Chapter Seven: White Cloud Pier Renamed to Xiao Family Pier

No, they don’t know now, but they will learn.

The entire family was united—everyone jostled to wash clothes, cook meals, gather firewood, and pick wild vegetables.

Xiao Chunnuan was eager to seek out the work of harvesting and preparing medicinal herbs.

Along the riverbanks, there were mulberry leaves, some still tender. However, these fresh leaves weren’t suitable for preparing medicine; only frost-kissed and post-frost mulberry leaves were appropriate. Currently, her grandmother’s throat itched, and she coughed intermittently. Chunnuan gathered a small basketful, separating the tender leaves to eat as wild vegetables, while the older leaves were brewed into a tea for her grandmother.

“Big sister, didn’t you say you wanted to check out the dock?” Chunning ran back and said, “I asked Luo Xiaogang next door. He said the dock is three li away. Sister, the dock is…”

Her voice trailed off.

“What is it?” Chunnuan asked in confusion. “A man speaks clearly, no stammering. Stand up straight and speak louder.”

“Luo Xiaogang said the dock is managed by the Xiao clan elders. It used to be called Baiyun Bay Dock, but they changed it to Xiao Family Dock.”

The Xiao clan elders—without her great-grandfather, who served as a chief physician at the Imperial Hospital, nor her grandfather, who was head of the same hospital—the Xiao clan wasn’t even considered a prominent household. Yet, they now managed a dock?

According to her grandmother, when she married into the Xiao mansion and took over as housekeeper from her great-grandmother, a rule was established: every year, they send New Year gifts to their ancestral clan in Shu, and offerings at the ancestral fields during Qingming Festival. This tradition had never been broken.

From these New Year gifts and offerings, the Xiao mansion spent no less than five thousand taels of silver annually on the clan elders.

The Xiao clan had three hill estates, thousands of acres of fertile farmland, dozens of ancestral shops, ranking among the top families in Changzhou. Even the county magistrate regarded them with considerable respect.

The clan chief had one wife, three concubines, four legitimate sons, and four illegitimate ones, living a life even more carefree than her grandfather’s.

Her great-grandfather and grandfather once believed the clan would be a safe harbor for the mansion—useless perhaps, but necessary to have.

Little did they know, when the time came, the clan turned their backs, disowning that branch of the family entirely.

Her great-grandfather and grandfather learned this in the afterlife, wondering if they would ever sue the Xiao ancestors in court.

Chunnuan originally wanted to check the dock for possible livelihoods, but since it was under the clan elders’ control, trying to make a living there would likely bring trouble.

“Sister, are we still going to the dock?”

Chunning looked uneasy at her sister’s long silence.

“Yes,” Chunnuan replied. “Let Luo Xiaogang lead us. Tell others we’re his relatives; don’t mention we’re from the Xiao family.”

“Okay.”

***

Chunning was clever; promising to teach Luo Xiaogang to read won her over easily.

It was Chunnuan’s first time walking such a long distance on foot. Luo Xiaogang darted ahead, skipping and running, sharing tales of the Xiao Family Dock.

“The chief steward of the dock is the third son of the clan chief, born to the main concubine. He looks fierce—people say he’s the reincarnation of an evil spirit.”

“The accountant is the sixth son of the clan chief, the youngest son of the main wife. He’s mild-mannered and is even planning to take the scholar’s exam.”

“Ordinary folks can do business at the dock, but they must pay the chief steward money, or else both they and their goods get thrown into the river.”

“How much do they have to pay?” Chunnuan wondered. They say that good families are blessed, but the Xiao clan elders were ruthless rich.

“I don’t know how much. No one in our village does business at the dock,” Luo Xiaogang said. “Sister Chunnuan, do you want to do business there?”

“No, I’m just asking,” Chunnuan said. She knew children couldn’t keep secrets. She had plans but couldn’t reveal them, lest they be dashed before they began.

Especially since the business place was the Xiao clan’s territory—they might not want to see her family prosper.

“Sister Chunnuan, you don’t know. Actually, the Xiao clan elders have their own conflicts. My father says they’re fighting among themselves, all wanting to be clan chief.”

“Who’s fighting whom?”

“I don’t know.”

Chunnuan sighed—this boy spoke to whet her curiosity but gave no answers.

But it was understandable he didn’t know.

The clan chief lived in a grand three-courtyard mansion provided by the clan, with food and clothing supplied by clan members. Such privileges naturally made the position hereditary. Everyone wanted a piece of this rich pie.

If you can’t reach it, you let it be; some stretch to grasp it anyway.

Knowing this, Chunnuan took special note.

“This dock is quite lively.”

The river was called Baiyun River—not very wide but swift. Many boats traveled its surface.

“Xiaogang, do you know where this river flows?”

“It flows into the Tuo River. On the Tuo River, there’s a big dock, very big.” Luo Xiaogang wasn’t quite sure, but his grandfather told him so. He liked showing off how much he knew to Sister Chunnuan, feeling clever.

***

“A big boat’s coming, a big boat’s coming.”

Suddenly, a group appeared at the dock, shirtless and holding ropes, rushing into the river toward a boat.

“What are they doing?” Chunnuan and Chunning asked in unison.

“Pulling the towline,” Luo Xiaogang proudly explained, eager to display his knowledge. “There’s a shallow shoal where the big boat can’t move. People have to pull it past. Usually, they pull it to the dock, have some tea, take a break, then continue downstream.”

“Pulling the towline?” Chunning hesitated. “Can they earn money from that? How much silver per person?”

Chunnuan smiled wryly—this child was still unused to the hardships of poor folk.

“A hardworking towman can earn two to three taels a year,” Luo Xiaogang told the siblings. “My dad pulls towlines here. Sometimes he’s lucky and pulls several times a day. When he comes home, he brings us pea cakes.”

“Then why…” Chunnuan felt embarrassed looking at the men in the water. They wore no shirts, and some had no trousers either—just a loincloth around their waists before jumping in.

“You mean why they don’t wear clothes?” Luo Xiaogang explained. “Pulling towlines means being in the water all year. Wet clothes make walking impossible, so they don’t wear trousers. My dad says if clothes get soaked, they can get sick. We’re poor and can’t afford medicine, so we save wherever we can.”

“Yes, yes, medicine is really expensive.”

Xiao Chunling, the doctor’s grandson, had just realized this yesterday when buying pregnancy medicine for his elder sister-in-law at the herbal shop. The old Xiao mansion once had a medicine storehouse filled with herbs, but they never saw doctors or bought medicine outside.

“Yes, my grandmother and mother always say, as long as we don’t get sick, we’re earning money for the family. So we try not to get sick. If we feel unwell, we find some herbs, boil them, and drink two big bowls...”

While Luo Xiaogang and Chunling discussed their survival methods, Chunnuan observed the dock’s activity.

Sure enough, after the towmen pulled the boat to the dock, passengers disembarked. The hot weather made many buy tea, and some purchased mountain goods. Each arrival brought a brief bustle before the next boat came.

Chunnuan counted the time: about four boats per hour. These were not large vessels, carrying roughly a few dozen to a hundred passengers.

“Xiaogang, are there this many boats at night too?”