Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain Chapter 8 – Part 2

Baoshu heaved a sigh. “Manor Master Du has lived on Jade Brush Peak for decades without knowing where the treasure lies. He had no treasured dao, no map, no clue where to begin. That one can forgive. But we know the treasure is inside this round mound, and still we cannot find where to start. That is sheer incompetence.”

The company had grown weary of standing, and scattered to sit where they were. Their hunger sharpened with every passing moment, and their spirits flagged.

Zheng Sanniang’s wound began to throb again. She gritted her teeth and pressed a hand to the gash. Turning her head, she caught the light of the snow reflecting off the ruby set in the scabbard of the dao Baoshu held, appearing all the more brilliant and beautiful. She had accompanied her husband on armed escort runs for years and seen no shortage of rare treasures. Something about the way the ruby caught the light seemed off, and a thought struck her. “Great Master, please lend me your treasured dao for a moment.”

Baoshu considered, She is only a woman, and wounded in the leg besides. What is there to fear? He passed her the dao still in its scabbard. Zheng Sanniang took it and examined it closely. Sure enough, the ruby was set with its reverse face outward. Gems have a yin side and a yang side, a front and a back. Certain master craftsmen could cut a stone so that both faces looked identical, but to a trained eye the difference remained clear. “Great Master, this gem is set back-to-front. I suspect there is something hidden beneath it.”

Baoshu had been at his wits’ end. At her words he thought, Right or wrong, I may as well pry it open and see. He took back the dao, drew a dagger from his belt, and channelling his strength into his fingertips, slipped the dagger’s point beneath the ruby and gave it a delicate flick. The stone popped from its setting and fell away. Baoshu picked it up and inspected both faces. Nothing unusual. Then he peered into the hollow where the gem had sat, and cried out, “Here it is!”

Carved into the hollow was an arrow, pointing northeast by north. At the arrow’s tip sat a tiny circle. Baoshu was beside himself with delight. The centre of the hollow, he reasoned, must represent the summit of the round peak. He calculated the distance, fixed his bearing, and walked step by step until he reached the spot. Sure enough, the ground beneath his feet gave way and he dropped. He had braced himself for it. His boots touched earth, and at once he shook a huozhezi¹ alight, brushed aside ice and snow, and saw a long passage stretching ahead. He strode forward. Liu Yuanhe and the rest leapt down after him.

The huozhezi burned out before long, but the cave wound in spiralling twists, turning several bends and still showing no end.

Cao Yunqi said, “I will go break off some dry branches.” He dashed out of the cave and returned with a great bundle of deadwood, striking a spark to light a torch. Rash as he was, he had one virtue: when it came to getting things done, he plunged straight ahead. Torch in hand, he took the lead.

Everywhere in the cave lay ice that had not melted in a thousand years. In places the ice jutted in spars as sharp as blades. Tao Baisui cradled a great stone and knocked away the ice-blades that blocked their path. When the company had climbed the mountain each man had harboured hostility towards the rest. Now, with a mighty treasure in sight, they shared a single boat and lent one another aid.

They turned another bend, and Tian Qingwen cried out suddenly, “Yi!” She pointed at something yellow on the ground before Cao Yunqi. He stooped and picked it up: a small brush pen cast in gold, the shaft engraved with the character An. It was identical to the one Tian Qingwen had carried in her hand before ascending the peak. Suspicion flared in Cao Yunqi. He wheeled on Tao Zian and said harshly, “So you have been here before!”

Tao Zian said, “Who says I have? Look along the path. Are there any footprints?”

Cao Yunqi thought, Indeed, no one has walked this cave. Then how did his golden pen come to be dropped here? Whatever he thought, he could not hold it in for an instant. He opened his palm and revealed a small golden pen. “Is this not yours? Your name is plainly carved on it!”

Tao Zian looked and shook his head. “I have never seen it before.”

Cao Yunqi flew into a rage. He flipped his palm, flung the pen to the ground, lunged forward and seized Tao Zian by the collar, and spat in his face, barking, “Still trying to deny it? I saw her holding the pen you gave her with my own eyes!”

