Pinpehlu is a porter, like his father before him, and his grandfather, and, well, not his great-grandfather probably because he came from Xian and his great-grandmother rarely spoke of him.
There is a simple truth in carrying goods to where they ought to be, and Pinpehlu has always enjoyed it as both an honest job and a way of life. Wherever things needed to be moved, he went; from the docks of his beloved Yellow City, to the ports of exotic places like Luhag, the ports of Xian, and even far-off Yongardy.
It was there in Yongardy, that his life took an unexpected turn. His employer, a slugman from a house known to be involved in various illegal activities, blamed him for the disappearance of a priceless jade artifact, which Pinpehlu had witnessed being traded for opium by another slugman. His honesty was not appreciated, and both slugmen demanded the insolent porter was to be tried in a Yongardy court. They had even found a so-called lawyer.
Pinpehlu's eternal smile momentarily vanished from his face as he beheld the broken and filthy sollicitor who was to be his champion, still reeking of the pipe. The porter had lost more than a few colleagues to that insidious addiction, and now his life depended on one who would do anything for one more smoke.
Whether it was his desperation or just plain luck, Pinpehlu managed to get through to the lawyer, and convince the man he came to know as Subötaï that this case was about more than a simple porter being falsely accused by his employer, no, it was a matter of justice in a cruel world and the casual discarding of lives by the higher-ups. It was worth fighting for!
Of course, after Subötaï proved victorious, they had to flee Yongardy to escape the wrath of both the prosecution and the two slugmen... So what better place to disappear than in the great jewel on the Mighty God River, the Yellow City?
