The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 2

The strange visitor gnashed his teeth. “Cry! Cry! Why won’t you cry? Hmph, you were just like this ten years ago. I forbade you to marry him, and you said you could not bear to leave me, yet you insisted on going with him. You said you were grateful for the kindness I had shown you, and that leaving me would break your heart. Bah! All of it, lies and deceit! If you were truly heartbroken, why won’t you cry?”

He stared at Cheng Ying with fierce intensity. Cheng Ying had long since been frightened out of her wits, yet still the tears would not fall. The strange visitor shook her violently. Cheng Ying bit down on her lip and told herself over and over, I will not cry! I will not cry!

The strange visitor said, “Hmph, you won’t shed a single tear for me, not even one drop. What use is there in my living?”

Abruptly he released Cheng Ying, bent his knees, crouched low, and rammed his head against a nearby tombstone. With a dull thud, he collapsed unconscious to the ground.

Lu Wushuang cried, “Cousin, run!”

She grabbed Cheng Ying’s hand and turned to flee. Cheng Ying ran a few steps, but seeing blood gushing from the stranger’s head, her heart softened. “Old uncle might have killed himself. Let’s go check on him.”

Lu Wushuang said, “If he’s dead, won’t he turn into a ghost?”

Cheng Ying was startled. She was afraid he might become a ghost, but also afraid he might suddenly wake and grab her again, spouting more of his bizarre, mad ravings. Yet seeing his face covered in blood, she felt a deep pity. She reassured herself, Old uncle isn’t a ghost. I’m not afraid. He won’t grab me again.

Step by step, she slowly approached and called, “Old uncle, does it hurt?”

The strange visitor groaned but did not answer. Cheng Ying’s courage grew a little. She took out her handkerchief and pressed it against his wound. But the force of his collision had been truly ferocious. The gash on his head was terribly severe. In the blink of an eye, the handkerchief was soaked through with blood. She pressed down firmly with her left hand, and after a while, the bleeding stopped.

The strange visitor opened his eyes a crack. Seeing Cheng Ying sitting beside him, he sighed. “Why do you save me again? Better to let me die and be done with it.”

Cheng Ying was happy to see him awake. Softly she asked, “Does your head hurt?”

The strange visitor shook his head. Mournfully he said, “My head doesn’t hurt. My heart hurts.”

Cheng Ying found this strange. How can his head be split open like that and not hurt, yet his heart hurts?

But she did not press the question. She untied her sash and bandaged his wound.

The strange visitor sighed, then rose to his feet. “You will never consent to see me again, will you? Are we to part like this, then? Won’t you shed even a single tear for me?”

Cheng Ying heard the sorrow in his words and saw that his ugly face, though terrifying with its streaks of blood, held in its eyes a look of desperate pleading. She could not help but feel a pang of grief, and two streams of tears spilled from her eyes.

When the strange visitor saw her tears, his expression was at once joyful and anguished. With a loud wail, he burst into tears himself.

Cheng Ying, seeing how heartbroken his weeping was, found her own tears falling like pearls from a broken string, rolling down her cheeks. Gently she reached out both hands and wrapped them around his neck.

Lu Wushuang watched the two of them inexplicably embracing and weeping, and a surge of mirth rose from the depths of her heart. Unable to contain herself any longer, she threw back her head and laughed loudly.

Hearing her laughter, the strange visitor looked up at the sky and sighed. “Yes, you said with your own lips that you would never leave me, but once you grew older, you forgot all the words you once spoke. All you remember now is that new acquaintance, that pretty-faced boy. How merrily you laugh!”

He lowered his head and studied Cheng Ying closely. “Yes, yes, you are Ayuan, my little Ayuan. I won’t let you go. I won’t let you run off with that pretty-faced brute.”

And he held Cheng Ying tightly in his arms.

Seeing his agitation, Lu Wushuang did not dare laugh anymore.

The strange visitor said, “Ayuan, I’ve found you. Let’s go home. From now on, you will stay with your father forever.”

Cheng Ying said, “Old uncle, my father died long ago.”

The strange visitor said, “I know, I know. I am your sworn father. Don’t you recognise me?”

