Laughing in the Wind Chapter 1 – Part 2

Yu laughed coldly. “This little one would make quite an alluring performer of huadan,¹ but he’s hardly fit for a real fight!”

Chief Zheng thundered, “This is Young Master Lin of the Fu Wei Escort Agency. You dare to dig your own grave by provoking someone you shouldn’t?”

Before he could finish the word, his left fist was already flying at Yu’s face. Yu’s left hand flicked upward, caught Zheng’s pulse point², and with a quick twist sent him stumbling toward the wooden table. Yu’s left elbow came down hard on the back of Zheng’s neck. With a loud crack, Zheng crashed through the table and fell.

Although Chief Zheng wasn’t among the best fighters at Fu Wei Escort Agency, he was no weakling. Seeing him defeated in a single move showed Yu’s considerable skill. Chief Shi asked, “Who are you, sir? Since you’re fellow comrades of the wulin³, surely you don’t mean to disrespect the Fu Wei Escort Agency?”

Yu sneered, “Fu Wei Escort Agency? Never heard of it! What do they do?”

Lin Pingzhi leapt forward, shouting, “We specialize in beating up curs like you!”

His left palm struck out, and before the technique was complete, his right palm emerged from beneath it—the Qiankun in the Clouds⁴ move from his family’s Heaven-flipping Palms⁵. Yu said, “The little beauty actually knows a few moves.”

He deflected the palm strike and reached to grab Lin Pingzhi’s shoulder. Lin Pingzhi’s right shoulder dipped slightly as his left hand formed a fist and punched. Yu tilted his head to dodge, but unexpectedly, Lin Pingzhi’s fist opened into a palm, the straight strike becoming a horizontal sweep in the Viewing Flowers Through Mist⁶ technique, landing a loud slap across Yu’s face.

Yu flew into a rage and launched a kick at Lin Pingzhi. Lin Pingzhi dodged right and returned a kick of his own.

By now Chief Shi had engaged the one called Second Brother Jia[^jia] in combat, while Bai Er helped Chief Zheng to his feet. Chief Zheng cursed loudly and moved to join the attack on Yu. Lin Pingzhi called out, “Help Chief Shi—–I can handle this cur myself!”

Zheng knew the young master’s prideful nature and his dislike for others’ assistance. He picked up a broken table leg from the ground and charged at Jia.

The two escorts rushed outside. One retrieved Lin Pingzhi’s sword from his saddle, while the other grabbed a hunting fork,⁷ both pointing their weapons at Yu while hurling insults. Though the escorts’ martial skills were ordinary, they were accustomed to shouting escort calls⁸ and had powerful voices. They cursed in Fuzhou dialect, which the two Sichuan men could not understand, though they clearly knew these weren’t words of praise.

Lin Pingzhi employed the Heaven-Flipping Palms exactly as his father had taught him. But after just ten moves, his confidence began to waver as he realized his opponent’s skill was formidable. While parrying Lin’s attacks, Yu continued his crude taunts, “Little brother, the more I look at you, the less you seem like a man—you must be a maiden in disguise. With those rosy cheeks of yours, give me a kiss and we’ll call off this fight, how about it?”

Lin grew even more furious. Glancing at Chiefs Shi and Zheng, he saw they were still at a disadvantage fighting Jia. Zheng’s nose had been struck hard, blood staining his collar. Lin sped up his offensive, suddenly landing a heavy slap across Yu’s face. Yu flew into a rage, “You ignorant bastard! I was going easy on you because you look like a pretty maiden, but now you dare strike me in earnest!”

His fighting style transformed into a relentless barrage of attacks like a sudden storm. Their fight carried them outside the tavern.

Seeing Yu’s straight punch aimed at his center, Lin Pingzhi recalled his father’s teaching of the deflection technique. He extended his left hand to parry and divert the incoming force, but underestimated Yu’s raw strength. The move failed, and the punch landed squarely on his chest.

As Lin staggered, Yu seized his collar. Using his powerful arm strength, Yu forced Lin’s upper body to bend forward, then followed with the Iron Threshold⁹ technique, laying his right arm across Lin’s neck. He laughed wildly, “Bastard, kowtow and call me dear uncle three times, then I’ll let you go!”

