Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain Chapter 3 – Part 1

The long-necked man was the manor’s steward, surnamed Yu.¹ He too had once been a capable fighter in the jianghu,² shrewd and efficient by nature. Seeing the bamboo basket winched halfway up the mountain, he leaned over and peered down, eager to see which hero had come to their aid. At first he made out only several dark bundles in the basket, which did not look like human shapes. When the basket drew closer, he saw it was stuffed full of crates and cages, flower pots, incense burners and the like, with not a scrap of space to spare. Steward Yu was greatly puzzled. “Could this be a gift delivery for the master?”

The next load up was three women. Two were around forty, dressed as servant wives. The third, fifteen or sixteen, had a pair of large round eyes and a dimple in her left cheek. By her look, she was a maid. She stepped out of the basket before it had settled and cast a glance at Steward Yu. “You must be Big Brother Yu,” she said with a smile. “Your neck is so long. I’ve heard all about it.” Her Beijing dialect³ came out crisp and clear as a bell. Steward Yu hated nothing more than people commenting on his neck, but her face was all smiles, and he could not bring himself to take offence. He could only nod with a forced smile.

The maid said, “I’m called Qiner.⁴ This is Nurse Zhou. The Young Mistress was raised on her milk. And this is Auntie Han. The Young Mistress loves the dishes she cooks. Hurry and lower the basket to fetch the Young Mistress up.” Steward Yu was about to ask what family the young lady belonged to, but Qiner chattered on without pause, lifting from the basket birdcages, a civet cat, a parrot stand, orchid vases and all manner of other strange and fiddlish things, her hands busy and her tongue never still. “This peak is so high. Aiya, there are no flowers or grass on the summit. I’m sure the Young Mistress won’t like it. Big Brother Yu, do you live up here all year? Don’t you get lonely?”

Steward Yu frowned. The master is devoting every effort to facing a deadly enemy, he thought, and where did this endlessly gabbling household crawl out from? “What is your family’s honoured surname?” he asked. “Are you our relatives?”

Qiner said, “Try guessing! How come I knew you were Big Brother Yu the moment I saw you, yet you don’t even know the Young Mistress’s surname? If I hadn’t told you my name is Qiner, I guarantee you could guess for a thousand years and never hit it. Ah, don’t run off! Careful, or the Young Mistress will be angry.” Steward Yu was startled, then saw her bend to scoop up a small cat. Her last few words had been addressed to it.

He helped her unload the basket. Qiner said, “Aiya, don’t mess things up! This chest is full of the Young Mistress’s books. Turn it upside down and they’ll all be out of order. Ai, ai, that won’t do. These orchids can’t stand a man’s smell. The Young Mistress says orchids are the most refined thing there is. Let a man step too close, and they’ll wilt that very night.”

Steward Yu hastily set down the small orchid pot he was holding, when a voice behind him intoned: “I would take up my qin and play, but grieve that no one knows the tune.”⁵

The sound was eerie. Startled, he whirled, palms crossed before his chest, settling into a guarded stance, only to find that the voice belonged to the white parrot on its perch. Half furious, half amused, he ordered the basket lowered to fetch the young lady. The wet nurse, however, insisted on opening a trunk first to lay a fur lining in the basket, in case the young lady found the bottom too hard. Slowly, slowly, she fumbled with the key, debated with Auntie Han whether to pad with silver fox or mink, and Steward Yu could bear it no longer. Anxious about the fierce struggle in the hall and whether Ruan Shizhong still lived, he instructed a servant to attend to the young lady properly, then went back inside.

He had been away some time greeting visitors, yet the fighting in the hall had barely shifted. Ruan Shizhong was still pinned in the corner by the boy on the right, only more wretched than before. His left shoe had fallen off, and half the queue that had been coiled atop his head was shorn away, his hair hanging loose. Cao Yunqi,⁶ Yin Ji,⁷ Zhou Yunyang⁸ and the rest had borrowed weapons from the manor’s servants and charged forward several times to rescue him, but each time the boy on the left blocked them, pushing them further from Ruan than ever.

Liu Yuanhe⁹ and the others had hoped to seize the iron box in the confusion, but having come off worse against the dagger of the boy on the left, they were forced to hang back. Each man seethed inwardly. The twins’ techniques were nothing extraordinary, and their neili¹⁰ cultivation clearly limited. They relied on nothing more than a pair of daggers sharp beyond compare and a swordplay whose attack and defence worked in perfect concert. Yet they had pinned a hall full of jianghu heroes hand and foot.

