The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 34 – Part 2

Zhang Wuji stroked the iron ring on her finger and said, “The day I saw this ring fall into Chen Youliang's hands, I was worried sick. I was terrified some villain had harmed you. I wished I could have sprouted wings and flown to your side. Zhiruo, I failed to rescue you from danger in good time. You must have suffered these past days. How did they return this iron ring to you?”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “Song Qingshu, the young xia of the Wudang Order,¹ brought it back to me.”

When Zhang Wuji heard her mention Song Qingshu’s name, he thought suddenly of the sight of the two of them seated side by side, drinking together in the Beggars’ Guild hall. He asked, “Song Qingshu treated you very well, didn’t he?”

Zhou Zhiruo, noticing the strange tone in his voice, asked, “What do you mean, ‘treated you very well’?”

Zhang Wuji said, “Nothing. I merely asked out of curiosity. Song shixiong² is deeply devoted to you. He did not hesitate to betray his order and defy his father, to murder his lineage uncle and imperil his grand-shifu. Of course he would treat you well.”

Zhou Zhiruo raised her head and gazed at the new moon rising in the east. She said softly, “If you could be half as good to me as he is, I would be content.”

Zhang Wuji said, “It is true I am not as lovesick as Song shixiong, but my heart is genuinely devoted to you. All the same, I could never commit such unfilial and unrighteous acts for your sake.”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “For me, you could not. Yet for that Miss Zhao, you could. On that little island you swore a solemn oath that you would kill that wicked woman and avenge Miss Yin.³ But the moment you set eyes on her, you swept your oath clean out of your mind.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Zhiruo, once I have established that the Dragon-Slaying Dao and the Heavenly Jian were truly stolen by Miss Zhao, and that my cousin was indeed killed by her, I shall not spare her. But if she is innocent, I cannot kill her without cause. For all I know, the oath I swore on that island was itself a mistake.”

Zhou Zhiruo did not speak. Zhang Wuji asked, “Was I wrong?”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “No. I was thinking of the high tower at Wan’an Temple,⁴ where I too swore a solemn oath before my shifu.”

Zhang Wuji at once recalled what Zhou Zhiruo had told him on the desert island: the bitter, venomous oath Miejue⁵ had forced her to swear. He said, “Zhiruo, that oath does not count. It truly does not count. Your shifu believed the Ming Order was a demonic cult that worked evil, and that I was a villain without honour, a lecherous rogue. That was why she forced you to swear so terribly. If she knew the truth, she would surely release you from that oath.”

Zhou Zhiruo’s face was wet with tears. She wept, “But she… she can never know now.” She threw herself into his arms and sobbed without pause.

Zhang Wuji stroked her soft hair and comforted her, “If your shifu knows in the world below, she will not blame you for breaking your oath. Am I truly a villain without honour, a lecherous rogue?”

Zhou Zhiruo held him about the waist and said, “You are not yet. But once you fall under Zhao Min’s spell, you may… you may well become one.”

Zhang Wuji reached out and flicked her cheek lightly with his finger. He laughed, “You think far too little of me. Is your husband such a man?”

Zhou Zhiruo raised her head. Her cheeks still glistened with crystal tears, but her eyes were already full of laughter. She said, “Are you not ashamed? You are my husband already? If I catch you sneaking about with that little demoness Zhao Min again, I shall want nothing more to do with you. Who can say you won’t end up like Song Qingshu, sinking to every despicable and shameless act for the sake of a woman?”

Zhang Wuji bent his head and kissed her lips. He laughed, “How can you help it? You are an immortal descended to the mortal world. We poor mortals, how can we keep our hearts steady? It is your father and mother’s fault for birthing you so beautiful. You will be the death of us men!”

Suddenly, from behind a great tree some twenty feet away came two cold laughs, one after the other. Hei, hei. Zhang Wuji was holding Zhou Zhiruo in his arms. Startled, he saw a figure flicker several times before vanishing into the distance.

Zhou Zhiruo leapt to her feet. Her face went pale. She said in a trembling voice, “It was Zhao Min! She has been following us all along.”

Zhang Wuji heard that the two cold laughs had indeed been a woman’s voice, but he could not be certain it was Zhao Min. In the darkness of night, there was no way to make out the figure’s face. He said hesitantly, “Was it truly her? What would she be following us for?”

Zhou Zhiruo said angrily, “She fancies you, that’s what! And you pretend not to know, playing the innocent! You two must have made plans behind my back, coming here to play ghosts and frighten me.”

Zhang Wuji protested his innocence repeatedly.

