Grandpa Shun stepped out of the crowd. Although advanced in years and frail, he still retained a spirited and robust bearing. Lean on his walking stick, he peered out toward Shi Potian swimming in the sea. His eyesight was failing with age, and he could not see very clearly, making out only a figure tossing and turning amidst the foaming white waves. He instantly concluded that this fellow was on the verge of drowning. Waving his walking stick—the symbol of his authority—he shouted aloud:
"Ashen, Awen, bring him up!"
Two bold young men from Western Hunan, dressed in ethnic minority attire, had collarbones, arms, waists, and abdomens covered in taut, sinewy muscles. Their legs bore tattoos of the river god, a protective faith believed to help their people escape the wrath of wind and waves. Such tattoos were said to boost survival rates during sea voyages and were long regarded by the locals as a spiritual totem.
With the help of bystanders, the two Western Hunan lads tied safety ropes around their waists, rubbed their hands together eagerly, and blew a breath into their palms—a habit formed since childhood by every man in Western Hunan before diving in. Before taking action, that single breath symbolized a divine blessing. Ashen and Awen leaped down from the boat, broke the water surface with clasped hands, entered the churning sea in a graceful hydrodynamic dive, and flanked Shi Potian, supporting him on either side as they brought him up.
Chapter 117