Song of Time - Dusk Awakening Verse - Chapter 3

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

The end of September was still sultry and unending.

At noon, the scorching sun was proudly basking on the embankment, and there was silence behind the high grass slopes, and even the noise of cicadas could not be heard. The Eternal-light River’s surface was extremely boisterous, and waves of water vapor are swept up by merchant ships and cruise ships coming and going, making people feel refreshed.

In this hustle and bustle of boats, The Milvus was moving forward along the riverbank, not very fast, not very slow. This was a medium-sized brig, it looks quite old, and the light brown waterproof painted on the boat has faint traces of repairs. The bright yellow deck is newly paved teak, still leaving a faint fragrance, the white canvas on the high mast is blown up by the river breeze, and a considerable silver Milvus is inlaid at the bow of the ship.

The novice captain Angri was sitting on the deck below the mainmast with a severe expression, interspersing his hands, staring at the front without moving his eyes. The wide-brimmed dark blue captain’s hat was randomly thrown aside by him, showing a dazzling head—flaming short hair.

He was wearing a gray-blue striped short sailor suit and about 30 years old. His skin had long been tanned into a deep bronze color because of his running around all the year-round. His forehead was wide, his eyebrows were short and stubby, his amber eyes were big and energetic, and a delicate mustache was kept under the slightly collapsed bridge of his nose, which added a touch of elegance to him.

Opposite him were two rude, dark-skinned middle-aged men, the first mate Thaler and the second mate Cooper, they were brothers. At this moment, these two black carbon-like lieutenants were also looking at the deck with the same stiff expression. The atmosphere was a bit solemn.

Captain Angri was silent for a long time like meditation and finally sighed helplessly. He looked up at his lieutenants, pursed his mouth, and asked dryly, “Really not?”

“Are you kidding? It’s all here, do you want to go back?” How could the first mate Thaler let him act shamelessly? He stared captain and put on a posture of uncompromising.

Seeing that he refused to agree, the captain could only droop his eyebrows and spoke in a low voice, trying to impress him with friendship: “What you said, all here have been good brothers for so many years, don’t be so heartless…”.

“Boss, one yard is one yard, although we are good brothers…This shiny silver coin does not know!” The second mate interrupted him with grinning, revealing a line of white.

“Fuck, what a bit of bad luck! On this trip, we encountered a storm and then… I must be cursed!” Angri found  he could not turn around a hopeless situation, only swore loudly, and threw one of his cards, “Marshal!”

“Haha! Phoenix!” Tale laughed from ear to ear and quickly pressed the last card in his hand on the deck, and by the way, he grabbed all the chips beside Angri.

“Come on, come on!” Angrily stood up and patted his pants, buckled the captain’s cap on his head, and took out a small mahogany pipe from his waist skin. He took his pipe in his trousers pocket and then digs into his underwear. Nothing was found. He had to take off the pipe with an angry face, then turned his head and shouted at the cabin: “A Gian! A Gian! Get some tobacco for me quickly. The kind of red picadura!”

“Okay! Here comes it!” The clear young response came from the cabin immediately.

This small cabin was a little dark. Besides the wooden windows, the bright light was divided into blocks of different sizes, with flying dust. Gian replied without raising his head, hurriedly folded the letter in his hand and stuffed it into the envelope, coated it with glue, and then carefully put it in the backpack. He turned around and took out a glass bottle of shredded tobacco from the wooden cabinet beside the table, poured some red shredded into his hand, clenched his fists, and ran out quickly along the stairs.

The sunlight outside the cabin was extremely dazzling, and Gian raised his arms to cover his eyes. After a few seconds, he adjusted to the transient light. He blinked and lowered his arms and walked towards Captain Angri with a smile. The 17-year-old boy was not tall and slender. He wears a white shirt and gray-green burlap trousers, cowhide sandals on his feet, and a short light linen hair that looks messy after a long boat trip.

His facial features were not outstanding, but he was white and even translucent. Compared with the traditional southerners next to him, it was hard to believe his nationality. However, the first thing everyone who saw him for the first time must be his beautiful pupils: the sea-blue pupils have fainted with circles of extremely shallow bright lines, dotted with subtle stars, The smart room surrounds the entire universe.

In all, this was the third time he had traveled to the capital of Wong——City Jing as a high school exchange student. In the first two times, he followed the rules to take the ferry to Ferrence’s nearest port. This time, due to the ostentation of his elder brother Angri from his hometown, and to save money, he finally set foot here. A medium-sized sailing boat that was not too spacious.

