The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 2

Son of an old friend

Madam Wu was at her wits’ end when she heard her husband shouting for her. She was glad and furious at once, and thought, You madman, heaven knows what nonsense you’ve been up to, and only now you turn up. Then she saw him: his upper garment torn to rags, the bib He Yuanjun¹ had worn as a child still hanging round his neck, racing towards her and calling over and over, “My lady, are you all right?” In close on ten years she had never seen her husband show such concern for her, and her heart filled with gladness. “I’m here,” she called. Wu Santong² rushed up to them, scooped up the Lu couple, one under each arm, and shouted, “Quick, follow me.” The words were barely out of his mouth before he had sprung into the air. Ke Zhen’e³ and Madam Wu followed behind.

Wu Santong ran several li,⁴ twisting this way and that, and led the two of them into a ruined kiln. It was a pottery kiln for firing wine jars, and a very large one at that. Madam Wu stepped inside and found her two sons, Dunru and Xiuwen, safe and unharmed. Her mind eased at once, and she let out a sigh. There was a small bed in the kiln, as though someone lived there.

The Wu brothers were sitting on the ground playing with pebbles alongside Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang. When the two girls saw the state the Lu couple were in, they threw themselves onto the pair, weeping and crying out.

Ke Zhen’e heard Lu Wushuang crying for her mama and papa, and suddenly remembered Li Mochou’s⁵ words. “Oh no, this is bad,” he cried in alarm. “We’ve led the demon to our own door. That witch will be right behind us!” The fight just now had left Madam Wu badly shaken. “What?” she asked quickly. Ke Zhen’e said, “The witch wants to harm the Lu family’s two children, but she didn’t know where they were…” Madam Wu saw it at once. “Ah, of course,” she said in alarm. “She spared us on purpose, so she could follow us in secret.” Wu Santong flew into a rage. “That Scarlet Serpent⁶ she-ghost will never stop haunting us,” he shouted. “Let me fight her.” With that he planted himself squarely before the mouth of the kiln.

Lu Liding’s⁷ skull was shattered, but one matter still weighed on his heart, and he clung to his last breath to see to it. “Aying,” he said to Cheng Ying, “take the… the handkerchief out of my… my chest… my chest.” Cheng Ying wiped away her tears, reached inside his inner garment and drew out a brocade handkerchief. It was a square of white satin with a red flower embroidered at each of its four corners. The flowers were so red they seemed about to drip, and beside each one lay a leaf of emerald green. The white satin had yellowed with age, yet the flowers and leaves were still as fresh and lovely as if they were real. “Aying,” said Lu Liding, “tie this handkerchief round your neck, and never, ever take it off. Do you understand?” Cheng Ying did not see what he meant by it, but since it was her uncle’s command, she took it at once and nodded.

Madam Lu had been half senseless with pain, but at the sound of her husband’s voice she opened her eyes. “Why aren’t you giving it to Shuang’er?” she said. “Give it to Shuang’er!” “No,” said Lu Liding. “How could I betray the trust her parents placed in me?” “You… you are so heartless,” Madam Lu cried in desperation. “Don’t you care even for your own daughter?” As she spoke her eyes rolled back and her voice went hoarse. Lu Wushuang, not understanding what her parents were quarrelling about, could only cry, “Mama, Papa!” “My lady,” Lu Liding said gently, “you love Shuang’er. Wouldn’t it be good to let her come with us?”

The truth was that this red-flowered, green-leafed brocade handkerchief was the love token Li Mochou had given Lu Zhanyuan⁸ all those years ago. The red flower was the mandala,⁹ the most famous flower of the Dali Kingdom,¹⁰ and Li Mochou had meant it for herself. The word for “green” (lü) sounds the same as the surname Lu,¹¹ so the green leaf stood for her darling Lu. The sense was “red flower and green leaf, nestled together, leaning on one another”. On his deathbed Lu Zhanyuan had foreseen that when the ten years were up, Li Mochou and Wu Santong would surely both come to make trouble. He had had a plan to deal with them, but had been struck down by a sudden illness, and his younger brother’s martial arts were mediocre at best, no match for either of them when the day came. With no other recourse, he had given this brocade handkerchief to his brother with clear instructions. If Wu Santong came for revenge, avoid him if possible. If not, they would certainly lose the fight, but their lives would not be in danger. Li Mochou, however, had in recent years made her name throughout the jianghu¹² for ruthless cruelty, and to meet her was all but certain death. In a moment of crisis, tying this handkerchief round one’s neck might, he hoped, move the witch to remember old affections and stay her hand. But Lu Liding was too proud ever to take out the handkerchief and beg this witch for his life.

