The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 4

Hong Qigong reached out and helped Zhou Botong to his feet. “I’ll keep you company on the new ship,” he said. “Old Heretic Huang¹ is full of tricks, but the two of us aren’t going to fall for them.” Zhou Botong was delighted. “Old Beggar, you’re a good sort. Let’s swear brotherhood.”

Before Hong Qigong could answer, Guo Jing cut in, “Big Brother Zhou,² you and I have already sworn brotherhood. How can you swear it with my shifu?” Zhou Botong laughed. “What does that matter? If your father-in-law lets me take the new ship, I’ll be so pleased I’ll swear brotherhood with him too.”

Huang Rong laughed. “And what about me?” Zhou Botong glared at her. “I’m not falling for any girl’s tricks. Every extra time you set eyes on a pretty woman, your luck gets three parts worse.” He hooked his arm through Hong Qigong’s and made for the new ship.

Huang Yaoshi hurried ahead of the two of them and spread his arms to bar the way. “Huang would not deceive you,” he said. “If you sail in this ship, the odds are that it will end badly. There is truly no need for you to run such a risk. Only the reason is something I cannot tell you plainly.”

Hong Qigong roared with laughter. “You’ve warned us more than once. Even if this old beggar gets seasick and goes to meet his ancestors, he’ll still say you were a true friend, Brother Yao.” Comical as he was in word and deed, Hong Qigong was shrewd at heart. Seeing Huang Yaoshi try to stop them time after time, he knew there must be something wrong with the ship. But Zhou Botong was set on sailing in her and plainly could not be talked out of it, and if something sudden and strange happened, he would be on his own, and wounded besides, and might not be able to cope. Being a kind and honourable man, Hong Qigong made up his mind to sail with him.

Huang Yaoshi snorted. “With skills as great as yours, you are sure to turn ill fortune to good, and Huang has worried for nothing. You, boy, surname of Guo, you go too.” He glared at Guo Jing with venom and demanded harshly, “Before Zhou Botong taught you the text, did he tell you it was the Nine Yin Manual?”

Guo Jing shook his head. “Big Brother Zhou didn’t say. I’ve seen Mei Chaofeng practise martial arts from the Nine Yin Manual, that Nine Yin White Bone Claw³ or whatever it is, vicious and cruel. If I’d known it was the Nine Yin Manual, I would never have learned it.”

Zhou Botong had never cared how serious or urgent a matter was, and the more solemn other people were about it, the more he loved to make a joke of it. Before Guo Jing had finished, he broke in, “How can you say you didn’t know? You told me yourself that you tricked Mei Chaofeng into lending you the lower volume of the Manual, and copied it out and learned it by heart. I only taught you the upper volume. I never taught you the lower one. If you hadn’t tricked it out of Mei Chaofeng, how would you know it? You say the Twin Evils of Dark Wind’s martial arts are vicious and cruel and you didn’t want to learn them. Well, I told you, Mei Chaofeng learned the Manual wrong, because Huang Yaoshi didn’t understand it and taught his disciple wrong. What I taught you is the Manual’s true and proper skill.”

Guo Jing was aghast. His voice shook. “Big Brother, you… when did you ever say that?”

Zhou Botong blinked and said with a straight face, “Of course I said it. You were delighted when you heard it.”

That Guo Jing could know the text by heart without knowing it was the Nine Yin Manual had been very hard to believe in the first place. Now Zhou Botong said this, and in the heat of his fury how could Huang Yaoshi guess that Old Wild Child was joking? He thought only that Zhou Botong, innocent as a child, would never cover up a lie for Guo Jing and had blurted out the truth without thinking. So Guo Jing had lied to deceive him, and with wicked intent. On top of that he had heard Zhou Botong say he had taught his disciples wrong, so that the Twin Evils of Dark Wind had learned their skills wrong. Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng had indeed learned them wrong, but it was not Huang Yaoshi who had taught them. It had been one setback after another that day. His hope that his beloved wife had passed him the Manual from the world of the dead had come to nothing, Zhou Botong’s martial arts had proved far greater than his own, and the son-in-law who had passed his test had turned out to be a treacherous little villain. His rage was past all holding.

