The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 12

Feast of heroes

The next morning, Yang Guo¹ had just finished breakfast in the hall when he saw Guo Fu² in the courtyard, beckoning to him, while the Wu brothers³ hovered to one side, craning their necks. Yang Guo laughed to himself and went over to her. “Were you looking for me?” he asked.

Guo Fu smiled. “I was. Walk with me outside the gate. I want to hear what you’ve been doing all these years.”

Yang Guo let out a long breath and thought, Where would I even begin? Three days and three nights wouldn’t cover it. And how could I tell you any of it anyway?

The two of them walked out through the main gate side by side. Yang Guo glanced round and saw the Wu brothers trailing along far behind. Guo Fu had known it all along, but she pretended not to see them and only kept plying Yang Guo with questions. He told her at length how, when he first arrived at the Chongyang Palace,⁴ her father had sent the Quanzhen⁵ Daoists scattering like petals on a stream, and how he had played tricks on Lu Qingdu,⁶ picking out nothing but harmless trifles and rambling from one to the next, until Guo Fu was giggling sweetly.

They had strolled as far as the willows when a long neigh rang out, and a scrawny, mangy horse came galloping up and rubbed itself against Yang Guo, nuzzling him fondly. At the sight of the ugly beast the Wu brothers could not help roaring with laughter, and came over to join them. “Brother Yang,” said Wu Xiuwen,⁷ laughing, “what a marvellous thousand-li⁸ steed⁹ that is. It must have taken real skill to find it. Find me one too some day.” Wu Dunru¹⁰ put on a straight face. “That is a priceless treasure from the Arabian Empire.¹¹ How could you ever afford one?” Guo Fu looked at Yang Guo, then at the ugly horse, saw that the pair of them were equally filthy and down-at-heel, and a giggle escaped her before she could stop it.

Yang Guo laughed. “An ugly man and an ugly horse, we’re a perfect match. Your mounts, Brothers Wu, must be magnificent creatures.”

“Ours are only a little better than your mangy nag,” said Wu Xiuwen. “Sister Fu’s red horse,¹² now, that’s a real treasure. You saw it years ago, on Peach Blossom Island.”¹³

Yang Guo said, “So Uncle Guo gave the red horse to you, Miss.”

The four of them talked as they walked. Suddenly Guo Fu pointed to the west. “Look, my mother’s off teaching the staff technique again.”

Yang Guo turned his head and saw Huang Rong¹⁴ and an old beggar walking side by side towards a mountain hollow, each with a staff in hand. “Elder Lu¹⁵ really is slow,” said Wu Xiuwen. “He’s been learning the Dog-Beating Staff Technique¹⁶ all this time and still hasn’t got it.”

At the words “Dog-Beating Staff Technique” a jolt went through Yang Guo, but he let nothing show. He turned his head away and gazed elsewhere, pretending to admire the view.

“The Dog-Beating Staff Technique is the guardian treasure of the Beggars’ Guild,”¹⁷ said Guo Fu. “My mother says it’s wondrous beyond compare, the deadliest moves of any weapon under heaven. Of course nobody learns it in ten days or a fortnight. You call him slow, and I suppose you’re so clever?”

Wu Dunru sighed. “It’s a pity it’s never taught to anyone but the Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild.”

“If you become Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild one day,” said Guo Fu, “Guild Chief Lu will teach it to you, naturally. Even my father doesn’t know it, so there’s no need to be jealous.”

“With my sort of talent, how could I ever be Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild?” said Wu Dunru. “Sister Fu, why do you think our shimu¹⁸ chose Elder Lu to succeed her?”

“All these years my mother has held the title in name only,” said Guo Fu. “Every affair of the Beggars’ Guild, large or small, has been left to Elder Lu Youjiao. She says all the endless fuss in the Guild gives her a headache just hearing about it, and why go on keeping the name without the substance? Better simply to make Elder Lu Guild Chief. Once he’s learnt the Dog-Beating Staff Technique, she’ll formally hand the position over to him.”

“Sister Fu,” said Wu Xiuwen, “how exactly does this Dog-Beating Staff Technique go? Have you ever seen it?”

“No, I haven’t. Oh, wait, yes I have!” Guo Fu picked up a twig from the ground, tapped him lightly on the shoulder and laughed. “Like this!”

Wu Xiuwen gave a great shout. “Right, so I’m a dog, am I? See if I let you off for that.” He made as if to grab her. Guo Fu ran off laughing, Wu Xiuwen chased after her, and the two of them went round in a circle and came back to where they had started.

Guo Fu laughed. “Little Brother Wu, stop messing about. I’ve got an idea.”

“All right, let’s hear it,” said Wu Xiuwen.

“Let’s sneak over and have a look,” said Guo Fu, “and see what this precious Dog-Beating Staff Technique is really like.”