Zhou Zhiruo stood alone in the cold wind, her thoughts turning over past and present, and tears began to fall unbidden.

Zhang Wuji put his left arm gently about her shoulders and with his right hand drew his sleeve across her cheeks to wipe away her tears. He said softly, “Why are you weeping again, when all was well a moment ago? If I had asked Miss Zhao to come here, may Heaven destroy me and the earth swallow me. Think, if my heart were truly set on her, and I knew she was nearby, would I be speaking tender words to you as though I were mad? Would I not be doing it on purpose to offend her and make her suffer?”

Zhou Zhiruo sighed. “That is not without reason. Wuji gege,⁶ my heart cannot be still.”

Zhang Wuji asked, “Why?”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “I cannot forget the solemn oath I swore before my shifu. And I know that Zhao Min will not let me off. In martial arts and in cunning, I am far her inferior.”

Zhang Wuji said, “I shall devote myself to protecting you. How could I permit her to harm a single hair on my wife’s head?”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “If I die at her hands, so be it. I would blame only my own bitter fate. But if you fall under her enchantment, believe her honeyed words, walk into her traps and schemes, and then come to kill me, only then would I die with my eyes still open.”

Zhang Wuji laughed. “That is borrowing trouble from nowhere. How many people have harmed me, offended me? I have killed none of them. Why would I kill you?” He opened his robe and bared his chest, showing the sword scar. He laughed, “This thrust was yours! The deeper you thrust, the more I love you.”

Zhou Zhiruo reached out her slender white hand and touched the scar upon his chest gently. Her heart was heavy with sorrow beyond bearing. Suddenly her face went pale and she said, “A debt repaid in kind. If one day you thrust a jian through me, I shall not regret it.” She leaned forward and kissed the scar upon his chest.

Zhang Wuji folded his arms about her and said softly, “Once we have found my sworn father, we shall ask him to preside over our wedding. Henceforth the two of us shall never part, sitting or walking, growing old together. If it pleases you, thrust at me a few more times. I shall not say a single harsh word to you. Is that not bargain enough for you?”

Zhou Zhiruo pressed her cheek against his burning chest and whispered, “I pray my true man keeps his word and does not forget what he has said today.”

The two leaned against each other a long while, until the midnight hour, when the wind and dew grew heavy. Only then did they return to the inn and separate to sleep.

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The next morning the three continued their journey westward. Along the way they found no trace of Zhao Min. That day was the first day of the New Year. The three travelled dusty roads with no heart to celebrate, save that Zhou Zhiruo bought several red hair ribbons and tied them in her hair, and hung a red scarf on the lapels of Zhang Wuji’s and Han Lin’er’s jackets, to add a touch of festivity.

Within a few days they drew near Dadu.⁷ They entered the city at dusk and saw that every man and woman in the town was sprinkling water and sweeping the streets, cleaning every lane and alley spotless. Before every door stood an incense table.

When Zhang Wuji and the others had taken rooms at an inn, he asked the serving boy what great event was at hand.

The serving boy said, “You travellers are from afar and don’t know. But you have arrived at a rare piece of luck. Tomorrow is the Emperor’s Grand Parade through the Imperial City.”

Zhang Wuji asked, “What is this Grand Parade?”

The serving boy said, “Now the New Year has passed, tomorrow is the day for the Emperor’s Grand Parade. His Majesty is going to Qingshou Temple⁸ to offer incense. Tens of thousands of men and women will dress in costume and parade through the streets, the head and tail of it thirty or forty li⁹ long at the very least. It is a sight worth seeing. You gentlemen should retire early tonight and rise before dawn. Go take a seat outside Yude Hall.¹⁰ If your eyes are sharp, you shall see the Emperor and Empress, the Noble Consort and the Crown Prince, the Princesses too, every one. Think, we common folk, if we did not live in the capital, where would we get the good fortune to set eyes on the Emperor in the flesh?”

Han Lin’er could bear it no longer. He snapped, “Calling thieves your fathers, you shameless traitor! What is there to see in a Tartar emperor?”

The serving boy stared at him, eyes wide, and pointed. “You… you… speaking such words, isn’t that treason? Aren’t you afraid of losing your head?”

Han Lin’er said, “You are a Han man. The Tartars have wrought such misery upon us, and you bow and scrape, calling them ‘Your Majesty’ at every turn. Have you not a shred of spine left?”

The serving boy, seeing his fierce manner, turned to leave.

