The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 11 – Part 8

One day they came into the territory of the Taining Army of Xiqing Prefecture, in Shandong West Road. It was nearly the fourth month, and the weather had already turned hot. They rode hard for half the day, and the red sun beat straight down on their heads. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were sweating on forehead and back. Dust rose from the main road and stuck to their faces in a greasy film, most unpleasant.

Huang Rong said, “Let’s not push on any more. Let’s find somewhere shady to rest.”

Guo Jing said, “Good. At the next town ahead we will brew a pot of tea and then decide.”

As they talked, their two horses came up behind a sedan chair and a donkey on the road ahead. The donkey bore a great fat man wearing a dark purple robe of dressed silk, waving a large white fan without ceasing. The donkey, by contrast, was thin and small, and staggered under his two hundred and fifty or sixty jin¹ of weight, its steps laboured and slow. The sedan chair’s curtains were all rolled up for air. Inside sat a corpulent woman in a pink robe. And, as if by design, the two sedan-bearers were a pair of thin, sallow old men, puffing and gasping as they walked. Beside the chair a maidservant fanned the fat woman with a palm-leaf fan.

Huang Rong urged her horse forward, overtook the party by seventy or eighty feet, then pulled up and turned back, riding straight towards the sedan chair. Guo Jing was puzzled. “What are you doing?”

Huang Rong called, “I’m going to have a look at this lady.”

She fixed her gaze on the chair. The fat woman was some forty years of age, a gold hairpin thrust in her bun, a great red velvet flower at her temple. Her face was as broad as a silver basin, her mouth wide, her eyes narrow, her ears sticking out, her nose so flat it seemed almost absent. Thick white powder covered her skin, but sweat streaming from her forehead had cut it into several deep furrows. Hearing Huang Rong’s words, the woman raised her thick brows and glared fiercely and said in a coarse voice, “What’s there to look at?”

Huang Rong had been spoiling for mischief, and the other’s provocation was just what she wanted. She reined the little red horse across the road and said with a smile, “Oh, I can see what a slender figure you have. You’re quite the beauty!” With a sudden shout she jerked up the reins, and the little red horse charged straight at the sedan chair.

The two bearers were terrified. They cried out together, “Aiya!” dropped the carrying poles, and fled to the side. The chair overturned, and the fat woman rolled out onto the middle of the road, arms and legs flailing, quite unable to get up. Huang Rong had already pulled up the little red horse and clapped her hands, laughing.

She had meant to ride away after this prank, but the fat man on the donkey swung his whip and lashed at her violently, cursing, “Where did you spring from, you little hussy!”

The fat woman lay on the ground, screaming and cursing. Huang Rong caught the whip the fat man swung and gave a sharp pull. The fat man tumbled from the donkey at once. Huang Rong raised the whip and lashed him about the head and face. The fat woman shrieked, “There’s a woman bandit! She’s killing people! The woman bandit is robbing us on the road!”

Huang Rong drew her Emei Steel Piercers,² bent down, and with a single rip cut off the woman’s left ear. Blood gushed down her face at once, and she screamed like a slaughtered pig.

The fat man was terrified out of his wits. He knelt on the ground, crying over and over, “Lady Chief, spare my life! I… I have silver!”

Huang Rong put on a stern face and barked, “Who wants your silver? Who is this woman?”

The fat man said, “She’s… she’s my wife! We… we… she’s going home to her family… home to visit her family.”

Huang Rong said, “You two are both stout and strong. Why do you not walk yourselves? If you want to live, it is easy. You need only do as I say!”

The fat man said, “Yes, yes. We will do as the Maiden Chief commands.”

Huang Rong was amused at being called “Maiden Chief.” It was a novel title. She giggled and said, “Where are the two bearers? And this little maidservant. You three, get into the sedan chair.”

The three did not dare disobey. They righted the chair in the middle of the road and climbed in. Fortunately all three were thin, and together they weighed less than the fat woman, so the chair was not too cramped. The three of them, Guo Jing and the fat couple, six pairs of eyes in all, stared blankly at Huang Rong, wondering what strange idea she had in mind.

Huang Rong said, “You two have always lorded it over others, bullying the poor with your stinking money. Now you have met the ‘Maiden Chief.’ Do you want to die or to live?”

