The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 20 – Part 4

Those three date pits had flown far too fast, as sudden as a thunderclap that leaves no time to cover the ears. When Ma Guangzuo burst out laughing, Yang Guo had known Qiu Qianchi meant to strike and had drawn his long jian to go to the rescue, but in the end he was a step too late. He hurried to help Ma Guangzuo up and freed his acupoints.¹ Ma Guangzuo, for his part, took his defeat with good grace. That this bald old woman could lay him out without lifting a hand or a foot, just by opening her mouth, filled him with admiration. He spat out his three front teeth and said, his mouth full of blood, “Old woman, you’re better than me. Old Ma won’t dare cross you again.”

Qiu Qianchi paid him no heed at all. She glared at Yang Guo. “So you are set on refusing to marry my daughter, are you?”

To be shamed like this before the whole crowded hall was more than Gongsun Lü’e could bear. She drew the dagger at her waist, set its point to her own breast and cried, “Mother, ask him once more and your daughter will die here before your eyes.” Qiu Qianchi opened her mouth, there was a soft pop, and a date pit shot across and struck the dagger’s hilt a glancing blow. The force behind it was tremendous. The dagger flew sideways and buried itself several inches deep in a wooden pillar, its hilt still quivering in the candlelight. A startled gasp went round the hall, and every one of them drew a sharp breath.

Yang Guo saw that staying here would only mean more wasted words. He flicked a finger against the blade of his jian, and to the humming of the shaken steel he chanted clearly:

“Lonely, lonely the white hare, East it runs, then west it stares. Clothes are better when they’re new, But people, old friends see you through.”²

He twirled his jian in a flourish, took Xiaolongnü by the hand, turned and walked away.

Hearing the lines “Clothes are better when they’re new, but people, old friends see you through,” Lü’e felt more heartbroken than ever. She picked up the ragged robe Yang Guo had changed out of, carried it in both hands to him and said quietly, “Big Brother Yang, with clothes too, the old ones are best.” “Thank you,” said Yang Guo, and took it. He and Xiaolongnü both knew she was standing in front of them on purpose, so that her mother could not hurt them with date pits. Xiaolongnü smiled and nodded her thanks. Lü’e pursed her small mouth towards the door, telling them to go, and quickly.

Qiu Qianchi murmured twice over, “People, old friends see you through. People, old friends see you through.” Then suddenly she raised her voice. “Yang Guo, you won’t marry my daughter, and you don’t even care for your life?”

Yang Guo smiled bleakly and took another step back, over the threshold of the great hall. A chill gripped Xiaolongnü’s heart. “Wait,” she said, and then, clearly, “Esteemed Senior Qiu, do you have medicine that can cure the Passion Flower poison?”

That was the very thing Lü’e had been thinking of all along. Her father had had only one Passion Severing Pill left, and Yang Guo had given it to Xiaolongnü, so the deadly Passion Flower poison in his own body was still uncured. Her only hope was that her mother might know some way to save him. But Mother would surely use it as a lever to force Yang Guo into marrying her, and that was why she had not dared ask. Now that things were desperate, she could no longer care for a girl’s modesty or pride. She turned and said, “Mother, if it weren’t for Big Brother Yang’s help, you’d still be shut up in that cavern, your ordeal not over. And Big Brother Yang has never done you the least wrong. We repay kindness with kindness. Please find some way to cure the poison in him.”

Qiu Qianchi gave a hard, cold laugh. “Repay kindness with kindness? Repay injury with injury? Are kindness and injury ever so neatly divided in this world? Did Gongsun Zhi repay my kindness?”

Lü’e raised her voice. “What your daughter hates most is a man who is fickle, faithless and forever tiring of the old for the new. If this Yang were to cast off his old love and seek to marry me, I would sooner die than marry him.”

To Qiu Qianchi’s ears these words could not have sounded better. But a moment’s thought showed her what her daughter was really about. The girl was hopelessly in love with Yang Guo. If he were truly willing to marry her, she would accept him with all her heart, fickle or not. She was only saying this because of how things stood, hoping her mother would save his life first.