The cave was so narrow a man could hardly turn around. How could Tao Zian dodge? The spittle landed squarely on the left side of his nose. In a fury he lashed out with his right foot and struck Cao Yunqi in the belly, and at the same instant both hands flew forward in the technique called Swallow Returns to Its Nest, pounding Cao Yunqi in the chest. Cao Yunqi staggered, dropped his torch, and swung a right-handed punch in return. It struck Tao Zian in the face with a thud. The torch went out. The cave plunged into blackness. Nothing could be heard but the two men shouting curses at each other, accompanied by thuds and crashes. Blow after blow, kick after kick, each one landing true, until the two of them were locked together, rolling on the ground.

The others found it as funny as it was infuriating, and called out in unison for them to stop. But Cao and Tao would have none of it. Then Tian Qingwen’s voice rang out, “If either of you does not let go this instant, I will never speak to him again.”

Cao and Tao froze, and let go of each other, rising to their feet.

They heard Xiong Yuanxian’s thin voice in the darkness, “It is I, Xiong Yuanxian, looking for the torch to light it again. You two had best not drink the wrong vinegar and start taking your fists out on the man surnamed Xiong.” He groped along the ground, found the torch, and relit it. Cao and Tao stood with blackened eyes and swollen noses, panting hard, their fists still clenched, glaring at one another.

Tian Qingwen drew a small golden pen from her bosom, picked up the one from the floor, and said to Cao Yunqi, “These two pens truly are a matched pair. But who told you he gave one to me?”

Cao Yunqi had no answer. He stammered, “If he did not give it to you, then where did you get it? And why is his name carved on it?”

Tao Baisui took the small pen, glanced at it, and asked Cao Yunqi, “Your shifu is Tian Guinong. Who is your Grand Shifu?”

Cao Yunqi was taken aback. “Grand Shifu? That is my shifu’s father. His taboo name was An above, Bao below.”

Tao Baisui gave a cold laugh. “Indeed! Tian Anbao. What hidden weapon did he use?”

“I… I never met my Grand Shifu.”

“You never met him. But your Ruan shishu’s martial arts were taught to him personally by Tian Anbao. Ask him.”

Before Cao Yunqi could open his mouth, Ruan Shizhong spoke up. “Yunqi, enough of this nonsense. That pair of golden pens was the hidden weapon your Grand Shifu used.”

Cao Yunqi was struck dumb, though the doubt in his heart was not diminished in the least.

Baoshu said, “If you wish to quarrel over jealousy and fight, you are welcome to go outside and settle it to the death. We are here to search for treasure.”

Xiong Yuanxian raised the torch high and led the way around the bend. The cave grew ever narrower. The company had to bend double to proceed, and more than once their heads struck sharp angles of ice, sending dull aches through their skulls. But with a great treasure so near, none of them counted it hardship.

They walked for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and then the passage ended. A great round boulder stood stacked atop another, the two great rocks sealing the way forward. Between them, ice had frozen hard and fast. Xiong Yuanxian strained against the rock, but it did not shift a hair’s breadth. He turned and asked Baoshu, “What now?” Baoshu scratched his head and said nothing.

Of all the company, Yin Ji was the most resourceful. He considered briefly, then said, “Two round stones stacked like this must be movable. They are simply frozen together.”

Baoshu cried, “Right! Melt the ice between them.”

Xiong Yuanxian held the torch close to the boulders and applied the flame to the ice between them. Cao Yunqi, Zhou Yunyang and the rest went back outside, gathered more firewood, and fed the blaze. The flames roared higher, the ice melted to water, and a tinkling of fragment after fragment of ice falling to the ground rang without pause.

When more than half the ice between the two boulders had melted away, Baoshu, impatient, planted both hands on the great rock and pushed with all his strength. The stone did not budge. They burned a while longer, and more ice gave way. When Baoshu pushed a second time, the boulder swayed, and then slowly, slowly, began to turn, opening a gap like a stone gateway fashioned by Heaven itself.

The company cried out in delight. Ruan Shizhong lent a hand, and he and Baoshu pushed the gap wider together. Baoshu snatched a burning branch from the fire and stepped through first. The rest followed, each man bearing a torch. The moment they crossed the threshold, a wash of golden light struck their eyes. Every man was dazzled. They held their breath and stood with mouths agape, unable to close them.