Steward Yu watched for a while, thinking: When the master left the manor, he placed everything in my care. Now guests are being humiliated under his roof. How can he show his face? I must save this man surnamed Ruan, even if it kills me. He went to his room and fetched the purple-gold dao he had used in his jianghu days, returned to the main hall, studied the twins’ moves once more, and called out, “You two young brothers, if you don’t stop this instant, our Jade Brush Peak Manor¹¹ will be forced to take action!”

The boy on the right shouted, “Our master sent us to deliver a letter. He didn’t tell us to fight anyone. He only needs to pay for my pearl,¹² and we’ll let him go at once!” He stepped forward, his jian hissed, and Ruan Shizhong’s left shoulder was cut open again.

Steward Yu was about to answer when a young woman’s voice spoke from behind him. “Aiya, no fighting! No fighting at all! I can’t bear to see people waving blades about.” The words were soft, yet so sweet and gentle that everyone who heard them felt an unspeakable comfort, and could not help turning to look.

At the doorway stood a girl in yellow, smiling. Her skin outshone snow, and her eyes were like a pool of clear water, drifting across each face in the hall. Her beauty was beyond telling, like a pearl suffused with light, like jade glowing softly, with a faint scholarly air between her brows. The men in that hall were rough jianghu heroes, and this sudden meeting with such a refined young lady was like a pauper stumbling into a house of great wealth. Overawed by her quiet elegance, they were ashamed of their own coarseness and ill at ease.

The twins took no notice of the girl at all. Taking advantage of the moment Yin Ji and the others stood transfixed, they went to work with a clatter of ringing steel, cutting away every weapon in the heroes’ hands.

The girl said, “You two little brothers, stop making trouble. Look at the state you’ve put these men in. How ugly.”

The boy on the right said, “He won’t pay for my Zhuer.”

“What pearl?”

The boy on the right pointed his jian¹³ at Ruan Shizhong’s chest, picked up half of the shattered pearl, and said with a doleful face, “Look, he broke it. I want him to pay.”

The girl stepped close, took it, and looked. “Ah, this pearl is truly fine. I couldn’t afford to replace it either. Tell you what. Qiner,” she turned to the little maid behind her, “fetch my pair of jade horses and give them to these two little brothers.”

Qiner was reluctant. “Young Mistress.”

The girl smiled. “You’re being stingy. Look how handsome the two little brothers are. The jade horses will look even finer on them.”

The twins exchanged a glance. Qiner opened a gold-painted chest, drew out a pair of brocade pouches, and handed them to the girl. She untied one and took out a small jade horse, a silk cord threaded through its mouth for a rein. She hung it on the belt of the boy on the right, then offered the other jade horse, from the second pouch, to the boy on the left. The boy on the left bowed and gave thanks. Taking it in his hand, he saw that the jade was lustrous and smooth, the carving exquisitely fine. The horse was poised in a gallop, small in form yet spirited beyond the ordinary, clearly no common piece. He was delighted at once, but not knowing the girl’s origins, he hesitated, uncertain whether he should accept so generous a gift.

The boy on the right picked up the other half of the pearl from beside the wall. “Mine was a night-luminous pearl, a pair with my brother’s. Even with jade horses, they won’t make a matched set!” He looked deeply crestfallen.

The girl saw at a glance from their looks and dress that the twin brothers were close as only twins can be. The ruined pearl was a small matter. What rankled was that their ornaments had been made unlike, unable to pair. She took up one jade horse and set the two broken pearl halves over its eyes. “I have an idea. Set the broken pearls into the jade horse’s eyes. If the pearls glow at night, the horse will have luminous eyes in the dark. Wouldn’t that be splendid?”

The boy on the left was overjoyed. He plucked the pearl from his queue, drew his dagger, and sliced it cleanly in two. “Brother, now our pearls and jade horses are identical!”

The boy on the right stopped scowling and grinned. He thanked the girl repeatedly, then bowed to Ruan Shizhong. “There, old fellow, don’t be angry.” Ruan Shizhong, covered in blood and dirt, was furious beyond words, yet dared not utter a curse.