These few people on the boat were all veterans of businessmen all year round. Apart from teasing him with some vulgar jokes and making him blush, they also went smoothly. They just didn’t expect that it was almost at the end, and they encountered this rare superstorm, which caused the boat trip to be delayed for several days. Fortunately, no one was injured, and it was a god’s favor.

Gian quickly walked to the captain’s side, spreading his palm to reveal the bunch of tobacco with a smile: “Bro Angri, here!”

“…Why so little? It’s not enough for me to smoke.” Angeli glanced at the poorly small shredded tobacco ball in the young man’s hand and curled his lips in disgust, seemingly unhappy.

“Smoking slower, so it will be enough for you to hold on for a while. The book says that tobacco contains many harmful things. You should smoke less. Otherwise, it will not be good for your body!” Gian pretended not to see his discomfort and skillfully rolled the tobacco. He was stuffed into a ball expertly, and in the end, he gave him a standard eight-tooth smile.

“You little bookworm, you know to receipt what in the books and bully uneducated people like us…” Angeli had never been to school since he was a child. He dangled his pipe and complained vaguely, then ignited the tobacco and took a few sips before leaning against the ship’s side contentedly.

Gian was very clear about this big brother’s weakness, who had been acquainted with him since he was a child. Seeing that he muffled and stopped talking, he chuckled and looked around. First mate Thaler was still counting today’s seizures enthusiastically, while the second mate Cooper was lying on the deck with his feet up boringly, humming a jumble of tunes. Only the helmsman Phil was still loyal to his position, holding the wooden rudder, staring at the channel ahead.

The time waiting to enter the port was always the best time to loaf on the job. The young man stretched his waist, holding on to the warm wooden railing, looking at the undulating green mountains in the distance and exclaimed: “It’s a good day today. Finally, don’t have to bear rain anymore!”

“What a fuck!” The red-haired captain gave him a bad look while holding the pipe. “If it gets hotter, the sails will burn! Hmph! I don’t know how your kid grows up, but you are not afraid of heat and never be suntan!”

 “I’m so talented!” Gian saw his stinky expression; of course, he knew it well, smiled, and winked at him. “Why is your temper so bad? How many did you lose today?”

The really unlucky captain turned his face away, looked melancholy at the calm surface of the river, pretending to hear nothing, and didn’t want to mention this sad thing at all.

The crew members who beg for life at sea had little hobbies for gambling, but few like the red-haired captain, who almost always lost in the gambling, but still can’t help itching. He’s a real freak. The young man knew that after losing money, let him get a bad temper. He didn’t care about his cold reaction. Just as he wanted to comfort him, he heard the first mate’s frivolous laughter from behind.

“Hey! Little Gian, come and play once or twice?” Thaler had just finished counting the money and was interested again, showing a smirk that didn’t match his thick blackface. He pointed at Gian and said, “There is nothing to do anyway. Let’s just have fun, it’s up to you.”

“No! I don’t gamble if I let my mother know that it will be acceptable!” Gian shook his head and refused. He never gambled, on the one hand, because of his mother’s instructions. On the other hand, he also didn’t like the feeling of taking something that other people have worked hard for easily.

“It’s okay. If you don’t bet, we can paly on other things, washing, cooking, cleaning the deck, whatever.” The first mate waved his hand disapprovingly and teased the captain. “Charge on your brother Angri’s account. Anyway, he has not a penny on him now !”

 What? How could you lose all your money? Gian was suddenly startled. He looked back at the captain, who was still leaning on the railing and facing the sea with a sad face. He was anxious and whispered in his ear, “What happened… Did you lose so much today?”

“It’s not too much to lose… It just happened to lose money to zero…” Angeli took a breath and sighed faintly, frustrated for his stinky hand who couldn’t get a bit of good luck.

The boy frowned when he heard it. He knew that it was not easy for the seafarers to make some money from the island and the land. The prodigal captain actually gambled all the money, which really made him annoyed and heartache: “You are too insignificant! Now gamble all the money, how can you buy the goods when you get to the Jing? You are…really…”

The captain was confused when he was scolded, and he was even more surprised when he saw Gian was sulky and speechless: “What are you talking about? The money for the goods has already been set, how could I use that money to gamble?!”

“…How much did you lose this way?”

“Total, probably…10 silvers.”

10 silver, that was 1,000 copper coins, for ordinary people, this was just a week or two of daily expenses, barely considered pocket money. Gian was speechless for a while. It was the first time he had boarded this big brother’s boat, so naturally, he didn’t understand the contract rules between them. He glanced at the captain who had been wronged by his side, and then looked at the evil-eyed first mate who sat aside tossing silver coins, and was embarrassed in his heart, and decided to teach him a little lesson.

