, Ji Wushi, Zu Qianqiu, and Old Man like thunderbolts, and none of them knew what to say. A good while later, Old Man finally managed to mumble a few words out of this mouth, “That…that….”

“What about that? Are you afraid of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance and have not the courage to touch an apprentice of the Huashan School?” Ying-Ying snapped in a stern voice.

“When we serve the Sacred Lady, even the Jade Emperor[6] or the Lord of the Underworld can be subject to our wrath, much less the Five Mountains Sword Alliance. We’ll try to capture Linghu…Linghu Chong and bring him to the Sacred Lady’s judgment. Old Man, Zu Qianqiu, let’s go,” Ji Wushi answered.

“Young Master Linghu must have somehow offended the Sacred Lady in their conversations,” Old Man thought to himself. “The more intimate a young couple are, the easier they are at odds with each other. Many years ago when Not-Dead’s mom and I loved each other so deeply like honey mixed with oil, didn’t we also quarrel and fight everyday? Alas, if it weren’t because I punched Not-Dead’s mom so hard on the stomach when she still had the baby inside her that had messed up the pregnancy, Not-Dead the girl wouldn’t have gotten the disease before she was even born. I guess I’ll have no choice but to invite Young Master Linghu to see the Sacred Lady and let her deal with him, herself.”

Just when Old Man was still in the middle of wild flights of thoughts, Ying-Ying bellowed, “Who asked you to capture him? Every minute this Linghu Chong stays alive will only add more stains my unblemished reputation. The earlier he is killed, the earlier I can vent my resentment.”

“Your highness…,” Zu Qianqiu stumbled over his words.

“I see. You’ve developed good friendship with Linghu Chong and simply don’t want to handle this for me. That’s fine. I’ll ask somebody else to spread the word,” Ying-Ying said with chill in her tone.

Noticing the graveness in her voice, the three had no choice but to bow in compliance. “Your command is our wish, your highness!” they replied in unison.

But Old Man thought to himself, “Young Master Linghu is a man with kindheartedness and justice. Today I have an order from the Sacred Lady and have no choice but to kill him. But after I do so, I shall commit suicide to accompany him on his way to the underworld.” He took the pill out from his chest pocket and then placed it on the ground.

The three of them turned around and set off. Gradually, their receding figures grew more distant and eventually merged into the dark shades of the night.

Linghu Chong cast a sideway look at Ying-Ying, finding her contemplating silently with her head down. “She wants me dead in order to preserve her reputation. How hard could that be?” he thought to himself.

“If you want me dead, you can just take care of it yourself. Why stir up so many people?” Linghu Chong asked as he unsheathed his long sword slowly, turning it and then handed it over, sword handle first.

Taking the long sword, Ying-Ying turned her head slightly and then fixed her stare at Linghu Chong, who straightened his back and burst into a laugh.

“Your end is imminent. Why are you still laughing?” Ying-Ying asked.

“That’s exactly why I am laughing – my end is finally coming,” Linghu Chong replied.

Raising the long sword, Ying-Ying recoiled her arm in an attacking posture, ready to strike out, but suddenly she turned on her heels and with a strong wave of her arm, threw the long sword in the air. The blade shined profoundly from the reflection of the dim starlight as it flew across the darkness, and with a clank, fell to the ground in a distance.

“It’s all your fault!” Ying-Ying stamped her feet on the ground hysterically. “It’s all your fault that so many people are laughing at me, as though that nobody…nobody will ever want me for the rest…the rest of my life, and I am trying every possible way to make you like me. What…what’s so terrific about you? How can I ever see another person without feeling ashamed of myself?”

Linghu Chong let out another laugh.

“And you are still laughing at me? Mocking me?” Ying-Ying yelled heatedly. Suddenly, with a loud cry, she broke down in tears.

