The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 24 – Part 3

Huang Rong gripped her short jian,¹ the bamboo staff laid beside her. If anyone turned the cupboard door open again, she would just have to give him a thrust and take it from there. She waited a while, and then heard a sweet, coaxing voice call, “Innkeeper, innkeeper!”

This was the last thing Huang Rong had expected. She quickly put her eye to the little hole. Sitting in the hall was a woman in brocade, richly dressed, who looked like the young mistress of some wealthy family, but her back was to the mirror and her face could not be seen. The woman waited a good while, then called softly again, “Innkeeper, innkeeper.”

Huang Rong thought, How familiar that voice is, all sweet and simpering. It sounds just like Young Mistress Cheng of Baoying County.²

Then the woman turned, and who should it be but Young Mistress Cheng, Cheng Yaojia?³ Huang Rong was surprised and delighted, and thought, What’s she doing here?

Silly Girl,⁴ woken earlier by Hou Tonghai and the others, had dozed on without getting up, and only now, having slept her fill, did she crawl out of the straw. Cheng Yaojia said, “Innkeeper, may I trouble you to make me a meal? I’ll pay you for it.”

Silly Girl shook her head, meaning there was nothing to eat. Then all at once she smelt cooked rice in the pot, ran over and lifted the lid, and found a whole potful of white rice, the very rice Peng Lianhu and the others had cooked. Silly Girl was delighted. Without asking where the rice had come from, she filled two bowls at once, handed one to Cheng Yaojia, and fell to eating with her mouth wide open.

Seeing there was nothing to go with it and that the rice was coarse, Cheng Yaojia ate a few mouthfuls and put it down. Silly Girl had polished off three bowls in no time, and she patted her belly, very content.

Cheng Yaojia said, “Miss, may I ask you the way? Do you know how far Niu Family Village is from here?”

Silly Girl said, “Niu Family Village? This is Niu Family Village. How far it is from here, I don’t know.”

Cheng Yaojia blushed and lowered her head, fiddling with her sash. After a long pause she said, “So this is Niu Family Village. Then may I ask you about someone? Do you know… know… a certain…”

Before she could finish, Silly Girl, already impatient, shook her head repeatedly and ran out.

Huang Rong turned it over in her mind and thought, Who has she come to Niu Family Village to find? Ah, I know. She’s Sun Buer’s⁵ disciple. Most likely her shifu and shibo⁶ have sent her to look for Qiu Chuji’s⁷ disciple, Yang Kang.⁸

Cheng Yaojia was sitting up very straight. She smoothed her clothes, touched the pearl flowers at her temples, a blush on her cheeks and a smile at the corners of her mouth, and what she was thinking, who could tell? Huang Rong was watching, much amused, when she heard footsteps and someone else came in at the door.

The newcomer was tall and straight as jade, with a strong, springing stride, and he too called for the innkeeper as soon as he came in. Huang Rong thought, Well, well. Every acquaintance under heaven is gathering at Niu Family Village. Jing gege’s village has fine fengshui. It draws people, if not money.

The man was Lu Guanying,⁹ Young Master of Returning Clouds Manor.¹⁰

He saw Cheng Yaojia and paused, then called again, “Innkeeper.”

Seeing that it was a young man, Cheng Yaojia was overcome with shyness and quickly turned her head away. Lu Guanying thought, How odd, a pretty girl all alone in a place like this. He went through to the stove and looked about. There was no one there, and he was so hungry he could not bear it, so he filled a big bowl with rice from the pot and said to Cheng Yaojia, “This lowly one is starving and must beg a bowl of rice. Please don’t take it amiss, Miss.”

Cheng Yaojia lowered her head, smiled a little, and said softly, “The rice isn’t mine. Young sir¹¹… please, help yourself.”

Lu Guanying ate two bowls of rice, then bowed his thanks, his clasped hands held before his chest. “May I ask the way, Miss? How far is Niu Family Village from here?”

Cheng Yaojia and Huang Rong were both tickled, and thought, Ha, so he’s looking for Niu Family Village too.

Cheng Yaojia returned the bow with a curtsy and said, diffidently, “This is Niu Family Village, as it happens.”

Lu Guanying was delighted. “That’s wonderful. There’s someone else I’d like to ask you about, Miss.”

