White Horse Neighing in the West Wind - Chapter 12

The setting sun cast its golden light across the faces of the men surnamed Song and Quan. The two of them tilted their heads slightly to keep the glare from their eyes, when suddenly a clear, girlish shout rang out from within the cave: “Here come the poisoned needles!”

The two men flung themselves aside in alarm. Two gourds came sailing out of the cave, and Li Wenxiu leaped out after them. At first they were startled, but when they saw that what she held in her hands were nothing more than a pair of dried-out gourds, they could not help laughing, though their laughter carried no small measure of wariness.

Li Wenxiu’s heart was pounding. She had learned only a single move, and she did not truly believe one move alone could see her through. As a child she had studied some martial arts with her parents, but after their death she had let it all go, until she had forgotten every last bit of it. These two fierce-looking bandits terrified her. If she could avoid a fight, if she could bluff them into running away, that would be the best possible outcome. So she bellowed, “If you don’t run off right now, my shifu the One Finger that Shakes Jiangnan will come out! His poisoned needles kill men as easily as reaching into a bag. You dare oppose him? You’ve got some nerve!”

Both bandits were ordinary fellows. They seemed to have heard of the name One Finger that Shakes Jiangnan before, but it had nothing to do with them, and they paid it no mind. They exchanged a glance, each thinking the same thing: We might as well grab this girl and take her to Master Huo and Second Master Chen. Fifty liang of gold, at the very least. Who cares who shakes Jiangnan or Jiangbei?

With a shout they charged, one from the left, one from the right.

Li Wenxiu was horrified. They’re both coming at once. How do I use Star and Moon Contending in Brightness against two at the same time? Hua Hui had been so intent on teaching her how to strike the acupoints that he had forgotten to teach her how to deal with two attackers at once. But in a real fight the variations are endless, and in a shichen or two of teaching, how much could he possibly have covered?

Li Wenxiu, all in a fluster, leaped three chi to the right. The man surnamed Quan, who had been standing on the right, was the first to reach her. She swung both gourds out without thinking, and in her panic she executed Star and Moon Contending in Brightness only half correctly. The left hammer struck true, hitting the Shangqu acupoint on his chest, but the right hammer slammed squarely into the blade of his long dao. There was a sharp scrape, and the gourd split open against the edge, spraying yellow sand everywhere.

The man surnamed Song was rushing up at that very moment. He had no idea that a great cloud of yellow sand would come flying out of the gourd. A dozen grains drove into his eyes, and he raised his hands to rub them. Li Wenxiu swung another hammer strike at him. But with the right hammer broken, she lacked the leverage, and the blow struck his back without hitting the Lingtai acupoint. Even so, with a seven or eight jin flying hammer smashing into his body, the man surnamed Song could not keep his footing either. The man surnamed Song could not keep his footing. He pitched forward, eyes still shut, and threw his arms around Li Wenxiu’s shoulders.

“Aiyo!” Li Wenxiu cried, and hurriedly thrust her left hand out to push him away. In her panic she forgot she still held a poisoned needle. The push drove the needle into his belly. The man surnamed Song tightened his grip once more, and then he was dead.

Even in death his arms held fast. Li Wenxiu struggled with all her strength, but she could not break free. Hua Hui sighed. “Stupid girl. You learned it well enough, but when it comes to using it, what a mess!” He kicked the dead man in the tailbone. The corpse released its arms and toppled backwards.

Li Wenxiu’s nerves were still raw when she turned to look at Quan. He lay stretched out on the ground, eyes wide open, perfectly still. The sand-filled gourd had struck a vital acupoint and killed him outright. In the course of a single day Li Wenxiu had taken five lives. Even though it had been to avenge her parents and to defend herself against violence, the fear and unease overwhelmed her. She stared blankly at the two bodies and could not help bursting into tears.

Hua Hui smiled gently. “Why are you crying? Was the move your shifu taught you, Star and Moon Contending in Brightness, was it any good or not?”

Li Wenxiu sobbed. “I… I killed people again.”

“Killing a few petty thieves is nothing,” Hua Hui said. “Once my martial arts return, I will pass all my skills on to you. When our business here is done, shifu and disciple will return to the Central Plains. The two of us will sweep across the jianghu, and no one will be able to stand against us. Come, come, come. Let us go to my place and rest. Have some hot tea.”

He led Li Wenxiu through the scrub to the left. After walking a li or so, they passed through a row of birch trees and arrived at a thatched cottage.

Li Wenxiu followed him inside. The furnishings were simple but clean and elegant. Hanging in the main hall was a pair of wooden couplets, each plank carved with seven characters. The first line read: Even a lifelong friend, keep your hand on your sword. The second line read: When your friend rises early to high office, he laughs at your attempts to curry favour.

Since coming to the Western Regions she had never seen a couplet, and no one had ever taught her to read. Fortunately the fourteen characters were not obscure. Her mother had taught them to her when she was small, though she did not understand their meaning at all. She murmured, “Even a lifelong friend, keep your hand on your sword…”

“Have you read this poem?” Hua Hui asked.

“No. What do these fourteen characters say?”

Hua Hui was a man of both letters and martial arts. “These are two lines by Wang Wei.¹ The first line means that if you have a bosom friend, and you befriend him for a lifetime, until both your hair has turned white, still you must not trust him entirely. He may harm you in secret. When he stands before you, it is best to keep your hand on your sword hilt. The line before these two reads: The ways of men overturn like wind-driven waves. As for the second line, When your friend rises early to high office, he laughs at your attempts to curry favour means that when your good friend has found success and soared to the heights, if you expect him to promote you, to help you, you will earn nothing but his ridicule.”