Linghu Chong immediately felt sorry as tender affections rising in his heart. He suddenly came to realization. “She has very high status in the Martial World, with the many people always holding her in awe and veneration. Then of course she has a very sensitive pride. Besides, she is a girl, and girls are always born shy. Now when suddenly everybody says that she fell in love with me, it’s only natural that she becomes very displeased. She told Old Man and the rest to spread the word only to refute a rumor. She didn’t really want me dead. Once everyone hears what she said, of course no one would believe that we are a couple, and the rumor would have no ground.”

At that thought, he spoke softly, “It is really my fault, causing damage to your clean name, Miss! I’ll be on my way. Goodbye.”

“Where are you going?” Ying-Ying wiped the tears off her eyes with her sleeve and asked.

“Anywhere my legs bring me to,” Linghu Chong answered.

“But you promised to escort me. How can you just walk away like that?”

“I must have had an inflated opinion of my abilities to say words like that. I’ve really made a fool out of myself in front of you, Miss. With such outstanding Kung Fu skills you really have no need for any protection. Even one hundred Linghu Chong putting together would be no match for you,” Linghu Chong answered with a smile, and as soon as the last word left his mouth, he had already turned on his heels to walk away.

“You can’t go!” Ying-Ying yelled hastily.

“Why is that?” Linghu Chong asked.

“Zu Qianqiu and the other two have already set out to spread the word out. It will only take a few days for it to become publicly known. Then everybody will be on your heels trying to kill you. It will be like walking on thorns every step of the way. You wouldn’t be able to escape the fatal disaster even if you are perfectly fit, much less when you are so badly injured.”

“Linghu Chong dying from Miss’s words, that’s fine,” Linghu Chong grinned indifferently.

He walked over to pick up the long sword on the ground and then shoved it back into its sheath. Feeling pretty sure that he would not be able to climb up the slope, he decided to walk alongside the mountain gully.

“Hey, stop! You!” seeing that Linghu Chong was walking further and further, Ying-Ying ran after him, shouting.

“It will only bring you trouble if Linghu Chong stays with Miss. It will be much better if I leave by myself,” Linghu Chong said.

“You…you…,” Ying-Ying muttered, biting her lip hard, feeling the distraction growing inside her by the second. Seeing that Linghu Chong simply would not stop walking away, she ran a few steps closer and then uttered, “Linghu Chong, you just want to force me to say it myself, don’t you?”

“What? I don’t understand?” Linghu Chong asked in surprise.

Ying-Ying bit her lip again and finally said, “I asked Zu Qianqiu and the group to spread the word, because I want you…I want you to stay by my side forever, and never leave me.” After these words, she trembled so frantically as though she could collapse any moment.

“You…you want to be with me?” Linghu Chong stood in amazement.

“Yes! After Zu Qianqiu and the other two spread the word out, you can only stay alive if you stay by my side. Who would have thought you didn’t care about your life any bit and were not afraid at all. Wouldn’t that…wouldn’t that have done you for good?”

“So you do care for me very much, but just wouldn’t admit any of it in front of those other fellows,” Linghu Chong thought to himself as a stream of gratitude washed over him.

He turned around and walked next to her, holding both of her hands into his own. Ying-Ying’s hands were icy cold; Linghu Chong could feel that both her palms were covered in cold sweats.

“Your hands are cold.” Linghu Chong said gently.

“I am afraid,” Ying-Ying answered.

“What are you afraid of?”

“I am afraid this fool right here won’t listen to me and would rather risk his life out there. I am afraid that you might not even make it to the end of tomorrow and end up dying under those worthless, rotten lowlifes’ murderous hands.”

“They are all courageous and straightforward guys who respect you very much. Why do you despise them so much?” Linghu Chong sighed.

“They laugh at me behind my back and they want to kill you. Wouldn’t that make them rotten lowlifes?” Ying-Ying argued.

