Laughing in the Wind Chapter 1 – Part 2

Yu laughed coldly. “This lad would make quite an alluring huadan¹ on stage, but fighting? Not so much!”

Escort Captain² Zheng thundered, “This is Young Escort Chief³ Lin of the Fuwei Armed Escort.⁴ What godforsaken nerve, to invite calamity upon yourself?”⁵

His last word had barely left his lips when his left fist shot toward Yu’s face. Yu’s left hand flipped upward, caught Captain Zheng’s pulse point,⁶ and pulled with a reversal of force. Zheng lost his footing and lurched toward the plank table. Yu’s left elbow drove down heavily onto the back of Zheng’s neck. With a crack, Zheng smashed through the table, man and table crashing to the floor together.

Although Escort Captain² Zheng ranked amongst the less skilled in the Fuwei Armed Escort, he was no weakling. When Escort Captain Shi saw him felled in a single exchange, he knew their opponent was formidable indeed. “Who might you be, sir? Since you’re fellow comrades of the wulin,⁷ surely you don’t mean to disrespect the Fuwei Armed Escort?”

Yu sneered, “Fuwei Armed Escort? Never heard of it! What do they do?”

Lin Pingzhi⁸ leapt forward with a shout. “Beat down whelps like you!”

His left palm struck out. Before the technique fully extended, his right palm threaded beneath his left, the Qiankun in the Clouds⁹ move from his ancestral Heaven-Flipping Palms.¹⁰ Yu said, “The little huadan has some skill after all.”

He deflected the strike with a wave of his palm, then his right hand darted toward Lin Pingzhi’s shoulder. Lin Pingzhi dipped his right shoulder slightly and swung out with his left fist. Yu twisted his head to dodge, but Lin Pingzhi’s left fist suddenly opened into a palm, transforming the straight thrust into a horizontal sweep, the Flowers Through the Mist¹¹ move. His palm cracked across Yu’s face with a sharp slap.

Yu exploded with rage and kicked at Lin Pingzhi. Lin Pingzhi dodged right, returning the kick.

By now Escort Captain Shi had engaged the man called Jia. Scout¹² Bai Er¹³ helped Escort Captain Zheng to his feet. Zheng cursed furiously and moved to flank Yu. Lin Pingzhi called out, “Help Captain Shi. I can handle this cur myself!”

Escort Captain Zheng knew the Young Escort Chief’s pride would not tolerate outside help. He snatched up a broken table leg from the floor and charged at Jia.

The two scouts rushed outside. One retrieved Lin Pingzhi’s jian¹⁴ from his saddle, while the other grabbed a hunting fork,¹⁵ both pointing their weapons at Yu while hurling insults. Though the scouts’ martial abilities were ordinary, years of shouting their escort calls¹⁶ had given them powerful voices. They berated him in Fuzhou dialect, which the two Sichuan men could not understand, though they clearly knew these were no words of praise.

Lin Pingzhi unleashed the Heaven-Flipping Palms exactly as his father had personally taught him, move by move. After scarcely a dozen exchanges, his arrogance gradually withered as he realised his opponent’s foundation was remarkably solid. Yu punctuated his parries with crude taunts, “Young 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, what say you?”

Lin Pingzhi’s fury mounted. He glanced sidelong at Captains Shi and Zheng to see them still at a disadvantage against Jia, fighting two against one. A punch had bloodied Captain Zheng’s nose, the blood soaking his collar. Lin Pingzhi’s palms flew faster. Suddenly another crack rang out: he had slapped Yu again. This blow carried real force. Yu’s rage erupted. “You ignorant bastard son of a tortoise! I saw you’d a maiden’s looks, so I was merely toying with you, yet you little shit dared strike at your grandsire!”¹⁷

His fist technique transformed into a frenzied assault, strikes raining down like a violent storm. Their fight carried them outside the wineshop.

Seeing Yu’s straight punch aimed at his centre, 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 with his left hand. Using his powerful arm strength, Yu forced Lin’s upper body to bend forward, then followed with the Iron Threshold¹⁸ technique, hooking his right arm across Lin’s neck. He laughed wildly, “Bastard son of a tortoise, kowtow and call me dear uncle three times, then I’ll let you go!”

Captain Shi and Zheng cried out in alarm 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 backward, sending the hunting fork flying several dozen feet away. His right foot followed with a series of kicks that sent Bai Er tumbling seven or eight times, unable to rise. Chen Qi¹⁹ cursed loudly, “You tortoise spawn, you mangy cur, you blind fool!”

