The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 9 – Part 1

Iron spear, broken plough¹

Guo Jing and Huang Rong reached the rear garden of Prince Zhao’s Estate² and went over the wall. “Your qinggong³ is wonderful!” Huang Rong said softly. Guo Jing crouched at the foot of the wall, watching for any stir in the compound, and at her praise he felt happier than he could say.

After a while footsteps sounded, and two men came strolling along, talking and laughing. As they drew near, one of them said, “Why do you suppose the Young Prince⁴ has locked that girl up in here?” The other laughed. “Need you ask? A girl as pretty as that, have you seen even half of one since you came out of your mother’s belly?” The first said, “Look at you, all goggle-eyed. Mind the Young Prince doesn’t chop your head off. As for the girl, she’s pretty all right, but she’s not a patch on our Princess Consort.⁵” The other said, “A vagabond girl like that? How can you set her beside the Princess Consort?” The first said, “The Princess Consort? You think her own background is any…” He broke off abruptly, coughed twice and changed the subject. “The Young Prince came off badly in a fight yesterday. Watch yourselves, all of you, or he’ll vent his temper on you and you’ll get a good thrashing.” The other said, “If the Young Prince throws a punch at me like this, I’ll dodge like this, and then kick out like this…” The first laughed. “Stop admiring yourself!”

Guo Jing thought, So Wanyan Kang⁶ already has a beautiful sweetheart, and that’s why he won’t marry Miss Mu. Small wonder. But in that case he should never have entered the contest for her hand, still less snatched her embroidered shoe and refused to give it back. And why has he locked this girl up? Can it be that she won’t have him, and he means to force her?

By now the two men were closer still. One carried a storm lantern and the other a food hamper, and both wore the dark gowns and small caps of servants. The one with the hamper laughed. “He locks her up, then frets that she’ll go hungry. It’s this late, and still he’s in a fuss to send her food.” The other said, “If he weren’t so dashing and so attentive, how could he win a beauty’s heart?” Chatting and laughing in low voices, the two of them gradually moved off.

Huang Rong’s curiosity was roused. “Let’s go and see what sort of beauty she is,” she whispered. “The medicine comes first,” said Guo Jing. “I’m going to see the beauty first!” said Huang Rong, and she set off after the two servants. Guo Jing thought, What is there to look at in a woman? How odd. Little did he know that whenever a woman hears that some other woman is beautiful, nothing torments her like not seeing her with her own eyes, and if she is a beautiful woman herself, then she simply has to go and look, and compare. Guo Jing only put it down to her being terribly childish, and had no choice but to follow.

Prince Zhao’s Estate had vast grounds. They followed the two servants along winding ways for quite a while before they came to a large building with guards of the prince’s bodyguard standing before it, weapons in hand. Huang Rong and Guo Jing slipped to one side and heard the servants exchange a few words with the guards, who opened the door and let them in.

Huang Rong picked up a pebble and, with a soft pfft, knocked out the storm lantern. Taking Guo Jing by the hand, she sprang forward and squeezed in through the door, getting in ahead of the two servants themselves. Neither the servants nor the guards noticed a thing, taking it for a pebble that had happened to fall from the roof. Laughing and cursing, the servants took out tinder and flint and relit the lantern, crossed a large courtyard, opened a small inner door and went in.

Huang Rong and Guo Jing crept after them. Inside they saw a barrier of enormously thick iron bars, like a great cage for wild beasts, and behind it sat two people, just recognisable as a man and a woman.

One of the servants lit a candle, reached through the bars and set it on the table. By its light Guo Jing could see clearly, and he was astonished. The man, his hair and beard grizzled and his face full of fury, was Mu Yi⁷ himself, and the girl in the flower of her youth who sat beside him with bowed head could only be his daughter, Mu Nianci.⁸ Full of doubts and utterly baffled, Guo Jing thought, How do they come to be here? Of course, Wanyan Kang must have caught them. But what is Wanyan Kang thinking? Does he love the girl or not?

The two servants took pastries, wine and dishes from the hamper and passed them through the bars one plate at a time. Mu Yi picked up a plate of pastries and flung it out, cursing. “I’ve fallen into your trap. If you mean to kill me, be quick about it. Who wants your false kindness?”

