Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 02, page 16
He felt even more displeased seeing how the apprentice brothers and sisters all bursting with joy with no regard to the tragic death of Liang Fa.
“Maybe I should just leave quietly in the dark tonight after we settle in an inn,” he thought to himself. “How can I just follow everyone else to enjoy apprentice brother Lin’s free meals and spend his money, and then put on an air of cheerfulness to congratulate little apprentice sister and him, wishing them to live happily ever after?”
The group of Huashan School hit the road again as Linghu Chong followed behind. Weak and exhausted, he walked slower and slower, and soon, he fell far behind everyone else. By noon, he decided to sit down on a big rock alongside the road to catch his breath, when he saw Lao Denuo stride back in big steps.
“Big apprentice brother! How do you feel? You must be tired. I’ll wait for you,” Lao Denuo said.
“Oh, thanks!” Linghu Chong replied.
“Master-Wife has hired a wagon for you in the town ahead. It should be coming anytime now,” Lao Denuo mentioned.
Warmth swelled in Linghu Chong’s heart. “Although Master is suspicious of me, Master-Wife is still treating me dearly,” he thought to himself.
Not long after, a mule-pulled wagon showed up. Linghu Chong entered the wagon and Lao Denuo accompanied him by his side. That night, when they settled in an inn, Lao Denuo shared the same room with him. And in the following two days, Lao Denuo never even went out of his sight. Linghu Chong was quite grateful that a fellow apprentice brother was so kind to care for a wounded patient.
“When junior apprentice brother Lao joined our Huashan School, he had already received prior martial arts training. He is much older than I am, and wouldn’t even spare much word with me during normal days. Who would have thought that he would treat me with so much caring after what happened to me. All the other apprentice brothers don’t even dare to talk with me much, after seeing the stern face Master has shown me. The old saying is so true: As distance will test a horse’s endurance, so will time reveal a person’s heart.”
At the third night, as Linghu Chong was resting in bed with his eyes shut, some kind of whisper suddenly caught his attention. It was little apprentice brother Shu Qi whispering at the door.
“Second apprentice brother, Master sent me to check with you if big apprentice brother has done anything unusual today.”
“Hush! Outside!” Lao Denuo hushed hurriedly and whispered back.
A cold shiver ran through Linghu Chong’s heart. Just from these few words he had realized what a tremendous suspicion Master actually had toward him. Master only sent Lao Denuo to secretly keep a watch on his every move.
Shu Qi walked away on tiptoes, and Lao Denuo walked by the bed slowly to check if Linghu Chong had really fallen asleep.
Infuriated, Linghu Chong almost wanted to leap onto his feet right away and yell at him, but then he had a second thought.
“Why should I blame him? He really has nothing to do with this. He is only following Master’s order. Would he have dared to defy the Master?” So he forced back his anger and pretended to have fallen asleep.
Lao Denuo walked out of the room gingerly. Linghu Chong knew that he must have gone to the Master for a report. He couldn’t help but sneer inwardly, “Humph, I never did anything guilty. Even if you have ten or one hundred people watching every step of mine, days and nights, I am open and aboveboard. What’s there for me to be afraid of?”
Indignation filled his heart as he breathed wildly, and suddenly, it triggered a slight inner energy flow inside him. Waves of energy streams swirled inside him and made him feel miserable. He held onto the headrest tightly and gasped loudly. Only after a long while, the nausea finally went away. He sat up, threw on some clothing, and started to put on his shoes, thinking, “Since Master is no longer treating me like an apprentice of his, and instead, is on guard against me as if I am a thief, why should I even bother to stay in the Huashan Sword School? Maybe it would be better if I simply leave and not worry about whether Master would ever understand me one day.”
Right at that moment, he heard more whispers from under the window on the outside.
“Stay down and don’t move,” a voice said.
“Sounds like big apprentice brother is getting off his bed,” another voice replied.
The two said those words in whisper, but because it was a silent night, besides that Linghu Chong had excellent hearing abilities, he was actually able to hear every single word clearly and also recognize that the voices belonged to two young apprentice brothers of his. Apparently they were hiding in the courtyard to guard the room in case Linghu Chong would flee.
