The Wandering God

50 Well Water Does Not Mix With River Water 3/3

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.