The boy on the right took his brother’s hand and was about to leave. The boy on the left turned to the girl. “We thank you, Miss, for your generous gift. May we ask Miss’s honoured surname? When our master asks, we will have an answer.”

The girl said, “Who is your master?”

The boy on the left said, “Our master’s surname is Hu.”

At those words the girl’s face changed. “So you are servants of the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain.”¹⁴

The twins bowed together. “That is so.”

The girl said slowly, “I am surnamed Miao. When your master asks, tell him these jade horses were given by the daughter of the Golden-Faced Buddha, Lord Miao!¹⁵”

Every man in the hall stirred. Golden-Faced Buddha’s name was known far and wide. None had expected his daughter to be such a gentle, almost shy young lady. From her bearing, she could only be the daughter of some great house or a family of scholars for generations, nothing at all like the daughter of a jianghu daxia.

The twins exchanged a glance. Together they set the jade horses back on the table and bowed to Young Mistress Miao. “We are obliged! But we dare not accept. Please forgive us.” They turned and left the hall.

The girl smiled faintly and said nothing. Qiner gathered up the jade horses, beaming. “Young Mistress, those two children don’t know what’s good for them. The Young Mistress offers them something this fine, and they refuse. If it were me —”

The girl laughed. “Don’t talk so much. Aren’t you afraid people will laugh at us for being petty?”

Baoshu¹⁶ stepped forward from the crowd and said in a clear voice, “So Miss is the daughter of Miao daxia.¹⁷ How is your honoured father?”

The girl said, “Thank you. My father is well, by your good wishes. May I ask the Great Master’s honoured name?”

Baoshu smiled. “This old monk is Baoshu. And what is Miss’s honoured name?”

The girl, whose name was Miao Ruolan,¹⁸ blushed faintly at this. My given name, she thought, how can I blurt it out to strangers? She did not answer, but said, “Please make yourselves comfortable, gentlemen. This humble one must go to the inner hall to pay respects to my aunt.” She curtsied to the assembled heroes.

Awed by her father’s name, they all returned her courtesy with the utmost respect, each thinking: This young lady has not a trace of arrogance despite her great name. Truly rare.

Miao Ruolan waited until everyone was seated, apologised once more, then went inside. Through the main gate came seven or eight male servants and servant wives, carrying bedding, trunks and the like, clearly all in attendance on Young Mistress Miao. Tao Baisui¹⁹ and his son Tao Zian²⁰ exchanged a glance, each thinking: If the two of us had met this party on the road, we would have taken them for some official’s or magnate’s family and set upon them without a second thought. The trouble we would have caused!

Ruan Shizhong wiped the blood and dirt from his body with his sleeve. Fortunately the boy on the right had not truly meant to harm him. Every wound was a shallow cut through skin and flesh, nothing serious. Tian Qingwen²¹ came over to help, taking out golden-wound ointment to staunch the bleeding. Ruan Shizhong loosened his robes to let her bandage him, when suddenly, with a clang, the iron box fell to the ground.

As one, every hero in the hall leapt up, hands reaching for it.

Ruan Shizhong was closest. He swept his left arm in a circle, forcing the others back, and immediately bent to seize the box. His fingers had barely touched the lid when a tremendous force slammed into his shoulder. He stumbled backward several paces, and by the time he steadied himself and looked up, the iron box was already cradled in Baoshu’s hands. The heroes knew his skill was formidable. They could only stare, and none dared open his mouth.

After a pause, Cao Yunqi said, “Great Master, forgive me. This iron box is a relic of my late shifu. It must not fall into outside hands. Please return it.”

Baoshu smiled. “You say it was your shifu’s relic? Then tell me what is hidden inside, and where the iron box came from. If you can make that clear, take it!” He held the box out before him on both palms.

Cao Yunqi’s face went crimson. His hands reached halfway out, daring not take it, too ashamed to withdraw. They hung in the air, then slowly dropped. He had seen his shifu treat the iron box with the utmost care, guarding it closely, yet had never once watched him open the lid. Let alone where the contents came from, he did not even know what treasure it held. Ruan Shizhong and Yin Ji, though senior figures in the Tianlong School,²² were equally at a loss, exchanging blank looks.

Zhou Yunyang suddenly spoke: “We know perfectly well, of course. What’s inside is the treasured dao that guards our school.”