Cheng Yaojia was about to say she was not from these parts when a thought stopped her. I wonder who he’s asking about.

Lu Guanying asked, “There’s a man named Guo, Guo Jing. Do you know which house he lives in? Would he be at home?”

Cheng Yaojia and Huang Rong were both taken aback, and thought, What does he want with him?

Cheng Yaojia hesitated and said nothing. She hung her head, blushing to the ears.

Seeing her look like that, Huang Rong had already guessed most of it, and thought, So when Jing gege saved her at Baoying, the young mistress secretly fell in love with him. For one thing she was young, for another she was generous by nature, and for a third she was utterly sure that Guo Jing’s heart would never stray, so that far from feeling jealous, she was rather pleased that someone else should love him.

Huang Rong had guessed exactly right. When Cheng Yaojia had been carried off by Ouyang Ke,¹² Li Sheng¹³ and others of the Beggars’ Guild had come to her aid, but none of them was a match for Ouyang Ke, and had Guo Jing and Huang Rong not rescued her, she would have suffered a dreadful violation. She had seen that Guo Jing, young as he was, was not only a formidable fighter but a kind and honest man, and a thread of tender feeling had drifted across and caught on him. She was the precious daughter of a very rich family who had never stepped outside the women’s quarters, and just as love first stirred in her, she had set eyes on a young man and given him her heart. After Guo Jing left, Young Mistress Cheng could not stop thinking of him. She turned it over and over, then all at once screwed up her courage and slipped quietly out of the house in the middle of the night. For all her martial arts, she had never been away from home on her own and knew nothing whatever of the ways of the jianghu.¹⁴ She had once heard Guo Jing say he was from Niu Family Village in Lin’an Prefecture, so she had asked her way along the road, crossed the river, and found her way to Niu Family Village in Lin’an Prefecture. Her clothes were rich and her bearing so noble that the ruffians on the road had not, as it happened, dared to trouble her.

At the last village she had been told that Niu Family Village was close by, but when Silly Girl suddenly said that this was Niu Family Village, she was at a loss. She had come all this long way to find Guo Jing, and now she found herself hoping he would not be at home, and thought only, I’ll steal a look at him tonight and then go home. He must never know. If he saw me, I’d die of shame.

Just at that moment Lu Guanying had come striding in, and the first thing he asked about was Guo Jing. Cheng Yaojia, with a guilty conscience, thought he had seen through her secret. She sat stunned for a moment, then stood up, ready to run away.

Suddenly an ugly face poked in at the door and drew back again. Cheng Yaojia started and took two steps back. The ugly face poked in again and shouted, “Two-headed ghost, if you’ve got the nerve, come out into the sun and Master Hou the Three-Headed Dragon will have a go at you. I’ve got one more head than you, and in broad daylight Master Hou isn’t afraid of you.”

What he meant, of course, was that after dark Master Hou would gladly own himself beaten, since even with an extra head, he reckoned it would do him no good.

Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia could make nothing of it.

Huang Rong gave a snort and said under her breath, “Well, here they come at last.” Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia, she thought, were neither of them much good at martial arts and could never stand up to Peng Lianhu and the rest. To ask their help would only throw away two more lives, and the best thing would be for the pair to leave at once. And yet she hoped they would stay, to hold the enemy off for as long as they could, for at her wits’ end as she was, two more helpers would at least put some heart in her.

The moment Peng Lianhu and the others saw the two-headed monster, they took it for the master of the night before, playing ghost here again, and fled far out of the village at once. Who would dare go back? But Hou Tonghai¹⁵ was a blockhead and believed it really was a ghost. With the sun blazing down on his head like fire, scorching his skin, and the others all fled out of sight, he cursed, “Ghosts can’t do mischief under the noonday sun. Don’t even know that, and they call themselves men of the jianghu. Old Hou’s not afraid. I’ll go back and get rid of the ghost, and then they’ll all have to look up to me.” He strode back into the inn, but his heart was quaking all the same. He poked his head in and saw Cheng Yaojia and Lu Guanying standing in the hall, and thought, Uh-oh. The two-headed ghost has split in two and turned into a man and a woman. Old Hou, Old Hou, you’d better watch out.

