The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 29 – Part 3

Guo Jing was both delighted and anxious. From her tone it seemed Huang Rong could be saved, but he had offended her with a single careless sentence, and he did not know whether she would still be willing to help. He wanted to explain himself, yet could think of nothing to say.

Yinggu turned her head and saw him drenched in sweat, his appearance wretched in the extreme. Her heart ached, and she thought, If that man of mine had felt for me a tenth of what this silly boy feels, ah, my life would not have been lived in vain. Softly she chanted, “Four bolts on the loom, the mandarin ducks woven to fly in pairs. Pity, before age has come, hair has already turned white. Spring waves and jade-green grass, deep in the dawn’s cold, side by side they bathe in crimson.”

As Guo Jing listened to her recite this short ci, his heart gave a start. He thought, I know this ci. I have heard it somewhere before. But he could not recall who had recited it. It had not been his Second Shifu Zhu Cong, nor had it been Huang Rong. He asked in a low voice, “Rong-er, whose ci is she reciting? What does it say?”

Huang Rong shook her head. “I am hearing it for the first time too. I don’t know who wrote it. Hmm, ‘Pity, before age has come, hair has already turned white.’ What fine words! Mandarin ducks are born with white heads after all…” As she spoke, her eyes strayed of their own accord to Yinggu’s grizzled head, and she thought, It really is “Pity, before age has come, hair has already turned white”!

Guo Jing thought, Rong-er was taught by her father and understands everything. If this were a famous ci, she would certainly know it. So who recited it before me? It could not have been her, nor her father, nor Manor Master Lu of Returning Clouds Manor.¹ And yet I have certainly heard it. Ah, never mind who it was. The Senior here is sure to have some way of saving Rong-er. She wouldn’t ask me a thing like that for nothing. How am I to beg her? Whatever she wants me to do…

Yinggu too was lost in memories at that moment. Her face shifted from joy to sorrow, and in an instant she lived through decades of gratitude and grievance. Abruptly she looked up and said, “Your shimei was struck by Iron Palm Qiu’s palm.² Whether he held back his force or whether you interfered to block the blow, at least she did not die on the spot. But whatever happens, she will not last three days… Hm. There is one person in the world, and one only, who can heal her wound!”

Guo Jing listened in a daze, and when he heard the final sentence his heart leaped. It was truly joy fallen from the sky. He knelt and kowtowed three times, each blow ringing against the floor. “I beg you, Esteemed Se… no, no, I beg you to save her. I shall be grateful beyond measure.”

Yinggu said coldly, “Hmph! How would I have the ability to save someone? If I possessed such powers, would I still be suffering in this dank, cold, wretched place?”

Guo Jing dared not reply. After a while Yinggu spoke again. “You may count yourselves lucky. You have met someone who knows where that person lives, and the journey is not far. Three days will suffice. But whether the person is willing to save her is another matter.”

Guo Jing said gladly, “I will beg him earnestly. Surely he would not refuse to help when someone lies dying.”

Yinggu said, “What do you mean, ‘would not refuse’? Watching a man die without saving him is an ordinary human failing. Begging, who does not know how to beg? Does that make him save her? What benefit have you given him? Why should he save her?” Her words carried a great and bitter resentment.

Guo Jing dared not answer. A thread of hope had appeared before him, and he feared that a single wrong word would spoil things again.

“Go and rest in there a while!” said Yinggu, pointing to a small room on the left. Guo Jing thanked her and supported Huang Rong inside, laying her on a bamboo couch. He saw Yinggu go out into the square room, bend over the desk and take up a brush to write something. She wrote for a good while, wrapped the paper in a piece of cloth, then took out needle and thread and sewed the folds of the cloth tightly shut. Only when she had sewn three such pouches did she come back into the room and say, “Once you are out of the forest and clear of the Iron Palm Keep’s pursuers,³ head straight north-east. When you reach Taoyuan County, open the white cloth pouch. What you should do next is written inside. On no account open it before the time and the place have come.”

Guo Jing was overjoyed and agreed repeatedly, reaching out to take the pouches.

Yinggu drew back her hand. “Wait! If that person refuses to help, then let it be. But if you save her life, I have one request.”

Guo Jing said, “A life saved must of course be repaid. Senior has only to tell me.”

Yinggu said coldly, “If your shimei does not die, she must return here within one month and stay with me for a year.”