Trembling, Guo Jing tried to explain. “Father-in-law…”

Huang Yaoshi said harshly, “You sly, treacherous little wretch, who’s your father-in-law? If you ever set foot on Peach Blossom Island again, don’t blame Huang for showing no mercy.” He struck backhanded and caught one of the mute servants full in the back. “Let this be your example!” The servant’s tongue had been cut out, and a low, hoarse cry came from his throat as his body flew straight out. Huang Yaoshi’s palm had shattered his five viscera. He fell far out in the sea and sank beneath the waves, and in an instant he was gone without a trace. The other mute servants, quaking with terror, all fell to their knees together.

These mute servants had all been vicious, lawless villains. Huang Yaoshi had made sure of their guilt, caught them one by one and brought them to the island, where he cut out their tongues and pierced their ears to make them mute and deaf, and set them to serve him. He had once said, “I, Huang, am no upright junzi.⁴ The jianghu⁵ calls me the Eastern Heretic, and naturally I would scorn to rub shoulders with any upright junzi. The more wicked my servants, the better they suit me.” The mute servant had long deserved death many times over, but to be struck into the sea suddenly, for no reason at all, made everyone sigh to themselves, thinking, Old Heretic Huang really is a heretic and no mistake, taking his rage out on that mute for nothing. Guo Jing, more frightened than he could say, fell to his knees.

Huang Yaoshi was afraid that in his fury he might kill Guo Jing on the spot, which would be unbecoming of his station. He cupped his fists to Zhou Botong, Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng. “Farewell!” Taking Huang Rong by the hand, he turned and left.

Huang Rong wanted to say a few words to Guo Jing, but she had only called out “Jing gege…” when her father whisked her dozens of feet away, and in a moment they had vanished into the woods.

Zhou Botong roared with laughter, but a sudden sharp pain stabbed the wound in his chest. He quickly held his laughter in, but it burst out of him all the same. “Old Heretic Huang’s fallen for my trick again. I told him a tall tale to fool him, and sure enough the fellow took it seriously. What fun, what fun!”

Hong Qigong said in alarm, “So Jing-er really didn’t know beforehand?”

Zhou Botong laughed. “Of course he didn’t. He even said the wondrous skills of the Nine Yin were as evil as could be. If he’d known beforehand, would he ever have learned them from me? Brother, now you’ve got it all off by heart, and you couldn’t forget it if you tried, could you?” He clutched his belly and howled with laughter again, and between the pain and the laughing his face was a sorry sight.

Hong Qigong stamped his foot. “Ai, Old Wild Child, is that any joke to play? I’m going to tell Brother Yao.” He set off towards the edge of the wood, but the paths inside wound in every direction, and there was no knowing which way Huang Yaoshi had gone. The mute servants, seeing their master depart, had long since all followed.

With no one to guide him, Hong Qigong had to come back crestfallen. Then he remembered that Ouyang Ke had the detailed map of Peach Blossom Island, and said quickly, “Worthy nephew Ouyang, please lend me your map of Peach Blossom Island to look at.”

Ouyang Ke shook his head. “Without Uncle Huang’s permission I dare not lend it to anyone. Don’t hold it against me, Uncle Hong.”

Hong Qigong snorted and cursed himself, thinking, I really am an old dotard. What was I thinking, asking this brat for the map? Nothing would please him more than Old Heretic Huang hating my silly disciple.

White clothes flickered among the trees, and Ouyang Feng’s thirty-two white-clad dancing girls came out of the wood. The first of them went up to Ouyang Feng and curtsied. “Master Huang told us to go back with you, Master.” Ouyang Feng did not so much as glance at them, but waved them aboard, then said to Hong Qigong and Zhou Botong, “I fear there really may be some clever device on Brother Yao’s ship. Set your minds at rest. I shall follow close behind in my own ship, and if there is any emergency, I shall naturally do what little I can.”