Hearing his ravings, Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia looked at each other in bewilderment. They took him for a madman and paid him no attention.

Hou Tonghai cursed for a while, and when the ghost still did not come out, he was all the more sure that ghosts could not face the sun. But as for charging inside to catch it, Old Hou had three lumps on his head, not three lots of nerve. After a long stand-off, when the two demons still made no move, he suddenly remembered that ghosts and walking corpses are afraid of filth, and he turned at once to look for some.

In a village there are cesspits everywhere, and just round the corner from the little inn was a big one. Bent on catching his ghost, he did not care how filthy it was. He pulled off his cotton jacket, wrapped up a great bundle of dung, and came back to the inn. Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia were still sitting in the hall, but with his magic weapon in hand he felt much bolder, and he shouted, “Insolent demons, show your true forms!” Rattling his trident in his left hand, the bundle of dung in his right, he rushed in.

Seeing the madman back again, Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia were both a little startled. Before he reached them, a stench came at them.

Hou Tonghai thought, They always say that among the living it’s the men who are fierce, but among ghosts it’s the women who are deadly. He raised the bundle and hurled it straight at Cheng Yaojia’s face.

Cheng Yaojia shrieked and twisted aside, but Lu Guanying had already snatched up a long bench and knocked the bundle down. The jacket fell open on the floor, dung splattered in every direction, and the stench rose till it turned the stomach.

Hou Tonghai bawled, “Master Hou is here. Two-headed ghost, show your true form.” He lunged at Cheng Yaojia with his trident. Blockhead though he was, his martial arts were thoroughly polished, and the thrust was both swift and vicious.

Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia were more startled than ever, and both thought, This man is plainly a skilled fighter of the wulin, no ordinary madman.

Seeing that Cheng Yaojia was a young lady of good family, so frail that a puff of wind might blow her over, Lu Guanying feared the madman would hurt her. He quickly raised the bench to fend off the steel trident, and called, “Who are you, sir?”

Hou Tonghai paid him no heed and thrust three times in a row. Lu Guanying parried with the bench, asking his name again and again. Hou Tonghai saw that though the man was no weakling, he was nothing like the uncanny phantom of the night before, and he was sure his dung attack had worked and the demon’s powers were much reduced. Hugely pleased with himself, he shouted, “You demon, you want my name so you can put a spell on me? Master won’t fall for that.” He had been calling himself “Master Hou”, but now, in a sudden flash of cunning, he dropped the “Hou” and called himself plain “Master”, so that the demon should have nothing to work its spells on. The steel rings on his trident clanged as he pressed his attack harder still.

Lu Guanying was no match for him to begin with, and a bench made an awkward weapon. He wanted to draw the dao at his waist, but how could he free a hand to do it? In a few exchanges he had been driven back against the wall, just where it blocked Huang Rong’s peephole. Hou Tonghai stabbed hard with the trident, Lu Guanying dodged aside, and with a thud the prongs sank into the wall, barely a foot from the little hole. Seeing that the first tug had not pulled the trident free, Lu Guanying swung the bench down at his head. Hou Tonghai flicked up a foot and kicked him on the wrist, and his left fist shot out at his face. The bench flew from Lu Guanying’s hand, and as he ducked, Hou Tonghai wrenched the trident free.

Seeing how dangerous things had become, Cheng Yaojia sprang forward, drew the single dao from Lu Guanying’s belt and put it in his hand.

“Thank you!” said Lu Guanying. In the heat of the moment he never stopped to wonder how so gentle and dainty a young lady dared draw a dao for him in the middle of a fierce fight. The gleaming steel prongs were stabbing at his chest, and he swept the dao across and struck hard. There was a clang and a shower of sparks, and the trident was knocked aside, but the web of his thumb ached. The madman, it seemed, was uncommonly strong. Still, with the dao in his hand, he felt easier. Within a few moves both men had dung on their feet and were treading it all over the floor.

When the fight began, Hou Tonghai had been very uneasy, always half-minded to make a dash for the door, and he had never dared to fight all out. As time went on and he saw that the ghost had no great powers, its sorcery plainly held in check by the dung, his courage grew and his moves grew more and more vicious, until Lu Guanying began to find them hard to fend off.

