The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 5

Guo Xiaotian sighed. “Worthies and heroes always come and go like the wind. We had the good fortune to meet Daoist Elder¹ today and hoped to seize the chance to learn from him, but it was not to be.”

Yang Tiexin laughed. “Big Brother, Daoist Elder had a fine, satisfying kill today, and he let out some of our pent-up anger for us too.” He held the short jian he had been given, drew it from its sheath and ran his fingers along the blade, then said suddenly, “Big Brother, I’ve got a foolish idea. Do you think it would work?”

Guo Xiaotian asked, “What is it?”

“If both our children turn out to be boys, let them become sworn brothers. If both are girls, let them become sworn sisters…”

Guo Xiaotian broke in, “And if one is a boy and the other a girl, let them become husband and wife.”

The two men clasped hands and laughed heartily.

Li Ping² and Bao Xiruo³ came out from the inner hall and asked, smiling, “What’s so amusing that you’re laughing like this?”

Yang Tiexin told them what they had just discussed. The two wives were both delighted and kept expressing their approval.

Yang Tiexin said, “Let’s first exchange this pair of short jians and call it a betrothal gift. If they turn out to be brothers, or sisters, we can swap them back. But if they’re husband and wife…”

Guo Xiaotian laughed. “Then I’m afraid both jians will end up in the elder brother’s home!”

Bao Xiruo smiled. “Who knows? They might both end up in the younger brother’s home instead.”

Guo Xiaotian⁴ and Yang Tiexin⁵ exchanged the short jians and gave them to Li Ping and Bao Xiruo to keep safe. The Guo couple took their leave and headed home.

Betrothal before birth was commonplace at the time. Before two children had even left the womb, their parents would often settle their futures on their behalf.

Yang Tiexin toyed with his short jian, pouring himself drink after drink, and before he knew it he was thoroughly drunk. Bao Xiruo helped her husband to bed and cleared away the cups and plates. Seeing it was growing late, she went out to the back courtyard to gather the chickens into their coop. As she was about to close the back gate, she noticed spots of blood on the snow, trailing across past the back gate.

She was startled and thought, So there’s still blood here that wasn’t swept away. If the government runners see it, won’t that be a disaster as big as the sky? She hurriedly took a broom and went outside to sweep the snow.

The blood trail led straight to the woods behind the house. Marks on the snow showed someone had crawled along. Bao Xiruo grew more suspicious and followed the trail into the pine grove. Rounding behind an old grave, she saw a dark mass on the ground.

As she drew closer, she saw it was plainly a corpse dressed in black. It was one of the men who had come to capture Qiu Chuji⁶ earlier. He must have been wounded but not yet dead, and had crawled this far. She was about to go back and wake her husband to bury the body, when she thought better of it, What if, as ill luck would have it, someone comes by just now and sees? Summoning her courage, she went over and pulled at the body, meaning to drag it into the grass to hide it before calling her husband.

But as she pulled, the corpse suddenly twisted and gave a groan.

Bao Xiruo was so frightened she nearly lost her wits, thinking it was a jiangshi⁷ haunting. She turned to flee, but her feet seemed nailed to the ground and she could not move. After a long moment, the body did not stir again. She touched it gently with the broom, and it groaned once more, very faintly. Only then did she realise the man was still alive.

Looking more closely, she saw a wolf-tooth arrow lodged in his shoulder from behind, driven deep into the flesh. The shaft was stained with blood and filth. Snow continued to drift down from the sky, and the man was already covered in a thin layer of white. Half a night more and he would freeze to death.

She had been kind-hearted since childhood. Whenever she found a wounded sparrow, a frog, or even insects and ants, she would bring them home and tend them carefully until they recovered, then release them back into the fields. If she could not heal them, she would be unhappy for the whole day. This nature did not change as she grew older, so much so that the house was full of all manner of insects, ants, small birds and creatures.

Her father was a village schoolmaster who had failed the examinations time and again. Knowing her disposition, he gave her the name Xiruo, “Cherishing the Weak.”

The Bao family at Red Plum Village⁸ had an unusual number of old roosters and hens. After Bao Xiruo raised the chicks, she would never allow a single one to be slaughtered. When her parents wanted to eat chicken, they had to buy from the market. Every chick in the Bao household lived out its natural days and died a peaceful death.

After she married into the Yang family, Yang Tiexin loved his flower-like wife dearly and indulged her in everything. The Yang backyard naturally became a haven for small birds and creatures too. Later the Yang family’s chicks and ducklings also grew into full-grown chickens and ducks, but since she had been married only a short time, there were no old chickens or ducks in the household yet. The trend, however, was clear, and in time it would surely come to pass.