Zhou Botong was furious. “Who asked you to curry favour? I want to find out just what’s strange about Old Heretic Huang’s ship. With you following behind, it’ll be all fright and no danger, and where’s the fun in that? You make trouble for me, and Old Wild Child will pour another head of stinking piss over you!”

Ouyang Feng laughed. “Very well. Until we meet again.” He cupped his fists and led his nephew aboard.

Guo Jing stood staring the way Huang Rong had gone, lost in a daze. Zhou Botong laughed. “Brother, let’s get aboard. Let’s see what one dead ship can do to the three of us living men.” His left hand seized Hong Qigong’s, his right hand seized Guo Jing’s, and he ran up onto the new ship. Seven or eight sailors and servants stood silently at attention inside. Zhou Botong grinned. “The day Old Heretic Huang’s heresy gets the better of him and he cuts out his precious daughter’s tongue as well, then I’ll grant he really is something.” Guo Jing shivered at the words. Zhou Botong laughed. “Scared?” He gestured to the sailors. They raised anchor and unfurled the sails, riding the southerly wind out to sea.

Hong Qigong said, “Come, let’s see what’s strange about this ship.” The three of them searched from bow to stern, from deck to hold, examining everything carefully. The ship was lacquered inside and out until it gleamed. The cabins were stocked with food, water, rice, wine, meat and vegetables. Nothing unusual caught the eye anywhere.

Zhou Botong said bitterly, “Old Heretic Huang’s a liar! He said there was something strange, and there’s nothing strange at all. What a letdown.”

Hong Qigong still had his doubts. He leapt up the mast and shook mast and sails hard a few times, but nothing was amiss. He gazed into the distance. Gulls wheeled and dipped, the waves ran on to meet the sky, and the ship’s three sails, full-bellied with wind, bore her straight north. He stood with his robe open to the wind, and his chest felt lighter for it. Turning, he saw Ouyang Feng’s vessel following some two li⁶ astern.

Hong Qigong went back into the cabin, where Guo Jing sat lost in misery, staring at nothing. Hong Qigong said, “Disciple, let me teach you a beggar’s trick for getting alms. If the master of the house won’t give, you pester him at his door for three days and three nights, and see if he gives then.”

Zhou Botong laughed. “What if the master keeps a fierce dog? You won’t leave, so he sets the dog on you. What then?”

Hong Qigong laughed. “A house that rich and that heartless, you go back at night and rob it good and proper. That’s no sin against heaven.”

Zhou Botong said to Guo Jing, “Brother, do you understand your shifu’s words? He’s telling you to cling to your father-in-law to the end. If he won’t give you his daughter, and tries to beat you instead, go and steal her out at night. Only what you’ll be stealing is a living treasure with legs of her own. All you need do is call, ‘Come here, my treasure!’ and she’ll follow you of her own accord. Nothing easier to steal.”

Just then there was a sudden crash. The cabin door flew open, and a sailor burst in, his face ashen and wild with terror, pointing and waving his arms but unable to speak. The three of them knew something must have happened, and they sprang up and ran out of the cabin.

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Huang Rong had been dragged into the house by her father. In the moment before she was pulled away she had wanted to say one word to Guo Jing, but had been given no chance. Furious and heartbroken, she returned to her room, shut the door and wept aloud.

Huang Yaoshi had driven Guo Jing away in his rage, but now knew the boy was as good as dead. He felt rather guilty towards his daughter and wanted to say a few words to comfort her, but though he knocked several times, Huang Rong paid no attention and would not open the door. At suppertime she did not come out to eat. Huang Yaoshi had a servant take her food to her, and she flung it on the floor, dishes, bowls and all, and kicked the mute servant head over heels several times for good measure.

