The fist of the largest of Gao Ran's thugs caught Hao Min's nose before he could recover from his surprise.

"Shit!" The fisherman doubled over, clutching at his once again bleeding nose. If it hadn't been broken before, it was now.

"Won't you invite us in?" Gao Ran asked.

The knee that next caught Hao Min in the stomach sent him sprawling across his own floor. It was followed by a kick that forced an animal like grunt from his mouth.

"Oh my. You already have company. And what pretty company it is," said Gao Ran. Hao Min looked up in horror as Gao Ran went to perch on the edge of his bed, where the girl had woken. She pulled the blankets up to her chest to hide herself.

"Oh my, my dear, and who might you be? How much did Hao Min have to pay to buy a night with someone as gorgeous as you?"

"He did not pay anything," said the girl defiantly. "I am his wife. Do not touch me!" she hissed, reaching out to slap at the hand that had reached to pry the blankets from her hands.

"His wife!" Gao Ran collapsed back onto the bed into helpless laughter. "I knew you were hiding something Hao Min, but this? Ren Hao Min, you lucky bastard, I will never understand how you do it!"

The debt collected chortled, sitting up. "Really my dear, what did he tell you? That he had come into money? Or that he had a large windfall coming his way? Whatever it was he used to get you by his side, I can assure you it was a lie. This sorry excuse for a human has more debt than anyone this side of Zhanghai."

"It is his father's debt, a debt you have no doubt inflated to keep him paying," the girl snapped.

The girl's words sent Gao Ran into helpless laughter once more. "His father's debt! Is that what he told you?"

The girl's eyes narrowed.

"Please," Hao Min begged, from the floor.

Gao Ran cleared his throat at last. "Here, let me set you straight, my dear. Our fisherman friend here was able to pay off his father's debt in less than a year. It is his own debt he is paying now."

"What?" the girl asked, eyes narrowing further.

"You see, while his father was just a drinker, Hao Min had more... diverse tastes. Wine, the pipe, and the prettiest women were what he wanted. None as pretty as you, of course."

The girl said nothing. Her hands on the blankets clenched.

"Please," Hao Min begged, struggling to rise. "Please don't tell her."

Gao Ran ignored him. "But really, it was gambling that got him the most. He couldn't say no to a hand of cards. No matter how deep he was in, he would keep playing. Lost ten times as much as he won. Unluckiest son of a bitch that I've ever met."

The debt collector's eyes narrowed. "When it comes to cards, at least. How he got you in his bed, I'll never know."

He stood. "Anyway, he finally straightened out a few years ago. Not soon enough though. He'll be paying off his bad habits the rest of his life. Not much of a life really, is it?" Gao Ran asked, resting a foot on Hao Min's back. He forced the fisherman down, to the ground. "If it were me, I would just walk into the sea, like your father did."

In the bed, the girl said nothing. Hao Min hung his head, almost glad Gao Ran had pushed him to the floor so he could not see her face.

"Anyway, Hao Min. I'm here with a proposition," said Gao Ran, gesturing to his two associates. "Rather than wait for you to pay off your debt on that pittance of an income you make fishing, I'll accept your... wife in exchange. I can make far more off her."

"No," said Hao Min, voice muffled by the floor.

"Really? Just think of it? Free at last. No more debt to pay. All you have to do is give me your pretty little wife to use for... let's say a year, maybe two."

Hao Min raised his face from the floor at last. "Fuck off Gao Ran, you rat-faced bastard."

Gao Ran's face crinkled in anger, and his kick when it connected with Hao Min's jaw was vicious. "You really are a stupid, useless piece of shit, fisherman. Always thinking you're so much better than the rest of us. But really, your the lowest of the low. Just a useless bastard no one wants. Not even your own mother!"

The debt collected punctuated his words with kicks to Hao Min's jaw, his face, his side. Hao Min took them, welcoming the pain, hiding his grunts best he could.

When Gao Ran grew tired, he beckoned his two large lackeys forward.

"Hurt him until he agrees. I don't want to leave here without the girl."

Hao Min steeled himself, begging whatever gods there were that he would not give in, and betray Little Ship.

"Stop," came quietly from the bed.

All four men looked up. The girl had risen, the blankets draped around her like a gown. "Stop," she said again. "I will go with you."

Hao Min paled, as he stared at her determined face. "Xiao Chuan? What are you sayin—"

Gao Ran kicked his face to silence him."Are you sure?" the debt collector asked. "You have to be willing, you see, or we can get into a bit of trouble with the magistrate. Slavery is still... technically unlawful."

"I am willing," the girl said quietly.

"Stop. I am not willing!" cried Hao Min. He try to struggle to his feet but one of the lackeys held him down with a knee planted on his back.

"Good girl. It is a wife's duty to pay her husband's debts," cooed Gao Ran, satisfaction plain on his face. "Now dress, and we will leave."

"Wait! I did not agree to this! I am not willing!"

Another kick to Hao Min's face left him coughing, spitting out his own blood. A hand gripped his hair. "Don't worry, you can still come visit your pretty wife whenever you want, Hao Min," Gao Ran said, by his face. "For a price, of course."

With all the strength he had, Hao Min twisted, throwing off the knee that held him to the ground. His fist swung, connecting squarely with with the grinnng face beside is own.

Gao Ran gurgled angrily, his own nose now broken. He staggered back. Then he gestured to his guard. "Break his fucking face!" The debt collector yelled.

Perhaps it was luck, but the first punch that came laid Hao Min out cold.

*~*~*~*~*~*

In the darkness, the first thing he felt was pain.

It was not the pain of his body. He knew his ribs were burning, likely broken, and perhaps one of his wrists too. The rest of him was so covered with bruises and scrapes, he felt like a piece of flotsam that had been dragged along the cliffs.