With each curse, he retreated a step, continuing until he was eight or nine paces away.

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

He increased the pressure on his arm, forcing Lin Pingzhi’s head lower and lower, until his forehead nearly touched the ground. Lin tried to punch Yu’s abdomen, but fell short by several cun.²⁰ His neck screamed with pain as though it was about to snap, stars burst before his eyes and a roaring filled his ears.

His hands flailed wildly until they suddenly touched something hard at his calf. In his desperation, without thinking, he seized it, pulled it free, and thrust it forward, plunging it into Yu’s lower abdomen.

Yu screamed and released his grip, staggering back two steps. His face contorted in utter terror as he stared down at the dagger now buried to its hilt in his belly. He faced west, where 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.

Lin Pingzhi’s heart nearly leaped out of his throat as he stumbled back several paces. Jia and the two escort captains ceased fighting, staring at Yu in stunned silence.

Yu’s body swayed. His right hand grasped the dagger’s hilt and pulled with force. The dagger left his abdomen and blood fountained several chi,²¹ drawing horrified cries from the onlookers. Yu called out, “Jia… Jia… tell Father… avenge…”

His right arm flung backward, hurling the dagger. Jia rushed forward, shouting, “Brother Yu! Brother Yu!”

Yu pitched forward, his body convulsing several times before going still.

“Arm yourselves!” Captain Shi whispered and ran to retrieve his weapon from his mount. His extensive jianghu experience told him that, with a man now dead, Jia would fight to the bitter end.

Jia glared at Lin Pingzhi for a long moment, then snatched up the dagger, leapt onto his horse, and slashed the reins free rather than untying them. His legs clamped tight and his horse galloped north at full speed.

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

“You offended our Young Escort Chief. Isn’t that courting death? Serves you right!” he spat.

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

Captain Shi pondered, The Fuwei Armed Escort has stood for three generations. Fights and deaths are unavoidable in the jianghu, but every man we’ve killed or wounded was a criminal. Such violent confrontations always occurred in remote mountains. After killing someone, we’d bury them on the spot and the matter would rest. No bandit who’d tried to rob our escorts would ever report the Fuwei Armed Escort to the authorities. But this man clearly wasn’t a bandit, and we’re near the city. A human life is no small matter. Let alone our Young Escort Chief, even the son of a governor or an imperial inspector could not lightly dismiss a killing like this.

He frowned and said, “We must move the body into the wineshop quickly. This place is near the main road. We mustn’t let anyone see.”

Fortunately, the hour grew late and the road was empty. Bai Er and Chen Qi carried the corpse inside.

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

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

Shi took the silver, walked into the wineshop, and placed it on a table. He said to the shop owner, “Old Sa, this outsider molested your daughter, and our Young Escort Chief intervened out of righteousness and had no choice but to kill in self-defence. We all witnessed it. This matter began because of your family. 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 said, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Captain Zheng added, “When the Fuwei Armed Escort is on missions, killing a few forest bandits is perfectly routine. These two Sichuan rats with their shifty eyes: if they’re not river bandits, they’re certainly lechers. Most likely here to commit crimes in Fuzhou Prefecture.²² Our Young Escort Chief has sharp eyes and dispatched this villain, preserving the peace of Fuzhou.

“We could claim a reward from the authorities, but the Young Escort Chief dislikes the trouble and doesn’t care for such empty honours. Old man, keep your mouth shut. If word leaks out, we’ll say you lured these bandits here, that you run a wineshop as a front but act as their scout in truth. Your accent doesn’t sound local at all. Otherwise, why would these two not come earlier or later, but appear the moment you open your shop? What a coincidence!”

Old Sa agreed profusely.

Captain Shi, along with Bai Er and Chen Qi, buried the corpse in the vegetable garden behind the wineshop. They hoed up the bloodstains in front of the wineshop, covering them with soil. Captain Zheng told Old Sa, “Within ten days, if we don’t hear any rumours, we’ll send you fifty more liang of silver for funeral expenses. But if you wag your tongue, hmph, the Fuwei Armed Escort hasn’t killed a thousand bandits, but certainly no less than eight hundred. Killing you, one old and one young, would just mean two more corpses in the soil beneath your vegetable garden.”

Old Sa said, “Thank you, thank you! I dare not speak, dare not!”

When everything was finally taken care of, it was well into the night. Lin Pingzhi’s heart eased slightly as he returned to the Armed Escort but he remained gripped by trepidation. Upon entering the main hall, he found his father seated in the grand armchair, eyes closed in contemplation. With an unsettled expression, Lin Pingzhi called out, “Father!”

