Book 24 Chapter 7 – Meeting The Beauty Again
Xu Ziling heard Shi Qingxuan’s voice first. Following the direction of her voice, he happened to see a flash of her powdery back, which quickly vanished.
He did not know why Shi Qingxuan was so sure that the ‘scar-faced hero’ was he, but she spoke by focusing her voice into a thread and transmitted it into his ear, making him feel greatly awkward, because what she said was, ‘After casting Hou Xibai away, go immediately to the Da Shi Si [great stone temple] outside the city to see me!’ It was that split second when he was hesitating that her trail was swiftly moving, like a fantasy which appeared real – this beauty [orig. jade person], whose flute skill was famous throughout the world, already disappeared into the stream of people.
It was a situation where both sides’ inner feelings were in sincere cooperation. For Xu Ziling, abandoning Hou Xibai just like that was a difficult problem involving morality and justice. Not to mention Yang Xuyan and An Long’s side had tremendous power, so losing Hou Xibai as powerful helper was really not a wise thing to do.
The most annoying thing was that if Da Shi Si was inside the city, he still needed to ask people for direction; if it was outside the city, he did not want to waste time. Either way, he still needed Hou Xibai’s, this old horse who knows the way home – help.
‘Dong dong ka ka’, the sound of the drums pulled his mind back from Shi Qingxuan. Hastily he leaned over and spoke in Hou Xibai’s ear, “I made contact with Shi Qingxuan; quickly slip away!”
Slightly startled, Hou Xibai turned toward one of the beauties, cupped his fist and sighed in admiration, “Drummer beauties are even more marvelous; regretfully Zaixia is burdened with an urgent matter. Would it be possible for Fan Da Xiaojie to allow Zaixia to come to your esteemed Gang’s Zongtan [lit. head altar, i.e. headquarter] to apologize and pay my respect?”
Not only his movement was confident and at ease, pleasing to the eye, it also carried some kind of restoring-harmony feeling; immediately he excited the crowd of girls that they laughed like ‘a stem of flower trembling randomly’.
The remaining six girls were still beating their drums and dancing, while the outstanding beauty stopped. Her right hand on the drum skin, her left hand gently rested on her small curvy waist, as she appeared to be staring longingly, appeared to be happy, while standing charmingly in front of the two men. Her beautiful eyes swept the scar-faced guest, Xu Ziling, first, and then, disinterested, she turned her gaze toward the elegant, graceful gentleman, Hou Xibai. Lightly stomping her tiny boot, she spoke tenderly, “You, this man, are really hateful, I don’t know where to look for you. And this time you still want to find an excuse to slip away?”
Her voice was tender, soft, and sweet sounding, carrying some kind of attractive magnetism. Even though Xu Ziling was preoccupied, he still wanted to listen more of what she had to say. On top of that, her unrestrained, without suspicion, and bold style was able to make any man’s heart unbearably itchy.
Perhaps, in all his life of showing passion to the fragrant and cherishing the flower, this was the first time that Hou Xibai felt regret; smiling wryly, he said, “Fan Da Xiaojie, please don’t misunderstand! How could I, Hou Xibai, go back on my words? What’s more, I am making an appointment with a beauty. It’s just that this Xiongdi’s father is critically ill; hence Zaixia must accompany him home. His Die is just like half a Die for Zaixia, Da Xiaojie, please be magnanimous.”
The beauty’s pair of wonderful eyes immediately turned toward Xu Ziling’s face; skeptically she let out a tender humph and said, “If you want to lie to me, you ought to find a bit more pleasant-to-listen-to story. Your so-called Xiongdi does not look the least bit anxious or mournful; just now the two of you seemed to be strolling along the lantern market. Who would believe you?”
Xu Ziling had no choice but to press down the glum in his heart, and lie for Hou Xibai, who was actually the best in placating a beauty in a roundabout way; he spoke heavily, “Xiaodi has just received Hou Xiong’s news, and only then did I understand about my humble father’s life-threatening illness. Ay! One’s time on earth is merely several dozen winters and summers; Xiaodi has always regarded life and death lightly, but to be able let him, the Senior, to have his son pay his last respects, is indeed our duty as sons and daughters to repay our parents’ kindness. Ay!” Lying to this point, Xu Ziling was no longer able to continue; hence he had no choice but to sigh again.
