Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain Chapter 5 – Part 3

Baoshu's face had turned the colour of iron. His right hand, clutching the prayer beads, trembled slightly. His eyes stared wide, and he spoke not a word.

Ping Asi continued, “The evening before that day, Elder Master Hu¹ and the Golden-Faced Buddha² shared the same room and talked late into the night. Doctor Yan³ eavesdropped outside the window. Later the Golden-Faced Buddha struck him through the window with a punch that left his eyes blackened and his nose swollen, his face covered in blood. He said that after being struck, he went straight to bed. But I saw him do something else before he slept. Elder Master Hu and the Golden-Faced Buddha slept in the same room. Both were open and upright men, and they had left their weapons in the main hall. Doctor Yan took a box of ointment from his medicine chest and secretly smeared it on the two men’s dao and jian. At that time I was only a boy of ten or so, too young to understand anything. I had no idea he was playing a foul trick. It was only after Elder Master Hu was wounded and poisoned that I realised Doctor Yan had put poison on both their weapons. He wanted Miao and Hu to kill each other. Ah, Doctor Yan, Doctor Yan, what a vicious heart you had!

“He wanted the Golden-Faced Buddha dead, naturally, to avenge that punch. But Elder Master Hu had no old grudge against him, no recent quarrel either. Why did he poison the Golden-Faced Buddha’s jian as well? I didn’t understand at the time. It was only years later, when I’d grown older, that I guessed his true intent. Hmph, the man was after Elder Master Hu’s iron box.⁴

“Doctor Yan said he didn’t know what was inside the iron box. That was a lie. He knew. When Elder Master Hu gave the iron box to his wife, he poured everything from it onto the table. The whole surface glittered with pearls and jewels. Elder Master Hu said, ‘Sister, with your skills, you can take gold and silver from the homes of corrupt officials and rich tyrants whenever you need. But the more you take, the greater the risk of a slip-up someday. I… I…’ His wife said, ‘Big Brother, do not worry. If anything happens to you, I will devote myself to raising the child. We can sell these jewels little by little, and it will be enough for mother and son to live on for a lifetime. I will not take up blade or spear again, nor practise my thieving arts, how about that?’

“Elder Master Hu laughed loudly and approved. He picked up a book and said, ‘This fist and blade manual was written by my own great-great-grandfather.’ His wife took it and smiled, ‘So this is where all the Flying Fox’s⁵ skills are written. You kept it well hidden, even from me.’ Elder Master Hu laughed, ‘My ancestor’s rule was to pass it to son, not to daughter, to nephew, not to wife. That is why it is called the Hu Family Bladeworks.’⁶ His wife smiled, ‘When the child can read, let him learn it himself. I will not steal a glance.’ Elder Master Hu sighed and put everything back into the iron box, then placed it under his wife’s pillow.

“Later I saw his wife take her own life. I rushed to her room, but Doctor Yan had already entered before me. My heart pounded wildly, and I hid behind the door. I saw Doctor Yan holding the child in his left arm, and with his right hand he took the iron box from under the pillow. He pressed three times on each of the four corners of the chest, just as Elder Master Hu had done before, then pressed once on the bottom. The lid sprang open. He took out the pearls and jewels and fondled them, drool dripping from his mouth. He set the child on the ground and pulled out the fist and blade manual to flip through. With no one to hold him, the child wailed loudly. Doctor Yan, afraid someone would hear, grabbed a quilt from the kang⁷ and threw it over the child’s head, covering him completely.

“I was horrified. If this went on much longer, the child would suffocate for certain. Thinking of how well Elder Master Hu had treated me, I had to rescue the child. But I was young and knew no martial arts. I was no match for Doctor Yan. I saw a door bolt leaning by the doorway, so I quietly picked it up, crept on tiptoe behind him, and struck him as hard as I could on the back of the head.

“I put every ounce of strength I had into that blow. Doctor Yan, taken by surprise, didn’t even grunt before he fell face-down, the pearls and jewels scattering across the floor. I quickly pulled off the quilt and picked up the child. Everyone here was Elder Master Hu’s enemy, I thought. I had to take the child home for my mother to raise. I knew the fist and blade manual was of great importance and could not fall into other hands, so I went to take it from Doctor Yan’s grasp. But he had kept a tight grip on it as he passed out. In my panic I pulled hard, and the first two pages of the manual tore away and stayed in his hand. Then I heard a commotion outside the door. Miao daxia⁸ was looking for the child. I had no time to gather the jewels. I tucked the child into my arms and slipped out the back door, trying to escape home.

“From that day until now, I never saw Doctor Yan again. Who would have thought he would become a monk? Perhaps he felt his sins too heavy and became a monk to repent? He stole the first two pages of the fist manual and somehow trained himself into a master, making a name for himself in the jianghu.⁹ He thought no one in this world knew his origins. He never imagined that the man who struck him on the back of the head with a door bolt was still alive and well today. Doctor Yan, turn around. Let everyone see the scar on the back of your head. That was put there by a kitchen boy who tended the stove, with a single swing of a door bolt.”

Baoshu slowly rose to his feet. Everyone held their breath, expecting him to strike at once and end Ping Asi’s life. But he only chanted “Amitabha Buddha” twice, reached up to touch the back of his head, then sat back down and said, “For twenty-seven years I never knew who struck that cold blow on the back of my head. I always wondered. Today that mystery is solved at last.” No one had expected him to admit it so openly, and all were astonished.

Miao Ruolan asked, “What happened to that poor child? What became of him in the end?”

