Vessels of Darkness

Zipping by the bustling market in Ninkong, full of vendors seeking customers to buy their wares, Bao Wang hurried to the bird stall where the owner had imported an owl, just as he had requested. Looking to participate in the first secret rodent remediation job opportunity offered by the undergrown movement against Chibaese rule, the wage of ten million fabi a week was nothing to be sneezed at. Parking his rusty bike outside the shop, he opened the door, which rang a tiny bell alerting the shopkeeper to his presence.

“Ah Bao, your bird is here, all the way from Vietnam could you believe it or not.”

“Thanks Xu. I don’t know if the Chibaese troubled you when bringing in the owl, but how much do I owe you?”

Ruffling through several receipts detailing the costs of the transportation, the owner totaled the damage to Bao’s bank account. “The total is three hundred million fabi, but since you paid a deposit of fifty million fabi, you owe me two hundred and fifty million.”

Counting out the ten-million-dollar bills, Xu handed him the cage, which Bao took and strapped to the back of his bicycle.

Arriving back home, he recited the words he would use to justify his expensive purchase to his wife and parents, who had no idea of the amount of money he had spent on getting the bird.

“This bird may…no, this bird will earn us enough money to support a family.”

When he was confident that his spiel would win over the approval from his family, he barely got two feet into the door holding the owl before his wife and mother berated him for spending more money on one of his get-rich-quick schemes.

“Bao! What did you buy this time? We said no more wasting money! How much was that bird?”

“Feng honey, it’s not just a bird, it’s an owl! And what do owls do? They eat mice!”

“You’ll be eating mice yourself if you keep blowing our budget on these stupid ideas. How much did you spend? Ten million? A hundred million?”

“Err…just…um…three hundre—”

His mother gasped and finished the sentence for him. “Three hundred million fabi? Are you crazy Bao? That’s nearly four months wages for the entire family!”

“But ma, this will work. I’ve done my research, if I am able to train this owl to catch rats, they’ll hire me for the job!”

While Bao was enthusiastic about the deal, his mother and Feng did not share that same level of optimism and confidence he had in the owl.

Ignoring his indignant family, Bao immediately got to training the owl, starting with keeping him from flying away. Tying a rope around the bird’s leg and holding onto it securely, he opened the cage and coaxed the owl out and onto the leather sleeve on his arm. Initially, the bird tried to escape several times, flapping his gigantic wings and forcing Bao to hold on tightly to the tether. After several attempts, the owl simply landed back on his trainer’s arm, as if conceding defeat to his human owner, for the moment at least.

Walking over to the barn where the rice was stored, Bao walked around, watching the bird to see if he could detect any rodents in the area. Cocking his head to the right, he dove towards some bags in the corner, and Bao followed suit to give the bird enough slack to chase whatever he found. Making a quick lunge, the owl hopped back out with a large black rat caught in its talons. Swallowing the rodent whole, the owl stared at Bao, as if wondering why he was watching him eat.

Putting him back in his cage, Bao decided to name him Li Ren, a name suited to the

meat-eating bird.

Back at the kitchen, mother and wife were complaining once again about Bao’s impulsive habit of spending their hard-earned money. “At least he could have bought a hen to lay eggs for us. What use is an owl?” As they continued berating him and preparing for dinner, Bao sat down next to his father, who was reading the daily newspaper. Seeing his son, he told him the solemn news about what was happening to China. “The Chiba army is sweeping though southern China. Cities are falling to Chiba just as our Ninkong did.”

Shaking his head, Bao lamented about how the soldiers violently put down the rebels that tried to free their city from Chibaese rule. “All of them were just mowed down, like grass being cut with a sharp blade. They didn’t stand a chance.”

As the women set the meal down on the table, they each took their bowl of rice and started eating, expertly grabbing morsels of food with their chopsticks.

“So, are you and Feng still trying for a child? It’s been nearly a year since you two got married.”

“We’re still attempting to have one, but it’s still early mom. You’ll be a grandma soon enough heh.”

“It took us nearly two years to have you Bao, and no more after you either. So, we were fortunately to have you at the very least.”

Grabbing the last piece of chicken meat, Bao gave it to Feng, who tried not to smile as she was still upset about his splurging of money. “Thanks dear,”

Seeing his son care for his wife, Bao’s father clarified that he too would have done the same. “Dear, I would have given you a piece of chicken too, but as fate would have it, we’re just sitting too far away from each other.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say honey.”