Within lay a vast chamber. On every side were piled gold bricks and silver ingots, pearls and gemstones beyond counting. But the gold, silver and jewels all lay hidden behind walls of transparent ice. It seemed that in years past, when the Storming King’s² followers had stored the treasure here, they had poured cold water over it all. The region was locked in unrelenting cold the year round. The ice never thawed, and the gold and gems lay entombed as though in crystal. The company gazed at the wealth of gold and jewels, and for a long while not a word was spoken. The cave was utterly silent. Then, all at once, a great shout went up. Baoshu, Tao Baisui and the rest threw themselves at the ice, scarcely knowing what to say.

Suddenly Tian Qingwen gave a sharp cry, “There are people!” She pointed towards the far wall. In the torchlight two dark shadows could indeed be seen, standing against the wall.

The shock was no small thing. No one had imagined there would be people inside the cave. Could there be another entrance? Each man gripped his weapon and drew instinctively towards the others. A long while passed, yet the two shadows did not stir in the slightest. Baoshu called out, “Who is there?” The two within gave no answer.

Seeing that the pair remained motionless, the company’s alarm only deepened. Baoshu raised his voice, “Whichever eminent Senior is within, I beg you to come forth.” His shout rebounded from the walls of the cave and came rushing back, setting their ears buzzing most unpleasantly. But the two figures neither answered nor emerged.

Baoshu raised the torch and walked a few steps closer. He saw clearly that the two dark shadows stood on the far side of a layer of solid ice. The ice formed a wall like crystal, dividing the chamber into a front and a rear. Steeling himself, Baoshu approached the ice wall. The two figures looked strange indeed, utterly motionless. It was plain they had been frozen in place by acupoint strikes.³ At this point he had no further fear. “Everyone, follow me!” he called, and strode around the ice wall. His right hand held his dao raised. His left raised the torch to illuminate the two figures’ faces. He drew in a sharp breath. The two had been dead for a very long time. Their features were twisted, the muscles of their faces locked in a ghastly contortion, horribly dreadful to behold.

Zheng Sanniang and Tian Qingwen saw they were corpses and both gave shrill cries. The others drew close to the bodies. Each man held a dagger in his right hand, thrust into the other’s body. One blade had pierced the chest, the other the belly. They had killed each other.

Ruan Shizhong made out the face of one of the corpses. Suddenly he threw himself to the ground, weeping. “Revered shifu! So this is where you are.”

The others were startled at his words, and asked in unison, “What is it? Who are these two? Is that your shifu? How did they come to die here?”

Ruan Shizhong wiped his tears and pointed to the shorter of the two corpses. “This is my revered shifu, surnamed Tian. The golden pen Yunqi picked up just now belonged to my shifu.”

The company saw that Tian Anbao’s face looked no older than forty, younger even than Ruan Shizhong himself. At first they found it strange, but on reflection the reason was plain. The two corpses had in truth been dead for decades, but the bitter cold of the cave had preserved them from decay. They looked as though they had died only days ago.

Cao Yunqi pointed at the other corpse. “Shishu, who is this man? How dared he murder our Grand Shifu?” With that he kicked the corpse. The body was tall and gaunt, its limbs long and lean. All of them had already more or less guessed who it was.

Ruan Shizhong said, “He is the Golden-Faced Buddha’s⁴ father. I called him Master Miao since I was a boy. He and my shifu had long been close friends. One year they set off together for beyond the pass. We did not know the business that took them, but they went in high spirits, laughing and cheerful. From that day they never returned. Friends in the wulin⁵ later spread the tale that the two of them had been killed by Hu Yidao, the great figure of Liaodong.⁶ And so the Golden-Faced Buddha and Tian shixiong and the rest raised a great host to seek vengeance against Hu Yidao. Who would have thought that Miao… Miao… that this man surnamed Miao, blinded by greed at the sight of treasure in this cave, would strike my shifu down?” He too kicked the corpse in the leg. After death, Miao and Tian had frozen solid, their bodies sheathed in ice. Ruan Shizhong’s kick left the corpse standing as upright as before, and his own toe throbbed with the impact. The others thought, Who can say it was not your shifu who was blinded by greed and struck the first blow?

Ruan Shizhong reached out to push the corpse surnamed Miao away from his shifu. But Miao and Tian had lain locked together for decades, hand to blade, blade to body, all frozen in solid ice. How could they be parted now?