Ping Asi said, “I slipped out the back door with the child. I’d only run a few steps when someone behind me shouted, ‘Hey, little baldy, bring that child back!’ I ignored him and ran faster. The man cursed and caught up, grabbing my arm, trying to take the child. In desperation, I bit down hard on his hand, drew blood all over the back of it…”

Cao Yunqi¹⁰ blurted out, “That was my shifu!”¹¹

Tian Qingwen¹² shot him a look. Cao Yunqi regretted it deeply, but the words were out and could not be taken back. Everyone was staring at him, and he grew very uneasy.

Ping Asi said, “That’s right, it was Tian Guinong,¹³ Young Master Tian. He always kept the tooth marks on the back of his hand. I doubt he ever told any of you who bit him, or why.”

Tian Qingwen, Ruan Shizhong,¹⁴ Cao Yunqi, and Zhou Yunyang¹⁵ exchanged glances. They all recalled that Tian Guinong indeed had deep bite marks on the back of his hand, and he had never once mentioned how they got there.

Ping Asi continued, “I staked my life on that bite. Young Master Tian’s martial arts were high, but even he must have felt the pain. He drew his jian and cut me once across the face, then a second stroke took my arm off. In his fury, he kicked me into the river. Though one arm was gone, the other still held the child tight.”

Miao Ruolan gave a soft “Ah.”

Ping Asi said, “When I fell into the river, the pain was so great I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was lying on a boat. Someone had pulled me out. I shouted, ‘The child! The child!’ A woman on the boat said, ‘Amitabha Buddha, you’re awake at last. The child is here.’ I looked up and saw her holding the child, nursing him. Later I learned that from the time I was rescued until I woke, six days and six nights had passed. By then I was far from home. Afraid Elder Master Hu’s enemies would harm the child, I never dared go back. From what Miss Miao says, Miao daxia thought the child was dead.”

Miao Ruolan said happily, “So that poor child is still alive, isn’t he? Father will be overjoyed when he knows. Where is the child now? Will you take us to see him?” Then she realised that she had been calling him “that poor child,” when in fact he was now a man of twenty-seven, ten years her senior. Her face flushed.

Ping Asi said, “You will not see him. No one here will leave this mountain alive.”

Miao Ruolan said, “My father will certainly come up the peak to rescue us. I’m not worried at all.”

Ping Asi said, “Your father has fought all under heaven and found no equal, but the men he fought were mortal. However high his martial arts, he can do nothing against this peak, a hundred thousand feet high.”

Miao Ruolan asked, “Did the child send you here to kill us?”

Ping Asi shook his head. “No. That child is a hero and a xia,¹⁶ exactly like his father. If he knew I had come to do such a vicious deed, he would certainly have stopped me.”

Cao Yunqi snarled, “Hmph, so even you know it’s a vicious deed.”

Miao Ruolan asked, “What happened to the child? What is his name? Are his martial arts good? What does he do? Is he a good man too?” Ever since she was small, she had watched her father make offerings each year to Hu Yidao and his wife, always grieving that he could not raise that child himself. She cared deeply.

Ping Asi said, “If I had not blown up the long rope, Miss Miao, you would be able to see him today.”

Cao Yunqi and five or six others shouted in unison, “You destroyed the long rope?”

Ping Asi said, “I did.”

Miao Ruolan asked, “How could I see him today?”

Ping Asi said, “He has an appointment with the master of this place. He was to come up the mountain at the hour of Wu¹⁷ today. The hour of Wu has come. He must have arrived at the foot of the peak by this time.”

Everyone cried out together, “The Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain?”

Ping Asi said, “That’s right. The son of Elder Master Hu, Hu Yidao, is named Hu Fei,¹⁸ and his nickname is the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain!”

Footnotes

1. 胡大爷 – Hú dàye. Respectful address for Hu Yidao. Dà means elder or senior. Ye is a respectful term for a man. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 金面佛 – Jīnmiàn Fó. Literally Golden-Faced Buddha. The epithet of Miao Renfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 阎大夫 – Yán dàifu. Doctor Yan. A physician travelling in the jianghu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 铁盒 – tiě hé. The iron box, containing Hu Yidao’s treasures and the martial arts manual. ↩

5. 飞天狐狸 – Fēitiān Húlí. The Flying Fox. Epithet of the Hu ancestor who was one of the Storming King’s four guards. ↩

6. 胡家刀法 – Hú Jiā Dāofǎ. The Hu Family Bladeworks, the signature bladework of the Hu family. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 炕 – kàng. A heated brick bed-platform common in northern China. ↩

8. 苗大侠 – Miáo dàxiá. Respectful address for Miao Renfeng. Dàxiá means great hero, a title for a renowned martial artist. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 曹云奇 – Cáo Yúnqí. A disciple of the Northern Branch of the Tianlong School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 师父 – shīfù. Teacher and lineage father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 田青文 – Tián Qīngwén. Daughter of Tian Guinong, member of the Tianlong School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 田归农 – Tián Guīnóng. Of the Tianlong School; father of Tian Qingwen and shifu of Cao Yunqi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 阮士中 – Ruǎn Shìzhōng. A member of the Northern Branch of the Tianlong School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 周云阳 – Zhōu Yúnyáng. A member of the Tianlong School. ↩

16. 侠 – xiá. A martial artist who upholds justice and protects the weak. The code of xia. ↩

17. 午时 – wǔshí. The hour of Wu, roughly 11 am to 1 pm. The day was divided into twelve shichen, each named for one of the Earthly Branches. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 胡斐 – Hú Fěi. Son of Hu Yidao, known as the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain. The protagonist of the novel. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