After helping clear up the table and handing the women the dishes and bowls, Bao went back to the barn to check on Li Ren. The owl was wide awake, given that it was nearing dusk, and so he decided to try some hunting at night. Careful to tether the rope properly, he calmly and gently took the bird out of the cage and settled him on his sleeve. Walking around the barn, Bao waited every once in a while, to see if Li Ren could sense any movement among the rice bags and vegetables. Suddenly, they both heard a high-pitched squeak and something scurried along the bottom of the wall, trying to get back to the cover of darkness, but within moments, Li Ren had caught it with his sharp talons and held the rodent in place. Knowing that the job required the predator to catch as many rats as possible, Bao tried to take the dead mouse from Li Ren, to keep him hunting throughout the night before letting him eat his catch. Playing tug-a-war with the owl, he tried pulling the mouse away from his grasp and finally managed to free it from his deadly talons. Careful to grab the mouse by the tail with his gloves, he knew that the rodents harbored many diseases, and so he tried to limit the amount of contact he had with the dead creatures. By the end of the night, several more rats and mice were piled into a container, and after putting Li Ren back in his cage, Bao gave him a mouse as a reward, which he promptly ate by swallowing it whole. Locking the barn door, he went back to the house and got ready for the farm work that he was responsible for every day during the growing season.

The next morning, Bao surveyed the rice paddies, which were also home to carp fish that lived in the flooded pools used to grow the crop. The carp eat many pests that might damage the rice plants and provide a natural fertilizer in the form of fish feces. As the fish grow larger, they could then be sold for food, gaining even more income for farmers like Bao.

While Bao handled the family farm with several servants helping him, Feng went to the local shop, selling clothes that she had made herself with a sowing machine. On her way back home, she bought some more groceries to feed their family of four, and then went about helping her mother-in-law to clean the house and prepare the dinner.

As noon arrived, Bao and the servants rested for a lunch break, taking bowls of rice and some vegetables that had been set out in a small table, sitting down in one of the many shelters constructed around the farm. Wiping their feet dry so as not to keep them wet the entire day as they waded through the flooded paddies, they talked of their new Chiba rulers, and the brutality with which they dealt to the Chinese people. “I heard they preform experiments on people, while they are still alive still, torturing those poor souls till they finally die.”

“They don’t consider us Chinese as human beings, they treat us like animals on a farm, fed and taken care of till they are to be slaughtered. Anyways, let’s not ruin the day with such pessimism. Alright everyone, I know, let’s sing March of the Volunteers while we go back to the paddies.”

Belting out the tune lustfully, the group marched back to their planting sites, and continued on their work till the early evening when they would all return back to their homes.

Once again practicing rodent catching with Li Ren, this time he was able to grab ten mice, much to the surprise of Bao who didn’t figure there were that many rodents in his barn. Swallowing the last mouse before returning to his cage, Bao praised his new partner and promised him all the rodents he could eat if he kept working hard and catching the pests for him.

Several weeks later, with Li Ren perched on his shoulder, Bao no longer needed a tethering rope and relied on the trust that his owl had in him. Once in a while the large bird would swoop over the fields and come back with a rodent firmly in it’s talons. Dropping the catch into a small basket, he was rewarded with a piece of salted and dried chicken meat jerky, which Li Ren gobbled up. When the growing season was to end later this week or the week after, Bao would enlist his owl to help the remediation effort of eradicating all the vermin.

Continuing to harvest the rice along with the rest of his servants, the grain was all piled up, left to dry and threshed before being poured into baskets and stored in the barn house, where it would be sold to the townsfolk around Ninkong. With the rice paddies drained for harvesting, the carp that were living in the fields were put into pools of water or sold to the fish market for extra income. Once in a while, they would feed the carp their leftover rice from their mealtimes, and the fish would jostle against each other to fight for the food.

Finished with the harvest, Bao brought his prized owl to the secret hiring location where they would be tested to see how effective Li Ren would be in capturing rodents. Releasing several mice, they watched as the hug owl quickly grabbed them and deposited them into the basket before being rewarded with some jerky. Satisfied with the owls’ performance, they assigned Bao and Li Ren to the north side of the city, and to catch a minimum of twenty rats a day in order to get the twenty million fabi a week wage as promised. The dead rats would then be brought back to the hideout to be counted, and at the end of the week, they would tally his total and pay him for his services. They also strongly recommended not handling the rats without gloves, due to the high likelihood they would be carrying unwanted diseases. In the distance, Bao could see large fires where the dead rats were incinerated, burnt up along with any other pathogens they were carrying.