Among the Tianlong School, Zhou Yunyang was no more than a second-rate fighter, never favoured by his master, and not quick-witted at the best of times. The words came out of nowhere, and Ruan Shizhong and Cao Yunqi both thought, Nonsense! Who ever said the treasured dao that guards our school was kept in that iron box? Every time they had seen the treasured dao, it was taken out of an old wooden box. It had never had anything to do with this iron one.

Yet Baoshu said, “Correct. That very dao. Do you know who it originally belonged to, and how it came to rest in this iron box?”

Ruan Shizhong and the rest had not expected Zhou Yunyang to hit the mark by accident. Amazed, they all turned to listen for more. But his face flushed briefly, then went green again, and he said sulkily, “It is the treasured dao of our Tianlong School, handed down from our ancestors. It has been kept in this iron box for hundreds of years.”

Baoshu shook his head. “Wrong, wrong! I expected you would not know.”

Zhou Yunyang said, “Then do you?”

Baoshu said, “I have known for twenty years. The dispute between the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain and the manor’s master here arose from this very matter. If there were no such entanglements, why would this old monk invite you all up the mountain?”

The Tianlong men, Tao father and son, Liu Yuanhe and Xiong Yuanxian²³ were all shocked, thinking: The old monk truly harbours ill intent. He wants the iron box too. He lured us up the peak to catch every last one of us, not only to seize the box but to root out the lot and leave no trouble behind. We are trapped in a deadly place today. There is no coming out alive.

At the thought, someone drew a blade with a rasp of steel. Then came a clatter of ringing metal as the heroes armed themselves, surrounding Baoshu. Those whose weapons the twins had shattered bent and snatched up the broken fragments.

Baoshu turned slowly in a circle within the ring of men, smiling. “Are you gentlemen going to fight an old monk?”

Glaring eyes, but no one answered. Standing close now, they could all see plainly that though Baoshu’s hair and beard were streaked with white and his face lined, his eyes burned bright. He was not truly old.

Liu Yuanhe stepped back and called, “We attack together! Kill the old monk first. We can settle our own business once we’re off this peak.” He felt that every moment spent on the peak was a moment of deeper danger. The others shared his unease in the manor, and Liu Yuanhe’s words suited them well. They were about to surge forward when a tremendous boom sounded from outside, like a cannon.

They stared at each other in bewilderment. After a moment, Steward Yu came hurrying in from outside, alarm on his face. “Gentlemen, disaster!”

Cao Yunqi shouted, “Has the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain arrived?”

“Not that. Someone has destroyed the long cable and the winch for going up and down the peak.”

A jolt ran through the crowd. “How is that possible?” “Isn’t there a second cable?” “Is there no other way down?”

Steward Yu said, “There is only the one cable on the peak. This humble one failed to watch properly, and those two children of the Flying Fox’s have ruined it.”

Baoshu’s face changed. “How?”

“The men had lowered those two little demons down the peak and gone inside to rest. Then came an explosion. When we rushed out, the winch and cables were blown to pieces. The two cursed wretches must have packed the winch with explosives and run a fuse all the way down the mountainside, then lit it from below.”

The heroes were stunned. They rushed outside, and sure enough, the winch was shattered into splinters, the long cables snapped and scattered across the ground. Fortunately the men stationed by the winch had stepped away. No one was hurt.

Yin Ji asked Baoshu, “Great Master, what is the Flying Fox’s purpose in this?”

Baoshu said, “What is there to guess? He means to starve every last one of us on this peak.”

“We have no grudge against him.”

“He holds a feud deep as the sea with the master of this manor. Besides, the iron box is in your hands. That means you have crossed him.”

“The Flying Fox wants this iron box too?”

“Indeed he does.”

Recalling the twins’ uncanny skill, everyone had the same thought: If the servants are this formidable, what of the master himself? In silence they followed Baoshu back into the hall.

Miao Ruolan had come out from the inner hall. “Great Master, this Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain means to trap us all here to die?”

Baoshu’s face was grim. “Precisely. We are all in the same boat now. We must find a way off this peak.”

Miao Ruolan said, “There is no need to worry. My father will be coming up in the next few days. He will take us down.”

They thought about it. Golden-Faced Buddha Miao Renfeng’s²⁴ daughter was here. Could he stand by and do nothing? Spirits lifted at once. Only Liu Yuanhe sensed something amiss, but did not speak.