Zhou Zhiruo raised her hand and struck an acupoint on his back, sealing it. She said, “If this man goes out, he will surely talk. Before long soldiers may come to arrest us. The people of the capital are as shameless as that.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Shameless men are found everywhere, not only among the capital folk.” He kicked the serving boy under the bed and laughed. “We shall starve him a few days. We can release him when we leave.”

Before long the innkeeper called from outside, “Afu, Afu! Where have you got to, chatterbox? Hurry and bring the washing water for the guests in Room Three!”

Han Lin’er stifled a laugh and slapped the table. “Hurry and bring wine and food. We gentlemen are starving!”

After a while another serving boy brought in the wine and food, muttering to himself, “That Afu must have gone off to the Imperial City to watch the fireworks. That boy never does a proper day’s work, always off playing.”

---

The next morning, Zhang Wuji had barely risen when he heard a great clamour outside. He went to the door and saw the streets thronged with men and women, all in bright clothes, pressing northwards, laughing and chattering. Firecrackers burst on every side without pause.

Zhou Zhiruo came to the door as well. “Let us go and see.”

Zhang Wuji said, “I have clashed with the warriors of the Prince of Ruyang’s mansion. I must not let them recognise me. If we are to go, we must disguise ourselves first.”

The three of them dressed as village folk, smeared their faces and hands with mud and yellow earth, and joined the crowds pressing towards the Imperial City.

It was the end of the Mao hour and the beginning of the Chen,¹¹ and inside and outside the Imperial City the press of people was like a mountain, a sea, with scarcely room to set foot. Zhang Wuji stretched out both arms and gently pushed the crowd aside to clear a path. They reached the eaves of a great house outside Yanchun Gate,¹² where the stone steps rose several feet high, a good vantage for watching.

They had not stood there long before they heard the clanging of gongs, and all the common folk cried out together, “They are coming! They are coming!” Everyone stretched their necks to look.

The sounds drew nearer, growing louder. At the head came a hundred and eight tall men, all in black clothing, each carrying a great tin gong three feet across in his left hand, their gong mallets rising and falling in unison. A hundred and eight great gongs sounded together with a single crash that deafened the ears.

Past the gong brigade marched three hundred and sixty drummers, followed by the delicate wind-and-string music of the Han, a pipa ensemble from the Western Regions, and a Mongol horn corps, each company no fewer than a hundred strong, some four or five hundred. When the musicians had passed, two great banners of red satin were borne aloft. One bore the words “Guarding the State, Protecting the Nation,” and the other “Subduing Demons and Quelling Evil,” bordered with many characters in glittering gold Sanskrit.¹³ Before and behind each banner rode two hundred Mongol elite guards, their dao bright as snow, their iron spears like clouds, four hundred men upon white horses. The common folk, beholding such martial splendour, gave a great shout of acclaim.

Zhang Wuji sighed to himself, “In the provinces the common people hate the Mongol troops to the bone. Yet here in the capital men wear the yoke of a conquered nation and feel no shame. They have seen the Mongol court’s splendour day after day for decades, until they have forgotten they are a conquered people.”

Footnotes

1. 宋青书 – Sòng Qīngshū. Eldest disciple of Song Yuanqiao and grandson of the Wudang patriarch Song Yuanqiao. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 殷离 – Yīn Lí. Zhang Wuji’s cousin, also known as Zhu’er (蛛儿). Daughter of Yin Yewang. ↩

4. 万安寺 – Wàn’ān Sì. A Buddhist temple in Dadu, the Yuan capital, where the six major schools’ leaders were imprisoned by the court. ↩

5. 灭绝师太 – Mièjué Shītài. Her dharma-name, meaning “Extinction” or “Annihilation”. Zhangmen of the Emei Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 哥哥 – gēge. Older brother. An affectionate form of address. ↩

7. 大都 – Dàdū. The Yuan dynasty capital, modern Beijing. Under the Mongols it was the largest city in the world. ↩

8. 庆寿寺 – Qìngshòu Sì. Qingshou Temple, a Buddhist temple in Dadu, a destination for imperial pilgrimage. ↩

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

10. 玉德殿 – Yùdé Diàn. Yude Hall, a ceremonial hall within the Yuan imperial palace. ↩

11. 卯末辰初 – mǎo mò chén chū. The end of the Mao hour and the beginning of the Chen hour, approximately 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 延春门 – Yánchūn Mén. Yanchun Gate, one of the gates of the Yuan imperial palace in Dadu. ↩

13. 梵文 – Fànwén. Sanskrit script. The Mongol court’s patronage of Tibetan Buddhism meant Sanskrit-derived scripts appeared on imperial banners and religious inscriptions. ↩