Tao Baisui sighed. “Years ago, Hu Yidao sent word to Miao daxia and Tian Guinong, saying that he knew the cause of death of the two seniors of the Miao and Tian families. But the two men had died in too unseemly a fashion for him to describe it to their faces, and so he could only lead them here to see for themselves. Now we have seen it with our own eyes, and his words were true. By this reckoning, Hu Yidao must have visited this place. Yet when he saw the treasure, he did not dig it up. Why, one cannot say.”

Tian Qingwen spoke suddenly. “Something strange happened to me today.”

Ruan Shizhong asked, “What?”

“Our party set out this morning in pursuit of him… him…” She nodded her lips towards Tao Zian, a faint blush rising on her cheeks, and continued, “You, shishu, and the rest rode on ahead. I fell behind.”

Cao Yunqi could not contain himself. “You had the best horse of any of us. How did you fall behind? You… you simply could not bring yourself to fight this man surnamed Tao.”

Tian Qingwen would not even look at him. In a low, quiet voice she said, “You have ruined my whole life. If you wish to torment me further, I suppose I must let you. Tao Zian is my husband, and I have wronged him. Though he can no longer have me, there is no other man who will ever hold a place in my heart.”

Tao Zian cried out, “Of course I want you, Sister Qing! Of course I will marry you! I will wed no one but you!”

Tao Baisui and Cao Yunqi both shouted in anger. One said, “You want this wretch? I will have no such daughter-in-law.” The other said, “If you have the stomach for it, kill me first.” The two of them bellowed at the same moment. The echo in the cave was so great that their voices mingled, and not a word could be made out.

Tian Qingwen kept her eyes on the ground. When their shouting subsided, she said softly, “You may want me, but how could I ever have the face to come back to you? Once we are out of this cave, never come before my eyes again.”

Tao Zian said urgently, “No, no, Sister Qing. It is all his fault. He bullied you, he tormented you. I will fight him to the death!” He raised his dao and charged straight at Cao Yunqi.

Liu Yuanhe stepped in his path, crying, “Take your jealousy outside to settle!” His left palm feinted high. His right hand darted out, closed around Tao Zian’s wrist, and with a gentle twist he wrenched the dao away and tossed it to the ground. On the other side, Cao Yunqi was leaping and raging, held back by Yin Ji. The rest of the company watched Tian Qingwen retreat in order to advance, reducing Tao and Cao to her obedient instruments, and could not help smiling to themselves.

Baoshu said, “Miss Tian, you may marry whichever man you choose. You cannot very well marry a monk like me. And so this old monk has but a single question for you: what strange thing did you encounter this morning?”

The company laughed aloud, and even Tian Qingwen could not suppress a smile. “My horse was slow and could not keep up with my shishu and the rest. As I rode along, I suddenly heard the sound of hooves behind me. A single rider came galloping up. The man on the horse held a great gourd in his hand and tipped his head back to drink from its mouth. I saw he had a full beard covering his face, and he swayed drunkenly in the saddle, still gulping away, and I could not help laughing. He turned his head and asked, ‘You are Tian Guinong’s daughter, are you not?’ I said, ‘I am. And who might you be, sir?’ He said, ‘Here, take this!’ He flicked his finger and shot this little golden pen at me. It grazed my cheek and knocked off my earring. I was frightened, and by the time I looked again, he had ridden on. I have been puzzling over it ever since. I cannot understand why he gave me this small pen.”

Baoshu asked, “Do you know this man?”

Tian Qingwen nodded and said in a low voice, “It was that Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain,⁷ Hu Fei. When he flicked the pen at me I did not know who he was, of course. But afterwards, when he climbed the mountain and spoke with the Miao family girl, I recognised his voice. I peered through a crack in the wooden wall, and sure enough it was him.”

Cao Yunqi’s jealousy flared again. “If this small pen was our Grand Shifu’s, where did Hu Fei get it? And why did he give it to you?”

Tian Qingwen spoke gently and softly to everyone else, but at the sound of Cao Yunqi’s voice her face clouded at once, and she gave him no answer whatsoever.

Liu Yuanhe said, “Since Hu Yidao had once been here, he must have found the pen on the ground or taken it from Tian Anbao’s body. When he died, Hu Fei was only a few days old. How could he have passed the pen to his son?”

