Chapter 2

Hong Tao originally intended to chat with the man at the stern who was rowing, but every time he opened his mouth, a mouthful of seawater rushed in. After several attempts, he gave up. He decided to just lie there like a dead dog and deal with whatever happened after they landed. Although these two people had saved him, Hong Tao decided to make them suffer a bit because they had been so impolite to him.

The small island soon came into full view. It was so small, less than 200 meters in diameter, and was entirely covered in rocks. It was essentially a cluster of reefs exposed above the sea, with no buildings at all. The term "barren" would be a fitting description. The boat did not head for the island but passed by it. At this point, Hong Tao vaguely saw what seemed to be a large landmass ahead, and a few more small boats similar to the one he was on appeared on the sea.

As they got closer to the landmass, Hong Tao felt increasingly cold, his teeth chattering. The boat had dragged him for about ten kilometers. Fortunately, there were no sailfish or shark swarms here; otherwise, whether he would still be on the rope by the time they reached the shore would be a big question. Not only was his body cold, but his heart was also icy. Why? Because the number of small boats they encountered kept increasing. Regardless of their size, they all shared a common feature: they were dilapidated and had no mechanical power. They were either sailboats or rowed by people. The people on the boats were dressed just as shabbily, with patches being the norm, and it was not uncommon to see patches on top of patches.

Hong Tao was quite good at analyzing. He thought about it over and over but couldn't figure out if there were any coastal towns or villages in China that existed in this state. If there were, they would have to be nationally renowned tourist attractions. Unfortunately, he had worked in the tourism industry for several years and had never heard of such a place. If not, and they were speaking Chinese, what did that mean? It could only mean one thing: the era was different. In other words, Hong Tao felt 99% sure that he had traveled through time again. As for the exact era, he couldn't accurately determine it. The lack of motorized boats suggested it was before the liberation, but not the Qing Dynasty, as the two men didn't have queues. However, they both had long hair, which didn't fit the Republic of China era either, so the Ming Dynasty or an even earlier period seemed likely.

"Damn your ancestors! This is cheating!" After making his assessment, Hong Tao simply hugged the rope and lay on the water's surface. Since he was already a dead dog, he didn't care about his posture. More importantly, he wanted to communicate with the thing in the sky, hoping to negotiate and avoid being sent to the ancient era. The knowledge in his head would be useless in ancient times! Unfortunately, no matter how much he mumbled, the voice that had spoken to him in a daze never appeared.

Before Hong Tao could connect with the entity in the sky, the boat's speed suddenly slowed down, and a woman's voice appeared, greeting the people on the boat. Hong Tao, still hugging the rope, rolled over and realized they were almost at the shore. Three larger wooden boats were floating on the water, moored side by side. A woman in a blue shirt and pants, wearing a floral headscarf, was waving at them. She also noticed Hong Tao in the water and was quite surprised, covering her mouth and staring at him with wide eyes.

"Grandpa! ...￥%￥#...&" The girl was short, with dark skin, around 20 years old. Her blue pants had very short and wide legs that hung down to her calves, giving her a look similar to modern seven-eighths pants. She was barefoot. Her top, like her pants, was dark blue, with black trim around the neckline and cuffs. Her style was very old-fashioned, resembling a round-necked robe from the Ming and Qing dynasties. She was quite brave; although she was startled by Hong Tao, she didn't run or hide. Her voice was clear as she asked the old man on the boat, but Hong Tao only understood one word: this old man was her grandfather.

"Local...&%￥￥&" The old man moored the small boat to the larger one, throwing a rope over as he answered. Hong Tao understood another word: local!

"I am not a local, I am a Han Chinese, a Han Chinese from Nanyang!" Being called a local, Hong Tao was furious. He had already figured out who these people were and decided to start making up stories.

If he had only seen the two men, Hong Tao wouldn't have been able to determine who they were. But when the woman appeared, he felt a sense of familiarity. After a moment's thought, he recalled a very unique ethnic group: the Tanka people! To be precise, the Tanka were not a single ethnic group. Their origins were varied, with some claiming they were descendants of the Nanyue people, others of the Qin people, and still others of migrants from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, encompassing various ethnicities.

They were called Tanka because their boats had high ends and a round cabin in the middle, resembling an egg. This wasn't something Hong Tao made up; he had seen it in a museum in Sanya. He had brought tour groups to this area multiple times. Tanka people were not only found on Hainan Island but were also distributed along the coasts of Guangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian, and even in Southeast Asian countries. Their unique lifestyle had become a tourist attraction.

The Tanka people lived on the water for generations, with one family per boat. Several families would moor their boats together to form a village. Besides fishing and catching shrimp, they also used their boats for small businesses like cargo transport and passenger services. The famous pearl divers were Tanka girls. The Tanka only started moving to the mainland at the end of the Qing Dynasty, but they still primarily lived on the sea, engaging in activities like fish farming. Each Tanka family considered their fishing boat their most important asset, needing both a house on land and a boat in the water to be considered well-off.

The Tanka's clothing was simple. Men wore black or blue cloth shirts and pants with wide, short legs, and they went barefoot. Women's clothing was slightly more elaborate, with black trim around the cuffs, neckline, and hem. They often wore a single-colored or floral headscarf and sometimes a bamboo hat. However, the Tanka were historically very poor, as they were discriminated against by various dynasties and were not allowed to live on land. Due to their constant work at sea, they developed a fierce character, often resorting to violence at the slightest provocation, and were difficult to manage due to their lack of a fixed residence.

"Three parts of life at sea, one part of life on land." This was the Tanka's way of life. Each time they went to sea, they didn't know if they would return, so they had no habit of saving, living a tight and precarious life, completely dependent on the whims of nature. Hong Tao had seen old photos of Tanka people in a village in Sanya, where a single pair of pants was patched so much that it was as thick as canvas. This was the norm for the Tanka. The Han people even called Tanka clothing "nine-day dry," meaning it took nine days to dry after washing because the patches were so thick.