Lin Zhennan’s²³ face beamed with pleasure. “Back from hunting? Take a wild boar?”

“No,” Lin Pingzhi replied.

Lin Zhennan raised the pipe in his hand and suddenly struck toward his son’s shoulder, calling out with a laugh, “Make your move!”

Lin Pingzhi knew his father often tested his skills without warning. On any other day, seeing him execute the twenty-sixth move of the Evil-Warding Swordplay,²⁴ Meteor Falls,²⁵ he would counter with the forty-sixth move Buddha Appears as Flowers Bloom.²⁶ But now his mind was troubled. Thinking the killing at the small wineshop had reached his father’s ears and that the pipe was meant as punishment, he dared not dodge. He cried out, “Father!”

Lin Zhennan’s pipe stem was about to strike his son’s shoulder froze three cun from his robe. “What’s wrong? If you encountered a formidable opponent in the jianghu and reacted this slowly, will you still have that shoulder?”

Though his words carried reproach, his face still bore a smile.

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

Lin Zhennan nodded with approval. “Now that is proper.”

His hand moved behind him to parry with his pipe, countering with Playing the Flute on the River.²⁷ Lin Pingzhi mustered his resolve and responded with Purple Qi from the East.²⁸

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

Footnotes

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

2. 镖头 — Biāotóu. Literally head escort. Team leaders and middle management within armed escorts commanding teams. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩ ↩²

3. 少镖头 — Shào Biāotóu. Literally young escort captain. Used to refer to the child of the escort chief, head of the armed escort. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 福威镖局 — Fúwēi Biāo Jú. Fuwei is literally prosperity and might. Armed escort was a security company that guarded valuable goods and people in ancient China. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 太岁头上动土 — tàisuì tóu shàng dòng tǔ. Literally to dig dirt upon Tai Sui’s head. Classic Chinese idiom originating from Chinese folk astrology and geomancy. Tai Sui is a powerful celestial deity associated with the year’s fortune, and is believed to reside in a specific sector of the earth each year. Disturbing the ground in that direction would offend the deity and invite severe misfortune, disaster, or death. ↩

6. 脉门 — màimén. Vital point on the wrist where the pulse is taken in traditional Chinese medicine. Striking or grasping this point can render an opponent’s limb numb or immobile. ↩

7. 武林 — wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. Wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 林平之 — Lín Píngzhī. His name meaning “Lin Level-minded” or “Lin Fair and just”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 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. ↩

10. 翻天掌 — Fān tiān zhǎng. Literally flipping sky palm. ↩

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

12. 趟子手 — Tàngzishǒu. Literally hand that makes a trip or patrols. Support personnel who assisted armed escort missions with various auxiliary tasks. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 白二 — Bái’èr. Literally Bai Second. Common way to refer to someone by their surname followed by their position in the family or household. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 剑 — jiàn. Double-edged sword, one of the fundamental weapons in Chinese martial arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 猎叉 — liè chā. Traditional hunting weapon with multiple prongs, used for both hunting and combat. ↩

16. 镖号 — Biāo hào. Armed escorts had traditional battle cries and agency-specific slogans used to announce their presence and intimidate any potential robbers. ↩

17. 老子 — lǎozi. Literally old master or father. Commonly used as a crude first-person pronoun by ruffians to assert dominance or superiority. ↩

18. 铁门槛 — tiě mén kǎn. Literally iron threshold. Powerful restraining technique. ↩

19. 陈七 — Chén Qī. Literally Chen Seven. Common way to refer to someone by their surname followed by their position in the family or household. ↩

20. 寸 — cùn. Traditional Chinese unit of length, about 3.3 centimetres. Ten cun make one chi. ↩

21. 尺 — chǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of length, about a third of a metre. Ten chi make one zhang. ↩

22. 府 — fǔ. Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty was the secondary administrative division supervised by a province. See Wikipedia. ↩

23. 林震南 — Lín Zhènnán. His name meaning “Lin Quells the South.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 辟邪剑法 — Bìxié jiàn fǎ. Literally evil-warding swordplay. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 流星飞堕 — Liúxīng fēi duò. Literally meteor falling. ↩

26. 花开见佛 — Huā kāi jiàn fó. Literally Buddha appears as flowers bloom. ↩

27. 江上弄笛 — Jiāng shàng nòng dí. Literally playing the flute on the river. ↩

28. 紫气东来 — Zǐ qì dōng lái. Literally purple qi from the east. ↩