The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 12 – Part 9

Huang Rong kept her eyes tight shut, knowing that Mu Nianci was gazing at her. After a while she heard her sigh, “You’re so beautiful!” Then Mu Nianci turned sharply, opened the door, and with her clothes stirring the air she was already over the wall and gone.

Her curiosity roused, Huang Rong hurried after her. She saw Mu Nianci racing westwards and followed, using her qinggong.¹ Her martial arts were better than Mu Nianci’s, and before long she had caught up. When she was a hundred feet and more behind, she slowed down so as not to be noticed. Mu Nianci made straight for the market town. Once inside it she leapt up on to the roofs, looked about her, then darted towards a tall house at the southern end.

Huang Rong went into town every day to buy food, and she knew this was the house of the Dai family, the richest in the place. She thought, Mu jiejie² must have run out of silver and come for a little spending money. Hardly had the thought crossed her mind when the two of them, one behind the other, reached the side of the Dai house.

The gate of the house was brightly lit. Two great red lanterns hung before it, bearing five flat golden characters, “Imperial Envoy of the Great Jin”,³ and under the lanterns four Jin soldiers stood guard with waist daos⁴ in their hands. Huang Rong had passed the house many times but never seen anything like this. She thought, So she’s going to rob the Imperial Envoy of the Great Jin of his gold and silver. Splendid. I’ll let her take hers first, then help myself and make a little fortune too. She followed Mu Nianci round to the back courtyard, waited quietly with her for a moment, then leapt over the wall after her. Inside was a garden, and Mu Nianci went dodging and hiding among the flowers, trees and rockeries, picking her way forward, with Huang Rong keeping step behind her.

Candlelight shone from a wing on the east side, and on the paper window was the dark shadow of a man who seemed to be pacing up and down the room.

Mu Nianci crept slowly closer, her eyes fixed on the shadow, and stood stock still. A long while passed. The man in the room was still pacing up and down, and Mu Nianci was still gazing at his shadow, lost in a trance.

Huang Rong was losing patience. She thought, Mu jiejie is so slow about things. Why not just burst in, seal his acupoints⁵ and have done with it? What’s the point of staring at him?

She circled round to the other side of the wing. She thought, I’ll do it for her. Once I’ve knocked this man down, I’ll hide myself and give her a real surprise. She was just about to lift the window and slip in when the door of the wing creaked open and a man went in. “I beg to report, Your Excellency, a dispatch has just come by post horse. Commander Duan of the Southern Court, who is to receive the Imperial Envoy, will arrive tomorrow or the day after.” The man inside nodded and gave a grunt, and the man who had reported went out.

Huang Rong thought, So the man in the room is the Imperial Envoy of the Jin. Then Mu jiejie must be up to something else, not robbery at all. I mustn’t be rash. She put a little spittle on her fingernail, wetted a line on the paper of the lowest pane, pricked a thin slit in it and put her right eye to it.

It was the last thing she expected. The man inside, in a brocade robe with an embroidered sash, was none other than the little prince, Wanyan Kang.⁶ He held something dark and black in his hand, which he kept stroking as he paced to and fro, his eyes on the ceiling, as if his heart were full of cares. When he came near the candle, Huang Rong could see clearly that what he held was the head of an iron spear. The point was already rusty, and below the head was a broken length of shaft about a foot long.

Huang Rong did not know that the broken spearhead was the keepsake of his real father, Yang Tiexin.⁷ She supposed it had to do with Mu Nianci and laughed to herself. She thought, One of you waves a sleeve in a trance, the other strokes a spearhead and pines. Can it be that a few feet apart is as far as the ends of the earth? She could not help giggling out loud.

Wanyan Kang was on the alert at once. With a wave of his hand he fanned out the candle and shouted, “Who’s there?”

By then Huang Rong had darted behind Mu Nianci. Her hands made a circle, the left palm sweeping in from outside to the right, the right palm coming down from above, scooping and drawing, and though she used very little force, both hands landed on Mu Nianci’s vital acupoints, so that she could not move at once. It was the reverse grip, one of the seventy-two grappling holds,⁸ and by the time Mu Nianci thought of resisting, it was too late. Huang Rong laughed. “Don’t be scared, big sister. I’m taking you to see your sweetheart.”

Wanyan Kang threw open the door and was about to rush out when he heard a girl’s voice laugh, “Here’s your sweetheart. Catch.”

“What?” asked Wanyan Kang. A warm, soft, fragrant body was already in his arms. He stood stunned for a moment, and the girl who had spoken leapt up on to the wall. “Big sister, how will you thank me?” she laughed. Her laughter, like silver bells, faded into the distance, and the girl in his arms struggled free and got down.

Wanyan Kang was utterly bewildered. Afraid she might hurt him, he stepped hastily back several paces. “Who are you?”

Mu Nianci said softly, “Do you still remember me?”

Wanyan Kang half recognised her voice. “Is it…is it Miss Mu?” he said, startled.

Mu Nianci said, “Yes, it’s me.”

Wanyan Kang said, “Who else came with you?”

Mu Nianci said, “That was a naughty little friend of mine just now. I didn’t know she’d followed me here.”

Wanyan Kang went into the room and lit the candle. “Please come in.”

Mu Nianci went in with her head bowed, sat down on the edge of a chair and hung her head without a word, her heart thumping.

In the candlelight Wanyan Kang saw how startled and happy she looked, her pale face tinged with pink, and her girlish shyness was so lovely that his heart gave a leap. He said tenderly, “What brings you looking for me so late at night?”

Mu Nianci kept her head lowered and did not answer.

Wanyan Kang thought of the terrible deaths of his real parents, and pity for her welled up in him. He said softly, “Your father is dead. From now on you’ll live with my family. I’ll treat you as my own younger sister.”

