THE WIDOW ZHENG: PEARL RIVER

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Canton, eighteen-oh-one, the river smells of tea.

They say I worked a flower boat. They say a lot of me.

[Verse 1]

Lanterns on the water, a ledger in my head,

I count the men who pay in silver, I count the men in debt.

I learn a face in half a second, learn a lie in two,

The Pearl River taught me more than any school could do.

[Pre-Chorus]

Shi Yang is the name my mother gave,

The river is a market, and I was never the wave.

[Time]

[Drop]

I don't sell the night, I sell the math.

Twenty-six years old and I know which way the money travels.

The river keeps the books and I keep the river.

Shi Yang on the water. Remember the name.

[Verse 2]

A sailor from Xinhui, a merchant from Macau,

A magistrate who swears he's never been here, somehow.

Everyone's a customer, everyone's a tell,

I keep the silver in a jar and the secrets in a well.

[Bridge]

One night a pirate walks in from the war down south.

I know what he's worth before he opens his mouth.

[Outro]

Remember the name.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Zheng Yi walks in with the sea still on his coat,

Two hundred junks behind him and a price on every boat.

[Verse 1]

He asks me for a wife. I ask him for the books.

He laughs like a cannon. I don't laugh at his looks.

A ring is a ring, a ledger is a ledger,

I told him I want both, and I'm not a beggar.

[Pre-Chorus]

Eighteen-oh-one. The paper's signed.

He gets a wife. I get the fleet's bottom line.

[Time]

[Drop]

Zheng Yi! Say it with the gongs!

I married the man, I married the two hundred.

Captain's wife on paper, partner in the hold,

He counts the cannons and I count the gold.

[Verse 2]

Eighteen-oh-three, a boy, Yingshi, on the deck,

A pirate's wife with a baby and a knife at her neck.

The men say she's lucky. The men don't know,

Who writes the pay and who says where we go.

[Bridge]

They'll call me Zheng Yi Sao. The wife of Zheng Yi.

A name that isn't mine. Watch what I do with it.

[Outro]

Wife of Zheng Yi. For now.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Six flags on one agreement, eighteen-oh-five,

Red, black, white, blue, yellow, green, and only one of them drives.

[Verse 1]

Four hundred junks and forty thousand strong,

Fishermen with cannons who've been poor too long.

Guo Podai flies the black, Liang Bao the white,

Zheng Yi flies the red and the red's the one that bites.

[Pre-Chorus]

Everybody signs it. Nobody breaks it.

Nobody robs a brother. Everybody shares it.

[Time]

[Drop]

One red! Two hundred sails!

Say the color and the coast goes quiet.

One red, one red, from Canton to Hainan,

I didn't come to the sea to be anybody's fan.

[Verse 2]

There's a boy on the deck, Zhang Bao, fifteen when he was caught,

A fisherman's son from Xinhui, Zheng Yi's adopted, not bought.

He learns the rigging, learns the knife, learns to watch me think,

Keep an eye on that one. He'll matter. Have a drink.

[Bridge]

Six flags, one table, one river mouth,

And the Emperor in Peking doesn't look this far south.

[Outro]

One red.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

Sixteenth of November, eighteen-oh-seven,

The wind came up and nobody saw where it took him.

[Verse 1]

Forty-two years old, he went over the side,

No cannon, no cutlass, no enemy, just the tide.

They searched until the lanterns ran dry,

I stood on the stern and I did not cry.

[Pre-Chorus]

A widow at thirty-two with two sons and a fleet,

Yingshi is four, Xiongshi can't walk yet, and the captains want to meet.

[Time]

[Drop]

The sea took the man. The sea doesn't get the fleet.

Six captains in a cabin and they're measuring my seat.

Zheng Yi is gone. Say it once, then stop.

Who takes the red? Watch who's standing at the top.

[Verse 2]

There's family with a claim and captains with a grudge,

Guo Podai's got the black and he thinks he's the judge.

Two hundred ships don't wait for a funeral,

I finish my tea. I call the first meeting.

[Bridge]

Sixteenth of November. Mark it on the chart.

I bury my husband. I don't bury the part.

[Outro]

The sea took the man.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

[Female Vocal]

A widow in a cabin with the captains in a row,

They came to pick a leader. I told them where to go.

[Verse 1]

I know who owes who, I know who's got the cash,

I know which captain's brother sold the salt and kept the stash.

I don't shout, I don't draw, I read the room out loud,

By the time the tea is cold I've got a very quiet crowd.

[Pre-Chorus]

Zhang Bao takes the red. Twenty-four and he's mine.

The fleet gets a face. I keep the bottom line.

[Time]

[Drop]

Widow at the helm! Say it to the coast!

Zheng Yi Sao, and I am not the ghost.

Zhang Bao on the deck, me in the hold,

He fires the cannon, I handle the gold.

[Verse 2]

The men call him Cheung Po Tsai, my husband's chosen son,

Keep it in the family. The family is the gun.

Six flags still at the table, but the red one sets the rate,

Guo Podai hates it. Guo Podai can wait.

[Bridge]

Eighteen-oh-seven, December, the coast knows who's in charge,

A woman with a ledger and a very big barge.

[Outro]

Widow at the helm.

[Fade Out]

[End]