Laughing in the Wind Chapter 1 – Part 6

Lin Zhennan¹ said, “Call on friends for help! Aiding others in times of crisis is common practice among the wulin.”²

Madam Lin said, “We have many close friends, but few whose skills surpass ours. Those weaker than us would be of no use even if they came.”

Lin Zhennan said, “That is true enough, but more people means coming up with more ideas. Gathering some friends to deliberate together would still be beneficial.”

Madam Lin asked, “Very well, who do you suggest we invite?”

“We’ll start with those nearby. First, we shall summon capable fighters from our Armed Escort branches in Hangzhou,³ Nanchang,⁴ and Guangzhou.⁵ Then, we’ll invite comrades from the wulin from the provinces of Min,⁶ Zhe,⁷ Yue,⁸ and Gan,”⁹ Lin Zhennan said.

Madam Lin frowned. “To beg for aid so desperately would cause grave damage to the Fuwei Armed Escort’s¹⁰ reputation once word spreads in the jianghu.”¹¹

Lin Zhennan suddenly asked, “My dear, you are thirty-nine years old this year, aren’t you?”

Madam Lin spat, “Bah! You ask about my age at a time like this? I was born in the Year of the Tiger. Don’t you know my age?”

Lin Zhennan said, “I’ll dispatch invitations saying we’re celebrating your fortieth birthday…”

“Why add a year to my age all of a sudden?” Madam Lin protested, “Am I not already aging fast enough?”

Lin Zhennan shook his head and said, “When have you aged? You have not a single strand of white hair. When I say we’ll celebrate your birthday, no one will suspect anything if we invite friends and family. Once our guests arrive, we need only confide in private to those we trust, and the Armed Escort’s reputation will be unharmed.”

Madam Lin tilted her head and pondered for a moment, then said, “Very well, have it as you will. So what gift will you give me?”

Lin Zhennan whispered in her ear, “A magnificent gift. We’ll have another chubby son next year!”

Madam Lin’s face flushed as she spat loudly, “Incorrigible fool, jesting so at a time like this!”

Lin Zhennan laughed heartily and walked toward the bookkeeper’s to have invitations written for their friends. In truth, his heart was heavy with worry. His jest was merely to ease his wife’s dread. He thought, Distant water cannot quench a nearby fire. Something’s bound to happen tonight. By the time our invited friends arrive, who knows whether the Fuwei Armed Escort will even still exist?

Approaching the bookkeeper’s door, he saw two male servants with their faces masks of sheer terror, stammering, “Es… Es… Escort Chief…¹² Terr… Terrible news.”

Lin Zhennan asked, “What is it?”

One of the servants said, “The bookkeeper sent Lin Fu to buy coffins. He… he… collapsed and died after he had just stepped out and reached the corner of East Lane.”

Lin Zhennan said, “Is this so? Where is he?”

The servant replied, “He lies in the street.”

“Go and bring back his body,” Lin Zhennan said. He thought, The enemy dares to kill in the busy marketplace in broad daylight. Such audacity.

“Yes… yes…” the two servants said but they did not move. Lin Zhennan asked, “What is it?”

One of them said, “We beg the Escort Chief to come and have… have a look…”

Lin Zhennan knew something strange had happened again. With a snort, he strode toward the main gate and saw three escort guards and five scouts staring out the door, their faces ashen with terror. Lin Zhennan asked, “What is it?”

Before any one could answer, he had understood. Fresh blood glistened on the stone slabs beyond the main gate, forming six large characters: “Death to any who take ten paces beyond the gate.”

About ten paces from the gate, there was a bloody line about a cun¹³ wide.

Lin Zhennan demanded, “When was this written? Did no one notice?”

An escort guard replied, “When Lin Fu died on East Lane and everyone rushed over to look. There was no one at the gate, so we do not know who wrote it. What manner of jest is this!”

Lin Zhennan raised his voice and declared out loud, “I’ve grown tired of living and wish to see just how one who takes ten paces beyond the gate dies!”

He strode out of the gate.

Two escort guards cried out at once, “Escort Chief!”

Lin Zhennan waved his hand to dismiss them and continued forward, stepping over the bloody line. Seeing that the bloody characters and line were still wet, he scraped his foot across the six characters until they were a blur, then returned through the gate. To the three escort guards he said, “This is just a means of intimidation. What is there to fear? Brothers, please make a trip to the coffin shop. Then head to Heavenly Peace Temple¹⁴ in the west of the city to engage monks to perform several days of rites to guide the departed souls and drive away this plague.”

