The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 9

Gongsun Zhi’s face showed nothing. “Are you really Qiu Qianren, sir? I fear you’re some shameless impostor.” Qiu Qianchi was startled. She thought, How sharp the damned wretch is. How does he know I’m not? She could not think what had given her away, so she only smiled a thin, cold smile and made no answer.

Yang Guo paid no more heed to whatever the husband and wife were scheming. He darted to Xiaolongnü’s side, the Passion-Cutting Pill in his right hand, and with his left lifted away the red veil over her face. “Aunt, open your mouth.” At the sudden sight of Yang Guo, Xiaolongnü’s heart leapt, and joy and astonishment flooded through her together. “You… so you really are well,” she said, her voice trembling. She had long since learned that Gongsun Zhi was vicious at heart and cruel in his ways, and she had agreed to marry him only to save Yang Guo’s life. Seeing him appear so suddenly, she thought Gongsun Zhi had kept his word and cured him of the deadly poison. Yang Guo reached out and put the Passion-Cutting Pill into her mouth. “Swallow it, quick!” Xiaolongnü had no idea what it was, but she swallowed it as he said, and in an instant felt a coolness go straight down to her dantian.

By now the hall was in uproar. Gongsun Zhi saw Yang Guo come to make trouble again and wanted to stop him, but he was wary of this strange masked guest, not knowing whether it truly was his brother-in-law Qiu Qianren, Iron Palm Floats on Water, and for the moment he dared not act.

Yang Guo tore the phoenix crown and embroidered cape from Xiaolongnü’s head and shoulders and ripped them to shreds, took her by the arm and drew back to one side. “Aunt, that villain of a Valley Master is in for some trouble. Let’s watch the fun.” Xiaolongnü’s mind was in turmoil. She leaned against Yang Guo, not knowing what to say. Ma Guangzuo,¹ seeing Yang Guo suddenly arrive, was delighted beyond words. He came up and plied him with questions, rambling on and on, never noticing that Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü did not at all want to be disturbed.

Yin Kexi had long heard that twenty years ago Qiu Qianren had struck awe through the lands north and south of the Great River, a figure to be reckoned with, and having heard his laugh and his shout set the valley ringing, he could tell his neigong was very deep. Wanting to make a friend of him, he came forward, bowed with clasped hands and smiled. “Today is Valley Master Gongsun’s happy day. Have you come to drink a cup of wedding wine too, venerable Qiu?” Qiu Qianchi pointed at Gongsun Zhi. “Do you know, Your Excellency, what he is to me?” “That I don’t,” said Yin Kexi. “May I ask?” “Let him tell you himself,” said Qiu Qianchi.

Gongsun Zhi asked again, “Are you truly Iron Palm Floats on Water, sir? Now that is strange!” He clapped his hands and said to a disciple in green, “Go to the study and bring the letter box from the east shelf.” Lü’e, at her wits’ end, pulled up a chair without thinking and sat her mother down in it. Gongsun Zhi wondered to himself, She and the Yang boy fell into the crocodile pool. How can they still be alive?

In a moment the disciple handed him the box. Gongsun Zhi opened it, took out a letter and said coldly, “Ten years ago I received a letter from Qiu Qianren. If you truly are Qiu Qianren, sir, then this letter must be false.” Qiu Qianchi was startled. She thought, Second Brother and I have never exchanged a word since we fell out. How can a letter have come all of a sudden? And what does it say? “When did I ever write you a letter?” she said loudly. “This is utter nonsense.”

At the sound of her voice Gongsun Zhi suddenly remembered someone, and he started violently. Cold sweat broke out all over his back. But then he thought, No, no. She died in the cavern under the earth, and by now she must have rotted long ago to a heap of white bones. But then who is this? He opened the letter and read aloud:

“‘To Brother Zhi and Sister Chi, together: Since Eldest Brother lost his life at the hands of Guo Jing² and Huang Rong³ on Iron Palm Peak…’”

At this first sentence Qiu Qianchi was seized with grief and pain. “What?” she cried. “Who says my eldest brother is dead?” All her life her bond with her eldest brother Qiu Qianzhang had been the closest of all, and at the sudden news of his death she trembled all over and her voice changed. She had been speaking with her breath driven up from the dantian, so that it was hard to tell whether the voice was a man’s or a woman’s, but now, with her true feelings breaking through, the words “Who says my eldest brother is dead?” came out in a woman’s voice.

Gongsun Zhi realised the person before him was a woman, and hearing her say “my eldest brother”, he was more terrified than ever in the depths of his heart. But he was also all the more certain this was no Qiu Qianren, and he went on reading:

”’…I am deeply ashamed that for these several decades I have sorely failed in brotherly love, so that we who are of one blood fell out, and the fault is wholly mine. Searching my heart in the dead of night, I find my wrongs without number. How should they be only my offences against Eldest Brother and my worthy sister? Lately, at the second Mount Hua Tournament, I was blessed with the enlightenment of Great Master Yideng, and I have laid down the butcher’s knife and taken refuge in the Three Treasures.⁴ My practice is still shallow and worldly ties are hard to cut, and beside the blue lamp and the ancient Buddha I often remember the happy days we spent as brother and sister. Thinking of you in the wind, I pray for your every blessing. The monk Ci’en, palms pressed together.’”⁵

As Gongsun Zhi read on, Qiu Qianchi wept silently, and when the letter was finished she could hold back no longer and burst into loud sobs. “Eldest Brother, Second Brother, do you know what I have suffered?” Suddenly she tore off the mask and cried, “Gongsun Zhi, do you know me now?” At that fierce, piercing cry seven or eight more candles in the great hall went out, and those that remained flickered and swayed.