Ever since Li Wenxiu had first met him, she had noticed how he suspected and guarded against her at every turn. It was only after she drew out the poisoned needles that he had begun to believe she meant him no harm. Now, reading the couplet, she guessed that somewhere in his life he had suffered a great betrayal, and the betrayer had probably been a close friend. That was why he was so bitter, so wary. She did not press him with questions but went to boil water and make tea.

They each drank a couple of cups of hot tea.

“Shifu, I must go back,” Li Wenxiu said.

Hua Hui started, his face showing keen disappointment. “You are leaving? You will not study martial arts with me?”

“No! I was out all night without returning. Grandpa Ji will be worried about me. Let me go and tell him, and then I will come back to train.”

Hua Hui suddenly flared with anger. His face turned red as he shouted, “If you tell him, never come back to see me!”

Li Wenxiu was startled. She said in a low voice, “I cannot tell Grandpa Ji? He… he is very fond of me.”

“You must not tell anyone. Swear a solemn oath this instant. You will speak of what happened today to no one, or I will not let you leave this mountain…” In his fury, the wounds on his back suddenly flared with pain. He gave a cry and fainted.

Li Wenxiu hurried to prop him up and splashed cool water on his forehead. After a while Hua Hui came slowly round. “You have not left?” he said, surprised.

Li Wenxiu asked instead, “Does your back hurt very much?”

“It is a little better now. You said you were going back. Why have you not gone?”

Li Wenxiu thought: At worst Grandpa Ji will only worry, but after my shifu’s terrible injuries, if I do not stay and tend to him, he might die. She said aloud, “Shifu is not well. Let me stay and look after you for a few days.”

Hua Hui was delighted.

That night they slept in the cottage. Li Wenxiu gathered some dry grass and made a bed on the floor of the main room. She woke startled several times during the night, dreaming now that she had been seized by bandits, now that blood-soaked ghosts had come to claim her life.

The next morning she found that a night’s rest had greatly restored Hua Hui’s spirits. After breakfast he began to instruct her in martial arts. “You are already grown. Starting on the highest arts at your age is rather late. But my pupil is clever, and her shifu is no ordinary man either. When a fine shifu takes a gifted pupil, what is there to fear? In five years’ time, you will find few equals in the jianghu.”

Li Wenxiu thought to herself: I do not want to have few equals. If I learn martial arts and the wicked can bully me no more, that will be enough.

She trained in this way for seven or eight days. Her progress was swift, and Hua Hui’s back healed steadily. At last she took her leave of her shifu and rode the white horse home. Hua Hui did not press her to swear the oath again. When she returned, she said nothing to Grandpa Ji about what had truly happened. She told him only that she had lost her way in the desert and wandered further and further, until she chanced on a caravan of camels and so escaped dying of thirst in the sands.

***

From then on, every ten days or fortnight, Li Wenxiu would go to stay with Hua Hui for several days. Fearing she might run into bandits again, she always dressed in Kazakh men’s clothing when she went out. During those days Hua Hui taught her martial arts with devoted care. Li Wenxiu had nowhere else to channel her heart, so she threw herself into training with single-minded devotion. She studied external arts and then internal arts. Truly, when a gifted pupil meets a fine shifu, progress comes swiftly.

Two years passed in this way. Hua Hui often praised her: “With your skill today, you are already counted among the first-rank fighters in the jianghu. Return to the Central Plains, and with a single display you will make your name known far and wide.”

But Li Wenxiu had no desire to return to the Central Plains. She cared nothing for making a name in the jianghu. To avenge her parents, and to keep from being harmed the next time she met bandits, she needed martial arts, that was certain. But deep in her heart another thought drove her on: If I become skilled enough in martial arts, I can snatch Supu back.

She never dared let herself dwell on the thought. Every time it came, her face burned red. Though she would not let herself think of it, it lay buried deep, and so she spent less and less time at Old Man Ji’s and more and more at her shifu’s house. When the old man asked once or twice and she refused to answer, he knew she had been stubborn-willed since childhood, and that once she had made up her mind she would never turn back. So he asked no more.

One day Li Wenxiu was riding the white horse home from her shifu’s place when, halfway there, she saw dark crimson clouds massing across the sky. The weather in the desert changes in an instant. The north wind howled ever harder, and it looked as though a great snowstorm was moments away. She urged the horse into a gallop. She could see herdsmen driving their flocks homeward in haste. Not a single crow or sparrow was to be seen in the sky.

She was nearly home when suddenly she suddenly heard the clatter of hooves. A horse was cantering towards her. Li Wenxiu found this odd. The storm is about to break. Why would anyone be riding out from home? As the horse drew close, she saw that its rider wore a bright red wool cloak. It was a Kazakh woman.

Footnotes

1. 白首相知犹按剑，朱门早达笑弹冠 – báishǒu xiāngzhī yóu ànjiàn, zhūmén zǎodá xiào tánguān. From 《酌酒与裴迪》 by 王维 Wáng Wéi (701–761), Tang dynasty. The preceding line is 人情翻覆似波澜, “the ways of men overturn like wind-driven waves.” 弹冠 (dusting off one’s official cap) is an allusion to preparing for office on a friend’s recommendation. ↩