

This ship had come from South Zhili; most aboard were merchants, and the rest were migrants, moving their entire families from South Zhili to Guangdong.

"Master, Guangzhou city is so lively!" The speaker was named Gu Xing, responsible for attending to the master's daily needs and accompanying him on his travels across the realm. In the master's travelogue, he was also called "Servant Gu."

The master's surname was Xu, given name Hongzu, forty-five years old this year — not exactly young, but having traveled the realm year-round, he was hale and sturdy, looking only about thirty.

The master also had a sobriquet more famous than his real name — Xu Xiake.

Among the many merchants and migrants, only Xu Xiake and his servant had come to travel in Lingnan.

As early as the seventh year of Tianqi, Xu Xiake had wanted to travel to Lingnan, but had been thwarted by the "Lin the Rebel" disturbances and the coastal martial law at the time, and so had been unable to make the journey. Now five or six years had passed, the political situation in Lingnan was stable, and the so-called "Lin the Rebel" had become the Great Xia that everyone yearned for — only then did Xu Xiake set out cheerfully. After the ship docked, one could see the Pearl River crowded with a thousand sails, the wharves thronged with merchants and travelers, warehouses standing shoulder to shoulder in rows, gongs and drums clamoring within the city, and at the foot of Yuexiu Mountain ten thousand flowers clustered together — the whole mountain a splendid sight.

Everywhere one looked was a flourishing scene of abundant goods and prosperous people, a bustling marketplace. The passengers on board were all full of praise, each one impatient, jostling to get off the ship first. Xu Xiake instructed: "No rush, let the others go first."

Gu Xing acknowledged and said: "Master, I just asked around — Great Xia has won several battles in a row and is holding a celebration.

The boatman also recommended several fine places to visit — Yuexiu Mountain and Civilization University are must-sees, and there's also the foreign quarter market in the outer city." "Since we've come all this way, naturally we should visit them all."

As Xu Xiake spoke, he sighed. Though he was devoted to mountains and waters, proud and unrestrained, he also knew the suffering of the common people.

The Great Ming had been at war year after year; the court levied the Three Surcharges, sucking the marrow from the bones of the people of Jiangnan, while Shandong, Henan, and North Zhili were reduced to utter destitution — in the end, it was all the fault of war.

As the saying goes, "When dynasties rise, the people suffer; when dynasties fall, the people suffer." Now Great Xia was repeatedly raising armies, winning a glorious surface, but that was not necessarily a blessing for the people. Gu Xing said: "Master, you seem to be in low spirits."

Xu Xiake shook his head and said: "It's nothing. I only hope the Xia King is not a man who delights in war and craves glory... The crowd has cleared — let's go ashore. It's getting late; let's first find a clean inn to settle in."

"Right away!" Gu Xing picked up the luggage bundle and went ashore first, with Xu Xiake following behind.

Xu Xiake had just stepped off the gangplank when he saw Gu Xing standing frozen before a street vendor, unable to move on.

"Master, come look — the pepper here is so cheap!"

Xu Xiake walked over, displeased: "Finding a place to stay is the real business. It's not like you've never seen pepper before, what's there to... it really is cheap!" As he spoke he glanced at the price sign beside the pepper and saw it marked at one hundred fifty wen per jin — his jaw nearly dropped.

Guangzhou was, after all, close to the South Seas; he had thought pepper being thirty to forty percent cheaper per jin would be about right, never imagining it would be eighty to ninety percent cheaper.

Xu Xiake thought to himself: "Cheap to this degree — could it be inferior goods?"

He then grabbed a handful and examined it in his palm, seeing that the peppercorns were distinct and separate, with very few stems and leaves, and a pungent fragrance assailing the nose.

"This is... this is top-grade Sumatra pepper!"

Xu Xiake appeared simply dressed, but his family were wealthy gentry of South Zhili; he had seen and tasted rare treasures and fine foods, and recognized the pepper at a glance. The vendor laughed: "Good eye, sir!"

"How... how can it be this cheap?" Xu Xiake asked in astonishment.

The vendor laughed: "From your accent, sir, you're from Jiangnan. To tell you the truth, this all came from Palembang — with trade routes open and sea transport convenient, naturally it's cheap.