Linghu Chong clenched his fists hard. Cracks from his knuckles echoed in the silent night. “If I leave now, they would think that my guilty conscience has overcome me, and I am running away. Fine! Fine! I’d rather stay! You can do whatever you want to me! What do I care?” he thought.
“Waiter, waiter! Bring me some wine!” he suddenly broke into a loud yell.
After quite some shouting, the waiter finally answered and brought him some wine. One cup after another, Linghu Chong slammed the wine down his throat. Soon he became dead drunk and passed out. The next morning when Lao Denuo prodded him into the wagon, half drunk and half awake, he just kept yelling, “Bring me more wine, I want more wine!”
Several days later, the Huashan group arrived at the city of Luoyang and settled in a big inn. Lin Pingzhi went to his grandfather’s house by himself, first. Yue Buqun and the bunch of apprentices all changed into clean clothing. Linghu Chong never took off the mud stained long robe he wore in the fierce fight outside of the monastery, so he was still covered with filth and looked very drunk. Yue Lingshan came to him with a long robe in her hands.
“Big apprentice brother, will you change into this robe please?”
“This is Master’s robe. Why do you want me to put it on?” Linghu Chong asked.
“Little Lin is inviting us to his family a bit later. Why don’t you put Dad’s robe on?” Yue Lingshan answered.
“Who said we have to put on nice clothing before visiting his family?” Linghu Chong snubbed as he looked at Yue Lingshan up and down.
Yue Lingshan wore a thin cotton-padded jacket with green silk tops paired with a light green satin skirt. She had put on a thin layer of makeup on her face. Her dark hair was neatly combed and shined beautifully with a flower shaped pearl hairpin by the side. Linghu Chong remembered that she would only dress up nicely during the Chinese New Year. Feeling bitter in his heart, he wanted to spill out some more mocking words, but then he thought that a true man shouldn’t act so narrow-mindedly, and held his tongue.
Yue Lingshan felt somewhat embarrassed from Linghu Chong’s sharp stare. “If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to change,” she said.
“I am not used to wearing new clothes. I’d better not change then,” Linghu Chong replied.
Not wanting to argue with him, Yue Lingshan left with the robe still in her hands.
A resonant voice rose from outside the door, “Head Master Yue has come such a long way here, and I didn’t greet promptly. What a lack of manners!”
Yue Buqun knew that it must have been the Unbeatable Golden Blade – Wang Yuanba – who had come to the inn personally to greet them. Casting a pleased smile toward his wife, he felt quite contented. After the couple greeted out, what they saw was an old man in his seventies. His face shined in a healthy redness while the bush of grey beard drifted in the breeze. He looked certainly hale and hearty. In his left palm were two goose-egg-sized golden balls, which rubbed against each other and echoed as he rolled them in his hand. It was common for martial people to play with iron balls in their hands, but they would have been made out of iron or steel. What Wang Yuanba had in his hands were two balls made from pure gold, which not only were twice the weight of regular iron balls, but also looked much more luxurious. As soon as he spotted Yue Buqun, he burst into joy.
“What an honor this is! Head Master Yue has such a great reputation in the Martial World. I have been longing to meet you for the last twenty years. Now that you have come to Luo Yang, what a wonderful event it is for the martial arts society in the central region.”
He shook Yue Buqun’s right hand again and again happily. The joy on his face was truly sincere.
“My wife and I have decided to bring our apprentices to travel around so they could gain some experience in the world,” Yue Buqun said with a smile. “And you, the Unbeatable Golden Blade Grandmaster Wang, the Great Master of the Central Region, is the first on our list to visit, but the dozens of us are really being crude to just show up so abruptly uninvited.”
“Alright now, nobody is allowed to mention the words ‘Unbeatable Golden Blade’ again in front of Head Master Yue. Anyone mentioning those words would be only putting me done instead of flattering me. Mr. Yue, your saving of my grandson is a favor tantamount to giving him a new lease on life. Starting from now on, the House of Golden Blade and the Sword School of Huashan are both parts of one big family. Come, come! All of you will move to my house. No one will be allowed to leave until you have lived in my house for at least half a year. Head Master Yue, I’ll even help you carry your luggage.”
