The chapter starts when Tien Pao was in his family sampan
sleeping with the family pig and a dishpan of 3 ducklings. It was raining and
rain raised the river. He starts reflecting on the past few week which
consisted a ‘very long journey (2)’.
Tien Pao’s father, Tien Hsu, was taking his family ‘far
inside the great land of China, far from where the Japanese invaders are
(3)’.The family consisted of Tien Pao, Tien Pao’s parents and his sister:
Beauty-of-the-Republic. The Japanese invaders have arrived in China and they were
destroying the village of Tien Pao. So, his dad took the decision that they
have to go inside China. They reached in a small river town, Hengyang. After
several hectic days of journey, the Tien Pao got sufficient rest while his
parents have went for searching a job under the American air men who came to
attack the Japanese back. While his parents were away, one of the American air man
paid him to get across the river. Tien Pao couldn’t handle the oars as he had
no energy in him until the God of Sea helped him regain his energy back. Tien
Pao and the American air man returned back to the river at night to find that
his parents were scared and frustrated about him. Tien Pao promised his parents that he will never take the
sampan by himself. In the meantime, the American air man paid him 200 yen which
helped his family buy some food.