“But it was you who had ordered them to kill me. How can you blame this on them?” Linghu Chong could not hold his grin back. “Moreover, they never laughed at you behind your back? Remember when Ji Wushi, Old Man, and Zu Qianqiu mentioned in their conversation, how respectful they were in their tones? What made you think they were laughing at you behind your back?”

“They weren’t laughing on their faces, but they were laughing in their guts.”

Hearing the girl persist unreasonably, Linghu Chong found it hard to refute, so he said, “All right! If you don’t allow me to leave, I’ll stay here and be your company. Alas, it probably wouldn’t feel that great to be chopped into pieces.”

“Wouldn’t feel great? You’ll feel awful,” Ying-Ying replied, feeling wild with joy to hear Linghu Chong agree to stay.

She turned her face to the side when she spoke these words, and illuminated under the dim starlight of the night, the snow-white face seemed to be glowing in a soft radiance. Linghu Chong felt a tickle in his heart.

“This girl in fact is much more beautiful than the little apprentice sister, and she treats me with great care and affection. But…but…why couldn’t I forget little apprentice sister even for a single moment?” he thought to himself.

But Ying-Ying had no idea that he was thinking of Yue Lingshan. “Where’s the zither I gave you? You lost it, didn’t you?” she said.

“That’s right! I ran out of money on the way, so I pawned the zither in the pawnshop for some silver,” Linghu Chong answered as he took off the pack on his back, opened it, and then took out the short zither.

Ying-Ying could see the tight wrap around the zither in the pack. Knowing that Linghu Chong had always treasured this present from hers, she was very pleased.

“How many lies do you have to make everyday to make yourself happy?” she reproved.

Getting the zither from Linghu Chong, she gave a few plucks to the strings, and then began playing that “Song of Peace and Serenity.”

“Have you learned the entire piece yet?’ she asked.

“Far from that!” Linghu Chong answered.

Quietly, he listened to the gentler zither sounds, feeling relaxed and joyful. After a while, he noticed that the notes of music were quite different from the ones she had played in the Bamboo-Green Alley in Luoyang. Now they almost sounded like chirps from birds on top of the branches or spurt from mountain strings, with continuous jingles and tinkles, sounding very interesting and pleasant.

“Same melody, but different notes. So this ‘Song of Peace and Serenity’ can have so many variations,” he thought.

Suddenly a loud ring echoed as the shortest string of the zither broke in half. Ying-Ying frowned but continued to play. But only minutes later, another string snapped. Linghu Chong could sense much fidgety carried in the zither play, which were totally contrary to the intention the music was supposed to depict. Before he had any success to think it through, another crack echoed as a third string snapped in half.

“You sit right next to me and keep disturbing me. How can I play the zither well like that?” Pushing the zither aside, Ying-Ying protested.

“I’ve been sitting here very quietly since the beginning. When did I ever disturb her?” Linghu Chong thought to himself. But he figured it out right away. “So she could not find peace of mind and she is blaming that on me.”

He didn’t even try to argue, and simply lay down on the meadow in repose with his eyes closed. Soon his fatigue caught up with him and before he knew it, he had fell asleep.

By the time he woke again, it was already the next day. He looked around and then found Ying-Ying washing her face on her knees by the mountain gully. He watched on as Ying-Ying began combing her hair after she finished washing her face. The skin on her arms was so white as though the arms were made out of pure jade, and the beautiful long hair almost touched the ground. The picture was so beautiful that Linghu Chong forgot about everything else and just sat there, watching in a daze.

Ying-Ying looked back over her shoulder and then blushed when she found Linghu Chong gazing at her in a trance.

“Lazy bum! Getting up so late!” she grinned.

“I’ll go catch some frogs. Let’s see if I’ve build up enough strength,” feeling quite embarrassed to be caught gazing at her, Linghu Chong uttered awkwardly.

“Why don’t you stay lying down and rest some more? I’ll go catch some,” Ying-Ying suggested.

Linghu Chong struggled to get back onto his feet, but all his limbs were sore and limp, and the energy streams inside him seethed the moment he tried to use his strength.