Xiuwen clapped his hands in approval. Wu Dunru, though, shook his head. “If Shimu catches us stealing a look at the staff technique, we’ll get a proper telling-off.”

“We’re only going to see what it looks like,” Guo Fu snapped, “not steal it. Besides, with a martial art this profound, do you think you’d pick it up from a few glances? Big Brother Wu, aren’t you something.”

Wu Dunru took the snub with a faint smile. Guo Fu went on, “Yesterday, when we hid in the study and listened in, did my mother scold anyone? You’re always such a coward. Little Brother Wu, we’ll go on our own.”

“All right, all right,” said Wu Dunru. “Have it your way. I’ll come with you.”

“The finest martial art under heaven,” said Guo Fu, “and you mean to say you don’t want to see it? Stay behind if you like. I’ll learn it and come back and thrash you with it.” She raised the twig in her hand and flourished it at him.

The three of them had long been fascinated by the Dog-Beating Staff Technique. They had heard its name for years, but had never once seen what it actually looked like. Guo Jing¹⁹ had told them how, at the Beggars’ Guild assembly on Mount Jun²⁰ years before, Huang Rong had used it to defeat all the assembled heroes and win the position of Guild Chief, and the three children had listened, rapt with admiration. Now that Guo Fu proposed going to see it for themselves, Wu Dunru objected aloud, but in his heart he was a hundred and twenty times willing. He merely made a show of going along with Guo Fu’s idea against his better judgement, so that if they were found out, his shimu could not lay the blame on him.

“Big Brother Yang,” said Guo Fu, “you come with us too.”

Yang Guo was gazing at the distant hills, apparently lost in a daydream, and had not heard a word they said. Only when Guo Fu called a second time did he turn round, his face blank with bewilderment. “Yes, yes, I’ll come with you. Where are we going?”

“Don’t ask. Just follow me.”

“Sister Fu,” said Wu Dunru, “what do you want him along for? He won’t understand any of it. If he blunders about and makes a noise, Shimu will hear us.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll look after him,” said Guo Fu. “You two go first. Big Brother Yang and I will follow on. Four of us walking together would make too much noise.”

The Wu brothers were thoroughly unwilling, but they knew from long experience that there was no crossing Guo Fu, and they trudged off ahead, sulking. Guo Fu called after them, “We’ll take the short way and hide up in that big tree first. Everyone be careful not to make a sound, and my mother will never know.”

The Wu brothers called back their agreement from a distance and quickened their pace.

Guo Fu looked Yang Guo over. His clothes really were in a dreadful state. “When we get back, I’ll ask my mother to make you some new clothes,” she said. “Once you’re properly dressed, you won’t look so awful.”

Yang Guo shook his head. “I was born ugly. Dressing up won’t help.”

Once Guo Fu had said a thing, that was the end of it, and she gave the matter no further thought. She watched the Wu brothers’ retreating backs and suddenly gave a soft sigh.

“What are you sighing for?” asked Yang Guo.

“I’m terribly fed up,” said Guo Fu. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Yang Guo looked at her delicate, flushed face and her lovely brows, faintly knitted. She truly was a beauty, a good three parts lovelier even than Lu Wushuang,²¹ Wanyan Ping²² or Yelü Yan,²³ and his heart stirred a little. “I know what’s bothering you,” he said.

Guo Fu laughed. “Well, that’s odd. How could you know? You’re talking complete nonsense.”

“Fine,” said Yang Guo. “But if I guess right, you’re not allowed to deny it.”

Guo Fu pressed the tip of one soft white little finger to her right cheek, her starry eyes dancing and a smile hovering at the corners of her mouth. “All right. Guess.”

“Easy,” said Yang Guo. “The Wu brothers both like you, they’re both trying to win you over, and you can’t choose between them.”

To have her secret laid bare set Guo Fu’s heart pounding. She knew it, the Wu brothers knew it, her parents knew it, even her Grand Shifu Ke Zhen’e²⁴ knew it, but everyone felt it was too awkward to mention. Each of them thought about it constantly, yet not one had ever said a word of it aloud. Now, out of nowhere, Yang Guo had come straight out with it. Her whole face went scarlet. She was glad and miserable at once, wanting to laugh and wanting to cry, and tears rolled round and round in her eyes.

Yang Guo went on, “Big Brother Wu is refined and steady, Little Brother Wu talks steadily. Both are young and handsome and clever, and both do whatever I say and dance attendance on me. Truly, the elder brother has his virtues and the younger brother has his wits. But there’s only one of me, so how can I marry two men?”

Guo Fu listened in a daze. At the last line she spat. “What rubbish you talk. Who’s paying you any attention?”