Cheng Yaojia had shrunk into a corner to watch, afraid of the filth on the floor. But seeing the handsome young man about to die under the madman’s trident, she hesitated a moment, then took her long jian from her bundle and said to Lu Guanying, “Young sir, I… I’m coming to help you. I’m so sorry.” She really was the soul of good manners, apologising before she joined someone’s fight. Her jian flashed out at Hou Tonghai’s back. She was the disciple of the Unbound Adept Qingjing, Sun Buer, and her swordplay was of the true Quanzhen line.

Hou Tonghai had been expecting this. The two-headed ghost had split in two, so of course the woman ghost would join in the haunting. Lu Guanying, though, was surprised and delighted. Her movements were nimble and her swordplay superb, and he marvelled at it. His dao work had been falling apart and he was dripping with sweat, but now help had come and his spirits rose. Hou Tonghai had been worried at first that the woman ghost might be deadly, but after a few exchanges he saw that though her swordplay was fine, her neili¹⁶ was ordinary enough, and she was flustered too. This was plainly no “old ghost” that had been haunting the place for years. Reassured, he swung his trident till the air whistled, and one man against two ghosts, he was still attacking far more than he defended.

Watching from the next room, Huang Rong was frantic. She knew that if the fight went on, Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia were bound to lose. She longed to lend them a hand, but she could not show herself. Otherwise, making a fool of the Three-Headed Dragon was something she had done many times and could do with her eyes shut.

She heard Lu Guanying cry, “Miss, go. There’s no need to get tangled up with him.”

Cheng Yaojia knew he was afraid she would be hurt and meant to hold off the madman on his own, and she was deeply grateful. But she knew he could never hold him off alone, and she shook her head and would not go.

Lu Guanying parried with all his might and shouted at Hou Tonghai, “A real man doesn’t count it brave to pick on a girl. Your quarrel is with me, Lu, alone. Let this young lady go.”

Blockhead though he was, Hou Tonghai could see by now that the pair were most likely not ghosts at all. But Cheng Yaojia was pretty, and he had the upper hand, so why should he let her go? He laughed. “The man ghost I’ll catch, and the woman ghost I’ll catch all the more.” His trident stabbed and swung with savage force, though he did hold back a little against Cheng Yaojia, or she would have been wounded already.

Lu Guanying said urgently, “Miss, break out of here, quick. I’m deeply grateful already for your kindness.”

Cheng Yaojia whispered, “Young sir, is your surname Lu?”

Lu Guanying said, “It is. And your honoured surname, Miss? Whose disciple are you?”

Cheng Yaojia said, “My shifu’s surname is Sun. People call her the Unbound Adept Qingjing. I…” She meant to tell him her name, but a sudden shyness came over her and the words stopped on her lips.

Lu Guanying said, “Miss, I’ll keep him busy, you run, quick. As long as I live, I’ll come and find you and thank you for your help today.”

Cheng Yaojia blushed. “I… young sir…” Then she turned to Hou Tonghai. “Hey, madman, don’t you dare hurt this young sir, Lu. My shifu is Sun the Perfected One of the Quanzhen Order,¹⁷ and she’ll be here any moment.”

Footnotes

1. 剑 — jiàn. A straight, double-edged blade. ↩

2. 宝应 — Bǎoyìng. A county in Jiangsu, on the Grand Canal. See Wikipedia. ↩

3. 程瑶迦 — Chéng Yáojiā. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 傻姑 — Shǎgū. Literally silly girl. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 孙不二 — Sūn Bù’èr. Her name meaning “not two”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 师伯 — shībó. Senior lineage uncle. The shixiong or shijie of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Bó means father’s elder brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 杨康 — Yáng Kāng. His name meaning “well-being”; paired with Guo Jing’s 靖 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 陆冠英 — Lù Guānyīng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 归云庄 — Guīyún Zhuāng. Literally returning clouds manor. The Lu family manor on Lake Tai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 相公 — xiànggōng. A courteous address to a young man of standing, and also how a wife addresses her husband. ↩

12. 欧阳克 — Ōuyáng Kè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 黎生 — Lí Shēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

15. 侯通海 — Hóu Tōnghǎi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

17. 全真教 — Quánzhēn Jiào. Literally complete truth order. Daoist martial-monastic order founded by Wang Chongyang, one of the most influential orthodox factions. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