In the dim candlelight a face suddenly appeared before them, an old woman’s face, harrowing and savage. Everyone was profoundly shaken and no one dared speak. The hall was silent, and every heart was pounding.

Suddenly an old servant who had been standing in attendance in a corner of the hall ran forward, crying, “Mistress, Mistress, you’re not dead after all.” Qiu Qianchi nodded. “Second Uncle Zhang, so you still remember me.” The old servant was deeply loyal, and seeing his mistress alive and well he was beside himself with joy. He kowtowed again and again, crying, “Mistress, this is the true happy occasion.” Of the guests in the hall, apart from State Preceptor Jinlun and a few other outsiders, all were neighbours from the valley, and most of those over thirty or forty knew Qiu Qianchi. At once a babble of voices broke out as they crowded forward to ask her this and that.

Gongsun Zhi shouted, “Stand back, all of you!” Everyone turned in astonishment and saw him point a finger at Qiu Qianchi. “Slut, what have you come back for? Do you still have the face to see me?”

Lü’e had been hoping with all her heart that her father would own his fault and make it up with her mother. She had never thought to hear him say such things. In great agitation she ran to her father, knelt on the ground and cried, “Father! Mama isn’t dead, she isn’t dead. Make your apology, quick, and ask her to forgive you!”

Gongsun Zhi laughed coldly. “Ask her to forgive me? What have I done wrong?” “You shut Mama away in a cavern under the earth,” said Lü’e, “and made her suffer there for more than ten years. Father, how can you face her?” “She was the one who harmed me first, do you know that?” said Gongsun Zhi icily. “She pushed me into the Passion Flowers⁶ and made me suffer the agony of a thousand needles and ten thousand thorns, do you know that? She soaked the antidote in arsenic water, so that whether I took it or not I would die, do you know that? She even forced me to kill… to kill with my own hand someone I loved, do you know that?” “I know it all,” wept Lü’e. “That was Rou’er.”

No one had spoken that name to Gongsun Zhi for more than ten years, and his face changed utterly. He raised his head to the sky and murmured, “Yes, it was Rou’er, it was Rou’er!” He pointed at Qiu Qianchi and said savagely, “It was… it was this cruel, venomous slut who made me kill Rou’er!” His face grew more and more harrowing, and softly he called, “Rou’er… Rou’er…”

Yang Guo thought that neither of this ill-fated, hate-bound pair was any good. The poison in him had gone deep, and he had only a few days left in this world. All he wanted was to find some place where no one ever came and spend those days quietly with Xiaolongnü. What did he care who was right and who was wrong between Gongsun Zhi and his wife? He gave Xiaolongnü’s sleeve a gentle tug and said softly, “Let’s go.”

Xiaolongnü said, “Is this woman really his wife? Did her husband really shut her away for more than ten years?” She could hardly believe there were such wicked people in the world. “The two of them have been taking revenge on each other,” said Yang Guo. Xiaolongnü tilted her head and thought it over for a long while. “That I don’t understand,” she said softly. “Was this woman forced to marry him too, like me?” To her mind, unless two people were forced into marriage they would surely love and cherish each other. How could they do each other such harm? Yang Guo shook his head. “In this world good people are few and wicked ones many. What such people think is hard for others to guess…”

Suddenly Gongsun Zhi gave a great shout. “Get out of my way!” His right foot came up, and Lü’e flew into the air and came hurtling outward. Plainly her father had kicked her.

She was flying straight at Qiu Qianchi’s chest. Qiu Qianchi had no strength in her hands or feet and could only duck her head to dodge, but Lü’e was coming too fast, and with a thud her body struck her mother’s shoulder. Qiu Qianchi went over backwards, chair and all, and her bald head struck a stone pillar. Blood spattered the pillar and she could not get up. Lü’e, felled by her father’s kick, lay face down on the floor, senseless too.

Footnotes

1. 马光佐 – Mǎ Guāngzuò. His name meaning “bright assistance”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

4. 三宝 – Three Treasures. In Buddhism, the Three Treasures (or Three Jewels) are the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the monastic community). Taking refuge in the Three Treasures is the formal act of becoming a Buddhist. ↩

5. 慈恩 – Cí’ēn. Buddhist monastic name taken by Qiu Qianren upon his ordination. Ci means “compassion” and en means “grace.” ↩

6. 情花 – Qínghuā. Flower of the Passionless Valley whose thorns poison those who entertain thoughts of love. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