Seeing the man lying dying in the snow, her compassion rose at once. She knew well he was no good man, but she could not bear to watch him die of pain and cold. She hesitated briefly, then ran back to the house to wake her husband and discuss it. But Yang Tiexin was dead drunk and would not stir no matter how she pushed him.

Bao Xiruo decided she would save the man first and worry about the rest later. She fetched her husband’s styptic powder and wound medicine, took a small knife and some cloth strips, lifted half a pot of warm wine from the stove, and ran back behind the grave.

The man still lay motionless. Bao Xiruo propped him up and slowly poured the warm wine into his mouth. She had been tending wounded birds and beasts since childhood and had some skill in treating injuries. She saw the arrow was lodged deep. To pull it out carelessly might cause him to bleed to death at once, but without removing it, she could not treat the wound. She gritted her teeth, cut open the flesh around the arrow with the sharp knife, gripped the shaft, and pulled with all her strength.

The man let out a cry of agony and fainted. Blood spurted from the wound, splattering Bao Xiruo’s front with red spots. The arrow finally came out.

Her heart pounded. She quickly pressed the styptic powder into the wound and bound it tightly with cloth strips. After a while, the man slowly regained consciousness, but he was so weak he could not even moan.

Fright had left Bao Xiruo weak in the arms and legs, and she could not possibly carry a grown man. An idea struck her. She fetched a door plank from the house, pulled the man onto it, then dragged the plank across the snow as though it were a sledge, and hauled him home into the woodshed.

She had been busy for some time. Only now did her spirits settle. She changed out of her soiled clothes, washed her hands and face, poured a bowl of the chicken soup she had not finished earlier, took a candlestick in one hand, and went back to the woodshed to check on the man.

His breathing was faint but he had not expired. Bao Xiruo was relieved and fed him the chicken soup. He drank half a bowl, then suddenly coughed violently.

Bao Xiruo started and raised the candlestick to look. In the candlelight she saw the man had fine brows and bright eyes, a high-bridged nose. He was, to her surprise, a handsome young man.

Heat rose to her cheeks. Her left hand trembled slightly, shaking the candlestick, and a few drops of candle wax fell on the man’s face.

The man opened his eyes. Before him was a face as lovely as a lotus blossom, cheeks faintly flushed, eyes bright as stars and deep as water. Her gaze held both compassion and shyness. The scene was as though in a dream, and he could not help but stare, entranced.

Bao Xiruo whispered, “Are you feeling better? Drink the rest of this soup.”

He reached out to take the bowl, but his hands were too weak and he nearly spilled the soup over himself. Bao Xiruo caught the bowl. With saving his life the priority, she had no choice but to feed him spoonful by spoonful.

After drinking the chicken soup, light gradually returned to his eyes. He gazed at her, plainly overcome with gratitude. Bao Xiruo grew somewhat embarrassed under his stare. She fetched several bundles of straw to cover him with, then took her candle and returned to her room.

She could not sleep peacefully that night and had several nightmares. In one, her husband thrust his spear and killed the man in the woodshed. In another, the man took up a dao and killed her husband, then came after her. Precipices surrounded her on all sides and there was nowhere to flee. She woke several times, drenched in cold sweat.

When dawn came and she rose, her husband was already up, holding his iron spear and sharpening the tip on a whetstone. Bao Xiruo recalled her nightmares and her heart trembled. She hurried to the woodshed and pushed open the door. Her shock grew. Inside was only a pile of tumbled straw. The man was gone.

She ran to the back courtyard. The back gate was ajar, and in the snow was a clear trail of someone rolling and crawling westward. She stared at the trail and lost herself in thought. After a long while, a cold wind blew against her face, and she suddenly felt her back ache and her limbs grow heavy. She was very tired.

She returned to the front hall. Yang Tiexin had already cooked rice porridge and set it on the table. He smiled. “Look, isn’t my porridge quite good?”

Bao Xiruo knew her husband was being especially considerate because of her pregnancy. She smiled, sat down, and lifted her bowl to eat. She thought that if she told her husband about last night, he, who hated evil as bitterly as he did, would certainly go and kill the man. That would undo all her efforts to save him. So she said nothing about it.

That afternoon, Yang Tiexin chatted with his wife and mentioned that Qu San,⁹ the wine seller, had gone away, leaving behind a poor little daughter with no one to care for her. Bao Xiruo’s heart softened and she took some cakes to visit the girl. She was gone for several shichen¹⁰ before returning, saying the girl had nothing to eat and was starving. Bao Xiruo, being pregnant herself and unable to care for the girl, had taken her to her own mother’s home in Red Plum Village, asking her mother to look after her for a few days until Qu San returned.

Yang Tiexin knew Qu San was a hero, and was glad to be able to lend him a hand.