“I don’t like it son. It’s only a matter of time before you get sick from being too close to one of those rodents.”

“But ma, the city needs this, we’re keeping the streets clean and preventing others from getting sick.”

“Yes, but at what cost? Our family depends on you Bao, the risk you’re taking is unnecessary and is reckless.” A tear rolled down Feng’s cheek. “I don’t want to lose you…”

“Feng…the city needs me. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made, and if I kept countless others safe from disease, then I will have done something right. Something noble. This world we are living in is chaotic, unpredictable and unfair but we must strive to survive and move forward past these uncertain times.”

Embracing his wife, Bao went back to chatting with his father who seemed to never move from his spot at the front of the table. “They say the United States is putting sanctions against Chiba to help relieve pressure off of us in China. Embargos on oil, rubber and other goods are taking effect tonight. I don’t think the Chibaese government will take this lightly.”

“Serves them right for their conquest and brutality against our Chinese brethren.”

“But son, be careful what you say when speaking about sensitive topics. Best keep your lips shut then to be thrown into prison and tortured. You’re in hot water enough by helping the secret rat extermination group.”

“I’ll be careful dad. Oi, ladies, we got two starving boys here, could you bring some food?”

Raising their eyebrows, the women counter-offered the request: “Would it hurt to say please?”

“You drive a hard bargain. Okay, please can we get some food over here?”

The next morning, Feng hurried back home, after going for her usual market expedition. While walking back, she noticed two Chibaese soldiers at their neighbour’s door, demanding rice and food for the Chibaese army. As the argument escalated, Feng watched in horror as they shot their neighbour, and barged into the house, looting it like the animals that they were.

“Ma, Pa, hurry, Chibaese soldiers are coming to collect food and money. We have to hide! They just killed Qing!” Hurriedly gathering the few valuables they did have outside, they escaped to the barn and hid in an underground storage room with a wooden trap door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“This is the Chibaese army. Let us in! All residents of Ninkong are required to pay a tax to support Chiba’s protection of your city. Open up!”

Hearing the soldiers break through their door, they could only assume they would be stuffing their faces with the snacks that were placed on the dinner table.

“Hey Hiroto, look what I found? A jug of rice wine!”

“Hey, let me have some. Don’t drink it all you pig.”

“Those vermin! How dare they take my rice wine!” Dad had to be restrained by Feng and mom who struggled to keep him quiet and to not blow their cover.

“Well, there’s nothing much here. We’ll come around tomorrow to see if they are home. Shall we check the barns?”

Everyone in the storage room held their breath as they heard the conversation go on.

“It smells like dung there, I don’t fancy mucking up my boots. We’ll ask for rice and more wine if they have any tomorrow.”

“Hah, you’d best wash out your mouth Kento, your breath smells of wine. If captain catches you drinking alcohol on duty, you’ll be flailed alive!”

“Better than what doctor Hiro will do to those prisoners we captured yesterday. They’ll be dead or sick soon, test subjects for his new bioweapons.”

“Some of the things he does is just sickening. I’m just glad it’s not us on the operating table.”

As the conversation faded away and the sound of footsteps got fainter and fainter, the family emerged from their hiding and went to survey the damage done to their home.

“Well, nothing’s really damaged, but they emptied my jug of rice wine and ate all the candied fruit peels. Those pigs.”

“Just be glad we didn’t get caught hiding, but what are we going to do? They’ll be back tomorrow and we can’t just keep hiding every day.”

“I wonder how much of our supplies they would take if they did find us. I’m just afraid that if they realize we have so much food they’ll just keep coming back for more.”

“Perhaps Bao can pay them with his salary. But for now, I think we’d best give them what they want to avoid any suspicion or bad blood. As long as we have one another, and the bare minimum of food and clothing, we should be grateful.”

But as Feng’s mother-in-law wiped at the boot prints on the ground, they all wondered how long they would be able to keep up if forced to pay the levies every day.

When Bao came home, he was deeply worried that his prosperous home would catch the attention of the Chibaese collectors. His barn full of rice, vegetables and livestock would prove prime targets to be repatriated for the army.

