The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 32: Wronged Beyond Redress, Grief Bordering on Madness
Translation by Jenxi Seow
Wronged beyond redress. Grief borders on madness.
Zhang Wuji heard the beggars’ footsteps fade into the distance until not a sound remained in the temple. Only then did he leap out from inside the drum. Zhao Min followed close behind, straightening her clothes and casting him a look that held both pleasure and reproach.
Zhang Wuji said coldly, “Hmph, you have the nerve to show your face before me?”
Zhao Min’s pretty face darkened. “What’s wrong? Where have I offended you, Zhangmen Zhang?”
Zhang Wuji’s expression was frost itself. “That you mean to steal the Heavenly Jian and the Dragon-Slaying Dao, I don’t blame you for that! That you abandoned me on a desert island, I don’t blame you for that either! But Miss Yin was already grievously wounded. Why did you strike again, and try to take her life? A woman as vicious as you is truly without peer in this world!” His grief and fury were beyond control. He strode forward, and with his left hand and right hand alternated, struck her four times across the face: slap, slap, slap, slap. Under the power of his palm, how could Zhao Min dodge? Both her cheeks swelled red and burning on the spot.
Zhao Min was seized by pain and rage. Tears rolled down her face in streams, and she said, choking, “You say I stole the Heavenly Jian and the Dragon-Slaying Dao. Who saw me? Who says I harmed Miss Yin? Bring her forward to confront me.”
Zhang Wuji’s fury only grew. “Fine! I’ll send you to the underworld to confront her!” His left hand circled out, his right hand snapped back, and he locked both arms around her throat, squeezing with all his strength. Zhao Min could not breathe. She thrust her fingers at his chest, but the strike landed as though pressing into rotten cotton. Every ounce of force in her fingertips vanished without a trace. In an instant her face turned purple, and she fainted.
Zhang Wuji, bearing Yin Li’s grievance in mind, had meant to strangle the life from her. But seeing her in this state, his heart suddenly softened, and his hands loosened. Zhao Min toppled backward, thud, the back of her head striking the wooden kneeling-pad of the main hall.
It was a good while before Zhao Min slowly regained consciousness. She found Zhang Wuji gazing fixedly at her, his face full of anxious concern. Only when he saw her open her eyes did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Zhao Min asked, “Do you say Miss Yin has passed away?”
Zhang Wuji’s anger flared again. “After you slashed her seventeen or eighteen times with your jian and threw her into the great sea. Could she still be alive?”
Zhao Min’s voice trembled. “Who… who says I slashed her seventeen or eighteen times and threw her into the sea? Was it Miss Zhou who told you?”
“Miss Zhou would never speak ill of anyone behind her back. She didn’t see it with her own eyes, so she wouldn’t accuse you.”
“Then it was Miss Yin herself who said it?”
Zhang Wuji shouted, “Miss Yin has long since lost the power of speech! On that deserted island there were only five of us. Could it have been my sworn father? Could it have been me? Could Miss Yin have done it to herself? Hmph, I know your thinking. You were afraid I’d marry my cousin, so you struck this murderous blow. Let me tell you, dead or alive, I consider her my wife. Kill her, and you’ve killed my beloved.”
Zhao Min lowered her head and was silent. After a long moment of thought, she asked, “How did you get back to the Central Plains?”
Zhang Wuji laughed coldly. “That was most kind of you. You sent a naval fleet to the island to welcome us home. Fortunately my sworn father isn’t as simple-minded and useless as I am, so we didn’t fall into your scheme. You had cannon-ships waiting offshore, ready to blast our vessel to the bottom. All that cleverness, wasted.”
Zhao Min cradled her swollen, burning cheeks and stared at him blankly. After a time, tenderness gradually surfaced in her gaze, and she gave a long, slow sigh.
Zhang Wuji, afraid his own heart would waver and yield beneath the lure of her beauty and gentleness, turned his head away. Then he stamped his foot and said, “I once swore to avenge my cousin. Call me a coward and a weakling. I couldn’t bring myself to do it today. But you have piled evil upon evil, and one day you’ll fall into my hands again!” With that he strode towards the temple gate.
He had gone barely a hundred feet when Zhao Min ran out after him, calling, “Zhang Wuji, where are you going?”
“What business is it of yours?”
“I have words to ask of Xie daxia and Miss Zhou. Take me to see them.”
“My sworn father shows no mercy. You’d be going to your death.”
Zhao Min laughed coldly. “Your sworn father is ruthless. He’s not as muddle-headed as you. Besides, if Xie daxia kills me, you’ll have avenged your cousin. Wouldn’t that fulfil your heart’s desire?”
“I’m not muddle-headed! I simply don’t want you going to see my sworn father.”
Zhao Min smiled. “Zhang Wuji, you muddle-headed boy, you simply can’t bear to part with me, and won’t let me go meet Xie daxia, is that it?”