“That’s very kind of you! I certainly don’t deserve that!” Yue Buqun replied in a hurry.
“Bofen, Zhongqiang, kowtow to Uncle-Master Yue and Uncle-Master-Wife Yue,” Wang Yuanba turned his head and called to his two sons standing behind him.
Wang Bofen and Wang Zhongqiang both acknowledged and knelt down to salute. In a hurry, the Yue Buqun couple also knelt down to salute back.
“Please just call us by our names. ‘Uncle-Master’ would be so inappropriate. Even just for Pingzhi’s sake, we are of the same generation,” Yue Buqun remarked.
Wang Bofen and Wang Zhongqiang are both famous masters around the Henan Province and Hubei Province. Though they had always admired Yue Buqun, neither of them really wanted to kowtow to him. They had knelt down reluctantly only because their father had told them to do so, so both were very pleased to see that the Yue Buqun couple also kowtowed back to them. All four of them stood up after saluting each other.
Yue Buqun took a good look at the two: both brothers were tall, only that Wang Zhongqiang was a lot chubbier in comparison, and both had temples plumped high and strong veins and bones that could be clearly seen on their hands. Evidently, the two brothers had great strength both internally and externally.
“All of you come forward and show your respect to Grandmaster Wang and the two Uncle-Masters,” Yue Buqun called out to the Huashan apprentices. “The House of Golden Blade’s martial arts skills enjoyed a great reputation in the central region of the martial society. Our Grandmaster in the last generation also respected the House of Golden Blade very much. You are very fortunate to have Grandmaster Wang and the two Uncle-Masters give you some pointers. I am sure you will all benefit a great deal from this.”
“Yes, Master!” the many apprentices replied in unison, and seconds later, the lobby of the inn was filled with apprentices kneeling down on the floor, showing their respects.
“You really flatter me!” Wang Yuanba smiled brightly as Wang Bofen and Wang Zhongqiang both cupped their hands and greeted back with a half salute.
Lin Pingzhi stood by the side and introduced each of the Huashan apprentices to his grandpa. The Wang Family was a wealthy family. Wang Yuanba had prepared presents for each of the guests ahead of time. Each gift consisted of forty taels of silver. The two brothers in the Wang Family took on the job of distributing the presents. By the time Lin Pingzhi introduced Yue Lingshan, Wang Yuanba said to Yue Buqun with a big grin.
“Little brother Yue, your daughter is such a beautiful girl; is she engaged to anyone yet?”
“The girl is still too young. Besides, in a martial family like ours, a girl plays with swords and knives all day long just like any boy would. She doesn’t know anything about embroidering or cooking. Who would want such a wild girl to be their daughter-in-law?” Yue Buqun also grinned.
“You are really being modest!” Wang Yuanba replied with a beam. “An extraordinary family would, of course, raise an extraordinary daughter. It is only natural that lads from ordinary families would not have dared to claim kinship with her. But you are right, it would be better if the girl learned some girly things.” At that word, he lowered his voice and seemed to have lost in deep feelings.
Yue Buqun knew that he must have thought of his daughter who had passed away in Hunan Province not long ago, so he put on a solemn face and responded, “Yes.”
Wang Yuanba was a man of frank and open personality. He quickly put himself together from the pain of losing a daughter and spoke again with a bright smile.
“Your daughter is talented and beautiful. It would certainly be a difficult task to find a young hero good enough to pair up with her.”
By then, Lao Denuo had gone back in the inn room and prodded Linghu Chong out. Staggering along, Linghu Chong kowtowed to neither Wang Yuanba nor the Wang brothers, and only bowed down deeply.
“Linghu Chong here shows his respect to Grandmaster Wang and the two Uncle-Masters,” he said.
“Aren’t you going to kowtow?” Yue Buqun frowned.