Time passed quickly. The year turned from winter to spring, and several months went by in the blink of an eye. Bao Xiruo’s waist grew thicker and she felt increasingly languid. She gradually forgot about the night she had saved the man.

One evening after the Yang couple had eaten, Bao Xiruo sat under the lamp sewing a new set of clothes for her husband. Yang Tiexin had finished making two pairs of straw sandals and hung them on the wall. Remembering that the ploughshare had broken while he was tilling during the day, he said to Bao Xiruo, “The ploughshare is damaged. Tomorrow I’ll ask Zhang Mu-er from the east village to add a jin¹¹ and a half of iron and beat it into shape.”

Bao Xiruo said, “All right!”

Yang Tiexin looked at his wife and said, “I have enough clothes to wear. You’re not strong, and you’re carrying a child. Rest well and don’t keep making clothes for me.”

Bao Xiruo turned and smiled at him, but her needle never stopped.

Yang Tiexin walked over and gently took the needlework from her hands. Only then did Bao Xiruo stretch, put out the lamp, and get into bed.

At midnight, Bao Xiruo, half-asleep, suddenly felt her husband sit bolt upright. She woke with a start and heard the faint sound of hooves in the distance, coming from the west. After a while, hoofbeats came from the east as well, and then from the north and south.

Bao Xiruo sat up and said, “Why are there horses coming from all directions?”

Yang Tiexin hurried out of bed and dressed. In moments, the hoofbeats from all sides drew closer, and the dogs in the village began to bark. Yang Tiexin said, “We’re surrounded!”

Bao Xiruo asked, alarmed, “What for?”

“I don’t know.” He told his wife to put the short jian Qiu Chuji had given her inside her clothes, saying, “Take it for self-defence!” He took down an iron spear from the wall and gripped it.

By now the sounds of shouting men and neighing horses from all four directions had merged into chaos. Yang Tiexin pushed open the window and looked out. A large force of soldiers had surrounded Niu Family Village.¹² The troops held torches aloft, and seven or eight officers galloped back and forth on horseback.

The soldiers shouted in unison, “Arrest the rebels, don’t let the rebels escape!”

Yang Tiexin thought, Have they come to arrest Qu San? Qu San hasn’t been in the village for months. Fortunately he’s not here, because even with his formidable martial arts, he could not stand against so many troops.

Then an officer called out loudly, “Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, you two rebels, come out at once and submit to arrest.”

Yang Tiexin was badly shaken, and Bao Xiruo went pale with fright.

Yang Tiexin whispered, “For some reason the government has come to frame innocent folk. We can’t reason with the authorities. We’ll have to run for our lives. Don’t panic. With this spear of mine, I’ll get you through the cordon.” He was skilled in the martial arts and had travelled the jianghu.¹³ In this moment of danger he remained calm. He took down a longbow from the wall and slung it across his back, hung a quiver at his waist, and grasped his wife’s right hand.

Bao Xiruo said, “Let me gather our things.”

“Gather what? We’re leaving everything behind.”

Bao Xiruo’s heart ached. Tears fell and she said, her voice trembling, “What about our home?”

“As long as we keep our lives, we can build a new home somewhere else.”

“What about the chicks and the kittens?”

Yang Tiexin sighed. “Silly child, how can we worry about them now?” He paused, then comforted her, “How would the government troops trouble themselves with your chicks and kittens?”

“They’ll eat the chickens.”

The words had barely left her mouth when firelight blazed outside the window. The soldiers had already set fire to two thatched houses, and two more soldiers came with torches to burn the eaves of the Yang household, shouting, “If Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, the two rebels, don’t come out at once, we’ll burn Niu Family Village to the ground.”

Rage filled Yang Tiexin’s breast. He opened the door and strode out, shouting, “I am Yang Tiexin! What are you doing?”

The two soldiers were startled, dropped their torches, and stepped back.

Footnotes

1. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩

2. 李萍 — Lǐ Píng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 包惜弱 — Bāo Xīruò. Her name meaning “cherishing the weak”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 郭啸天 — Guō Xiàotiān. His name meaning “roaring at the sky”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 杨铁心 — Yáng Tiěxīn. His name meaning “iron heart”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 僵尸 — jiāngshī. Literally stiff corpse. A reanimated corpse of Chinese folklore, said to hop rather than walk. ↩

8. 红梅村 — Hóngméi Cūn. Literally red plum village. A village five li from Niu Family Village. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 曲三 — Qū Sān. His name meaning “Qu Three” or “Qu Third”. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

10. 时辰 — shíchén. Traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 牛家村 — Niújiā Cūn. Literally Niu Family Village. A village outside Lin’an. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The world of martial artists, outside mainstream society. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