In the middle of his cursing they suddenly heard the guards outside call out together, “Greetings, Young Prince!”

Huang Rong and Guo Jing exchanged a glance and hurriedly hid behind the door. Wanyan Kang strode in, shouting at the servants. “Who has angered Old Hero Mu? You wait and see if I don’t break your dog’s legs for this.” The two servants each went down on one knee and bowed their heads. “We wouldn’t dare.” “Get out, quick,” said Wanyan Kang. “Yes, yes,” the servants said hastily. They rose and turned to go, but at the door they looked at each other, stuck out their tongues and pulled faces.

Wanyan Kang waited until they had pulled the door shut behind them, then turned to Mu Yi and his daughter, all affability. “I have asked you both here because there is something I must explain. Please don’t misunderstand me.” “You tricked us here and locked us up like criminals,” Mu Yi said angrily. “Is that what you call ‘asking’?” “I’m truly sorry,” said Wanyan Kang. “Please bear with this small hardship for the time being. I feel very bad about it.” “Save that for a three-year-old,” Mu Yi said angrily. “Officials and their households eat people alive and never spit out the bones. Do you think I haven’t seen enough of that?” Several times Wanyan Kang tried to speak, and each time a fresh storm of abuse from Mu Yi drove him back, yet he kept his temper remarkably well, smiling and never once growing angry. After a while Mu Nianci said softly, “Father, at least hear what he has to say.” Mu Yi snorted, and only then stopped his abuse.

Wanyan Kang said, “Beauty and character like your daughter’s are rare in this world. I am not blind. How could I not love her?” A flush spread over Mu Nianci’s cheeks, and she bowed her head lower still. Wanyan Kang went on, “It is only that I am heir to a princely title, and my family is strict. If it got about that I had made a match with a hero of the jianghu,⁹ a man of valour from the wilds, not only would my royal father be angry with me, but most likely His Majesty would issue a stern edict rebuking him too.” “Then what do you propose?” said Mu Yi. “I would ask you both to rest here in my house for a few days,” said Wanyan Kang, “and once your injuries have healed, to go back home. In a year or so, when the matter has cooled and no one is gossiping any more, either I shall come to your house to fetch my bride, or you, Esteemed Senior, could bring your daughter here for the wedding. Wouldn’t that be best for everyone?” Mu Yi pondered in silence, but his mind was on another matter altogether.

Wanyan Kang said, “Three months ago my father was rebuked several times by His Majesty for the trouble my mischief caused. If he were to hear of this as well, the marriage could never come about. So I must earnestly beg you, Esteemed Senior, to keep it strictly secret.” “So, by your account,” Mu Yi said angrily, “even if my girl does go to you one day, she’ll spend her whole life sneaking about, never your wife openly and honourably?” “Naturally I shall make other arrangements for that,” said Wanyan Kang. “In time I shall ask several great ministers of the court to act as go-betweens. I mean to marry your daughter in full splendour.”

Mu Yi’s face suddenly changed. “Go and fetch your mother,” he said. “We’ll settle this face to face.” Wanyan Kang gave a faint smile. “How could my mother see you?” “Unless I meet your mother,” Mu Yi said with iron finality, “I won’t listen to a word, however sweetly you talk.” With that he snatched up the wine pot and hurled it out through the bars.

Ever since her contest with Wanyan Kang, Mu Nianci had given him her whole heart. Hearing him speak so reasonably, she had been quietly rejoicing, and now, seeing her father fly into a rage for no reason, she was both startled and hurt.

Wanyan Kang flicked the sleeve of his robe, caught the wine pot in its folds and set it back on the table. “I’ll leave you, then!” he said with a laugh, and turned and went out.

Listening to Wanyan Kang, Guo Jing had felt that he truly was in a difficult position, and that his plan was very well thought out. He had never expected Mu Yi to turn on him so suddenly. He thought, I’ll go and talk him round. He was just about to straighten up and step out when Huang Rong tugged his sleeve and whisked him out through the door.