Wang Yuanba had heard from his grandson earlier that Linghu Chong had severe internal wounds, so he said with a smile, “Nephew Linghu is not feeling well. There’s no need for excessive manners. Little brother Yue, your Huashan School’s inner energy skill is said to be the best in the Five Mountains Sword Alliance, then I am sure your wine tolerance must be extraordinary. Come on! Let’s go drink ten bowls of wine each.”
Holding Yue Buqun’s hand in his own, he led Yue Buqun out of the inn. Madam Yue, Wang Bofen, Wang Zhongqiang, and the rest of the Huashan apprentices all followed behind them. Many wagons and horses had been lined up outside of the inn with fine-looking saddles and bridle; wagons for all the females and horses for the males, ready to take the honorable guests. It was a mere two hours between the time Lin Pingzhi headed out to inform the Wang Family and the time Wang Yuanba came to the inn to greet his guests. Only from the fact that all the wagons and horses had been ready in such a short time, one can easily tell the kind of great power the Golden Blade Wang Family enjoyed in the city of Luoyang.
The group soon arrived at the mansion of the Wang Family. The building looked tall and majestic with a gate painted in vermilion. The two huge copper rings attached to the gate must have been cleaned frequently as they dazzled brilliantly in the sunlight. Eight brawny guards stood by the gate silently, their arms behind their back, all ready to take commands from their Master. And inside the gate, a huge black board hung from the girder with the words “Help for a Just Cause” painted in gold. The words at the lower portion of the board showed that a governor of Henan Province had inscribed the calligraphy.
That night, Wang Yuanba put out a large banquet to welcome Yue Buqun and the rest of the Huashan apprentices. Not only did he invite many famous masters in the local martial arts society to welcome the noble visitors, among the guests were also numerous wealthy business owners and local celebrities. Linghu Chong was the Head Apprentice of the Huashan Sword School, so other than his Master Yue Buqun, he had the most seniority among all the male visitors. Noticing the filthy and tattered clothing he was wearing and the listless face of his, all the guests found themselves puzzled inside. But it was common knowledge that the Martial World did not lack people of strange and unique behaviors. Didn’t elite masters from the Beggars Clan all wear ragged clothing? Since he was the Head Apprentice of the Huashan Sword School, he couldn’t have been ordinary; therefore no one had any belittling thought about Linghu Chong.
Linghu Chong was seated at the second table, accompanied by one of the hosts, Wang Bofen. Soon, the wine had gone around three times. Wang Bofen couldn’t help but notice that Linghu Chong had maintained an indifferent face throughout the time, and would only reply once a while to his attempt to make conversations – apparently Linghu Chong didn’t really think much of him at all. Then he remembered that earlier in the inn, Linghu Chong didn’t even kowtow to them, yet had no problem accepting the present of forty taels of silver. Feeling very displeased, he decided to change the topic to something in regards to martial arts techniques. So he casually asked for Linghu Chong’s opinion on several martial arts related questions that were in the advanced level, but Linghu Chong only nodded and agreed, never really answering any of them.
Actually, Linghu Chong didn’t have any ill feeling against Wang Bofen at all. It was just that after seeing the luxurious life of the Wang Family, he realized that the difference between his indigence and the wealth of the Wang Family was so dramatic. It was almost like the difference between Heaven and earth. Lin Pingzhi had changed into a long robe made of silk brocade after he came to his grandfather’s house. He had a handsome face to start with, so after dressing up, he looked extremely elegant and graceful. Linghu Chong simply couldn’t help but feel a sense of inferiority and inadequacy.
“Even if little apprentice sister didn’t become a couple with him and stayed the same to me, what future would she have staying with a pauper like me?” he thought.
All his minds focused around Yue Lingshan, so naturally, regardless of what Wang Bofen said to him, nothing really went into his ears.
Enjoying a great fame in the martial arts society around the central region, Wang Bofen had been used to people fawning on him left and right, yet tonight, he kept getting snags from the young man named Linghu Chong. Normally, he would have let his temper loose right at the beginning, but for the sake of his dead sister and the fact that his father had great respect toward the Huashan Sword School, he worked hard to hold his temper down and just kept toasting to Linghu Chong.