So he walked up to Thaler with an angry face and sat down, patted the deck lightly, pretending to be an experienced gesture: “Uncle Thaler, let’s take one turn.”

“Oh, really?” The first mate smiled and narrowed his eyes as if there was a kind of satisfaction of trickery. “How much do you want to ?”

“Just bet 10 silver.” Gian was full of confidence and wanted to win back all the money the captain lost at once.

Thaler raised his eyebrows unexpectedly, looked at each other with the second mate, then looked at the captain who was so surprised that he opened his mouth with a pipe beside the railing, rolled his eyes, and smiled: “Well, it’s rare that Gian is so domineering. Let’s play with you.”

Hearing that he agreed, Gian did not speak, quietly watching the second mate quickly reshuffle the cards, and then distributed them one by one. He suggested that this gambling fight was not trying to flaunt his superiority. Although he never gambles, he was very familiar with this army card. It was not that he boasted, but in the game, he was so lucky that he had never lost!

Cooper quickly finished the distribution, Gian took the lead in playing firstly. He looked at the cards in his hand calmly, had a well-thought-out plan beforehand. Then he  glanced  the faces of the two who seemed to be unchanged, and threw three cards out with a smile: “Three soldiers.”

“Three lieutenants.” Thaler followed.

“Three colonels.” Cooper continued.

 “Three generals.” Gian retook the initiative.

“Pass…”

 “Three scholars with an illusionist.” Cooper used the bomb.

 “Three Illusion Masters with king” Gian used a super bomb.

 “…pass.”

 “…fuck, pass!” Thaler couldn’t help but cursed with a whisper.

“Airship formation… Soldiers and Lieutenants Colonel.”

“Artillery!” Thale decisively took control.

 “Marshal!” However, it was taken away by Cooper in an instant.

“Hmm…it seems that this round can only end here.” Gian frowned and shook his head as he looked at the two remaining cards in his hand as if he had nothing to do.

“Hey! Little Gian, when playing cards, the most important thing is to never cover your head and make a mess. You have to leave something behind! You are still young!” Thaler seemed to be holding the winning ticket and triumphantly played a King. The card crushed Cooper to death, and then he used one Physician and drew another card from the deck.

Angri took a few gazes behind Gian, his expression became very weird, he turned to laugh but forced to hold back.

“Hey! I haven’t played  yet, Uncle Thalre, there is an old  saying of Wong: You can’t eat hot tofu if you are impatient!” Gian smiled slyly and placed the last two cards in his hand on the deck. Phoenix and Priest, double the points!”

“Wh…what!?” Thaler stared at the two cards with an unbelievable expression. He never expected that he would lose to this little guy with no gambling experience.

“Oh, hello! I said Gian, you are so lucky!” Cooper laughed and patted Gian’s back. Although he lost the money, he was not unhappy. On the contrary, he was full of praise for a rare good hand.

“Haha! 20 silver ah 20 silver! Oh! Thanks to the goddess!” Angri threw the captain’s hat high, dancing around happily as if the money had already gone to his pocket.

When this group of bad elements were playing, the helmsman Phil finally couldn’t stand it. He turned his head blankly and shouted to everyone: “Guys, we will be in port soon! Stand up!”

Hearing this, Gian hurriedly avoided the “Encouragement of Love” of several people frolicking, got up, and ran to the bow of the ship, holding the wooden fence and looking forward.

Under the clear blue sky, a double-layer iron-framed bridge spanned the Eternal-light River’s river surface like a flying rainbow. Just a few years after its official opening, the bridge had become one of the capital’s must-see tourist landmarks.

The slightly arched bridge body was covered with brown waterproof paint. The lower layer was a closed glass pipe. The upper layer was a pedestrian passage paved with blue bricks. There was one gallery on the tower, which was more than six meters high, and on the top of the bridge, a viewing platform has been specially opened. Long carved cornices extend from the bridge’s side, covered with vermilion glazed tiles, and countless small golden bells were hung in two rows along the corridor, making a soft noise with the wind.

“Covered Bridge…” Gian stared at this majestic and beautiful bridge, with an impulse inexplicably. He took a deep breath and shouted forward with his hands as horns: “Hello! Jing! I’m back! I’m back!”

The crisp voice of the young man drifted along the river around the embankment, as if in response, a low hum came from the bridge. A row of silver-white railcars quickly passed under the bridge with a neat roar. The long flute sounded intermittently, as the train disappeared into the distant place nurtured by the flying rainbow.