“Soft hedgehog armor [ruan wei jia],” Guo Jing said.
“That’s right, so you knew it,” Zhou Botong said. “The Old Heretic Huang said, ‘Botong, your martial art is outstanding, naturally you don’t need any protection; but someday you will meet a girl urchin, and soon will have little urchins. This soft hedgehog armor will be invaluable to protect the child; nobody will bully him. If you can beat me in marbles, this Peach Blossom Island treasure will be yours to keep.’ I said, ‘I won’t meet any girl urchin, naturally little urchin will not be born; but your soft hedgehog armor is famous in the Wulin world. If I win it, I will wear it outside my clothes, then I will wander around the Jianghu, let the people know that the Peach Blossom Island Master had lost in the Old Urchin’s hand.’ Madame Huang interrupted, ‘Don’t just talk, after both brothers play then we can talk again.’ So we reached an agreement. Each man had to put nine marbles into nine holes, so I made 18 holes altogether. Whoever put nine marbles first will win the game.”
Listening to this part Guo Jing recalled his own childhood playing marbles with his sworn brother Tuolei in the desert, a smile broke on his face. Meanwhile Zhou Botong continued, “I always carry plenty of marbles in my pocket, so we went outside to play our game. I paid close attention to Madame Huang’s movement, and I found out she really did not know any martial art. I went down and made some holes on the ground. I let Old Heretic Huang to choose his marbles first, and he did. Then we started our game. His special skill in the secret projectile, the ‘tan zhi shen tong’ [divine flicking finger] is still well known throughout the world. He knew his skill with small object was superior to mine. But he did not know that this game had a secret; there was slight difference in the way I made the holes. I made them in such a way that when a marble went in, it would jump right back out. You have to hit the marble with a perfect amount of strength; it had to be just right with a little bit of pulling force behind it, so the marble will stay in the hole.”
Guo Jing had never thought that playing marbles in the Central Plains would be so complicated; Mongolian kids would never be able to compete. He heard Zhou Botong proudly continued, “The Old Heretic Huang had launched three marbles, all were right on target. But as soon as they entered the holes they would jump back out. He did not know my secret. In the meantime I flicked five marbles and all went into the holes and stayed in the holes. His secret projectile skill was very good; he tried hard to catch me by flicking three more marbles, while I put another marble in the hole. I was already in the lead, how could I let him catch up? He was having a hard time with the marbles. Secretly I was smug, thinking that his defeat was imminent; even the Heaven wouldn’t be able to help him. Ay! Who knew that the Old Heretic Huang would use a dirty trick to gain victory? Can you guess what he did?”
“He hurt your hand using his superior martial art?” Guo Jing guessed.
“No, no,” Zhou Botong said. “The Old Heretic Huang is bad, but he is not stupid; he wouldn’t use such a foolish method. He knew he was going to lose, so he sent his energy into the marbles; he flicked three marbles and hit my last three. Mine were smashed while his marbles stayed intact.”
“Ah! Then you don’t have any marble left!” Guo Jing exclaimed.
“I have to helplessly watch him put his marbles one by one into the holes. Thus, I lost!” Zhou Botong said.
“But that didn’t count!” Guo Jing said.
“That was what I said,” Zhou Botong answered. “But Old Heretic Huang said, ‘Botong, we have agreed that whoever got all nine marbles inside the holes, he wins. Blame your own inadequacy! It was your own fault that you don’t have enough marbles to put into the holes. Therefore, you lost!’ I still think he was being deceitful, but I had to admit I didn’t expect his move. Also, even if I wanted to destroy his marbles I couldn’t do what he did; I can’t hit a marble without smashing my own. So secretly I admired his ability. I said, ‘Sister-in-law Huang, I will let you see the book, but I want it back by the sundown.’ I said that because I was afraid they would say, ‘We didn’t say how long we might borrow the book; we haven’t finished looking at it, why are you taking it back?’ When that happens, the book would be in their hands for ten, even a hundred years.
Guo Jing nodded his approval. “Right! Luckily Big Brother is smart and could foresee this. If it were me, I would fall into their scheme.”
Zhou Botong shook his head, “Speaking of smartness, who on earth can be compared to the Old Heretic Huang? I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to find a wife who was a smart as he is. That time Sister-in-law Huang only showed a faint smile, she said, ‘Big Brother Zhou, you are known as the Old Urchin, but you are smart. You are afraid it would turn out like Liu Bei borrowed the city of Jingzhou forever, aren’t you? Don’t you worry; I will sit right here and have a look in front of your eyes; I won’t hide in a secret place. If you are feeling uneasy, you can stay by my side and stand guard.’ I listened to her said such; I took the book from my pocket and handed it over to her. Sister-in-law Huang took it and walked to a tree, sat on an upturned rock.
The Old Heretic Huang saw I still had some trepidation on my face, he said, ‘Old Urchin, in this present age, how many people can defeat us, two people in martial arts?’ I replied, ‘Nobody can necessarily defeat you, but to defeat me, including you there are four, five people!’ Old Heretic Huang smiled, ‘You flattered me. Eastern Heretic, Western Poison, Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar four people, each one has his own strength, nobody could defeat anyone else. Ouyang Feng’s Toad Stance had already been broken by your martial brother; within ten years he won’t be able to compete with us. There is Iron Palm Floating over the Water, Qiu Qianren, I heard his martial art is good, but he did not attend the ‘hua shan lun jian’ [Sword Meet of Mount Hua], so I am not sure; but not necessarily his martial art is so superb. Old Urchin, I believe other than these people, you are number one in terms of martial art. If we unite our hands, nobody can beat us.’ I said, ‘Naturally!’ Old Heretic Huang then asked, ‘Why then, are you so anxious? With both of us standing right here, who in the world could come and steal your precious book away?’ I heard he was very reasonable, so I felt better.