Cheng Ying shook her head slightly. “I don’t have a sworn father.”

The strange visitor let out a great cry and shoved her away violently. “Ayuan! You won’t even acknowledge your sworn father?”

Cheng Ying said, “Old uncle, my name is Cheng Ying. I am not your Ayuan.”

The strange visitor muttered to himself, “You’re not Ayuan? Not my Ayuan?”

He stood dazed for a long moment, then said, “Yes, more than twenty years ago, Ayuan was just about your age. Now Ayuan has long since grown up. Grown up and no longer wants her father. In her heart, there is only that brute Lu Zhanyuan,¹ no one else.”

Lu Wushuang let out a gasp. “Lu Zhanyuan?”

The strange visitor stared at her. “You know Lu Zhanyuan, don’t you?”

Lu Wushuang gave a faint smile. “Of course I know him, he’s my uncle.”

The strange visitor’s face suddenly filled with savage ferocity. He seized Lu Wushuang by both arms. “He… he… where is that brute? Take me to him at once!”

Lu Wushuang was terrified, but she kept a smile on her face. In a trembling voice she said, “My uncle lives very close by. Do you really want to go find him? Hee hee!”

The strange visitor said, “Yes, yes! I’ve been searching Jiaxing for three whole days just to settle accounts with that brute. Little girl, take me there, and this old uncle won’t make trouble for you.”

His tone gradually softened, and he released her arms.

Lu Wushuang rubbed her left arm with her right hand. “You grabbed me so hard it hurts. I’ve suddenly forgotten where my uncle lives.”

The strange visitor’s brows shot up, and he was about to explode in rage. But then it occurred to him that bullying such a small girl was deeply wrong, and an ugly smile appeared on his face. He reached into his robe. “It’s Grandpa’s fault. Let me make it up to you. Grandpa will give you some candy.”

But his hand stayed stuck inside his robe, patting about in vain.

Lu Wushuang clapped her hands and laughed. “You don’t have any candy. You’re lying! Aren’t you ashamed? All right, I’ll tell you. My uncle lives right over there.”

She pointed towards two tall locust trees in the distance. “Just over there.”

The strange visitor stretched out his long arms, tucked the two girls under his armpits again, and raced towards the twin locust trees. He charged straight ahead, and whenever a stream blocked his path, he simply leapt across. In moments, the three of them had reached the trees. The strange visitor set the two girls down, and saw, standing starkly beneath the locust trees, two graves side by side. On one tombstone were carved the six characters: “Tomb of Lord Lu Zhanyuan.” On the other were seven: “Tomb of Madam He of the Lu Family.” Knee-high grass overgrown around the graves spoke of long neglect.

The strange visitor stared blankly at the tombstones and murmured to himself, “That brute Lu Zhanyuan is dead? When did he die?”

Lu Wushuang said cheerfully, “He’s been dead for three years now.”

The strange visitor gave a cold laugh. “Good riddance, good riddance. It’s only a pity I couldn’t take his dog’s life with my own hands.”

He threw back his head and laughed wildly. The laughter carried far into the distance, but the sound was filled with grief and fury, with not a trace of joy.

By now, dusk was falling, and a faint haze had settled over the green willows and verdant grass. Lu Wushuang tugged at her cousin’s sleeve and whispered, “Let’s go back.”

The strange visitor said, “The pretty-faced boy is dead. What is Ayuan still doing here? I want to take her back to Dali.² Hey, little girl, take me to find your… your dead uncle’s wife.”

Lu Wushuang pointed at the tombstone. “Can’t you see? My aunt is dead too.”

The strange visitor leapt into the air with a thunderous roar. “Are you telling the truth? She… she’s dead too?”

Lu Wushuang’s face went pale. In a trembling voice she said, “Father said that after my uncle died, my aunt followed soon after. I don’t know, I don’t know! Don’t frighten me. I’m scared!”

The strange visitor beat his chest and wailed, “She’s dead? She’s dead? It can’t be. You haven’t even seen me yet. You can’t be dead. I told you, ten years from now, I would come to see you. How… how could you not wait for me?”