State Preceptor Jinlun, Yin Kexi and the others watched this second performance of a forced marriage with relish, exchanging glances and smiles. Only now did the State Preceptor learn that Yang Guo had a deadly poison in him. He was privately delighted, and hoped Yang Guo would hold out to the end and refuse to marry Gongsun Lü’e even to save his life. His one fear was that the boy, full of tricks as he was, might pretend to agree, cheat her out of the antidote and then go back on his word. But with himself on hand, he reflected, any trickery the boy tried he could expose, and so stop Qiu Qianchi being taken in.

Qiu Qianchi’s eyes travelled slowly over every face, from east to west. “Yang Guo,” she said, “among the people here, some want you dead, and some want you alive. Do you yourself want to die or to live? Think it over carefully.”

Yang Guo put his arm round Xiaolongnü’s waist. “If she cannot be mine and I cannot be hers,” he declared, “we would rather die together.” Xiaolongnü gave him a sweet smile. “Exactly!” Her heart was one with Yang Guo’s, and their love had grown so deep that even the great matter of life and death seemed a small thing to them.

Qiu Qianchi could make nothing of her. “If I don’t lend a hand,” she barked, “this boy is as good as dead. Do you understand? He has only thirty-six days left to live. Do you know that?”

Xiaolongnü said, “If you are willing to save him, the two of us can have a few more years together, and we would be deeply grateful. If you won’t, we’ll have only thirty-six days together, and that’s fine too! Either way, if he dies, I won’t go on living.” As she said it, her lovely face showed not the slightest concern.

Qiu Qianchi looked at her, then at Yang Guo. The two of them were gazing at each other with a devotion so complete and a love so true that she had never tasted the like, never even imagined it, in all her life. So there was love between a man and a woman that could be like this. She could not help thinking of her own marriage to Gongsun Zhi and the end it had come to. She heaved a long sigh, and tears ran down her cheeks.

Lü’e ran to her and threw herself into her arms. “Mother,” she sobbed, “cure his poison, and then you and I will go and find Uncle. Uncle misses you terribly, doesn’t he?” As her tears flowed, a tender feeling stirred in Qiu Qianchi’s heart. But then she remembered the line in her second brother Qiu Qianren’s letter: “Since our eldest brother met his end at the hands of Guo Jing³ and Huang Rong⁴ on Iron Palm Peak…”⁵ She herself was crippled in hand and foot, and her second brother had become a monk and talked of “laying down the butcher’s knife and taking refuge in the Three Treasures”.⁶ Was their eldest brother’s death never to be avenged, then? This boy’s martial skill is not to be scoffed at. Since he flatly refuses to marry my daughter, I’ll set him to avenge me instead, and that will settle one great matter.

Her mind made up, she said, “There used to be a good many Passion Severing Pills to cure the Passion Flower poison, but I steeped all of them except three in arsenic and destroyed them. Of those three, that villain Gongsun Zhi took one himself, and the other he took from me when I was drunk, and it later came into your hands, and you gave it to this girl. That leaves only one in the world. I have kept this Passion Severing Pill next to my skin for more than twenty years. Living in Passionless Valley without a Passion Severing Pill, your life is not your own. But as things are, I haven’t long to live anyway, and my daughter may not stay on in the valley either…” Slowly she reached into her robe and brought out the last Passion Severing Pill in the world. She cut it in two with her fingernail, took out one half and held it on her palm. “The pill is yours. You won’t be my son-in-law, so be it. But you must promise to do one thing for me.”

Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü looked at each other. Neither had expected her to turn kind so suddenly. They might say they had put life and death out of their minds, but now that a way to live lay before them, they were overjoyed, and they said together, “Whatever you wish done, Esteemed Senior, we will do our very best.”

Slowly, Qiu Qianchi said, “I want you to bring me the heads of two people and put them into my hands.”