Indeed, as the winter season hit, his predictions were right and the Chibaese army came time and time again to procure food stocks from the family, demanding rice, vegetables and animals to feed the countless soldiers. By the time mid-winter approached, Bao’s stockpile of food had been reduced to a bag of rice for the family, some gnarled apples and one or two carp still swimming around under the frozen surface of the pool. They had grown more and more dependent on Bao’s salary to get enough food and firewood for their own consumption. Once the army realized the family was no longer in possession of any significant quantities of food and supplies, they stopped dropping by except only to check on whether more food could be taken.

Entering the house and shutting the door to the bitter cold wind, Bao put what he was able to buy on the table; a meagre offering of beans, two small eggs and some Chinese vegetables. “Man I would enjoy being a Chibaese soldier. Not doing any work and just taking food from those who work hard and filling my stomach with all sorts of goodies.”

“I would rather die than be a Chibaese soldier. I tell you, it takes someone without a soul to witness and perform the horrendous acts I’ve seen and heard about. No soul at all.”

“I’m just glad you can keep earning some money thanks to Li Ren, otherwise, we’d be in quite the predicament. No money, no food…no hope.”

“Aren’t you the little bright ray of sunshine Feng? Why so miserable?”

“Honestly, there were moments when I thought the soldiers would take your owl as food too, but I guess he scared them off with his wings.”

“These Chibaese soldiers, they don’t understand the meaning of sustainability. They take all our resources, our animals, our tools, our seeds and they expect us to magically come up with another harvest just as good as when they weren’t here. Absolutely insane.”

“Hey, you’d think they were trying to just exterminate us and resettle the land with Chiba residents?” Ending off his exaggerated suggestion awkwardly, they all realized that genocide was indeed a possibility they would have to face, and was all too real to ignore.

A couple months of grueling winter later, the small family was managing to survive, and indeed, they were even adding to their number soon as Feng was pregnant with their first child.

Rubbing her enlarging belly, Bao was ecstatic and his parents were overjoyed to hear the news when Feng first told them. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to be a father! I just hope there’s more to come!”

“Hold on there dear, we’ll start with one for now. Don’t get ahead of yourself!”

As the weather grew warmer and warmer, it was soon seeding time and rice seedlings were planted in the flooded paddies, and the two carp left in the pool were released into the rice waters to see if they could spawn a new generation of pest-eating fish.

Working hard in the monsoon rains, they put in blood, sweat and tears to grow the rice, knowing that little, if any would remain for their own after paying the Chibaese soldiers. The fact that they simply take the rice without even paying for it eroded at the work ethic of not only Bao, but his servants as well. He was filling up someone else’s coffers, and not his own. No matter how hard he tried, he would not able to make himself better off, as the more he grew, it would mean the more the army takes. There was no incentive to be productive, and as such, their yields in the summer were below par, but as the rice started entering the barn, so did the soldiers, demanding their share of the rice. Nearly every week, they would come and carry four bags of rice back to their barracks, and it was only late fall before they ran out of rice yet again. But this time, having enough food was extremely important as they had just received a new member of the family to feed. Little Jin was just born several weeks ago and Bao made sure his wife had enough to eat in order to produce enough milk for the baby to grow. In addition to the rat catching with Li Ren, Bao also spent time near the river, fishing with a rod and harvesting naturally growing plants near the river’s edge.

Carrying his catch back home, they immediately cooked the fish and started eating it quickly so as to avoid giving it to the unsatiable army. Picking his teeth with a fish bone, Bao helped throw out the kitchen scraps into their compost heap, which originally would have gone to feeding the pigs that were pilfered early on in the year. It had been a long time since the family last tasted beef, pork or chicken, as most of their livestock went to feeding the army till nothing was left. Most farmers resorted to hunting for meat, but this put enormous pressure on the wildlife populations, and Bao knew that the overharvesting of wild animals would not be sustainable in the long-run. With everyone competing for an ever-smaller number of animals to be hunted, the wildlife simply cannot regenerate fast enough to feed the countless mouths.

Returning to Xu’s bird shop, Bao greeted him and asked if he had any egg-laying hens for sale.