Besides, the navy won a great victory on Java Island and captured a mountain of spices, so this batch of pepper is being discounted for a promotion.

Also, among Sumatra peppers, white pepper is indeed top-grade, but black pepper is only second-rate — the truly top-grade black pepper is produced in India."

Xu Xiake was dumbfounded. His family were the great rich of Jiangnan, with every article of food, clothing, and use of the finest quality — he never imagined that only today would he learn he had been eating second-rate pepper. As for that top-grade Indian pepper, he had never even heard of it.

Gu Xing laughed: "You shopkeeper do business with real honesty, telling us all your secrets—aren't you afraid of losing business?"

The peddler smiled: "I'm just hired help for the boss. My boss makes only small money trading spices in Guangzhou; the big business is negotiated with the red barbarians at Hoi An port.

Now that Batavia has fallen and the Spice Islands all belong to Great Xia, my boss is too busy rushing out to sea to grab spices to care about the paltry profits on this stall." Xu Xiake's mouth hung wide open and wouldn't close for a long while—could an ordinary hired shop boy really have such insight?

And those strange place names—India, Batavia, the Spice Islands—where were they all?

Places he had never even heard of, yet people were rushing to do business there—were they not afraid of the perils of the waves?

Xu Xiake took his leave of that peddler and walked into the city, finding that at the docks and along the streets there were many more such spice stalls; pepper was only the basic offering, along with a great many spices whose names he could not pronounce.

And on those spices were also stuck wooden slips, written with the variety and price—utterly different from places like Southern Zhili.

Only after asking the peddlers did he learn this was a new rule for the port's markets: prices must be clearly marked, so as not to cheat out-of-towners.

When those peddlers spoke of the officials and the petty clerks at the docks, they did not curse their mothers—they even occasionally said a few good words. This astonished Xu Xiake even more than the mountains of cheap spices.

Master and servant had said they were looking for an inn to settle in, but the moment they entered the city, they were dazzled by the dazzling world inside Guangzhou.

The wharves along the river, the shops on the main streets, the teahouses and eateries, the entertainments of music and pleasure—all were at their peak of splendor.

The two strolled along glancing at everything, and before they knew it, night had fallen. Only then did they remember they had no lodging yet, and hastily asked someone where the inns were.

"An inn? There's a fine one nearby called Pine Wind Lodge..."

The man turned to point the way, and only then did Gu Xing see clearly that the man wore a black-lacquered flat-top cap, a light blue cross-collared robe, and a wide red cloth sash—clearly a yamen runner.

It had been too dark, and the clerk had his back to them; Gu Xing hadn't seen his clothing clearly and had muddle-headedly come to ask directions. Now regret was too late. Gu Xing loudly cursed his own blindness, and could only wait respectfully for the clerk to finish speaking, then offered a qian of silver, saying: "Much obliged, sir."

Unexpectedly, the clerk waved his hand: "It was no trouble at all. Please keep your silver. It's getting late—the two of you should be on your way."

Many of Great Xia's clerks were scholars who had failed the examinations; as long as they remained incorruptible and performed well, they had opportunities to become officials in the future. They could tell which was more important—their prospects or a few bits of silver.

Moreover, Great Xia's Qingping Bureau, like the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had dedicated personnel who disguised themselves to investigate corruption.

Out-of-towners like Xu Xiake were exactly who the Qingping Bureau loved to impersonate. No matter how greedy this clerk was, he would not dare to offend the Qingping Bureau. As the saying goes, "The King of Hell is easy to deal with, but the little demons are hard to handle." In the Ming dynasty, officials who were incorruptible for the public good were few, but by no means nonexistent—yet clerks who were incorruptible were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, unheard of in the world.

After the clerk left, master and servant exchanged a glance, both wearing expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

It was already late now, and the two had no time to think further. Following the clerk's directions, they went to Pine Wind Lodge and opened two rooms.

Gu Xing had paid the room fee and was about to go upstairs when the innkeeper called him back, took out two small paper packets from behind the counter, and handed them to him.

"What is this?"

The innkeeper smiled and made a rubbing gesture with his hands: "This is tea-oil soap, for washing hands—it can ward off plague."