But Yang Guo could see from her face that he had guessed it all, and he hummed a little ditty under his breath, “But there’s only one of me, oh, so how can I marry two men?”

He hummed it several times over, but Guo Fu was too preoccupied to hear. After a while she said, “Big Brother Yang, who do you think is better, Big Brother Wu or Little Brother Wu?”

It was an abrupt thing to ask. She and Yang Guo had been playmates as children, but there had been bad blood between them even then, and they had not seen each other for years. Now that both were grown, how could she pour out a girl’s private feelings to him? But Yang Guo had a lively nature. So long as you did not cross him, he would laugh and joke and chatter with you, and in a few moments you felt as if you were sitting in a spring breeze or drinking fine wine. Besides, Guo Fu had turned the matter over in her mind a thousand times, and she truly felt each of the two had his merits. For play and idle chatter she got on better with Wu Xiuwen, but when there was real business to be done, Wu Dunru was far the more dependable. A girl in the first stirrings of love, she had sulked and scolded, smiled and fretted at the pair of them by turns until the brothers hardly knew which way was up, yet in her own heart she was in a real quandary, not knowing which of them she ought to favour. She had no one to talk it over with, and now that Yang Guo had hit upon her secret, the question slipped out before she could stop it.

Yang Guo laughed. “I don’t think much of either of them.”

Guo Fu stared. “Why not?”

Yang Guo laughed. “Because if either of them were any good, what hope would there be for me, Yang Guo?”

All along the road he had grown used to fooling about with Lu Wushuang, all cheeky grins and nonsense, though he had never really meant anything improper by it, and now, joking with Guo Fu, the words had slipped out again. Guo Fu was taken aback. She had been spoilt and pampered all her life, and no one had ever dared say a single flirtatious word to her. For a moment she did not know whether she ought to be angry or not. Her face set hard. “Don’t tell me, then. Who’s joking with you?” And with that she sped off with her qinggong,²⁵ taking the side path round to the back of the hollow.

Footnotes

1. 杨过 – Yáng Guò. His name meaning “fault or transgression”; his courtesy name Gaizhi means “to correct it”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 郭芙 – Guō Fú. Her name meaning “lotus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. Wu Brothers. Wu Dunru (武敦儒) and Wu Xiuwen (武修文), sons of Wu Santong, disciples of Guo Jing and Huang Rong. ↩

4. 重阳宫 – Chóngyáng Gōng. Main temple of Quanzhen Order on Zhongnan Mountain. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. Quanzhen Order (全真教). Major Daoist school founded by Wang Chongyang. In Jin Yong’s wuxia universe, it is one of the most powerful martial arts sects, based at the Chongyang Palace on Mount Zhongnan. Its seven senior disciples are known as the Seven Masters of Quanzhen. ↩

6. 鹿清笃 – Lù Qīngdú. His name meaning “pure and sincere”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 武修文 – Wǔ Xiūwén. His name meaning “cultivate literature”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 里 – lǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 metres or a third of a mile. ↩

9. Thousand-li steed (千里马). Literally “thousand-li horse.” A term for a horse of exceptional speed and endurance, capable of covering a thousand li in a single day. Term is also used metaphorically for a person of outstanding talent who has not yet been recognised. ↩

10. 武敦儒 – Wǔ Dūnrú. His name meaning “earnest scholar”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. Arabian Empire (大食). Historical Chinese term for the Arab Islamic caliphates. Arab horses were famed for their speed and endurance. ↩

12. Red Horse (红马). Prized steed originally belonging to Guo Jing, known for its extraordinary speed and stamina, raised on Peach Blossom Island. ↩

13. 桃花岛 – Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island stronghold, continued from LOCH era. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 黄蓉 – Huáng Róng. Her name meaning “lotus” or “hibiscus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 鲁有脚 – Lǔ Yǒujiǎo. His name meaning “having feet”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 打狗棒法 – Dǎgǒu Bàngfǎ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 丐帮 – Gàibāng. Largest martial arts organisation in the jianghu, continued from LOCH era. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 师母 – shīmǔ. The wife of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Mǔ means mother. ↩

19. 郭靖 – Guō Jìng. His name meaning “tranquillity” or “pacification”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 君山 – Jūn Shān. Island in Lake Dongting, site of the Beggars’ Guild assembly where Huang Rong became chief. ↩

21. 陆无双 – Lù Wúshuāng. Her name meaning “peerless” or “without equal”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 完颜萍 – Wányán Píng. Her name meaning “duckweed”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. Yelü Yan (耶律燕). Sister of Yelü Qi, a young woman of Khitan aristocratic descent whom Yang Guo encountered during his travels. ↩

24. 柯镇恶 – Kē Zhèn’è. His name meaning “subduing evil”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally lightness skill. The martial art of body lightness; practitioners leap great heights and move with extraordinary speed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