“Humph! Those Chibaese soldiers took all my hens under the guise of the military levy. Then they started taking all my parrots and hawks, anything that could be roasted and cooked was taken. Thankfully my sparrows are small enough to be left alone. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not a single chicken left in the whole Ninkong, and I’m being honest.”

“Well at least that owl you sold me is paying for itself ten-fold now. I’m earning roughly eighty-million fabi a month thanks to that bird!”

“Well I’m glad it’s working out for you. Just be careful not to let those rotten soldiers roast it for a meal. Those crooks will eat anything.”

Leaving the shop, Bao stopped by the local vegetable market and bought a large napa cabbage and some carrots for tomorrow’s dinner. Riding his bicycle back home with the groceries securely bundled up, he thought of his son Jin and wondered how his day had been. Feng was constantly keeping an eye out for her son, making sure he was happy and more importantly, safe around the house.

“Mom, could you re-button Jin’s bib? He seems to have gotten it loose. Thanks!” Continuing with trimming the beans and dicing the vegetables with a knife sharp enough to cut a finger, Feng skillfully chopped, making sure all the pieces were of the same size as well in order to cook evenly. With a large pot of water simmering, the vegetables were boiled till soft and taken out to be seasoned with salt and pepper.

As the two women fussed over dinner and the baby, Bao’s dad gestured for his son to come close when he saw him come in, whispering in a hushed tone. “Bao, I heard from a friend of mine that there’s a reason why the city is asking for help getting rid of all the rats. They say that the Chibaese are releasing rats infected with some deadly plague and they are testing how deadly this disease really is. I’d stop with the rat-catching if I were you, just to stay safe.”

“Dad, now’s not the time to stay safe, if anything, the disease’s presence makes my work all the more important, and the Ninkong people need hunters like us to keep them safe. When we stop thinking about helping one another, that’s when the enemy swoops in and knocks us out, one by one. But with all of us standing together, they’d be hard pressed to make even a hit.”

“Just, promise me you’ll be safe, for your son’s sake, okay?”

“I assure you, I’ll be safe and live long enough to see my son get married and have kids of his own!”

Walking over to little Jin’s blanketed space, Bao picked him up and spun around, making the little boy laugh over and over again. Setting him down, Jin raised his arms as if asking his dad for more spins.

“Sorry bud, your dad’s tired now, maybe tomorrow, okay?” Little did he know that tomorrow’s opportunity would never come, as tragedy struck the next day.

At the busy hospital, there was a flurry of activity as nurses and doctors tried to stem the flow of patients coming in with a deadly new disease. At the entrance, Feng and the rest of the family hoped to catch a glimpse of Bao inside, and perhaps encourage him with little Jin’s presence.

“I’m sorry ma’am, you guys can’t go inside. This disease is very contagious and you may very well catch it if you get too close. We’ll tell you husband that you dropped by, okay?”

Dejected and demoralized, they headed back to the farmhouse, where a commotion was going on in the locked barn. Quickly going over and unlocking the doors, Feng was almost bowled over by Li Ren who flapping his enormous wings, flew high into the sky, then darted off towards town.

Shouting at the owl to come back, Feng and the family watched as Li Ren disappeared into the distance, driven by some unknown instant that they couldn’t understand.

Several days later, Bao was weakly sitting on the edge of his bed when he noticed a shadow in the window on the other side of the building. Curious, he slowly got up and wobbled over to the shadow, before growing in excitement as he opened the window and realized who it was.

“Li Ren! You’re here! How did you find me?”

Soon, a crowd gathered around Bao and the owl, and he informed them that he used to be part of a rat catching team. When the people dispersed and left the owl and his owner alone, Bao laid out the truth for his friend.

“Hey boy, I know you won’t understand but I won’t be alive much longer, given what we know about this disease. You’ve been the sole reason our family was able to survive with enough food in the winter even with those pesky soldiers taking our supplies. I’m sorry I can’t get you back to your homeland in Vietnam, but I’m going to let you go free here in Ninkong to go wherever you want. Just help me keep an eye on my family once in a while, okay?” Taking off a small metal band that was on Li Ren’s talon, Bao opened the window wide and tried to hold back the tears welling on his eyes. “C’mon, get a go on before I start crying.”

Taking one last long look at his owner, seemingly understanding what was said, Li Ren shot through the window and headed for the woods, free to wander and roam as he pleased, but in his mind, he would always be the partner of Bao, part of the rodent remediation team of Ninkong.

The End