Guo Jing asked in surprise, “What for?”

Yinggu said sharply, “What does that matter to you? I am asking only whether she is willing.”

Huang Rong spoke up, “You want me to teach you the Strange Gates arts and calculations.⁴ What difficulty is that? I agree.”

Yinggu shot Guo Jing a contemptuous look. “A man grown, and not a tenth as clever as your shimei.” She handed over the three cloth pouches.

Guo Jing took them and saw that one was white, the other two red and yellow. He tucked them into his robe and said, “If I had even a tenth of my shimei’s cleverness, that would be good enough.” He kowtowed again in thanks.

Yinggu stepped aside to avoid his formal bow. “Do not thank me. I will not accept your thanks. You two are no kin of mine, no friends. Why should I save her? Even if you were kin, this would be too much trouble! Let us be plain. I save her life for my own sake. Hmph, if a man does not look after himself, Heaven destroys him.”

These words grated on Guo Jing’s ears, but he had always been honest and slow of speech, ill-suited to argument. For Huang Rong’s sake he dared not say more, and listened respectfully.

Yinggu rolled her eyes. “You have been up all night and must be hungry. Eat some congee.”

Huang Rong lay on the couch, half awake and half asleep, resting. Guo Jing sat beside her, his mind churning. Before long Yinggu brought out from the back room a wooden tray bearing two large bowls of steaming fragrant rice congee, a large plate of sliced mountain pheasant, and a dish of cured fish. Guo Jing had been hungry for some time, but his worry over Huang Rong’s wound had kept him from noticing. Now that his mind was a little easier, at the sight of the pheasant, the fish and the white congee he swallowed hard. He thanked Yinggu, then patted the back of Huang Rong’s hand. “Rong-er, get up and eat some congee.”

Huang Rong opened her eyes a slit and shook her head faintly. “My chest hurts so. I don’t want any.”

Yinggu sneered, “Offer her medicine for the pain, and she sees ghosts in it.”

Huang Rong ignored her and said only, “Jing gege, give me another Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill to take.”

The pills had been a gift from Lu Chengfeng at Returning Clouds Manor, and Huang Rong had kept them in her robe ever since. After Hong Qigong and Guo Jing were wounded by Ouyang Feng, they had each taken several. Though the pills had no power to heal mortal wounds or raise the dead, they were most effective at easing pain and calming the spirit.⁵

Guo Jing did so, unscrewed the cap of the porcelain bottle and took one out.

When Huang Rong mentioned the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill, Yinggu gave a slight start, and when she saw the vermilion pill she said sharply, “Is that the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill? Let me see it!” Guo Jing found her tone strange and could not help glancing at her. He saw a glint of ferocity in her eyes, which puzzled him all the more, and he handed her the entire bottle.

Yinggu took it. A rich fragrance filled her nostrils, and the mere scent of it sent a coolness through her whole body. She stared at Guo Jing. “These are Peach Blossom Island’s elixir pills. Where did you get them? Speak, speak quickly!” By the end her voice had grown dreadfully shrill.

Something stirred in Huang Rong’s mind, and she thought, This woman studies the Strange Gates and Five Elements. Could she have some connection with one of my father’s disciples? She heard Guo Jing say, “She is the daughter of the Master of Peach Blossom Island.”

Yinggu leaped to her feet. “Old Heretic Huang’s daughter? When I examined her wound just now, what she wore beneath her clothes was Peach Blossom Island’s Soft Hedgehog Armour,⁶ was it not?” Her eyes gleamed. Her arms flexed and contracted as though she were about to pounce.

Guo Jing nodded, and put himself squarely in front of Huang Rong.

Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, give the three cloth pouches back to her! Since she is my father’s enemy, we need not accept her favour.”

Guo Jing took out the pouches but hesitated, unwilling to hand them over.

Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, put them down! I won’t necessarily die. And what if I do?”

Guo Jing never went against Huang Rong’s wishes. Reluctantly he placed the pouches on the table. Tears were already rolling in his eyes, and at last he could not hold them back. They streamed down his cheeks.

Yinggu gazed out the window and murmured, “Heaven, oh Heaven!” She took the pouches and the porcelain bottle and walked into the adjoining room, turning her back. No one could see what she was doing.

Huang Rong said, “Let’s go. The very sight of this woman sickens me.”

