The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 21

The bloody battle of Xiangyang

Yang Guo¹ was about to draw his dagger when he heard three soft taps on the window from outside, and at once he shut his eyes and lay still.

Guo Jing² was awake in an instant. He sat up and asked, “Ronger? Is there urgent news from the army?” But no further sound came from outside the window. Guo Jing saw that Yang Guo was breathing deeply and evenly in his sleep. He’s only just managed to fall asleep, he thought. I mustn’t wake him. He slipped quietly out of bed, pushed the door open and stepped out, and there was Huang Rong³ standing in the courtyard, beckoning to him. Guo Jing went up to her and asked in a low voice, “What is it?”

Huang Rong did not answer. She took his hand and led him to the back courtyard, glanced all around, and only then spoke. “I heard everything you and Guoer said, from outside the window. He means you harm. Did you know that?” Guo Jing started. “Harm? What harm?” Huang Rong said, “From the drift of his words, he has long suspected the two of us of killing his father.” Guo Jing said, “He may well suspect it. But I have already promised to tell him exactly how his father died.” Huang Rong said, “Do you truly mean to tell him all of it, holding nothing back?” Guo Jing said, “His father died so horribly. I have always blamed myself. Brother Yang Kang⁴ strayed onto the wrong road, but we never counselled him as we should have, never did everything we could to bring him back.” Huang Rong snorted. “What was there to save in a man like that? My only regret is that I did not kill him sooner. Then how would those shifus of yours have come to die on Peach Blossom Island?”⁵ The memory of that bitter wrong drew a long sigh from Guo Jing.

Huang Rong said, “Big Brother Zhu sent Fu’er to tell me that since Guoer came to Xiangyang there has been something decidedly odd about him, and that you have been sharing a bed with him. I was afraid something might happen, so I have been keeping watch under your window all this time. I think you had better not sleep in the same room as him. Remember, no one can read another’s heart. And his father… when all is said and done, it was because he struck my shoulder with his palm that he was poisoned and died.” Guo Jing said, “But you can hardly be said to have killed him.” Huang Rong said, “Since we both meant to kill him, and in the end he did die because of me, it makes little difference whether we struck the blow ourselves.” Guo Jing pondered this for a long while, then said, “You’re right. Then I had better not tell him plainly after all. Ronger, you’ve been up half the night. Go back to your room and rest. After tonight, I’ll move to the army camp to sleep.”

He knew his beloved wife’s insight and resourcefulness were a hundred times greater than his own. Though he did not believe Yang Guo bore him any ill will, since she said so, he would do as she said. Putting an arm round her waist to support her, he walked slowly with her towards the inner hall, saying, “Guoer fought with everything he had to win back the post of Wulin Alliance Chief,⁶ and in great matters of state he knows right from wrong. Twice he has saved you and Fu’er without a thought for his own safety. With a chivalrous heart like that, how can his father compare?” Huang Rong nodded. “A young man like that is rare indeed. But there are two knots in his heart that will not come undone: one is how his father died, the other is what he feels for his shifu. Ai. I went to such pains to talk Miss Long into leaving him, and yet Guoer, resourceful as he is, has somehow found her again. From the way those two, shifu and disciple, look at each other, nothing will ever part them now.” Guo Jing was silent for a long moment. Then he said suddenly, “Ronger, you are even more resourceful than Guoer. Think of some way. Whatever it takes, we must keep him from going astray.”

Huang Rong sighed. “Never mind Guoer. I can’t even think what to do about our own young madam. Jing gege, there is only you in my heart, and only me in yours. But our girl is nothing like her father and mother. She has two young men in her heart at once, and she can’t put either of the Wu brothers above the other. It makes things so hard for her parents.”

Guo Jing saw Huang Rong to her room, waited until she was settled in bed, tucked the quilt over her, and sat at the bedside holding her hand, smiling. In recent months both of them had been worn down by the business of war and state, and husband and wife seldom had the chance to sit together quietly like this, even for a little while. Neither spoke, and both felt deeply at peace.

Huang Rong held her husband’s hand and rubbed the back of it softly against her cheek. “Jing gege,” she said in a low voice, “you choose a name for our second child.” Guo Jing laughed. “You know very well I’m no good at that. You’re teasing me again.” Huang Rong said, “You always say you’re no good. Jing gege, of all the men under heaven, truly there is not one who can match you.” She said it with deep feeling and utter sincerity.

Guo Jing bent his head and kissed his beloved wife softly on the cheek. “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Guo Polu.⁷ And if it’s a girl?” He thought for a while, then shook his head with a smile. “I can’t think of one. You give her a name.” Huang Rong said, “When Daoist Elder Qiu Chuji gave you the name Jing, it was so that you would never forget the shame of Jingkang.⁸ Now the Jin have only just been destroyed, and already the iron hooves of the Mongols are pressing on our borders. The child will be born in Xiangyang, so let her be called Guo Xiang, and in years to come she will remember that she was born in a besieged city, amid the turmoil of war.”⁹

Guo Jing said, “Good. I only hope this girl won’t be as wild as her elder sister, still giving her parents worry at her age.” Huang Rong smiled faintly. “If worrying could set it right, well and good. Only…” She sighed. “I do so hope it’s a boy, so that the Guo family has an heir.” Guo Jing stroked her hair. “Boy or girl, isn’t it all the same? Go to sleep now, and stop fretting over nothing.” He tucked the quilt round her, blew out the candle and went back to his own room. Yang Guo was still sleeping soundly. The drum had struck the third watch. Guo Jing got into bed and went back to sleep.

