The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 8

At first Yang Guo had thought only of taking the antidote to save Xiaolongnü and had given no thought to anything else. Hearing Qiu Qianchi’s words, he suddenly saw a bright way open before him. The villain’s lawful wife has come back. How can he marry Aunt now? In his great joy another thought struck him, There’s only one Passion-Cutting Pill. It can save Aunt, but I’m bound to die. At the thought his spirits sank.

Lü’e saw his face turn from joy to sorrow, and thinking of how her parents’ meeting might turn the world upside down, she felt her tender heart twist a hundred ways and her mind tangle like hemp. Qiu Qianchi, though, was wildly excited. “E’er, quick, carry me there.” “Mama,” said Lü’e, “you must have a bath first and change your clothes.” In truth she dreaded the scene of her parents’ meeting and hoped to put it off a moment longer, and another moment after that.

Qiu Qianchi flew into a rage. “My clothes in rags, my body filthy, whose doing is that? Can it be…” Suddenly she remembered how her eldest brother Qiu Qianzhang used often to pass himself off as her second brother Qiu Qianren, putting on airs in the jianghu and scaring countless heroes and brave men. She thought that with the sinews of her hands and feet cut she was no match for Gongsun Zhi, and even if she faced him she could never avenge herself. Her only course was to pass herself off as Second Brother, first frighten the villain out of his wits, then wait for her chance to strike. Luckily he had never seen Second Brother’s face, and he was sure she had died long ago in the cavern, so he would suspect nothing. But then another thought came to her, I was his wife for so many years. How could he fail to know me?

Seeing her hesitate, unable to decide, Yang Guo had half guessed what was on her mind. “Elder, you’re afraid Gongsun Zhi will recognise you, aren’t you? Well, I have a treasure here.” He took out the human-skin mask and put it on, and at once his face was changed beyond knowing, grim and ghastly, horrible to see. Qiu Qianchi was delighted and took the mask. “E’er, first we’ll hide in the woods behind the manor, and you’ll go and fetch me a hempen gown, and a big palm-leaf fan too. Don’t forget.” Lü’e said she would, bent down and took her mother on her back.

Yang Guo looked about him. They were on the top of a lone, sheer peak, with dense forest all around, and far off he could see the stone manor, several li¹ away already. Qiu Qianchi sighed. “This peak is called Vengeful Ghost Peak. In the valley they’ve said for generations that a vengeful ghost haunts it, so nobody dares come up here. Who would have thought that when I came back into the world it would be here on Vengeful Ghost Peak?”

Yang Guo barked at Fan Yiweng, “What did you come here for?” Fan Yiweng showed not the least fear. “Kill me and be quick about it, and spare me the talk.” “Did Valley Master Gongsun send you?” said Yang Guo. Fan Yiweng said angrily, “He did. My shifu ordered me to search the mountain, front and back, in case any villains were lurking about, and just as he foresaw, here’s someone up to sneaking tricks.” As he spoke he looked Qiu Qianchi over, wondering who the old woman could be and why Miss Gongsun called her Mama. Fan Yiweng was older than Gongsun Zhi and his wife. He had come to his shifu already trained in an art of his own, and when Gongsun Zhi took him as a disciple Qiu Qianchi was already trapped in the cavern, so he did not know her. But from what he had heard of the three of them talking, he guessed they meant his shifu great harm.

Hearing the utter loyalty to Gongsun Zhi in his words, Qiu Qianchi flew into a fury. “Kill this dwarf at once,” she said to Yang Guo, “and be rid of the trouble for good.” Yang Guo turned and looked at Fan Yiweng. Seeing him stand there unbowed and unafraid, he found himself respecting him as a brave man, and he had half a mind to spare his life. But he needed Qiu Qianchi’s help just now and could hardly go against her wishes. “Miss Gongsun,” he said, “take your mother down first. I’ll deal with this dwarf and follow you directly.”

Gongsun Lü’e had always known her eldest shixiong to be an upright man and could not bear to see him die for nothing. “Big Brother Yang, my eldest shixiong isn’t a bad man…” “Go on, go!” roared Qiu Qianchi. “You won’t listen to a single word I say. What use is a daughter like you?” Lü’e dared say no more, and with her mother on her back she went looking for a path down the peak.

Yang Guo went over to Fan Yiweng. He thought that if he unsealed the man’s points now, he would go and report to the Valley Master. He lowered his voice. “Brother Fan, I’ve sealed the points in your hands and feet. They’ll free themselves in six shichen.² You and I have no quarrel and no feud, and I can’t do you harm.” With that he set off with his qinggong after Lü’e. Fan Yiweng had already closed his eyes to wait for death. He had never dreamed Yang Guo would treat him like this, and for a while he was too stunned to speak. He could only watch as the three figures passed behind the rock and vanished into the dark.

Yang Guo was impatient to see Xiaolongnü again and thought Lü’e was going too slowly. “Elder Qiu, let me carry you a while.” Lü’e had sensed earlier that her mother and Yang Guo grated on each other in word and manner, and had been a little worried, so to hear him offer to carry her mother pleased her very much. “That’s very good of you,” she said. “I carried her ten months in my womb,” said Qiu Qianchi, “and bore a daughter as lovely as a flower and as fair as jade, and with one word I’ve given her to you. Isn’t it only right you carry me a little?” Yang Guo was taken aback and thought it best not to answer. He lifted her onto his back, drew a breath and sped down the peak like an arrow leaving the string.