Zhang Wuji, hit square on the truth, felt his face grow warm. “Stop your chatter! I’m letting you live so that many wrongs will bring their own doom. You’d best stay far away from me, before I lose control and take your life.”
Zhao Min walked slowly towards him. “I must ask Xie daxia and Miss Zhou certain things face to face. I refuse to speak ill of people behind their backs, but to their faces, I’ll say what needs saying.”
Zhang Wuji’s curiosity was aroused. “What could you have to ask them?”
“You’ll see soon enough. I’m not afraid of the danger. Are you?”
Zhang Wuji hesitated. “This is your own doing. If my sworn father strikes, I won’t be able to save you.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“Worry about you? Hmph! I’d be delighted if you were dead.”
“Then hurry up and do it.”
Zhang Wuji spat, ignored her, and walked briskly towards the town. Zhao Min followed behind. As they neared the town, Zhang Wuji stopped and turned.
“Miss Zhao, I once promised to do three things for you. The first, borrowing the Dragon-Slaying Dao on your behalf, that’s done. Two remain. If you go see my sworn father, you’ll certainly die. Go, then. Wait until I’ve done those other two things for you, and then go meet my sworn father.”
Zhao Min smiled sweetly. “You’re looking for a reason not to kill me. I know that in your heart you truly can’t bear to part with me.”
Zhang Wuji said angrily, “And if I haven’t the heart for it, what of that?”
“I’m very glad. All this while I never knew whether you were sincere with me. Now I know.”
Zhang Wuji let out a sigh. “Miss Zhao, I beg you. Go on alone.”
Zhao Min shook her head. “I must see Xie daxia.”
Zhang Wuji could not sway her, and had no choice but to go into the inn. Outside Xie Xun’s room he knocked twice and called, “Father!” Even as he called, he set his own body between the door and Zhao Min. Twice he called, and no one answered from within. He pushed at the door and found it bolted. Suspicion stirred in him, and he thought, Sworn Father’s hearing is so keen that he would have started awake out of the deepest sleep the moment I reached the door. And if he has gone out, why is the door bolted? He put the least force into his hand. A sharp crack, and the bolt broke. The door swung open, and Xie Xun was indeed not inside. One window stood half open. He must have gone out through it.
He went to the door of Zhou Zhiruo’s room and called twice, “Zhiruo!” No answer came. He pushed the door open and went in, and she was not there either, though her bundle of clothes still lay squarely on the kang.1 Startled and uncertain, he thought, Can they have run into an enemy? He called the inn servant in and questioned him. The servant said he had not seen the two of them go out, and had heard no sound of quarrelling or fighting.
Zhang Wuji took a little comfort from that. Most likely the two of them heard some noise and went off after the enemy’s trail. He thought too that Xie Xun’s eyes might be blind, but there were few men alive who could match him for skill, and he had the careful, meticulous Zhou Zhiruo travelling at his side, so nothing was likely to have gone wrong. He vaulted out through Xie Xun’s window and looked all about him. Nothing was out of place. He came back into the room.
Zhao Min said, “You find Xie daxia gone, and instead you’re relieved and pleased. Why is that?” “There you go talking nonsense again,” said Zhang Wuji. “When was I relieved and pleased?” Zhao Min smiled. “Do you suppose I can’t read your face? The moment you pushed that door open you checked for an instant, and then the tight set of your face loosened.” Zhang Wuji took no notice of her, and lay back against the kang.
Zhao Min sat in a chair, all smiles. “I know you were afraid Xie daxia would kill me. Luckily he’s out, and that spares you the difficulty. I know you truly can’t bear to part with me.”
“And if I can’t, what of it?”
“I’m very happy.”
“Then why have you tried to harm me time and again? Could you bear to part with me?”
Zhao Min’s face suddenly flushed. She said softly, “Yes, I truly wanted to kill you once. But after that encounter at Green Willow Manor, I couldn’t bear to part with you, Zhang Wuji, you little wretch. If I harbour even half a thought of harming you again, may Heaven and Earth destroy me, Minmin Temur. May I sink for eternity into the Eighteenth Level of Hell, climb mountains of blades, plunge into cauldrons of oil, suffer torment beyond end, and never be reborn through ten thousand kalpas!”
Zhang Wuji, hearing the solemnity of her oath and the deep feeling in her words, could not help but feel his heart stir. He said, “Then why, for the sake of a knife and a jian, did you abandon me on that deserted island?”
“If you’ve already decided I did, then even a hundred mouths couldn’t defend me. We can only wait for Xie daxia and Miss Zhou to return, and the four of us will settle the truth face to face.”
“Your honeyed words might fool me. They won’t fool my sworn father or Miss Zhou.”
Zhao Min smiled. “Why are you so willing to be fooled by me? Only because you like me in your heart, isn’t that so?”
“And if I do?”
“I’m very happy. Happy beyond measure.”