They heard Wanyan Kang ask a servant, “Have you got it?” “Yes,” said the servant, and raised his hand. He was holding a rabbit. Wanyan Kang took it and, with two sharp cracks, broke both its hind legs. Then he tucked it into the front of his robe and strode quickly away.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong were mystified, with no idea what game he was playing, and they followed him at a distance.

Beyond a bamboo fence, a little three-room cottage with black tiles and white walls came into view. It was the kind of house ordinary country folk lived in in the south, and nothing one would expect to find in the midst of a lavish, splendid prince’s mansion. Guo Jing had never seen one before, but Huang Rong was astonished. They watched Wanyan Kang push open the plank door of the cottage and go in.

The two of them crept round to the back of the cottage and put their eyes to a crack in the window to peer inside. Surely, they thought, Wanyan Kang had come to this secret place to do something out of the ordinary, but instead they heard him call, “Mother!” and a woman’s voice inside answered, “Mm.”

Wanyan Kang went into the inner room, and Huang Rong and Guo Jing moved round to another window to peep in. A woman of middle years sat at a table, her chin propped on one hand, lost in a blank reverie. She was not yet forty, with lovely, delicate features and not a trace of powder or rouge, and she was dressed in coarse homespun. Huang Rong thought, So the Princess Consort really is even lovelier than Miss Mu. But why is she dressed as a country woman and living in this shabby little house? Has Prince Zhao banished her to the cold palace? Guo Jing, who had Huang Rong’s example to go by, saw nothing strange in it, though a different notion occurred to him. He thought, She’s probably like Rong-er, wearing coarse clothes on purpose and pretending to be poor, just for fun.

Wanyan Kang went to her side and took her hand. “Mother, are you feeling unwell again?” The woman sighed. “What else, when I’m worried about you?” Wanyan Kang nestled against her and laughed. “But your son’s right here, safe and sound, isn’t he? I haven’t lost so much as half a toe.” He spoke exactly like a spoilt child wheedling his mother. “Your eye’s swollen and your nose is all scraped,” said the woman, “and you call that safe and sound? Your father wouldn’t mind much if he found out about your antics, but if your shifu¹⁰ gets wind of it, there’ll be real trouble.”

Wanyan Kang laughed. “Mother, guess who that Daoist was who interfered yesterday.” “Who?” said the woman. “He’s my shifu’s shidi,¹¹” said Wanyan Kang. “By rights he’s my shishu,¹² but I won’t acknowledge him. I just called him Daoist Elder¹³ this and Daoist Elder that. He blew out his beard and glared at me, but there was nothing he could do about it.” He laughed as he spoke. The woman, though, was alarmed. “Oh no, this is bad. I’ve seen your shifu angry. When he kills, he’s truly terrifying.”

Wanyan Kang was surprised. “How have you seen my shifu kill anyone? Where? Why did he kill?” The woman raised her eyes to the candlelight, as though her thoughts had flown far away, and said slowly, “That was a long, long time ago. Ah, I’ve almost forgotten it all!”

Wanyan Kang asked no more about it, and said, very pleased with himself, “That Daoist Wang came pushing in at my door, wanting to know how I meant to settle the business of the marriage contest. I promised him on the spot that as soon as that Mu fellow came, I’d do whatever he said.” “Have you asked your father?” said the woman. “Will he agree?” Wanyan Kang laughed. “Mother, you’re so trusting. I’d already sent men to trick that Mu fellow and his daughter into coming here, and I’ve locked them in the iron cell at the back. Where’s Daoist Wang going to find him now?”

Footnotes

1. 铁枪破犁 — Tiěqiāng Pò Lí. Chapter title. ↩

2. 赵王府 — Zhàowáng Fǔ. Wanyan Honglie’s residence in Zhongdu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

4. 小王爷 — xiǎo wáng yé. Literally little prince. ↩

5. 王妃 — wángfēi. The consort of a prince. ↩

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

7. 穆易 — Mù Yì. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

8. 穆念慈 — Mù Niàncí. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

10. 师父 — shīfù. Teacher responsible for technical instruction and moral guidance. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 师弟 — shīdì. Male junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Dì means younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 师叔 — shīshū. Junior lineage uncle. The shidi or shimei of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Shū means father’s younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