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Every word the couple had exchanged in the back courtyard had been heard, clearly, by Yang Guo, hidden behind the screen door. After Guo Jing and Huang Rong had gone into the inner hall, Yang Guo stayed where he was, lost in thought, turning Huang Rong’s words over and over: “My only regret is that I did not kill him sooner… it was because he struck my shoulder with his palm that he was poisoned and died… we both meant to kill him, and in the end he did die because of me…” My father died because of those two, he thought. That is true beyond all doubt. This Huang Rong is as crafty as they come, and she already suspects me. If I don’t strike tonight, I may never get such a chance again. He went back to the room, lay down quietly, and waited for Guo Jing to return.

Guo Jing drew the quilt over himself. Hearing Yang Guo snoring softly, he thought, The boy is sleeping well now. He lowered his head to the pillow gently, afraid of waking him. A little later, just as he was drifting off, he felt Yang Guo slowly roll over, and yet the snoring went on as he turned. Guo Jing was taken aback. Anyone who turns over in his sleep stops snoring. The boy’s breathing is not right. Could he have sent his qi the wrong way while practising neigong?¹⁰ That would be no small trouble. It never crossed his mind that Yang Guo was only pretending to sleep.

Yang Guo slowly rolled over again. Seeing that Guo Jing still noticed nothing, he got out of bed, snoring softly all the while. At first he had thought of striking from under the quilt, but they were too close for that, and it was too dangerous: if Guo Jing struck back with one palm as he died, he himself might not escape with his life. Then he thought of sitting up before he used the dagger, but he still feared his enemy’s great martial skill. So he resolved to get out of bed first, drive the dagger into a vital spot, and smash out through the window at once. He was afraid, too, that if his snoring stopped, Guo Jing would sense something amiss even in his sleep, and so as he got out of bed he kept up his pretence of snoring.

This only left Guo Jing more bewildered than ever. Is the boy sleepwalking, his soul wandering? he thought. If I make a sound now, the shock could drive his breath back against his dantian, and he would suffer a qi deviation on the spot.¹¹ He did not dare move a muscle, but lay with his ears pricked, listening to every movement.

Slowly Yang Guo drew the dagger from inside his robe. Gripping it in his right hand, level with his chest, he advanced on the bed one step at a time. Suddenly he raised his arm and gathered his strength, and he was on the point of thrusting when he heard Guo Jing say, “Guoer, what bad dream are you having?”

The shock was beyond anything Yang Guo had known. He kicked off with both feet, spun round and burst out through the window. Fast as he went, Guo Jing was faster. Before Yang Guo’s feet touched the ground he felt both arms clamped tight: Guo Jing had seized him with both hands. Every hope in Yang Guo turned to ash. He knew his martial skill was nowhere near a match for this man, and that struggling would do no good, so he shut his eyes and said nothing.

Guo Jing carried him back into the room in a single leap and set him on the bed. He folded Yang Guo’s legs into the cross-legged posture and let his hands rest in front of his dantian: the posture in which the Daoist schools cultivate qi. Yang Guo was full of hatred and fear. What vicious means will he use to torture me? All at once he thought of Xiaolongnü,¹² and he drew a deep breath, meaning to shout at the top of his voice, “Aunt,¹³ I’ve been caught. Run for your life.”

Seeing him suddenly draw breath in great haste, Guo Jing was all the more convinced that his neigong practice had sent his breath astray. At a dangerous moment like this he must breathe in and out slowly, he thought. Gulping air like this will do him serious harm. He quickly pressed his palm against Yang Guo’s lower belly.

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. 杨康 – Yáng Kāng. His name meaning “health” or “peace”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

6. 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. ↩

7. 郭破虏 – Guō Pòlǔ. Literally “Guo Destroys the Invaders.” The name reflects Guo Jing’s lifelong mission to resist foreign invasion. “Polu” echoes his own name “Jing” (靖, to pacify), which referred to the Jingkang Incident. ↩

8. 靖康 – Jìngkāng. Era name for the period when the Jin Dynasty captured the Song capital Kaifeng and took Emperor Qinzong and Emperor Huizong prisoner (1127). This national humiliation is a recurring theme in the Condor Trilogy. Qiu Chuji named Guo Jing and Yang Kang to remind them of this shame. ↩

9. 郭襄 – Guō Xiāng. The name Huang Rong chooses for the coming child if it is a girl; the Xiang is the Xiang of Xiangyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 内功 – nèigōng. Literally internal skill. Practice of developing neili through breathing, meditation and qi cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 走火入魔 – zǒuhuǒ rùmó. Dangerous condition in neili cultivation where qi flows incorrectly through the meridians, potentially causing paralysis, insanity, or death. ↩

12. 小龙女 – Xiǎolóngnǚ. Literally little dragon maiden. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 姑姑 – gūgu. Literally paternal aunt, used here as a term of respectful address for a young woman of the older generation. Yang Guo uses this to address Xiaolongnü, his shifu. ↩