He howled and leapt about like a mad tiger. Suddenly he swept out a leg with a sharp crack. The large locust tree on the right shuddered violently, its branches and leaves rustling. Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, hand in hand, retreated far away. How could they dare approach? They watched as he suddenly wrapped his arms around the locust tree and shook it with all his might, as if trying to uproot it. Though the tree was not especially thick, how could he possibly pull it up? He bellowed, “You promised me with your own lips. Have you forgotten? You said you would see me one more time. How can a promise be broken?”

As he shouted, his voice grew hoarse. He crouched down, channelled his strength into both hands, and steam began to rise slowly from his head, like a steaming basket. The muscles on his arms knotted and bulged. He arched his back and pulled, roaring, “Up!”

The locust tree still could not be pulled from the ground. But with a thunderous crack, it snapped in two. He stood holding the broken half of the tree, dazed, and said softly, “Dead… dead.”

He lifted it and hurled it with all his strength. The half-tree flew far into the distance, like an umbrella unfurling in midair.

He stood motionless before the graves, murmuring, “Yes, Madam He of the Lu Family, that is Ayuan.”

His vision blurred, and the two tombstones transformed into two figures: one a maiden with a flower-picking smile and sparkling, luminous eyes. The other a tall, graceful youth with an air of easy elegance. The two stood side by side.

The strange visitor’s eyes flew open. He cursed, “You seduced my precious daughter. I’ll finish you with one finger!”

He thrust out the index finger of his right hand, lunged forward, and stabbed violently at the youth’s chest. But a searing pain shot through his finger, as if it were about to snap. His finger had struck the tombstone, and the youth’s figure had vanished.

The strange visitor flew into a rage. “Where do you think you’re running?”

His left palm followed with a strike, then both palms struck in quick succession, pap, pap, both landing on the stone. The angrier he grew, the fiercer his palm strikes became. After more than ten blows, his palms were a bloody mess.

Cheng Ying could not bear to watch. “Old uncle, stop hitting it. You’re hurting your own hands.”

The strange visitor laughed wildly. “It doesn’t hurt! I want to beat Lu Zhanyuan, that brute, to death!”

He was laughing uproariously when his laughter abruptly ceased. He stood frozen for a moment, then cried, “I must see your face, I must see your face!”

He thrust both hands forward with ferocious force, and his ten fingers plunged into the earth of the grave of Madam He of the Lu Family like a set of awls. When he pulled his arms back, he had scooped out two great chunks of grave soil. His two palms worked like iron spades, rising and falling, scooping up mound after mound of earth.

Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang were frightened out of their wits. Without a word, they turned and fled. The strange visitor was wholly absorbed in digging up the grave and paid them no attention. The two girls ran frantically, turning corner after corner, and only when they could no longer see the strange visitor pursuing them did they begin to relax. Neither knew the way, so they asked villagers for directions as they went. It was fully dark by the time they entered the gates of Lu Manor.

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Lu Wushuang burst through the door shouting, “This is terrible! Terrible! Father, Mother, come quickly. That madman is digging up Uncle and Aunt’s graves!” She raced into the main hall and found her father, Lu Liding,³ sitting with his head tilted up, staring blankly at the wall.

Cheng Ying followed her into the hall. Following Lu Liding’s gaze, they saw imprinted on the wall three rows of palm prints: two at the top, two in the middle, and five at the bottom, nine in total. Each palm print was as crimson as fresh blood.

Lu Liding heard his daughter’s shouts and asked hurriedly, “What did you say?”

Lu Wushuang cried, “That madman is digging up Uncle and Aunt’s graves!”

Lu Liding started in alarm and rose to his feet. “Nonsense!”

Cheng Ying said, “Uncle, it’s true.”

Footnotes

1. 陆展元 – Lù Zhǎnyuán. His name meaning “spreading the origin”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 大理 – Dàlǐ. Historical kingdom in present-day Yunnan Province (937–1253), contemporaneous with the Song dynasty. In the Condor Trilogy it is associated with the Duan imperial family and Great Master Yideng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 陆立鼎 – Lù Lìdǐng. His name meaning “establishing the tripod”, a metaphor for laying a stable foundation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