"It's a free gift—please accept it, honored guest."

Xu Xiake carried the tea-oil soap upstairs, and a moment later someone brought water for washing hands and drinking—both hot.

Great Xia had Dongning and Ha Long Bay supplying charcoal, coke, and coal, which had also greatly reduced fuel prices in Guangzhou. Common folk could now light their stoves twice a day and eat two hot meals—and some could even afford to eat three times a day!

For high-end inns like Pine Wind Lodge, providing free soap and hot water had become an indispensable service.

Guests generally took away any leftover tea-oil soap; even if they didn't, the inn would collect it, wash it clean, and sell it to the common folk. After washing his hands in hot water, Xu Xiake sat at the desk, reflecting on the sights of the past half day, his heart unable to settle for a long while.

He opened his bundle, pulled out his travel journal, picked up his brush and recorded the sights of the half day, unconsciously writing over a thousand characters. At the end he sighed: "The world says Lingnan is a barbaric borderland, its customs and education inferior to the Central Plains.

Now I see its clerks do not oppress the people, its markets do not cheat on prices, its hosts do not mistreat guests—the Central Plains cannot match it.

When sea trade flows, all goods are cheap; when clerks are incorruptible, travelers are at ease; when folk customs are honest, guests come and return.

I have traveled several thousand li and passed through dozens of passes, yet never have I seen scenery and customs finer than those of Lingnan."

Early the next morning, Xu Xiake and Gu Xing rose early, went downstairs to wash their hands, and after breakfast headed east of the city, intending to visit the famous Civilization University.

On the way, they saw every household in Guangzhou sending up cooking smoke, the streets filled with the fragrance of rice and firewood.

Gu Xing's nose twitched as he sighed: "The people of Guangzhou are truly prosperous."

Last year Xu Xiake had just toured Henan, where the people were so poor they ate guanyin clay to survive, and even resorted to cannibalism—yet Guangzhou presented such a scene. Two thousand li apart, yet the difference was so vast, as if they were not even in the same world.

Xu Xiake stared blankly for a moment.

Before long, master and servant had walked outside the city, where they saw withered yellow grass and cracked fields—the farmers' harvests were not particularly good.

In the outskirts, newly planted rice paddies showed shades of emerald and deep green of varying depth, rivers and canals crisscrossed in a network, scattered patches of golden late-ripening rice dotted the landscape, and villages and bamboo groves were scattered about.

Looking closely, those late-ripening rice ears were not full—they had suffered rice stem borer damage. The yield reduction was not severe, but it was certainly not a normal year. "Strange! Strange!" Gu Xing clicked his tongue in wonder. "Master, I see the city is full of abundant goods—how is it that the farmland outside the city has poor harvests instead?" Xu Xiake was also puzzled. In the Northern Song there had been the old precedent of impoverishing the empire to enrich Bianjing, so this was hardly anything new.

But looking at the outskirts of Guangzhou, the common folk did not live in hardship—there were even markets along both sides of the official road, with quite a few travelers among them.

Further away in the fields, several farmers were resting between the ridges, eating sweet potatoes.

Xu Xiake walked up to strike up a conversation, exchanged a few pleasantries, and asked about this year's harvest.

An old farmer roasting sweet potatoes waved his hand: "Don't even mention it. The weather was hot this year, and the fields got hit by planthoppers—the harvest is a full two-tenths less than usual... Here, try a sweet potato."

As he spoke, the old farmer handed each of the master and servant a cooled sweet potato. The potatoes had been roasted black over straw, some of the skins cracked, with syrup-like juice oozing out—they looked extremely tempting.

Xu Xiake waved his hand: "I'm just passing through—how could I eat your food?"

The old farmer laughed carelessly: "Just two sweet potatoes—there are plenty in the field. Mind the heat."

The sweet potato had been cooling for half a day after roasting, yet still held residual warmth. Xu Xiake reached out to take it, and was burned into passing it rapidly from hand to hand before finally managing a bite.

"If the harvest in the fields is clearly reduced this year, why has the grain price in the city fallen rather than risen?"

"Haha, who in the city still eats rice from the surrounding area now? The city's grain is all shipped in by Shuizhenla."