The moment they heard it, both of them thought that one of those she wanted killed must be Gongsun Zhi. Yang Guo certainly had no love for the man. He had lost an eye and his acupoint-sealing neigong was broken. The rest of his martial skill was intact, but hunting him down should not be hard. Yet he was Gongsun Lü’e’s father, and the girl had been so devoted to Yang Guo. To kill her father would break her heart. For a moment he hesitated, unable to answer. Xiaolongnü too felt that, wicked as Gongsun Zhi was, he had after all saved her life. But Qiu Qianchi’s look made it plain that unless this was done, nothing on earth would make her give Yang Guo the pill.

Seeing their reluctance, Qiu Qianchi said icily, “I don’t know what ties you may have to these two, but I must have them dead.” And she tossed the half pill lightly on her palm. From her tone Yang Guo gathered she did not mean Gongsun Zhi. “Esteemed Senior Qiu,” he asked, “who is it you have a feud with? Whose heads do you want me to take?” “Didn’t you hear that villain read the letter?” said Qiu Qianchi. “The ones who killed my eldest brother go by the names of Guo Jing and Huang Rong.”

Yang Guo’s face lit up. “That’s wonderful,” he cried. “Those two are the very people who killed my father. Even without your bidding, Esteemed Senior Qiu, I meant to find them and take my revenge.” A chill went through Qiu Qianchi. “Is that true?” Yang Guo pointed at State Preceptor Jinlun. “The Great Master here has a score to settle with those two as well. I’ve told him about my affairs before.”

Qiu Qianchi looked at the State Preceptor, who nodded. “But this Brother Yang here,” he said, “was quite clearly helping Guo Jing and Huang Rong against me at the time.” Xiaolongnü and Lü’e, furious with the monk for forever stirring up trouble between them, both turned angry glares on him. State Preceptor Jinlun pretended not to see. He smiled. “Brother Yang, that did happen, didn’t it?” “So it did,” said Yang Guo. “Once I’ve avenged my parents, I shall have to ask the Great Master for a few more lessons.” The State Preceptor put his palms together. “Excellent, excellent!”

Qiu Qianchi waved her left hand at Yang Guo. “I don’t care whether what you say is true or false. Take this pill and swallow it.” Yang Guo stepped forward and took the pill in his hand. Seeing it was only half, he understood at once. He smiled. “So I have to bring those two heads to exchange for the other half?” Qiu Qianchi nodded. “You’re very quick. One look and you know. Nobody needs to spell it out for you.” Better take this half for now, thought Yang Guo. It beats nothing. He put the half pill in his mouth, swallowed some saliva, and got it down.

Footnotes

1. 环跳穴, 阳关穴 – Huantiao and Yangguan acupoints. Huántiào Xué and Yángguān Xué. The huantiao point is located on the hip; the yangguan point is near the knee. Striking both simultaneously collapses the legs. ↩

2. “Lonely, lonely the white hare…”. This poem comes from an anonymous Han dynasty folk song. White hare, separated from its mate, runs east then west, never settling. Final couplet conveys the poem’s core message: new clothes may be finer, but old friends (and old loves) are irreplaceable. Yang Guo uses it to firmly and poetically reject Gongsun Lü’e while affirming his devotion to Xiaolongnü. ↩

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

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

5. 铁掌峰 – Tiězhǎng Fēng. Iron Palm Peak, headquarters of the Iron Palm Guild, which Qiu Qianchi’s second brother, Qiu Qianren, once led as Guild Chief. Her eldest brother, Qiu Qianzhang, died there. ↩

6. 放下屠刀，皈依三宝 – fàngxià túdāo, guīyī sānbǎo. Laying down the butcher’s knife and taking refuge in the Three Treasures. Buddhist saying: even the most violent person can find redemption by renouncing violence and taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Qiu Qianren, once a ruthless martial artist, became a monk under Great Master Yideng’s guidance. ↩