The three escort guards, having witnessed the Escort Chief cross the bloody line unscathed, agreed at once. They adjusted their weapons and walked out the gate side by side. Lin Zhennan watched them pass the bloody line and round the street corner. He waited a while longer before returning inside.

He entered the bookkeeper’s and said to Bookkeeper Huang, “Master Huang, please write several invitations for my wife’s birthday celebration, inviting friends and family to come for a cup of longevity wine.”

Bookkeeper Huang said, “Of course. Which day would it be?”

Suddenly rapid footsteps sounded and someone came rushing in. Lin Zhennan looked out and heard a thud as someone collapsed. He rushed toward the sound and found Captain Di, one of the three escort captains¹⁵ he had just dispatched to the coffin shop. His body was still twitching. Lin Zhennan lifted him, asking urgently, “Brother Di, what happened?”

Captain Di said, “They’re dead, I… I escaped.”

Lin Zhennan asked, “What did the enemy look like?”

Captain Di said, “Don’t… don’t know… don’t know…”

He shuddered once, then breathed his last.

Within moments every soul in the Armed Escort had heard. Madam Lin and Lin Pingzhi¹⁶ both came out from the inner hall, and every mouth around them was murmuring the same six characters: “Death to any who take ten paces beyond the gate.”

Lin Zhennan said, “I shall go and carry back the bodies of those two escort guards.”

Bookkeeper Huang said, “Es… Escort Chief… you must not go. Under a rich reward there is always a brave man. Whoever… whoever carries the bodies back shall have thirty liang¹⁷ of silver.”

He said it three times, and not one man made a sound.

Madam Lin cried out suddenly, “Eh, where is Pinger? Pinger! Pinger!” The last call came out shrill with alarm.

The others took up the cry after her, “Young Escort Chief!¹⁸ Young Escort Chief!”

Then Lin Pingzhi’s voice sounded beyond the gate. “I am here.”

Overjoyed, they rushed to the gate and saw Lin Pingzhi’s tall figure coming round the street corner, a corpse borne on each shoulder, the two escort guards who had died in the street. Lin Zhennan and Madam Lin darted out together with weapons levelled, crossed the bloody line, and brought Lin Pingzhi back under their guard.

The escort guards and scouts cheered as one, “The Young Escort Chief is a hero in his youth! Such nerve and such judgement!”

Lin Zhennan and Madam Lin were well pleased in their hearts. Madam Lin scolded him all the same. “Child, must you rush at everything so? The two captains were good friends to us, but dead is dead. They were not worth so great a risk.”

Lin Pingzhi smiled, though the grief in him was beyond telling. All because I could not swallow my temper for one moment and killed a man, so many have died for my sake. If I cling to life and shrink from death now, what sort of man am I?

A shout went up from the rear hall. “Master Hua was perfectly well, and now he is dead too?”

Lin Zhennan demanded, “What is it?”

The steward of the Armed Escort came shrinking forward, his face ashen. “Escort Chief, Master Hua went out the back gate to buy vegetables and died ten paces beyond it. The back gate has these… these six characters in blood as well.”

Master Hua was the Armed Escort’s cook, and no mean hand at the work. His winter melon soup, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall,¹⁹ wine-lees fish and pork-skin wonton were famed throughout Fuzhou, and were part of Lin Zhennan’s stock in trade for cultivating officials and wealthy merchants.

Lin Zhennan’s heart jolted. He thought, He is no more than a common cook, neither escort guard nor scout. By the rules of the jianghu, when a consignment is taken, the carters, chair-bearers, mule-drivers and porters are spared to a man. Yet the enemy strikes as viciously as this. Do they mean to wipe out every soul of my Fuwei Armed Escort?

To the assembled crowd he said, “Let no one be alarmed. Hmph, these mangy bandits know only how to strike when a man is off his guard. You all saw it with your own eyes. The Young Escort Chief and the two of us walked well past ten paces beyond the gate just now. What did the curs dare do about it?”

They murmured their assent one after another, yet not a man dared set another foot beyond the gate. Lin Zhennan and Madam Lin faced each other with knitted brows, at their wits’ end.

That night Lin Zhennan set the escort guards to keep watch. Yet when he made his rounds with jian in hand, he found more than ten of them sitting together in a ring in the hall, with not one man posted outside. Seeing the Escort Chief, they rose sheepishly to their feet, but still none moved a step. Lin Zhennan reflected that the enemy was simply too strong, that so many in the Armed Escort were already dead and he himself was still at a loss, and that the men could hardly be blamed for their fear. He spoke a few words of comfort, sent for wine and food, and sat drinking with them in the hall. Their hearts were heavy and no one had much to say. They drank in silence, and before long several were lying insensible.