Qiu Qianren was known as Iron Palm Floats on Water, and his qinggong was among the very best in the wulin.³ Once, fighting Zhou Botong, he had been chased ten thousand li from the Central Plains all the way to the Western Regions, and even Old Urchin, with all his martial skill, had not been able to catch him. Qiu Qianchi had been taught by her brother himself, and before her sinews were ruined her qinggong too had been of the very first rank. Now, lying on Yang Guo’s back, she felt as though his feet never touched the ground, so fast and steady did he run, and she was both impressed and puzzled. She thought, The boy’s qinggong is quite unlike our school’s, but it’s in no way inferior to the Iron Palm School’s. I mustn’t underrate him. She had felt her daughter was throwing herself away on this man, but since the girl’s heart was given there was nothing to be done. Earlier, watching him climb the rock face, she had already judged his martial skill no mean thing, and now she was coming round to the feeling that this son-in-law-to-be might not disgrace her daughter after all.

In less time than it takes to eat a meal, Yang Guo had carried Qiu Qianchi to the foot of the peak. When he looked back for Lü’e she was still halfway down the mountainside, and they waited a long while before she came running down to the foot, breathing softly and quickly, her forehead beaded with sweat.

The three of them slipped quietly round to the back of the manor. Lü’e did not dare go in. She went to a neighbouring house and borrowed clothes for herself, a hempen gown and a palm-leaf fan for her mother, and a man’s long gown for Yang Guo. The neighbours had always treated her with respect, so borrowing the things was no trouble at all. Qiu Qianchi put on the human-skin mask, dressed in the hempen gown and took the palm-leaf fan in her hand, and with Yang Guo and Lü’e supporting her on either side she walked towards the manor gate.

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As they went in at the gate, all three were in a turmoil of feeling, Qiu Qianchi most of all, coming back to the old place after more than ten years away. They saw big red lanterns lit at the manor gate, and looking in, everywhere was hung with coloured silks and wedding drapes, and the sound of drums and music came from the great hall. The servants were astonished to see Qiu Qianchi and Yang Guo, but with Lü’e beside them none dared say much.

The three of them walked straight into the hall. It was full of guests come to offer congratulations, most of them neighbours of the Narcissus Manor in Passionless Valley. Gongsun Zhi, in full wedding dress, stood on the left. On the right stood the bride in phoenix crown and embroidered cape.⁴ Her face could not be seen, but she was slender and graceful of figure, and it could only be Xiaolongnü.

In the courtyard flame flashed again and again, and with a bang, bang, bang three salute guns were fired. The master of ceremonies sang out, “The auspicious hour has come. Let the bride and groom bow to Heaven and Earth together!”

Qiu Qianchi burst into loud laughter that set the candle flames shaking and the roof tiles trembling. “The new couple bow to Heaven and Earth together,” she said in a ringing voice, “and what becomes of the old one?”

Though the sinews of her hands and feet were cut, her neigong had lost nothing at all. In the cavern, with nothing to distract her, she had trained hard day and night, and her fourteen years of cultivation were worth more than twenty-eight of another’s. When she shouted those two sentences, ears hummed throughout the hall, the room went dark before their eyes, and more than ten of the red candles in the hall had gone out of themselves.

Everyone started and turned round as one. Gongsun Zhi had been greatly taken aback by the shout already, and when he saw Yang Guo and his daughter standing unharmed beside this masked stranger, he was more disconcerted still. “Who are you, sir?” he barked.

Qiu Qianchi tightened her throat and laughed coldly. “You and I are bound by the closest of ties, and you pretend not to know me?” She spoke with her breath driven up from the dantian, and though the words were not loud they carried far. Passionless Valley is ringed by mountains, and before long echoes came back from all sides, “Not know me? Not know me?”, crowding in one upon another.

State Preceptor Jinlun, Xiaoxiangzi,⁵ Yin Kexi⁶ and the others were all there among the onlookers, and hearing Qiu Qianchi’s voice they knew she was someone of great consequence, and every eye turned on her.

Gongsun Zhi saw that this person wore a hempen gown and waved a palm-leaf fan, much as his former wife had described her brother Qiu Qianren, and the neigong was formidable too. But the face was weird, rather like the Xiaoxiangzi that Zhou Botong had impersonated earlier, and there was surely something very odd behind it. Inwardly on his guard, he said coldly, “I have never met you before in my life, sir. What is all this about the closest of ties? Is it not laughable?”

Yin Kexi was well versed in the lore of the wulin. Seeing Qiu Qianchi’s hempen gown and palm-leaf fan, a thought came to him, and he asked, “Can Your Excellency be the venerable Qiu, Iron Palm Floats on Water?” Qiu Qianchi gave a loud laugh and waved the fan a few times. “I thought everyone in the world who knew this old fellow was dead and gone. It seems there’s one left.”

Footnotes

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

2. 时辰 – shíchen. Traditional Chinese double hour; one twelfth of a day, equal to two modern hours. ↩

3. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. Wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 凤冠霞帔 – Phoenix Crown and Ceremonial Cape. Traditional Chinese bridal attire. Phoenix crown is an elaborate headdress adorned with phoenix imagery, while the ceremonial cape (xiapei) is a richly embroidered outer garment. Together they represent the highest form of formal bridal dress. ↩

5. 潇湘子 – Xiāoxiāng Zǐ. Literally Master of the Xiao and Xiang rivers. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 尹克西 – Yǐn Kèxī. His name meaning “overcome the west”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