"Ah? Ouch!" Gu Xing was so startled he forgot to switch hands with the sweet potato and got burned.

The old farmer pointed at the rice paddies behind him: "These few plots of rice are for our own family to eat. All the other land has been converted to mulberry-dike fish ponds."

"What kind of fish ponds are those?" Xu Xiake felt like a country bumpkin coming to town these past two days—he had never heard of anything.

A young voice spoke up behind Xu Xiake: "It means digging ponds below the slopes and planting mulberries on the slopes. Pond mud fertilizes the soil, mulberry leaves feed silkworms, and silkworm droppings feed the fish. The returns are much higher than growing rice, and it's not as vulnerable to floods and typhoons—the harvests are much steadier."

The other farmers chimed in at the sight.

"Oh! Your family's xiucai is back!"

"It's wonderful having a scholar in the family!"

Xu Xiake turned around and saw that the speaker was a young student. After bowing to Xu Xiake, he walked over to the old farmer roasting sweet potatoes and said: "Father, I'm back."

The old farmer grumbled: "Why have you come back? Your getting into the university is a blessing cultivated by generations of our Old Liu family's ancestors! And here you are, running home every few days!"

That student said, "The Academy Head knows the late rice is ripe and gave us a few days off to come home and help with the work."

A farmer in the distance said, "Helping with the work is good—this is what they call not forgetting your roots!"

The old farmer roasting sweet potatoes said, "Shoo, shoo, shoo!"

Then he turned to the student again and said in a flustered tone, "Oh dear! Just a matter of harvesting rice, and it's disturbed the Academy Head—oh my! What's to be done about this... How about you take a few dozen catties of rice back with you, and scoop up a few grass carp as well—that's the way to do it, Pa's going to get the fishing net!"

The student called out to stop his father, saying, "Pa, don't go to all that trouble—the Academy Head won't accept it..."

The old farmer was a stubborn one whom no one could talk out of anything, and he had already made straight for the house door.

The student stood awkwardly in place, and seeing that Xu Xiake had not yet left, said, "By your accent, sir, you're not from these parts. You must have come to tour the Grand Academy, I take it? Follow this road straight ahead and you'll reach it."

Xu Xiake cupped his hands in salute and said, "Many thanks."

He then led Gu Xing toward the Grand Academy, turning his head back frequently along the way.

Gu Xing said, "Your servant has heard that the Civilization Grand Academy is the finest institution of learning in Lingnan, and assumed its food, clothing, and amenities must all be of the very best—I never imagined even sons of farming families could afford to attend."

Xu Xiake remained silent.

The party soon arrived outside the Civilization Grand Academy, and from a great distance they could see a colossal object floating above the flat ground.

"That... that looks like a ship?" Gu Xing said in a trembling voice.

Since arriving in Guangzhou, Xu Xiake had seen so many strange things that he had grown somewhat numb to them, and merely said, "Let's go take a look."

When the two drew closer, they discovered the ship was extremely enormous—nearly twenty zhang in length and five zhang in width, with over a hundred oars extending from each side of the hull, and keel blocks beneath the ship's bottom holding it steadily aloft.

Around the great ship, there was also a market enclosed by curtains, where visitors thronged like weaving shuttles—extremely bustling.

One had to know that this place already counted as the outskirts of Guangzhou city, with farmland all along the way—one wondered what rare treasures were being sold here to attract so many visitors. Xu Xiake sent Gu Xing ahead to investigate, and Gu Xing found a man who looked like a steward at one of the curtained entrances and asked him.

That steward said with a beaming smile, "This isn't a market—this is a museum."

"Museum? A place for displaying antique shelves?" Gu Xing was baffled.

The steward laughed and said, "Something like that—like a large-scale antique shelf, displaying rare treasures from overseas for people to broaden their horizons. Look all you like, it's free of charge."

Gu Xing glanced at his master, and Xu Xiake nodded. The two entered, and as Xu Xiake passed the steward, he asked again, "May I ask what that great ship is all about?"

"Oh. That's the flagship of the Acehnese, called the Wonder of the World—it's a war trophy of our king."