The beauty rolled her wonderful eyes, and shouted in low voice, “Stop beating the drums! Listening to it makes my heart distracted, my thoughts in turmoil.
The group of girls evidently regarded her as their leader; hence they stopped immediately.
From disbelief, the beauty became half-believing, half-doubting. Her jet-black eyebrows frowning lightly, she said, “Are you from Chengdu? Where do you live?”
Like a quick sword cutting through tangled hemp, Hou Xibai decisively pulled Xu Ziling’s arm and said, “No time to lose, we, two brothers must leave immediately. Excuse us!”
The beauty stuck out her pert, elegant silky breasts, while viciously said, “If I don’t see you tomorrow, I, Fan Caiqi will cut your untrustworthy tongue for a snack to accompany the wine.”
Finished speaking, she grudgingly stepped aside to make way.
Knock! Knock!
Chen Laomou’s voice responded from inside the room, “Come in!”
Kou Zhong pushed the door and came in. Seeing Chen Laomou got up from his bed and scooted to sit at the edge of the bed, he apologetically said, “Sorry for waking Mou Gong up! But if you just take a look at this, I guarantee you won’t blame me.”
He handed over the book written by Lu Miaozi on mechanism and smart device to Chen Laomou.
Chen Laomou did not immediately look at the treasured rare book being stuffed in his hand; he stared at Kou Zhong, as if he was in daze, for half a day before he nodded his head and said, “Laofu is quite old, and I have seen with my own eyes I don’t know how many persons who have changed. Take Yun Yuzhen, for example, she became so formidable that in the end Xiao Bu and me were forced to leave her. Although you, these two kids, are getting more and more formidable, you still maintain that kind of innate character; Xiao Ling is at home wherever he is, you are still cynical.”
Laughing involuntarily, Kou Zhong said, “If you, Mou Gong, tell your evaluation on us to Li Mi, Xiao Xian, and the others, no one will agree with you.”
Chen Laomou laughed aloud and said, “You are well aware of what I, Chen Laomou, said. Contending for hegemony over the world is also some kind cynicism. It means you are unwilling to bow under both the existing and conventional powers, to surrender your personal goal.”
Grabbing his head, Kou Zhong said, “What is my goal? Frankly speaking, I don’t think that becoming the emperor is an interesting matter. Therefore, even if I obtain the final victory, most probably I will ask someone else to sit on that scalding-butt seat.”
Chen Laomou shook his head and said, “Your goal is absolutely not to become the emperor; rather, you want to be able to move unhindered over the world, to change impossible things to become possible.”
Kou Zhong stared blankly for half a day. He sighed and said, “No one knows me like Mou Gong; how did you figure it out?”
Proud of himself, Chen Laomou said, “This is called the profound skill of observing people. Those who want to be the emperor must have enormous appetite for power, putting emphasis on the distinction between superior/subordinate. Take Xiao Xian for example; although he put up the appearance of a proper, virtuous person, the fact is that his words and actions, his bearings are brimming with royalty, feudal-aristocrats style. Not wearing the dragon robe is just one kind of trick. How can he be compared to you, who are casual in everything? Were it not for your subordinates, who are organizational and managerial experts, like Xuan Yong, Ren Meimei, Xu Xingzhi, and the others, your Shaoshuai Army would just be like a sheet of loose sand.”
Kou Zhong delightedly patted his old shoulder and said with a smile, “You know what material I am made of, and I also know what material you are made of; why not flip over the thing in your hand to take a look?”
Chen Laomou looked down and saw the cover of the book had five characters written on it, ‘Study of Mechanism and Smart Device’; a slight scorning smile appeared on his face. Opening the first page, he read the preface, which contained a disclaimer, ‘The study of mechanism is a study attacking the heart of the underlying principles. A heart has the heart’s character; an object has the object’s character. In short, it is a study about the intrinsic order of the heaven and earth’s nature, nothing is excluded, nothing is not contained. Knowing the first, not knowing the second, it is merely a small path, a small technique.”