But that was not the pain that he felt.

It was loss. They took her. They took—

"Little Ship!" he cried out, sitting up.

He was still lying on the hard dirt floor of his cottage. A dark stain from his nose covered the floor next to him.

The cottage was empty.

They, they took her....

Grimly he struggled to his feet. The light coming in the window suggest early evening. A whole day had passed.

Who knows what has happened. What they have done to her.

Staggering, Hao Min limped to the door. Luckily, nothing in his legs appeared injured to the point he could not walk. But the pain in his left wrist told him it was, indeed, broken.

He threw the door open with his right hand, and looked out to sea.

The sun was setting in the clouds, painting them in colors of pale creams and pinks and eggshell blues. The waves were low, much calmer than they had been yesterday, and had he tried to swim around the point today, he might not have near drowned.

With relief he found his ship, moored where he had left it. But then he realized it did not matter. He would not be able to sail after them, with a broken wrist anyway.

He turned and began to limp across the beach, to the narrow trail that led across the point.

Who know's what has happened to her. What she has already suffered.

Hao Min forced his legs into a limping jog, than a run, ignoring the stabs of pain from all over his body.

It did not matter. All that mattered was getting to Xiao Chuan.

Clutching his wrist to his chest, he ran for the path.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Navigating the narrow, trecherous path up the cliff took too long injured. More than once he almost fell, and thought his life would end as his father's had.

In the dark cold sea. Perhaps, that would not be such a bad thing.

No. No! What would happen to Xiao Chuan, if he died here?

Perhaps she will be better off without you... a voice whispered. Gao Ran is right, you have more debt than anyone can pay in a lifetime. A life with you is no life at all. If she would not before, why would she stay now?

When Hao Min at last reached the village it was dark, and shops had already started to close for the evening. A few heads turned as he limped along the wharf, covered in blood, but to his relief, no one called out, or tried to stop or help him.

The pain in his head grew as he half ran, half limped toward where the Floating Flower moored. More than once his vision blurred, and nausea riled his stomach.

But he kept going. I have to get to Xiao Chuan.

He pushed himself, faster, and faster. Along the path that led south from the village. The twilight deepened. Along the coast, he saw the red lanterns come alight on the Floating Flower, welcoming customers for business.

Almost there! Xiao Chuan!

But even as his eyes found the red lanterns, they turned fuzzy, blurring into red blobs in the dark. Hao Min tripped, and staggered, and thought he had caught himself. But the next thing he knew he was on the ground, on his back, the dark sky circling above him.

No... I can't stop here... almost...

But really, what could he do? Even if he made  it all the way there, beaten and bloody as he was, would he really be her hero?  They would throw him into the sea, and watch him drown.

I have to... reach her... I can't...

Hao Min closed his eyes, and then struggled to his feet once more, the path tilting beneath him. It did not matter if he could do nothing once he got there. He just had to... had to get to—

A cry on the path ahead of him snapped him from his whirling delirium.

A girl, dressed in the revealing silk dress that all girls aboard the floating flower wore, was staggering down the path toward him, tripping over her skirts.

"She- she's a monster!" the fleeing girl cried.

"Who—?" Hao Min tried to inquire, but the girl ran right past him.

She was soon followed, by other girls from the ship, as well as a few patrons and burly men who Gao Ran hired as guards. Hao Min even caught sight of the brute who had laid him out earlier. The man did not even notice the fisherman, doubled up by the path, he was so in a hurry to get away.

Hao Min did not understand what was happening. Then he smelled the smoke.

His eyes found the Floating Flower, between the trees. It was not hard to do, The barge was afire.

"Little Ship!" Hao Min called uselessly. He struggled into a run once more.

Staggering, stumbling, pushing himself off trees when he thought he would fall, Hao Min at last found himself at the end of the long floating dock that led out to the pleasure barge.

Helplessly, he looked out at the mountain of flame the ship had become. An island of flame on the water.

"Little Ship..." Hao Min's heart faltered. He fell to his knees. She could not be alive. If she had not escaped... had been too late. He had not been able to—

A humming reached him, over the roar of the flames and the cracking of splitting beams. It was a song he often hummed.

And then, to his amazement, his Little Ship came strolling out of the bushes.

It was clear from the way she rang out her hair that she had just been in the water. "Little Ship, what are you, how are you—?"

The girl looked up. "Oh my. Fisherman. What are you doing here?"

"I- I came to get you," said Hao Min, so shocked his voice was faint. "What- what happened here?"

In the light from the inferno, he could see her smile. "Well, you know what they say. Fire and ships do not mix."

"But how did...?" he started to ask, then gave up. "Nevermind. Are you alright?"

"Oh, I am fine. I was just washing off the... smoke in the sea," she said casually, reaching up to brush a fleck of something off her cheek. It looked dark red, like blood. But perhaps it was just ash.

"Are you alright?" the girl questioned, looking him up and down. "You look... terrible. Let's get you home, shall we?"

Hao Min began to laugh.

He sunk to the ground in laughter. He laughed so hard, he feared his broken ribs would break further. He laughed, dispelling all the fear he had felt.

Then he raised his head. "How can you talk to me still? Don't you hate me? Everything he said was true. I mislead you. It is my own debt I am still paying off."

The girl looked away and shrugged. "We have all done things we are not proud of," she said. Then she pointed at what was left of the burning ship. "And I do not think you will need to worry about your debt any longer."

Hao Min raised his eyebrow. "Gao Ran...?"

The girl's smile, when it came, sent a shiver down his spine. "Let's just say he was not very lucky."

Hao Min was too surprised and exhausted to say more. He let the girl pull him to his feet, and help him limp home.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter: 2339
Total: 21,661