Guo Jing had not yet answered when Yinggu returned. “I study the arts of calculation because I wished to enter Peach Blossom Island. If Old Heretic Huang’s daughter is this good already, I could study another hundred years and it would be no use. If Heaven has so decreed, what more is there to say? Go. Take the pouches.” She stuffed the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill bottle and the three cloth pouches into Guo Jing’s hands. Then to Huang Rong she said, “The Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill will harm your wound. Do not take any more. After you recover, do not forget the one-year promise. Your father ruined my life. The food here, I would rather feed it to a dog than give it to you.” With that she flung the congee, pheasant and cured fish out the window.

Huang Rong was furious and was about to retort, but a thought struck her. Leaning on Guo Jing, she rose to her feet, then took her bamboo staff and wrote three calculation problems in the fine sand on the ground. The first was a “Seven Luminaries Nine Executors Hindu Calculation,” involving the sun, moon, water, fire, wood, metal, earth, Rahu and Ketu. The second was a “Cube-Root Problem of Recruiting Troops and Paying Silver and Rice”. (Note: this is the theory of series in Western mathematics.) The third was a “Ghost Valley calculation”: “There is a thing whose number is unknown. Counted by threes, two remain. Counted by fives, three remain. Counted by sevens, two remain. What is the number?” (Note: this belongs to number theory in higher mathematics. Chinese scholars of the Song dynasty had already studied problems of this kind in considerable depth.)

She wrote the three problems, then supported herself on Guo Jing’s arm and slowly walked out. As Guo Jing stepped through the great gate, he turned his head and saw Yinggu holding her counting rods, staring at the ground, lost in thought.

The two entered the forest. Guo Jing took Huang Rong on his back, and with her still guiding him he made his way out, step by step. Guo Jing feared miscounting his steps and dared not speak. Only after they had left the forest did he ask, “Rong-er, what did you write in the sand?”

Huang Rong laughed. “I set her three problems. Hmph, she won’t work them out inside half a year, and that’ll turn all her grey hair white. Who told her to be so rude?”

Guo Jing asked, “What enmity does she have with your father?”

Huang Rong said, “I have never heard Father mention it.” After a pause she said, “She must have been a great beauty when she was young. Don’t you think so, Jing gege?” A vague suspicion stirred in her, and she thought, Could Father once have been tangled up with her in some love affair? Hmph, most likely she wanted to marry Father and Father wouldn’t have her. Yes, that must be it. If a man doesn’t want you, can you force him to marry you? What good does a tantrum do?

Guo Jing said, “Who cares whether she was beautiful? She will be thinking about your problems, so even if she suddenly changes her mind, she will not chase after us to demand the pouches back.”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t know what is written in the pouches. I fear she may not have good intentions. Let us open them and look.”

Guo Jing said hastily, “No, no! Follow her instructions. We open them at Taoyuan.”

Huang Rong was very curious and could not resist wanting to look, but Guo Jing was firm, so she let it go.

After a night of such turmoil it was now broad daylight. Guo Jing sprang to the top of a tree and looked all round. There was no sign of the Iron Palm Keep men, and half his worry lifted. He gave several whistles, and the Little Red Horse came galloping at the sound. Before long the twin eagles also flew overhead. The two had just mounted when a great shout rose from the edge of the forest. Dozens of Iron Palm Keep men came swarming out like bees. They had been keeping watch round the forest for half the night, and hearing Guo Jing’s whistle, they rushed over. Qiu Qianren was not among them.

“Forgive us for not staying!” Guo Jing called. He pressed lightly with his legs, and the little red horse seemed to leap into the air. The wind rushed past their ears, and in moments the Iron Palm men were left far behind, vanished without a trace.

Footnotes

1. 陆乘风 — Lù Chéngfēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 裘千仞 — Qiú Qiānrèn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 铁掌帮 — Tiězhǎng Bāng. Literally iron palm guild. Qiu Qianren’s sect, renowned for its palm techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 奇门 — qímén. Literally strange gates. A branch of Chinese cosmology and divination concerned with the arrangement of space and time, applied to strategy and battle formations. ↩

5. 九花玉露丸 — Jiǔhuā Yùlù Wán. Huang Yaoshi’s elixir, compounded with the dew of nine kinds of flower and hard to make. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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