Chen Laomou was an expert in the study of smart device; he was emotionally moved immediately. “Who wrote this?” he asked.
Kou Zhong reached out to turn to the next page for him, at the end of the preface, there awe-inspiringly appeared Lu Miaozi’s signature, three eye-catching characters.
Shaken, Chen Laomou exclaimed, “My Niang!” And then he turned back to the first page to continue reading.
Kou Zhong spoke in low voice, “I have read this ghost thing more than a dozen times, still I only know one and understand half [idiom: a smattering of knowledge]. Mou Gong, you …” Realizing Chen Laomou seemed to hear but not react to his words, Kou Zhong quietly left and lightly closed the door behind him.
The water of the river gently lapped the hull of the boat sailing in the night. The moon was hanging low on the horizon. Kou Zhong suddenly felt incomparably relaxed. Once again life was brimming with fascinating meaning.
Life was a constant struggle. Concerning him, would the end be a pain or happiness?
Hou Xibai climbed over a small hill and pointed ahead, “That is the Da Shi Temple.”
Following his finger, Xu Ziling looked ahead, and saw among the ancient cypress covering the sky like bamboo cage to cultivate green onion, bathed by the bright light of the moon, surrounded by red walls, with the pagoda inside high up in the sky – was the majestic, towering multi-story temple.
Hou Xibai suddenly heaved a deep sigh and said, “Does Ziling Xiong also feel that Yang Xuyan’s choice of this temple as the place where he, pretending to be Shi Shi, meet Qingxuan, is very strange?”
Astounded, Xu Ziling said, “Perhaps he anticipated that Miss Shi would meet me first, so he selected this location.”
Shaking his head, Hou Xibai said, “I dare say that there must be a reason behind this, but I am not sure if I ought to tell you?”
At a loss, Xu Ziling said in bewilderment, “If Hou Xiong have secret trouble, there is no need to tell me.”
Hou Xibai appeared to make up his mind. “Telling Ziling Xiong is a bit more appropriate,” he spoke resolutely, “The reason of my hesitancy was because this matter involves Shi Shi’s secret. Since childhood, I was an orphan, rarely did I tell others about the load on my mind; especially anything concerning Shi Shi and Hua Jian Pai, I never revealed it to anybody else.”
Xu Ziling was silent, pondering inwardly whether this orphan was like Cao Yinglong, whom Shi Zhixuan skillfully trained into a master.
Book 24 Chapter 7 - Part 2
Jaya, Ysabel, you are welcome.
Hou Xibai looked up at the moon in the night sky, and then looked down in contemplation. He spoke slowly, “Although Shi Shi only taught me the xinfa of Hua Jian Pai’s martial art, but from time to time he made references about Bu Tian Ge’s martial art. The so-called ‘Bu Tian’ [repairing (or filling the void of) the heaven] is filling in the inadequacy of the heaven, which, when developed to the pinnacle, will be considered by the self-proclaimed orthodox school as outside the heretical, demonic way, the filling-in-the-inadequacy-of-the-heaven as a conduct in defiance of the natural order. Ay! Who would have thought that following that principle is actually low, while going against it is actually noble?”
Listening to that, Xu Ziling’s heart shivered slightly. Hou Xibai would always be the disciple cultivated by the present day demonic person Shi Zhixuan. When speaking about any theory concerning demonic schools, the tone of his voice was extremely cynical and indignant, completely different from his usual warm, scholarly language.
Hou Xibai suddenly spoke in embarrassment, “Ziling Xiong must not take any offense. When speaking about this issue, I don’t know whether because it is constantly repeating in my mind, subconsciously I always emulate the tone of Shi Shi’s voice when he was talking about this.”
Changing the subject, Xu Ziling wondered aloud, “How come Da Shi Temple is completely without lights? Even if all the monks have gone to bed, shouldn’t there be some kind of Buddha lantern, incense stick and candle, or something like that?”