Huang Rong thought, Father means what he says. If Jing gege comes back to Peach Blossom Island, he’ll kill him. If I steal away from the island to find him and leave Father here all alone, won’t he be lonely and miserable? She turned the matter over and over, her heart knotted with grief. A few months before, when Huang Yaoshi had scolded her, she had run away from the island without a second thought. When she next saw her father, the white hair at his temples had grown thick, as if he had aged ten years in those few months. It had grieved her deeply, and she had sworn never to cause him such sorrow again, and now here she was, faced with this dilemma. She lay on the bed and wept a while, then thought, If Mama were alive, she would decide for me. She wouldn’t let me suffer like this. The thought of her mother made her rise and go out to the main hall.

On Peach Blossom Island doors were there for show, and unless it was windy or raining, the main gate stood open day and night. Huang Rong went out through it. The sky was full of stars, and the scent of the flowers hung heavy. She thought, Jing gege must be dozens of li away by now. Who knows when we’ll see each other again? She sighed, wiped her eyes with her sleeve and walked in among the flowering trees.

Brushing past flowers and leaves, she came to her mother’s grave. Fine trees grew thick around it and rare flowers bloomed in profusion. Before the grave there were fresh flowers in every season, each a famous variety from all under heaven chosen by Huang Yaoshi himself, and in the soft moonlight each gave off its scent and showed off its colours. Huang Rong pushed the gravestone left and right a few times, then pulled hard, and the stone slowly moved aside to reveal a stone-built passage. She went down it, turned three corners, worked a mechanism to open a stone door and went into the burial chamber, where she lit her tinder tube⁷ and kindled the glass lamp before her mother’s spirit.

Alone in the little chamber under the ground, she gazed at the portrait of her mother that her father had painted, and as her thoughts rose and fell she thought, I’ve never seen Mama. Will I see her after I die? Will she still be as gentle and beautiful as in this painting? Where is she now? In Heaven, in the underworld, or here in this chamber? I’ll stay here with Mama for ever.

The walls and shelves of the burial chamber were covered with ancient curios, famous paintings and calligraphy, every piece beyond price. Huang Yaoshi had ranged the lakes and seas in his day. Imperial palaces, the mansions of great ministers, the houses of the wealthy, the strongholds of great bandits, wherever there was a rare treasure, he either seized it openly or stole it in the dark. He would not rest until he had it in his hands. His martial arts were great and his eye was keen. The wonders he had gathered were beyond counting, and now all of them were laid out in his dead wife’s chamber. Huang Rong watched the faint light that pearls and jade, jadeite and agate cast in the lamplight, and thought, These treasures have no feeling, yet they last a thousand years without decay. Today I look at them here. Someday my body will turn to dust, and the pearls and jade will still be in the world, good as new. Is it that the more spirit a thing in this world has, the less it lasts? Is that why Mama, being so brilliant, only lived to twenty?

She gazed at her mother’s portrait in a daze for a while, then blew out the lamp and went behind the felt curtain to her mother’s jade coffin. She stroked it for a while, then sat down on the floor and leaned against it. She was full of pity and sorrow for herself, and it was as if she were leaning against her mother and had someone to lean on at last. The day had brought great joy and great sorrow, and by now she was utterly spent. Before long, she fell into a deep sleep.

Footnotes

1. 黄老邪 — Huáng Lǎoxié. Literally old heretic Huang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 大哥 — dàgē. Literally big brother. The address to an elder brother or an elder sworn brother. ↩

3. 九阴白骨爪 — Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo. Literally nine yin white bone claw. A claw technique. ↩

4. 君子 — jūnzǐ. Literally noble man. The Confucian ideal of the morally cultivated man. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

7. 火折子 — huǒzhézi. A tinder tube: rolled paper or fibre treated with saltpetre, kept smouldering in a tube and revived with a puff of breath. ↩