The steward's tone in saying this was flat, yet the corners of his mouth curled in a smile and his face was ruddy with vigor—clearly the look of one bursting with pride to the utmost while desperately suppressing it. "Aceh?" Xu Xiake was bewildered once more.

The steward said, "Honored guest, you may go up close and take a look—there are attendants around who explain the whole story in detail."

Xu Xiake cupped his hands in thanks, then entered the hall, where he was immediately greeted by an enormous world map.

Beside it was also a map of Southeast Asia, and the exhibition areas within the hall were arranged precisely according to the major powers of Southeast Asia and the colonies of Great Xia.

The two lingered by that map alone, listening to ten full minutes of explanation.

Walking deeper into the hall, the two saw the Spaniards' rapiers and ruff collars, saw Guangnan teak, and beheld the tin mines of Patani, the diamonds of Borneo, the nutmeg of the Spice Islands, and the kris of Sumatra.

For a moment, all the splendors of the world came cascading in one after another.

The sea centipedes of Ha Long Bay, the Sultana of Patani, and the Invincible Fleet of Sultan Mudaun unfolded before their eyes like a painted scroll.

Xu Xiake came from a great and distinguished family, and having tramped across a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers since his youth, he had felt that even if he hadn't seen all the wonders of the world, he had at least seen them—enough not to be shocked into losing his composure.

Yet unexpectedly, after entering the grounds, he gazed with rapt fascination, his mouth nearly never closing. When he finally stood before the Wonder of the World, looking up at that pinnacle masterpiece of Arab and Malay shipbuilding technology, a profound sense of his own smallness welled up from the depths of his heart.

A docent beside him, raising an iron megaphone, called out, "... Counting the oarsmen, the whole ship carries eight hundred men, with forty bronze cannon... This was the flagship of Sultan Mudaun. That year, when the Acehnese army was trapped at the Duyong River, they scuttled this ship to break out, only to be utterly defeated by our forces. After the ship was captured, it was transported here..."

At this point someone below said, "Why isn't this ship used as a Great Xia warship?"

The docent said, "An excellent question from this visitor—because this ship is too weak. Our Great Xia navy doesn't think much of it."

Xu Xiake suddenly realized with a start that such a colossal warship, such a mighty fleet—all of them had been defeated foes of Great Xia.

He suddenly understood why the steward at the gate had worn that ruddy, beaming expression.

Visitors to the museum could even walk inside the Wonder of the World itself, touring every cabin, and touching the oars, masts, and deck.

Walking on the deck, Xu Xiake seemed almost able to smell the sulfur and the salty tang of ocean waves; in his ears rang the sound of surf, cannon fire, and the cries of seagulls. Even after coming off the ship, he remained immersed in the calm seas of the equatorial doldrums, unable to pull himself free.

When he emerged from the museum, the sun was already setting in the west, and the sky was filled with crimson clouds.

He had originally planned to tour the Grand Academy today, but little had he expected to fritter away an entire day at the museum alone—and still feel he hadn't had his fill.

Reflecting on how he had traversed famous mountains and great rivers, traveling for many years from his youth to now, nothing had ever compared to the shock and awe of today.

Gu Xing noticed that to the west of the museum, another large plot of land had been enclosed with curtains, and asked the steward, "What's that place for?"

The steward said casually, "Oh, that's also a museum. This old site can't hold everything anymore—the new site is going to be used for a Java exhibition hall."

"Huh?" Gu Xing's mouth fell slightly open.

The steward was extremely satisfied to see this expression on his face—watching the shock on visitors' faces was the greatest joy of this job of his.

Late at night, the master and servant dragged their weary bodies back to the inn and washed up with tea-oil soap and hot water.

Xu Xiake sat down at the writing desk once more, picked up his brush, and recorded the day's experiences, sighing at the end of his travel notes: "The achievement of Great Xia lies in opening a situation unprecedented in all the ages and breaking through the ignorance inherited for a hundred generations—how could it be merely the ferocity of military might?

In former days I climbed the perils of Mount Hua, sought the wonders of the eunuch faction, and explored the depths of Wuyi, considering myself to have exhausted every hidden marvel. Only today do I realize that beyond the Nine Provinces, heaven and earth are even vaster—and I am deeply ashamed of the narrowness of my former years."

Fenty