Cheng Ying was the daughter of Lu Liding’s brother-in-law, the husband of his wife’s elder sister. Her parents had entrusted her to his care before they died. He had accepted that weighty trust and had not yet discharged it, and now, with disaster upon them, he gave her the life-saving handkerchief. But Madam Lu’s love for her own child ran deep. Seeing her husband pass over their own daughter, she was seized with panic, the pain of her wounds flared, and she fainted.

Seeing her aunt so distressed over the handkerchief, Cheng Ying quickly held it out to her cousin. “Auntie says it’s for you. Here, take it!” “Shuang’er,” Lu Liding barked, “that belongs to your cousin. Don’t take it.” Madam Wu saw what lay behind it all. “Why don’t I tear the handkerchief in two,” she said, “half for each of you?” Lu Liding tried to say more, but he could not catch his breath, let alone speak, and could only nod. Madam Wu tore the brocade handkerchief in two and gave half to each of the girls.

Wu Santong stood at the mouth of the kiln. Hearing crying and shouting behind him and not knowing what had happened, he turned round, and saw with a start that his wife’s left cheek was pitch black while the right side of her face was unchanged. Aghast, he pointed at her face and asked, “Why… why is it like that?” Madam Wu put a hand to her face. “Like what?” Her left cheek felt numb, almost without sensation. With a jolt of fear she remembered that Li Mochou had touched her face just before leaving. Could that soft, warm, fragrant hand, in one light stroke, already have done its deadly work?

Wu Santong was about to ask more when he heard someone outside the kiln laugh. “The two little girls are in there, aren’t they? Dead or alive, toss them out. Otherwise I’ll put a torch to the place and fire the lot of you into wine jars.” The voice was like a silver bell, crisp and yet soft.

Wu Santong leapt out of the kiln. There stood Li Mochou, trim and lovely, and he thought in astonishment, How can she still be so young and beautiful after ten years? When he had seen her at Lu Zhanyuan’s wedding feast she had been in the full bloom of youth, not yet twenty. Ten years had passed since then, yet the woman before him, though she had changed into Daoist robes, had the same soft, tender skin and was every bit as lovely as the girl of those days. Her horsetail whisk¹³ swayed gently in her hand. Her manner was unhurried, her lovely eyes sparkled, her peach-blossom cheeks were faintly flushed. Had he not known full well that she killed without blinking, he would have taken her for a rich man’s daughter who had taken religious vows but kept her hair. At the flick of her whisk Wu Santong suddenly remembered that he had left his weapon inside the kiln. If he went back for it, she might seize the chance to slip in and harm the children. A chestnut tree as thick as a rice bowl grew beside the kiln mouth. At once he drove both palms against it and, with a great shout, snapped the trunk in two.

Li Mochou gave a faint smile. “Impressive strength.”

Wu Santong held the trunk crosswise before him. “Miss Li,” he said, “ten years it has been. I hope you are well.” He had called her Miss Li in the old days, and though she had since entered religious life, he had not changed his form of address but used the old name still. In ten years no one had called Li Mochou “Miss Li”. Hearing those words again stirred her heart, and all the tender, intimate scenes of her girlhood came surging into her breast. But then she remembered that she might have spent her whole life at her beloved’s side, had there not been another woman in this world called He Yuanjun, who had left her heartbroken and forsaken, alone and desolate all her days. At that thought, the tenderness that had welled up for one moment turned in an instant into boundless venom.

Wu Santong’s own heart had been broken when the woman he loved left him for another. His case differed from Li Mochou’s, but they could be said to share the same affliction. Yet coming away from Lu Zhanyuan’s wedding feast that day, he had seen with his own eyes how she slaughtered Old Fist Master He and his whole household, more than twenty souls, men and women, young and old, with a savagery that still made him shudder to recall. Old Fist Master He had never met her and bore her no grudge, and he had no connection whatsoever with He Yuanjun. Simply because they bore the surname “He”,¹⁴ Li Mochou, in her grief, had wiped out the entire He family to the last soul. Not one of them, young or old, ever knew, even as they died, why it had happened. At the time Wu Santong had not understood the reason and had not stepped in. Only afterwards did he learn that Li Mochou had simply turned her rage on them, venting the disappointment and venom in her heart. From that day on he had both hated and feared this woman. Now, seeing a trace of softness cross her face and turn at once to a cold sneer, he feared for the two girls, Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang.