Mu Nianci said, her head still bowed, “I was my father’s foster daughter, not his own child…”

Suddenly Wanyan Kang understood. He thought, She’s telling me there’s no blood between us.

He reached out and took her right hand, smiling a little. Mu Nianci turned bright red and tried gently to pull away, but could not, so she let him hold it, and bowed her head still lower.

Wanyan Kang’s heart stirred. He put his left arm round her shoulders and whispered in her ear, “This is the third time I’ve held you in my arms. The first time was in the contest ring, the second just now outside the door. Only this time is it just the two of us, with no one else by.”

Mu Nianci gave a soft “Mm.” Her heart was filled with a sweetness and ease such as she had never known in all her life.

Wanyan Kang breathed the faint fragrance of the girl and felt her body tremble a little, and his own heart and soul grew drunk without his knowing it. After a while he said softly, “How did you find me?”

Mu Nianci said, “I followed you all the way here from the capital. Every night I watched your shadow on the window, only I didn’t dare…”

Wanyan Kang was deeply moved that she loved him so much. He bent his head and kissed her cheek, and where his lips touched it was burning hot. At once his passion boiled over. He held her tight and kissed her long and deep, and only after a long while did he let her go.

Mu Nianci said softly, “I’ve no father and no mother. Don’t…don’t leave me.”

Wanyan Kang held her in his arms and slowly stroked her lovely hair. “Don’t worry! I’ll be yours for ever, and you’ll be mine for ever, all right?”

Mu Nianci’s heart was full of joy. She raised her head, looked up into Wanyan Kang’s eyes and nodded.

When Wanyan Kang saw her flushed cheeks and her shining eyes, he could hold himself back no longer. He blew out the candle, picked her up, carried her to the bed and laid her across it. Holding her with his left arm, he began to untie her sash with his right hand.

Mu Nianci had been as if drunk or dreaming, but when his burning hand touched her skin she suddenly came to herself. She pulled free of his arms with all her strength, rolled to the far side of the bed and said softly, “No, we mustn’t do this.”

Wanyan Kang took her in his arms again. “I’ll marry you, I promise. If I ever betray you, may I be hacked to pieces and die a dog’s death.”

Mu Nianci put her hand over his mouth. “Don’t swear. I believe you.”

Wanyan Kang held her tight. “Then give in to me,” he said, his voice shaking.

Mu Nianci begged, “Don’t…don’t…”

Wanyan Kang, burning with passion, tried to force her sash open.

Mu Nianci knocked his hands outwards, putting half her neili⁹ into it. Wanyan Kang had never expected her to use martial arts at a moment like this, and both his hands were flung aside. Mu Nianci leapt down from the bed, snatched up the iron spearhead from the table and pointed it at her own breast. “If you force me again,” she said, weeping, “I’ll die in front of you.”

At once all Wanyan Kang’s passion turned to ice. “If you’ve something to say, say it calmly. Why do this?”

Mu Nianci said, “I may be a poor girl drifting about the jianghu,¹⁰ but I’m not some low creature with no self-respect. If you truly love me, you must respect me and value me. In this life I shall never think of anyone else. Even with a steel blade at my neck, I’ve made up my mind to follow you. Some day…some day, if there’s a wedding night, then of course…of course you can have what you want. But if you mean to treat me cheaply today, there’s nothing for it but death.” She said it very softly, but it was final, without a trace of hesitation.

Wanyan Kang felt a secret respect for her. “Don’t be angry, little sister. It was my fault.” He got off the bed at once and lit the candle.

When she heard him admit he was wrong, Mu Nianci’s heart softened at once. “I’ll wait for you at my foster father’s old home in Niu Family Village, in Lin’an Prefecture. Come whenever you like…and send a matchmaker.” She paused, then added softly, “If you never come, I’ll wait for you all my life.”

Wanyan Kang both respected and loved her. “Don’t doubt me, little sister,” he said quickly. “As soon as my official business is done, I’ll come as quickly as I can to fetch my bride myself. Never in this life will I let you down.”

Mu Nianci gave him a dazzling smile, turned and went out of the door.

Wanyan Kang called, “Don’t go, little sister. Let’s talk a little longer.”

Mu Nianci looked back and waved, and went on her way without stopping.

Wanyan Kang watched her go over the wall and stood there in a daze. The wind stirred the treetops, and a few stars were in the sky. He went back into the room. Her tears were not yet dry on the iron spear, and her warmth and fragrance still lingered in the pillow and quilt. Thinking over what had just happened, he felt it must have been a dream. A few strands of her lovely hair lay on the quilt, shed as she struggled, and Wanyan Kang picked them up and put them in his purse. When he first fought her in the contest, it had been no more than a moment’s frivolous mischief, with no thought at all of marriage. How could he have known that she would follow him all the way from the capital and watch his shadow outside his window every night? So tender and deep a love moved him greatly, and the purity she had kept made him respect her all the more. Now he smiled, now he sighed, turning it over and over in his mind under the lamp, quite beside himself.

Footnotes

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

2. 姐姐 — jiějie. Literally elder sister, written 姊姊 in the source. Attached to a name it is an intimate address and does not mark kinship. ↩

3. 钦使 — qīnshǐ. Literally imperial envoy. An emissary sent by the emperor on a special commission. ↩

4. 腰刀 — yāodāo. Literally waist dao. A short dao worn at the waist, the standard sidearm of soldiers and guards. ↩

5. 穴道 — xuédào. Acupoints, the nodes along the body’s meridians through which qi flows. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 完颜康 — Wányán Kāng. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

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

8. 擒拿手 — Qínná Shǒu. Literally seizing hand. A method of seizing and locking the opponent’s joints. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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