The next afternoon hooves suddenly clattered, and several riders galloped out of the Armed Escort. Lin Zhennan made enquiries and learnt that five escort guards, unable to bear the situation any longer, had left without a word of farewell. He shook his head and sighed, “When calamity comes, each bird flies its own way. This Lin has no power to look after his brothers. Let those who wish to go, go.”

Of the guards who remained, some jabbered all at once, denouncing the five for their want of loyalty. A few said nothing at all and only sighed, reckoning privately, Why do I not go myself?

Towards evening the five horses came back, and each of them bore a corpse. The five escort guards had sought to flee a place of danger, and had only given up their lives the sooner.

Lin Pingzhi could contain his grief and rage no longer. He took up his jian and rushed out of the gate. Standing three paces beyond the bloody line, he declared in a ringing voice, “A true man answers for his own deeds. That Sichuan fellow surnamed Yu was killed by me, Lin Pingzhi, and it has nothing whatever to do with anybody else. If you want revenge, come for Lin Pingzhi and no other. Hack me with a thousand cuts and slice me ten thousand times, and I shall die without complaint. But you murder decent folk again and again and yet again. What manner of heroes does that make you? I, Lin Pingzhi, am standing here. Come and kill me if you have the ability! If you dare not show yourselves, you are gutless brigands, tortoises and bastard sons of tortoises!”

He shouted louder and louder. He undid his lapels, bared his chest and beat it as he cried, “I am a man born and bred. If I die, I die. If you have the guts, bring a dao²⁰ down on me! Why do you not dare even to look me in the face? Gutless whelps! Thieving beasts!”

His eyes were red as he beat his chest and roared. Passers-by watched from far down the street, and who would dare come near the Armed Escort to look on?

Hearing their son’s shouts, Lin Zhennan and his wife rushed out of the gate together. These past days had bottled a bitterness in them both, a chestful of resentment fit to burst their bellies. Hearing Lin Pingzhi call out his challenge to the enemy, they too began to curse at the top of their voices.

The escort guards looked at one another, admiring the courage of all three, and each thought, The Escort Chief is a hero, and Madam is a woman of manly courage. That is nothing to wonder at. But the Young Escort Chief was born looking like a grown girl, and here he is cursing the enemy in fear of neither Heaven nor Earth.

The three of them cursed for a good while, and all around remained utterly silent. Lin Pingzhi called out, “Death to any who take ten paces beyond the gate, is it? I shall take a few paces more, and let us see what you can do to me!”

With that he strode several paces further out, held his jian level across his body, and glared proudly in every direction.

Madam Lin said, “Enough. Mangy bandits bully the meek and fear the fierce. They simply dare not touch my child.”

She took Lin Pingzhi by the hand and led him back through the main gate. He was trembling all over with rage still, and once he was back in his bedchamber he could hold it in no longer. He threw himself down on the couch and wept aloud.

Lin Zhennan stroked his head and said, “Child, your courage does you credit. You are a worthy son of the Lin Clan. But if the enemy will not show his face, what are we to do? Sleep a while.”

Footnotes

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

2. 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. ↩

3. 杭州 — Hángzhōu. City in Zhejiang Province, capital of Zhejiang. See Wikipedia. ↩

4. 南昌 — Nánchāng. City in Jiangxi Province, capital of Jiangxi. See Wikipedia. ↩

5. 广州 — Guǎngzhōu. City in Guangdong Province, capital of Guangdong. See Wikipedia. ↩

6. 闽 — Mǐn. Abbreviation for Fujian Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

7. 浙 — Zhè. Abbreviation for Zhejiang Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

8. 粤 — Yuè. Abbreviation for Guangdong Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

9. 赣 — Gàn. Abbreviation for Jiangxi Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

10. 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. ↩

11. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. Itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 总镖头 — Zǒng Biāotóu. Literally overall escort head. Leader and chief of an armed escort. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

14. 天宁寺 — Tiānníng Sì. Literally heavenly peace temple. Buddhist temple. ↩

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

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

17. 两 — liǎng. Unit of weight, one-sixteenth of a jin, and the unit silver money was reckoned in. Never “tael”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 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. ↩

19. 佛跳墙 — Fó Tiào Qiáng. Literally Buddha jumps over the wall. Celebrated Fuzhou banquet dish of seafood and meats simmered for hours in a wine jar, so fragrant that a Buddha would break his vows and vault a wall to reach it. ↩

20. 刀 — dāo. Single-edged blade, one of the fundamental weapons in Chinese martial arts. Often confused with sabre. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