Xiong Yuanxian said, “Perhaps he left the pen at home. Later, when Hu Fei grew up, he returned to the old residence and naturally found it among his father’s belongings.”

Ruan Shizhong nodded. “That is not impossible. This small pen is hollow. The tip can be unscrewed. Qingwen, see if there is anything inside.”

Tian Qingwen first unscrewed the tip of the pen she had found in the cave. The interior was empty. Then she unscrewed the tip of the pen Hu Fei had flicked at her, and found a tiny roll of paper hidden within the shaft. The whole company crowded round, all thinking that without Ruan Shizhong present, no one would have guessed the hidden weapon was crafted so ingeniously that something could be concealed inside the pen.

Tian Qingwen unrolled the paper. Sixteen characters were written upon it:

Gentlemen of Tianlong, ride forth to Liaodong. Come upon your horses. Return upon the wind.

Beneath the corner of the paper was drawn a fox with wings upon its back. These sixteen characters were plainly the hand of the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain.

Ruan Shizhong’s face darkened. “Hmph. That remains to be seen.” Though he spoke thus, when he considered Hu Fei’s skill, and that he knew the movements of the Tianlong School’s men as though reading an open book, he could not help but feel a chill of fear.

Cao Yunqi asked, “Shishu, what does ‘return upon the wind’ mean?”

Ruan Shizhong said, “Hmph. He means we shall all die in Liaodong, become ghosts in a foreign land, and our souls will drift home on the wind.”

Cao Yunqi cursed, “Damn his grandmother!”

The men of the Tianlong School gazed at the note, each lost in thought. But the eyes of Baoshu, Tao Baisui, Liu Yuanhe and the rest had already turned back to the gold and silver and jewels heaped all around them. Baoshu took up a dao and began hacking at the ice. After several strokes he broke through the frozen crust and scooped up a handful of gold and gems. He laughed aloud. In the torchlight the gold and gems in his hand shone with a strange, dazzling brilliance. The sight of it sent a rush of hot blood through every man present. Each grabbed his weapon and began chopping at the ice to claim the treasure. But after a while the edges of their blades turned and grew dull, and their work slowed. The men’s own weapons had all been shattered at the peak by the Twin Pages. What they carried now had been picked up at random from Du Family Manor, not chosen for their keenness. Each man stuffed the treasure he won into his pouch without pausing. The more he took, the hotter his blood burned. But as their blades dulled, the hacking grew slower and slower.

Tian Qingwen said, “Let us go gather more firewood and melt the ice to get at the treasure!”

The company shouted their approval. It was something they ought to have thought of long ago, but the moment Baoshu had treasure in hand, every man had been too impatient to do anything but hack at the ice with his blade. Though they all voiced their agreement with Tian Qingwen’s words, not one man moved to fetch firewood. Each feared that if he stepped outside, the others would take more treasure in his absence.

Baoshu cast a sidelong glance at the company and said, “House Brother Zhou of the Tianlong School, House Brother Tao of the Yinma Creek, Escort Captain Xiong of the armed escort, the three of you go outside and gather wood. The rest of us staying here will all cease work and rest. No one is to take treasure on the sly.” Though Zhou, Tao and Xiong were doubtful, they feared Baoshu would use force, and had no choice but to leave the cave and gather dry branches.

Footnotes

1. 火折子 – huǒzhézi. A tinder tube: rolled paper or fibre treated with saltpetre, kept smouldering in a tube and revived with a puff of breath. ↩

2. 闯王 – Chuǎng Wáng. Storming King, the rebel title of Li Zicheng (李自成), who led the uprising that overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 点穴 – diǎnxué. The art of striking acupoints to freeze or incapacitate an opponent. ↩

4. 金面佛 – Jīnmiàn Fó. The Golden-Faced Buddha, epithet of Miao Renfeng (苗人凤). See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest; the community of martial artists. ↩

6. 胡一刀 – Hú Yīdāo. Hu Yidao, the famed fighter of Liaodong and Hu Fei’s father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 雪山飞狐 – Xuěshān Fēihú. The Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain, epithet of Hu Fei (胡斐). See Wuxia Wiki. ↩