Chief Shi and Zheng were alarmed and tried to disengage from their opponent to help, but Jia’s relentless attacks prevented their retreat. Scout Bai Er raised his hunting fork and stabbed at Yu’s back, shouting, “Let go! How many heads do you think you—”

Yu’s left foot kicked back, sending the hunting fork flying several feet¹⁰ away. His right foot followed with a series of kicks that sent Bai Er tumbling seven or eight times, unable to rise. Chen Qi cursed loudly, “You bastard son of a tortoise!”

With each curse, he retreated a step, continuing until he was safely several paces away.

Yu laughed, “Well, maiden, will you kowtow?”

He increased the pressure, forcing Lin’s head lower and lower, until his forehead nearly touched the ground. Lin tried to punch Yu’s abdomen, but fell short by several inches. His neck felt like it would snap, stars danced before his eyes, and his ears rang.

As he grabbed and struck wildly, his hand touched something hard against his calf. In desperation, without thinking, he drew it and thrust forward, plunging it into Yu’s abdomen.

Yu let out a great cry and released his hold, stepping back twice with horror etched on his face. A dagger was buried to its hilt in his abdomen. Facing west, the setting sun glinted off the dagger’s golden handle. His mouth opened to speak but no words came. He reached for the dagger but dared not pull it out.

Lin Pingzhi’s heart nearly leaped out of his throat as he hastily retreated several steps. Jia and the two escorts stopped their fight, staring at Yu in shock.

Yu’s body swayed. His right hand grasped the dagger’s hilt and pulled. As the blade left his abdomen, blood sprayed out several feet, drawing horrified cries from the onlookers. Yu cried out, “Jia… Jia… tell Father… to avenge…”

His right arm swung back, throwing the dagger. Jia rushed forward, shouting, “Brother Yu! Brother Yu!”

Yu collapsed face-first, his body convulsed several times, then lay still.

“Get your weapons!” Chief Escort Shi whispered and ran to retrieve his from his mount. His extensive jianghu experience told him that with a death on their hands, Jia would fight to the death.

Jia glared at Lin Pingzhi for a long moment, then snatched up the dagger, leaped onto his horse, and slashed the reins rather than untying them. His legs squeezed the horse’s flanks as he galloped north at full speed.

Chen Qi walked over and kicked Yu’s corpse, turning it over. Blood still flowed steadily from the wound.

“You offended our Young Master—weren’t you courting death? Serves you right!”, he spat.

Lin Pingzhi, who had never killed before, stood pale-faced and trembling. “Chief… Chief Escort Shi, what… what do we do? I didn’t… didn’t mean to kill him.”

Chief Escort Shi pondered, “The Fuwei Escort Agency has been around for three generations. Fights and deaths in the jianghu are inevitable, but we’ve never killed anyone except criminals. Such deadly fights always happened in remote mountains where bodies could be buried on the spot. After all, what bandit would report the Fuwei Escort Agency to the authorities? But this man clearly wasn’t a bandit, and we’re near the city. A human life is no small matter—more so if the killer were a governor’s or imperial inspector’s so—it won’t be easily resolved.”

He frowned and said, “Let’s move the body into the wine shop quickly. We’re too close to the main road—we mustn’t let anyone see.”

Fortunately, it was dusk and the road was empty. Bai Er and Chen Qi carried the body inside.

Chief Escort Shi lowered his voice, “Young Master, do you have any silver on you?”

“Yes, yes!” Lin Pingzhi replied hastily and pulled out all twenty or so taels of silver from his garments.

Shi took the silver, walked into the wine shop, and placed it on the table. He said to shop owner, “Old Sa, these outsiders were harassing your daughter, and our Young Master intervened out of righteousness. He was forced to kill in self-defense. We all witnessed it. This matter began because of your household—if word gets out, none of us will escape involvement. Use this silver for now. Let’s bury the body first, then figure out how to cover this up.”

Old Sa responded repeatedly, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Chief Zheng added, “When our Fuwei Escort Agency operates, killing a few forest bandits is nothing unusual. These two Sichuan rats skulking—if they weren’t major bandits, they must have been serial rapists, probably here to commit crimes in Fuzhou. Our young master was sharp-eyed to deal with them, ensuring peace in Fuzhou.

“We could claim the reward from the authorities, but our young master doesn’t want the trouble or empty fame. Old man, keep your mouth shut tight. If word leaks out, we’ll say you lured these bandits here— running a wine shop is just your cover for being their scout. Your accent isn’t local at all. Why else would they show up right when you opened your tavern? What kind of coincidence is that?”

Old Sa agreed profusely.