By now the fat woman had stopped her screaming. She pressed her left hand to the wound on her cheek, and together with her husband cried, “We want to live, we want to live, Maiden Chief, spare us!”

Huang Rong said, “Good. Today you two will be the bearers. Pick up the chair!”

The fat woman said, “I… I only know how to sit in a chair. I do not know how to carry one!”

Huang Rong drew the steel stab flat across the woman’s nose and barked, “If you cannot carry a chair, I can cut off your nose.”

The fat woman thought her nose was gone already. She screamed, “Aiya, it hurts, it’s killing me!”

Huang Rong said, “Will you carry it or not?”

The fat man was the first to lift his pole, saying, “We’ll carry it, we’ll carry it! We’ll carry it!”

The fat woman had no choice. She crouched and hoisted the other pole onto her shoulder, then straightened up. The wealthy couple, well fed on tonics, were in truth stout and strong. They bore the chair and set off, and to everyone’s surprise they carried it in fine style.

Huang Rong and Guo Jing cried out in unison, “Well carried!”

The two rode behind the chair. After they had gone a hundred-odd feet, Huang Rong spurred her horse to a gallop and called, “Jing gege, let us go!” They rode on for a way, then looked back and saw the fat couple still carrying the chair, not daring to set it down. Both could not help laughing aloud.

Huang Rong said, “That fat woman is so hateful, and so ugly. She’d have been just the thing. I’d meant to carry her off and make Qiu Chuji³ take her for his wife. Only, I’m no match for that ox-nosed Daoist.”

Guo Jing was greatly puzzled, and asked, “Make Daoist Elder Qiu take her for a wife? He would not want her.”

Huang Rong said, “Of course he would not. But he never stops to think. You said you wouldn’t marry Miss Mu, so why does he try to force you to? Humph, one day, when my skill is greater than that ox-nosed old Daoist’s, I will make him marry an ugly, shrewish woman and let him taste what it is like to be forced to take a wife.”

Guo Jing could not help laughing. So this was the scheme in her mind. After a while he said, “Rong-er, Miss Mu is neither ugly nor shrewish. But I will only marry you.”

Huang Rong smiled radiantly. “Very good! The Maiden Chief is both shrewish and beautiful. But she will never, ever be shrewish to Jing gege!”

They rode on, and presently heard the sound of water beyond a row of tall trees. Huang Rong spurred her horse around the trees and suddenly cried out in delight. Guo Jing followed, and before him lay a deep stream so clear they could see the bottom. The bed was strewn with green, white, red and purple pebbles. Willows lined both banks, their branches trailing in the water, and fish could be counted as they swam.

Huang Rong took off her outer robe and her Soft Hedgehog Armour,⁴ and with a splash jumped into the water. Guo Jing was startled, then saw her raise both hands high, holding a black carp a foot or so long. The fish’s tail thrashed wildly as it struggled. Huang Rong called, “Catch.” She threw it onto the bank.

Guo Jing grabbed at it with a seizing grip, but the fish was so slippery it wriggled free at once and lay flopping on the ground.

Huang Rong clapped her hands, laughing, and called, “Jing gege, come in for a swim.”

Guo Jing had grown up on the steppe and could not swim. He shook his head and smiled.

Huang Rong said, “Come down. I will teach you.”

Seeing what fun she was having in the water, Guo Jing took off his outer robe and stepped in, one careful step at a time. Huang Rong pulled at his foot. He lost his balance and fell into the water. In his alarm and confusion he swallowed several mouthfuls at once. Huang Rong laughed and pulled him up, and taught him the method of breathing and stroking.

The key to swimming lies in controlling the breath. Guo Jing was well trained in neigong and well versed in the arts of drawing and releasing the breath. After half a day’s practice in the stream, he had grasped the rudiments. That night they camped by the stream and caught fish to eat. Huang Rong had grown up on an island and was familiar with the water from childhood. Huang Yaoshi⁵ was deep in both literary and martial arts, but his skill in the water was far inferior to his daughter’s. Under so able a teacher, after four or five shichen⁶ in the stream each day, within seven or eight days he could swim back and forth in the clear water, rising and sinking at will.

One day they had swum for half the day, working several li⁷ upstream, when suddenly the sound of the water grew louder. They rounded a bend, and before them flew a great waterfall, a hundred-odd feet high, spraying pearls and splashing jade. A sheet of water poured down from the cliff top like a bolt of white silk.

Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, let us climb up through the waterfall to the cliff top.”

Guo Jing said, “Good. Let us try. You should put on your armour for protection.”

Huang Rong said, “No need!” With a shout they both plunged into the waterfall. The current was fierce. Let alone climbing up, they could barely stand. The slightest shift of footing sent them sweeping far downstream. They tried several times, and at last gave up in defeat.

Guo Jing would not admit defeat. He said sulkily, “Rong-er, let us rest and gather our spirits tonight. Tomorrow we will try again.”

Huang Rong laughed. “Good! But there is no need to be angry with a waterfall.”

Guo Jing saw he was being unreasonable and laughed aloud.

The next day they tried again and managed to climb ten feet or so. Fortunately their qinggong⁸ was excellent, and each time the water swept them down they only fell into the deep pool below, without injury. They studied the water’s nature, and every day climbed up and slid down the waterfall. On the eighth day, Guo Jing at last reached the cliff top and pulled Huang Rong up after him. They cheered and leapt for joy on the summit, then hand in hand slid back down through the waterfall.

After ten days or so of this, Guo Jing, with his deep neili⁹ to draw on, had become quite capable in the water. He was still far behind Huang Rong, but she declared he was already much better than her father. Only when they had played their fill did they mount and ride south.

That day they reached the banks of the Yangtze River.¹⁰ Twilight was gathering. Guo Jing gazed at the great river flowing east, white waves rolling, the wilderness stretching boundless in every direction. Upstream the water came without end, without cease. He felt a hero’s spirit rise in his breast, as though his body were merging with the river itself. After a long while Huang Rong said, “If we are going, let us go.”

Guo Jing said, “Good!” In the days they had spent together, they needed few words to know each other’s minds. Huang Rong saw the look in his eyes and knew he wanted to swim across.

Guo Jing let go of the white horse’s reins and said, “You’re no use. Go your own way.” He tied the bundle of their clothes onto the red horse’s back and slapped its rump, and the two of them and the horse leapt into the great river together. The little red horse gave a long neigh and swam out ahead, with Guo Jing and Huang Rong side by side behind it. By the time they reached mid-stream, the red horse was far in the lead.

Stars glittered thick across the sky. Apart from the river’s waves, there was no sound, as though all the world held only the two of them.

They swam on, and suddenly black clouds pressed down. The river was pitch dark. Lightning and thunder followed one upon the other, each crack of thunder seeming to strike the very top of their heads. Guo Jing called, “Rong-er, are you afraid?”

Huang Rong laughed. “With you, I am not afraid.”

The summer storm came suddenly and passed quickly. By the time they reached the far bank, the rain was over and the sky clear, a bright moon hanging in the heavens. Guo Jing gathered dry branches and lit a fire. Huang Rong took their clothes from the bundle, dried the wet garments over the flames, and they changed.

They dozed for a while. The sky whitened at the horizon, and from a farmhouse by the river a cock crowed loud and clear.

Huang Rong woke with a yawn and said, “I am so hungry!” She ran towards the cottage, and before long she was back with a plump cockerel tucked under her arm. She said with a laugh, “Let’s go a bit further off, so the owner doesn’t see us.” They walked east for about a li, the little red horse following meekly behind.

Huang Rong split the cock’s belly with her Emei Steel Piercers, washed out the entrails, but did not pluck the feathers. She mixed water with earth to make clay, wrapped the bird in it, and set it over the fire. After a while a sweet fragrance seeped from the clay. When the wet clay was dry through, she peeled it off, and the feathers came away with it. The flesh beneath was white and tender, and a rich scent filled the air.

Footnotes

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

2. 峨嵋钢刺 — Éméi Gāngcì. Literally Emei steel thorns. A pair of short, sharp steel spikes. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 软猬甲 — Ruǎnwèijiǎ. A vest set with tiny barbs, proof against blades and fists, treasured on Peach Blossom Island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 黄药师 — Huáng Yàoshī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

7. 里 — lǐ. A traditional unit of distance, about 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

8. 轻功 — qīnggōng. The martial art of body lightness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 内力 — nèilì. Literally internal force. The kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 长江 — Chángjiāng. China’s longest river (6,300 km) serving as vital trade corridor between Sichuan and Jiangnan regions. See Wikipedia. ↩