Hou Xibai said, “I was about to tell Ziling Xiong, because Da Shi Temple’s Zhuchi offended a certain extremely-hard-to-deal-with figure from the demonic school, all the monks of the Temple are temporary taking shelter at the neighboring temples and monasteries to avoid disaster. As long as the dispute has not been settled, they absolutely do not dare to come back.”
Stunned, Xu Ziling asked, “Who is so overbearing like this? Unexpectedly Bashu’s Wulin of the same way only sit and watch, but remain indifferent?”
Hou Xibai was about to answer, a dot of light appeared inside the temple. Xu Ziling shouted in low voice, “Hou Xiong, please stay here, Xiaodi is coming in.”
Swiftly, but carefully, Xu Ziling turned over the courtyard wall. This moment the lantern light suddenly disappeared again. He had no choice but to rely on his memory on where the last time he saw the light, while taking off his mask in passing.
The scale of this famous temple was really not small. From the Shanmen [monastery main gate] Hall, there were the Tianwang [lit. heaven’s king] Hall, Qifo [lit. seven Buddhas] Hall, Daxiong Baodian [Hall of Great Strength, the main hall of a Buddhist temple containing the main image of veneration], Zangjiang Lou [library tower], and so on; there were layer upon layer of temple halls. Although it was not as complicated as the structure of Jing Nian Chanyuan, the design was elegant, as well as imposing and majestic.
Next to the complex of temple halls, which looked like a disposition of troops, a tall tower rose up from among the millions of bamboo trees, the exterior was imposing.
At this time Xu Ziling could not help but a bit regretful that he did not ask Hou Xibai clearly who the formidable demonic school figure was, unexpectedly this person was able to make the monks here emptying the temple to avoid disaster.
It should be noted that generally, all famous and ancient Buddhist temples would have outstanding martial art masters in-house to take up the responsibility of guarding the temple, plus all the monks in the temple ought to, more or less, know martial art, not too mention Wulin masters of the same principle in the area usually had some kind of relationship with the Temple; they could not possibly just sit and watch without doing anything.
Therefore, the situation before his eyes right now could be considered highly unusual.
Listening to the tone of Hou Xibai’s voice, this person could not possibly be An Long; he must be someone that Xu Ziling did not know. So much so that it might the person ranked among the Eight Major Martial Art Masters of the Demonic Way that even Cao Yinglong did not know.
He had never tried wandering randomly in a temple where there was no one in it; the feeling was extraordinarily novel. In the study of architecture, the Xu Ziling of today was already unlike the General Lu Meng of the southern state of Wu [model of self-improvement by diligent study]. Following his steps, he took a casual observation, and was able to grasp the architecture of this famous ancient Buddhist monastery. He could feel even more the graceful, pondering, doing-the-utmost zeal and spirit of the religious men conscripted in establishing the temple. Whether it was the gate, the window, the eaves, and the arch, everything was carved with plumage, flowers and plants, and all kinds of decorative motif. The ridge of the temple was decorated with clay model of strange birds and exotic beasts; vivid and lifelike.
The temple buildings were connected to each other by long corridors, with large obelisks standing in large numbers, symmetrical left and right. A moment later, he reached Luohan [Arhat] Hall, where the light previously appeared. Momentarily his breathing stopped. Before his eyes there was a forest of statues, filling the mail hall with marvelously shocking scene.
The statues spread across the main hall, and were divided into two groups. On the center were several dozen of revered Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, positioned in such a way that they brought the focus of attention to the thousand-arm Guanyin right in the middle of the hall. Not only the precious likeness was stately, the shape of each hand and the object it was holding was different from each other, producing the impression of it possessed great magical power and exuded unbounded strength.
The five hundred Luohan were spread all around, facing the statue at the center, forming north-south and east-west pathways in the middle. It was as if Xu Ziling was transported into a different-from-reality world of gods and Buddhas. Under the moonlight penetrating into the hall, the statues near him looked to be meticulously and elaborately crafted. Whether it was standing, leaning, sitting, or lying down, all poses were different from each other, they looked like real person, their expression was lively; it was hard to tell whether they were just statues or real persons.