Chief Shi, along with Bai Er and Chen Qi, buried the corpse in the vegetable garden behind the tavern. They used hoes to thoroughly clean the bloodstains in front of the wine shop, covering them with soil. Chief Zheng told Old Sa, “If we don’t hear any rumors within ten days, we’ll send you fifty taels of silver for funeral expenses. But if you start wagging your tongue… hmph, Fuwei Escort Agency has killed no less than eight hundred bandits. Two more corpses—one old, one young—to your garden’s soil won’t matter much.”

Old Sa replied, “Thank you, thank you! I wouldn’t dare speak, wouldn’t dare!”

---

When everything was finally taken care of, it was well into the night. Lin Pingzhi felt somewhat relieved but remained uneasy as he returned to the escort agency. Entering the main hall, he saw his father sitting in the grand armchair, eyes closed in deep thought. With an uncertain expression, Lin Pingzhi called out, “Father!”

Lin Zhennan’s¹¹ face showed great contentment as he asked, “Back from hunting? Did you catch any wild boar?”

“No,” Lin Pingzhi replied.

Lin Zhennan raised his pipe and suddenly struck downward toward his son’s shoulder, calling out with a laugh, “Show me your defense!”

Lin Pingzhi knew his father often tested his martial arts without warning. Normally, seeing this move Falling Meteor,¹² the twenty-sixth move of the Bixie Swordplay,¹³ he would counter with the forty-sixth move Buddha Appears as Flowers Bloom.¹⁴ But at this moment, his mind was troubled. Thinking his father must know about the killing at the wine shop and was punishing him with the pipe, he dared not dodge and simply called out, “Father!”

Lin Zhennan’s pipe stopped abruptly three inches from his son’s clothes. “What’s wrong? If you encountered a formidable opponent in the jianghu, would you be this slow to react? Would your shoulder still be attached?”

Though his words carried reproach, his face maintained its smile.

“Yes!” Lin Pingzhi responded. His left shoulder dipped as he spun nimbly behind his father. In one fluid motion, he grabbed a feather duster from the tea table and thrust it toward his father’s back—executing the move Buddha Appears as Flowers Bloom.

Lin Zhennan nodded with approval. “That’s more like it.”

His hand moved behind him to parry with his pipe, countering with Playing the Flute on the River.¹⁵ Lin Pingzhi focused his attention and responded with Purple Qi from the East.¹⁶

After exchanging more than fifty moves, Lin Zhennan’s pipe darted out swiftly, tapping lightly below his son’s left chest. Unable to defend in time, Lin Pingzhi felt his right arm go numb, and the feather duster fell from his grasp.

Footnotes

1. 花旦 – huā dàn. Lively, vivacious young female character in a Chinese opera. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 脉门 – màimén. Vital point on the wrist where the pulse is taken in traditional Chinese medicine. Striking or grasping this point could disable an opponent’s hand. ↩

3. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. It refers to the martial arts community—people who practice martial arts within the jianghu. ↩

4. 云里乾坤 – Yún lǐ Qiánkūn. Literally deception in the clouds. Qiankun can mean heaven and earth or male and female. In this case, it is used to describe trickery of a martial arts technique involving deceptive palm movements that emerge unpredictably like celestial bodies through clouds. ↩

5. 翻天掌 – Fān tiān zhǎng. Literally flipping sky palm. ↩

6. 雾里看花 – wù lǐ kàn huā. Literally viewing flowers in mist. A deceptive technique where a seemingly direct attack transforms into something else, like flowers glimpsed through mist. ↩

7. 猎叉 – liè chā. A traditional hunting weapon with multiple prongs, used for both hunting and combat. ↩

8. Escort agencies had traditional battle cries and agency-specific slogans used to announce their presence and intimidate any potential robbers. ↩

9. 铁门槛 – tiě mén kǎn. Literally iron threshold. A powerful restraining technique. ↩

10. 丈 (zhàng) - A traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters. ↩

11. 林震南 – Lín Zhènnán. Lin Pingzhi’s father and head of the Fuwei Escort Agency. ↩

12. 流星飞堕 – Liúxīng fēi duò. Literally meteor falling. ↩

13. 辟邪剑法 – Bìxié jiàn fǎ. Literally evil-warding sword technique. ↩

14. 花开见佛 – Huā kāi jiàn fó. Literally Buddha appears as flowers bloom. ↩

15. 江上弄笛 – Jiāng shàng nòng dí. Literally playing the flute on the river. ↩

16. 紫气东来 – Zǐ qì dōng lái. Literally purple qi from the east. ↩