Baoshu said, “Though Miao daxia’s martial arts are unmatched in the world, this peak rises over a thousand feet. How can he simply climb up?”

Miao Ruolan said, “If someone could come up and build this manor, how can my father not manage it?”

Baoshu said, “In summer the ice and snow melt, and there are steep paths one can climb. Difficult, but possible. At this season, in the heart of the bitter cold, one would have to wait at least three months for the snow to thaw. Steward, how many months of provisions does the manor hold?”

Steward Yu said, “The steward who went down to purchase grain is not expected back until the day after tomorrow. The stores here were enough for another twenty days or so, but with the addition of all you gentlemen and the servant wives and maids Young Mistress Miao has brought, I calculate we have food for ten days.”

Faces changed. Silence fell, while every man cursed the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain for his cruelty.

Footnotes

1. 于管家 – Yú Guǎnjiā. Steward Yu. The steward of Jade Brush Peak Manor, once a capable fighter in his own right. ↩

2. 江湖 – jiānghú. Lit. “rivers and lakes.” The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding martial artists and the trades that travel with them. ↩

3. Beijing dialect (京片子) carried a certain prestige in the Qing period, associated with the capital’s refined speech. ↩

4. 琴儿 – Qín’ér. Miao Ruolan’s maid. The name means “little qin,” after the stringed instrument. ↩

5. 琴 – qín. A seven-stringed zither, the most ancient of Chinese instruments, associated with scholars and refinement. The lines are from Meng Haoran’s (孟浩然) poem “Thinking of Xin the Elder at the Southern Pavilion on a Summer Day” (《夏日南亭怀辛大》). ↩

6. 曹云奇 – Cáo Yúnqí. Nicknamed “Soaring Dragon Jian” (腾龙剑 – Ténglóng Jiàn). Newly appointed zhangmen of the Tianlong Northern Branch. ↩

7. 殷吉 – Yīn Jí. Member of the Southern Branch of the Tianlong School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 周云阳 – Zhōu Yúnyáng. Member of the Northern Branch of the Tianlong School, Cao Yunqi’s shidi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 刘元鹤 – Liú Yuánhè. A martial artist who shares the same shimen as Xiong Yuanxian. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force; the kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. ↩

11. 玉笔山庄 – Yùbǐ Shānzhuāng. Jade Brush Peak Manor, the estate on the summit of the peak in the Changbai Mountains. ↩

12. 珠儿 – zhū’ér. “Pearl,” with the affectionate diminutive 儿: the word the boy on the right uses for the ornamental pearl on his queue, not a name. ↩

13. 剑 – jiàn. A straight, double-edged sword. ↩

14. 雪山飞狐 – Xuěshān Fēihú. “Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain.” The nickname of Hu Fei, and the title of this novel. ↩

15. 金面佛苗爷 – Jīnmiàn Fó Miáo Yé. “Golden-Faced Buddha, Lord Miao.” The epithet of Miao Renfeng, the most feared swordsman of his generation. ↩

16. 宝树 – Bǎoshù. “Precious Tree.” A Buddhist monk of mysterious connections, who plays a central role in gathering the company on Jade Brush Peak. ↩

17. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a renowned martial artist of great courage and rectitude. Lit. “great xia.” Used as a suffix after the name or surname. ↩

18. 苗若兰 – Miáo Ruòlán. Miao Renfeng’s daughter. Gentle, intelligent, and deeply read. ↩

19. 陶百岁 – Táo Bǎisuì. One of the stockade chiefs of Yinma Creek and father of Tao Zian, who dug up the iron box. ↩

20. 陶子安 – Táo Zǐ’ān. Tao Baisui’s son. ↩

21. 田青文 – Tián Qīngwén. A disciple of the Tianlong School’s Northern branch and daughter of the late Tian Guinong. ↩

22. 天龙门 – Tiānlóng Mén. The Tianlong School, a martial arts school divided into Northern and Southern branches. ↩

23. 熊元献 – Xióng Yuánxiàn. Master of the Pingtong Armed Escort. ↩

24. 苗人凤 – Miáo Rénfèng. The Golden-Faced Buddha, head of the Miao family, one of the four families descended from the Storming King’s bodyguards, and wielder of the Miao Family Swordplay. ↩