The Legend of the Condor Heroes – Chapter 30

“Aiyo!” Huang Rong said, “I haven’t read too many books, if it is too difficult I might not be able to answer.”

“Not difficult, not difficult,” the scholar said, “I have a poem here, inside it hidden my origin in four characters. Let’s see if you can guess it.”

“Good, a riddle!” Huang Rong said, “It should be interesting. Please say it.”

The scholar twisted his beard and started to recite, “Six scriptures have been in the chest for a long time, one sword for ten years has been sharpened in the hand …”

Huang Rong stuck out her tongue and said, “Skilled in both pen and sword [wen wu quan cai – lit. literature and martial art complete skills], that’s terrific!”

The scholar smiled and continued, “On top of an apricot flower a branch hung horizontally; if you are afraid to divulge the heaven’s secret, don’t open the mouth. One dot escalated as big fight, nevertheless cannot even cover half a bed. The name completed, the hat hung, time to turn back home. My true identity, does Sir know?”

Huang Rong thought, “’The name completed, the hat hung, time to turn back home. My true identity, does Sir know?’ Looking at your appearance, you must be Emperor Duan’s minister of the days past; hanging your hat following your master, returning to this hidden wooded mountain. What’s so difficult to guess?” Thereupon she said, “When you add a character ‘one’ ( 一 ) and ‘ten’ ( 十 ) underneath the character ‘six’ ( 六 ), it becomes the character ‘xin’ ( 辛 ). Add a horizontal line to the character ‘apricot’ ( 杏 ), and take away the character ‘mouth’ ( 口 ), it becomes the character ‘wei’ ( 未 ). Add a character ‘big’ ( 大 ) to half of a bed ( 床 ) and put a dot on it, it becomes the character ‘zhuang’ ( 状 ). Take the hat off the character ‘complete’ ( 完 ), it becomes the character ‘yuan’ ( 元 ). Xin Wei Zhuang Yuan; please accept my respect. Turned out Sir was the Zhuang Yuan [number one scholar, the title conferred to a person who came out first in the highest imperial examination] of the Xin Wei year.”

The scholar was taken aback; he thought his riddle was very difficult. Even if one could finally come out with an answer, it should have taken at least half a day. These two youngsters’ martial art skill might be high, but they would not be able to stand on this narrow stone bridge for too long. He thought he would advice them to give up and nicely went back down the mountain. Who would have thought that almost without thinking Huang Rong was able to give him the correct answer. He could not help but feel utterly surprised. He now knew this girl was exceptionally smart; he had to find a more difficult question for her.

He swept his gaze around and saw a row of palm trees by the hillside, the leaves swaying gently in the light breeze, resembling the movement of a fan. He was a zhongyuan, naturally he was more gifted than an average scholar. He waved the fan in his hand and said, “I have the top part of a couplet, asking Miss to please complete it.”

“Completing a couplet is not as interesting as a riddle,” Huang Rong said, “All right, looks like if I can’t complete it, you won’t let us pass. Bring it on!”

The scholar waved his fan, pointing to the row of palm trees and said, “The wind sways the palm trees, like a thousand hands waving the folding fan.” This top part not only depicted the scenery, but clearly lifted up his position as well.

Huang Rong thought, “If I only mention any object without meaningful correlation, my victory won’t be complete.” She also swept her gaze around and saw a tiny temple with a lotus pond in front of it. It was the seventh month, the middle of summer, but on this high mountain the mornings were cold; most part of the lotus leaf had already withered by frost. Her heart was moved, she smiled and said, “I have the second part of that couplet, but it will offend Uncle; it’s inconvenient for me to say it.”

“You might as well say it,” the scholar replied.

“You must promise you are not going to get angry,” Huang Rong said.

“I won’t,” the scholar promised.

Huang Rong pointed to the ‘xiao yao jin’ on his head and said, “Very well. My second line is: The frost withers the lotus leaf, like a one-legged demon wearing a ‘xiao yao jin’.”

At this second line the scholar burst out in laughter. “Wonderful! Wonderful!” he said, “Not only the line is very appropriate, it came very quick too!”

Guo Jing saw the lotus stem did indeed prop up a withered leaf, looking like a single-legged ghost wearing a ‘xiao yao jin’; he could not help laughing too. Huang Rong smiled, “Don’t laugh, don’t laugh!” she said, “Once we fall down we will become a pair of ghosts without the ‘xiao yao jin’!”

The scholar thought, “Ordinary couplet won’t baffle her; I will have to resort to the ultimate.” Suddenly he remembered when he was a young student his teacher mentioned a couplet that for dozens of years nobody could ever complete; he decided to make things difficult for her; thereupon he said, “I have another couplet, asking Miss to complete it: ‘qin se pi pa ( 琴 瑟 琵 琶 ) [qin, se and pi pa are all stringed-instruments], all heads adorned by eight big kings’.”

Listening to this Huang Rong was delighted, “Qin se pi pa four characters altogether have eight ‘king’ ( 王 ) characters on them; originally it was a very difficult couplet. It’s a pity this couplet is not your own creation. Father had solved this couplet many years ago on the Peach Blossom Island when he had nothing else to do. I will pretend to have difficulty completing it to tease him.”

She wrinkled her brow and made her face looked distressed. The scholar was delighted she was finally baffled; he felt very smug. But then he was afraid Huang Rong would ask him back, so he said up front, “This is a very difficult couplet, I don’t have the answer either. But we have agreed that if Miss cannot answer it then you must return.”

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