Li Mochou said, “Since I have left nine handprints on the Lu family’s wall, these two little girls must die. Third Master Wu, please stand aside.” Wu Santong said, “Lu Zhanyuan and his wife are already dead, and his brother and sister-in-law have fallen to your murderous hand too. They are only two little girls. Spare them.” Li Mochou smiled and shook her head. “Third Master Wu,” she said softly, “please stand aside.” Wu Santong gripped the chestnut tree all the tighter. “Miss Li,” he cried, “you are far too cruel. Ayuan…” The moment the name Ayuan left his lips, Li Mochou’s face changed. “I once swore a solemn oath,” she said. “Whoever speaks that slut’s name in my presence, either he dies or I do. I once wrecked sixty-three warehouses and shipping houses along the Yuan River, one after another, simply because their signboards bore that foul character.¹⁵ Did you hear about that? Third Master Wu, you have brought this on yourself. Don’t blame me.” With that her whisk rose and came sweeping down at the crown of Wu Santong’s head.

Small as her horsetail whisk was, the sweep was both swift and powerful, and it set the tangled hair on Wu Santong’s head flying. She knew Wu Santong was a senior disciple of Great Master Yideng,¹⁶ and that, muddle-headed fool though he was, his martial arts were of no common order. That was why she struck to kill from the very first move. Wu Santong thrust up his left hand, and the tree trunk shot out in a ferocious sweep. Li Mochou saw how fierce it was and let her body drift back as if on the wind. Before he could put the trunk’s full force behind the blow, she was darting in again, her whisk lashing at his face. Seeing her inside his guard, Wu Santong flicked up his right hand and jabbed a finger at her forehead. This acupoint strike of the Yiyang Finger¹⁷ was not especially fast, but it changed unpredictably, hard to dodge and hard to block. Li Mochou used the move “Inverted Golden Bell”,¹⁸ and in a flash she had sprung back some ten feet.

Footnotes

1. 何沅君 – Hé Yuánjūn. Her name meaning “Yuan River lord”; 沅 names the Yuan River and 君 means lord or gentleman. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 武三通 – Wǔ Sāntōng. His name meaning “three penetrations” or “three communications”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

5. 李莫愁 – Lǐ Mòchóu. Her name meaning “do not sorrow”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 赤练 – Chìliàn. Scarlet Serpent, a highly venomous snake native to China; Li Mochou’s epithet draws on this imagery of deadly beauty. ↩

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

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

9. 曼陀罗花 – Màntuóluó Huā. Mandala or datura flower, famed in the Dali Kingdom. Li Mochou used the red flower to represent herself on the love token handkerchief. ↩

10. 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. ↩

11. 绿/陆 – lǜ/lù. In Chinese, 绿 (green) and 陆 (the surname Lu) are near-homophones, differing only in tone. This wordplay is central to the handkerchief’s symbolism. ↩

12. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. Itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 拂尘 – fúchén. Horsetail whisk: a handle with long, soft fibres attached. In Daoism it is a symbol of spiritual authority, and in wuxia fiction it is often wielded as a flexible weapon capable of entangling and disarming opponents. ↩

14. 何 – Hé. Surname He. Li Mochou massacred Old He’s household solely because they shared He Yuanjun’s surname, illustrating the irrational depths of her obsession. ↩

15. 沅江 – Yuán Jiāng. Major river in Hunan Province. Li Mochou destroyed sixty-three businesses along its banks because their signs bore the character 沅, which also appears in He Yuanjun’s name. ↩

16. 一灯大师 – Yīdēng Dàshī. Literally one-lamp master; a Buddhist honorific title. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 一阳指 – Yīyáng Zhǐ. Literally One Yang Finger. Dali Duan family’s signature finger technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 倒打金钟 – Dào Dǎ Jīnzhōng. Inverted Golden Bell, a martial arts manoeuvre involving a sudden backward leap or reversal of position, named after the image of striking a golden bell from the opposite direction. ↩