By the time he reached the front of the thousand-arm Guanyin, surrounded by the layer upon layer, row upon row of Luohan statues all around him, he felt as if he had fallen into a maze of statues formation; it was such a strange feeling that no word could describe even one out of ten thousand.
There was a small candleholder under the thousand-arm Guanyin seat. In just one glance Xu Ziling was able to recognize that the candleholder’s style was identical to the one being used by Shi Beauty at the Fu Dong Migong [good fortune cave labyrinth].
Shi Qingxuan’s moving voice rang out from behind, “Would Xu Gongzi please light the lantern?” her voice was gentle.
Pressing down the urge to turn around, Xu Ziling fetched the flint stone by the candleholder and lit the candle.
A dot of light leaped to become a flicker of fireworks, lighting up the center of the Luohan Hall, increasing the strangeness of the already bizarre atmosphere.
Shi Qingxuan’s voice came from his right, “We might as well play hide-and-seek here!”
Xu Ziling was standing nailed to the ground. Like a child who was scared of being scolded by his mother he confessed, “Miss, please do not take offense; I still have Hou Xibai coming with me, Xiaodi did not cast him away according to Miss’ instruction, but there is a reason behind it.”
Shi Qingxuan maintained her silence, and then she showed herself from behind the thousand-arm Guanyin, her face was covered in heavy gauze, she spoke indifferently, “Things of the world, there is none that does not fall between the two universes of principal and secondary causes [Buddhist doctrine of karma]; he wants to come, let him come! It’s not a big deal. The most important thing is that you, this good person, have come!”
In the presence of this jade person, although Xu Ziling had thousands of words to say, he did not know where to start.
After going through hard-pressed danger one after another, fooling around with his fate everywhere, unexpectedly she suddenly appeared within his reach, without wasting any time. A burst of emotion consisting of a hundred different feelings, which he could not explain one by one, like a torrential flood broke out from deep within his heart, overwhelming him with the urge, which he experienced only the first time in his life – to draw this woman into his embrace.
Naturally he could only keep this impulse in his heart.
The feeling Shi Qingxuan was giving him was hot and cold, varying indeterminably, as if she wanted to keep a certain distance with you; it was hard to pin down. Although it did not reach the state where she wanted to keep people a thousand li away, at the very least there was the impression that she was not easy to get close to.
After sucking in a mouthful of deep breath, Xu Ziling spoke calmly, “This time Miss came to Chengdu, was it because you received your esteemed father’s message?”
Unconcerned, Shi Qingxuan replied, “Qingxuan only have Niang and never have Die. Are you trying to warn me that it was just a sinister plot concocted by An Long and Yang Xuyan? Humph! Those two muddled eggs have the impertinence to slight Bi Xiuxin’s daughter. I will definitely make them leave and pack their food before they finish eating. But you indeed have some ability, having just arrived in Chengdu, yet is able to find so many things.”
Hearing that, Xu Ziling was flabbergasted; he was speechless, knowing that he himself had been slighted by Shi Qingxuan. In vain had he been worried for nearly ten days.
Shi Qingxuan smiled and said, “An Long originally wanted me to meet him at his old shop. Luckily I came across you outside the door, thereupon I asked them to come here to settle everything at the same time. I assume you have not forgotten that you told me that you are willing to carry all the burden and responsibility for me. A real man’s word worth one thousand in gold, you can’t say that it does not count.”
Hearing that, Xu Ziling’s scalp went numb. “What burden Miss wanted to hand over to me to carry?” He resigned himself, realizing that he would never know how to deal with the particular style with which this beauty worked.
As if she was recounting some trivial thing, Shi Qingxuan spoke leisurely, “First of all, I want you to deal with Shi Zhixuan’s ghost scroll for me. Whether Xu Gongzi wants to rip it up and throw it away, or perhaps wants to give it to someone else, I don’t really care.”
While Xu Ziling was still in shock, Shi Qingxuan already handed over a roll of sheepskin scroll.
Unusual changes followed.