“Either let me die or let me live,” Linghu Chong thought to himself, feeling very irritated. “Staying half dead and half alive like this, I am pretty much a good-for-nothing. Even I am disgusted with myself, not mentioning how others would think of me as a complete nuisance.”

“Your internal injuries might not be so hard to heal. This is a very secluded area. We have nothing else, anyway. You can just let time take it’s course and let the wounds heal slowly. There’s no need to be impatient,” noticing the displeased expression on Linghu Chong’s face, Ying-Ying comforted him.

The valley the gully flow through was located in a remote section of the mountain range. Ever since the night when Ji Wushi and the rest of the group passed by, no one else ever showed up. The two of them lived in the valley for almost a fortnight. Ying-Ying’s internal wounds had healed early on, and every day she would pick wild fruit and catch wild frogs for food, but Linghu Chong only became thinner and thinner as days go by. She forced him to take the pill left by Great Master Fang-Sheng, and played the zither for him everyday to help him fall asleep, but these did not seem to have an effect on his injuries. Linghu Chong knew that his final day would be coming soon, but having always been open-minded all his life, he did not let that bother him, and kept talking and joking with Ying-Ying every day. Although Ying-Ying had always been arrogant and willful before, at the thought that Linghu Chong could be suddenly gone any moment now, she became even more gentle and soft, docile and obedient, and attended upon Linghu Chong with all her heart. Even at times when she got angry over trifles occasionally, she would immediately regret it and apologize to him.

One day after eating two peaches, Linghu Chong was exhausted already, and soon, he fell asleep. In the ooziness, he heard the sound of somebody sobbing. Opening his eyes slightly, he found Ying-Ying bending over by his side sobbing uncontrollably. Stunned, Linghu Chong was just about to ask the reason for her grief when he stumbled across the answer, “She knows that I am dying. That’s why she is so grieved.”

“Don’t cry! Don’t cry! I can live for at least another eighty years. I am not leaving this world in any hurry,” reaching out his left hand, he stroked her beautiful hair and said with a forced smile.

“You are getting thinner and thinner every day. I…I…I don’t want to live anymore…,” Ying-Ying whimpered.

Linghu Chong could feel the utter sincerity and deep sorrow in her voice, and immense gratitude immediately filled his heart. A strong surge of warmth suddenly shot up his throat, and blood immediately gushed out of his mouth. The entire world seemed to have started to swirl around him, and before he knew it, he lost consciousness.

__________

[1] According to Eastern Medicine, it takes hundreds of years to for a ginseng to grow into the shape of a human body, and once it grows into the shape of a human body, its nutrition value becomes extraordinary or even magical.

[2] The Kunlun School is a famous martial arts school headquartered on Mount Kunlun. Mount Kunlun is a large mountain in the Xinjiang Province, a province in the northwest region of China bordering the many countries that used to be members of the former USSR.

[3] In Buddhist theory, the human body is only considered a vessel of the human soul. Once the soul leaves the body, the body becomes worthless.

[4] “Why use a cattle knife to kill the chicken” is a Chinese idiom. It originated from the book The Analects of Confucius. According to the book, Confucius traveled to Wu Chang and heard the sound of string instrument and heard the singing. Surprised that his student Zi You had succeeded in transforming the militant temperament of the local people and turned them into music loving people. The great sage said smilingly, “Why use a cattle knife to kill the chicken?” Today this idiom is used to imply that a person of great talent is used for a job of little importance. It’s similar to the English idiom “break a butterfly on the wheel.”

[5] It was recorded in the story Legend of Fan Kuai (yes, this is the same Fan Kuai we talked about in Chapter 14) in The Book of Han (a famous history book written in the Han Dynasty by Ban Gu) that “Kuai, born in the county of Pei, and made a living by butchering dogs.”

[6] Jade Emperor is the Supreme Deity of Taoism. He is the ultimate ruler of the entire heaven.