by Jin Yong
“Mother and Father have been gone for more than a half day,” he thought, “and I was walking the opposite direction for half a night; I must be far away from them by now. I’d better buy a horse. I wonder how much money I will need.”
He examined his pocket and then groaned. When they started the trip, all the gold and jewelry were put into a leather saddlebag. Lin Zhennan and Madam Wang both had silver on their persons, but not Lin Pingzhi; he did not have even a single tael. He stamped his foot in frustration. “What should I do? What should I do?” He stared blankly at the sky for a while and then decided, “I must go rescue my parents. I am sure I’ll find some way somehow, and not starve.”
He began walking toward the foot of the mountain. When it was about noon, his stomach began to growl loudly. Some green fruits on a tree by the side of the road caught his eye. They were not ripe yet, but at least they would assuage his hunger. He went up to the tree to pick some fruits, but then realized that the fruits belonged to someone else. Taking them without permission was really no different from stealing. For three generations, the Lin family had protected goods from being robbed or stolen by bandits. How could he do something that only common thieves do? If somebody saw him, and called him a thief in front of his father, it would have brought great shame to his father! The honor of the Fortune Prestige Escort House would be disgraced forever.
He had learned when he was still a little boy that all infamous criminals started out as small thieves, and that small thieves usually began by stealing only small things, like a squash or fruit. Then they would start to steal more and more, finally losing all self-control, and never able to stop. At that thought, he broke out in a cold sweat.
“One day, Father and I will restore the fame of the Fortune Prestige Escort House! I must always do what a true man does. I would rather beg than steal from others,” he vowed.
He continued on his trip in a hurry, and gave no more thought to the fruit trees by the road. A couple of miles later, he arrived at a small village. He walked to a shack and started begging for food in a halting voice. He was used to being waited upon for everything all his life, and had never before needed to beg for anything from other people. After uttering only a couple of words his face had already turned red with shame.
The farmer’s wife in the shack had just received a severe beating from her husband and was still in a foul mood. When she saw that Lin Pingzhi was just a mere beggar, she immediately released a torrent of abuse at him.
“You little thief, what are you doing sneaking around! I just lost a hen. You probably stole it, and now you want more? Even if I had some food, I wouldn’t give it to a thief like you. You stole my hen, and made my wretch of a husband so angry that he beat me all black and blue!” she yelled, waving a broom.
Every time the woman spat out a curse, Lin Pingzhi stepped back a little. The woman became so excited that she swung her broom at Lin Pingzhi’s face. Lin Pingzhi was furious. He moved to the side to dodge the broom, and then shot a strike at the woman with his palm.
A sudden thought popped up into his head, “How shameful, beating up a dumb farmer’s wife, just because she doesn’t want to give me food?” He tried to catch himself, but since he had used too much strength in the strike, he lost his balance and stumbled. Then, his left foot happened to land on a pile of cow dung. He slipped and fell on his back.
The farmer’s wife burst into a loud laugh. “You little thief! You’ve got just what you deserve!” She smacked him on his head with her broom and spat on him, then turned around and went into the shack.
Lin Pingzhi’s anger soared from the humiliation. He got up and found that his hands and face were covered with cow dung. Surprisingly, the farmer’s wife came back out with four boiled corncobs and stuck them into his hands.
“Go on, kid, take these! God gave you such a pretty face, even prettier than a girl’s, but you don’t want to apply yourself. You are just a lazy bum! What good are you?” She said with a laugh.
Still angry, Lin Pingzhi made to hurl the corncobs away, but the farmer’s wife grinned, “Very well! Throw them away! Go ahead! Hey, you’ve got guts and you are not afraid to starve! Great! Throw them away, and I will watch you starve!”
Lin Pingzhi reconsidered, “In order to rescue Father and Mother, and to seek revenge and restore the fame of the Fortune Prestige Escort House, I will have to bear all kinds of humiliation. Starting from today, no matter how hard or humiliating it is, I will just clench my teeth and take it without complaint. To be humiliated by a farmer’s wife is really nothing.” So he said, “Many thanks!” and then took a big bite of a corncob.
“I knew you wouldn’t throw them away,” the farmer’s wife smiled. She turned and walked away, still mumbling, “This kid is so hungry; it probably wasn’t him who stole my hen. Ah, the damn husband, if he only had half of this kid’s good temper, my life would be much better.”
Along the way, Lin Pingzhi sometimes begged for food, and sometimes, just ate wild fruits from the bushes. Luckily, this was a good harvest year in Fujian Province, and most families had extra food left over. Although his face was covered with mud, he spoke with good manners, so people liked him, and it wasn’t too hard for him to beg for food. He tried to ask for information regarding his parents’ whereabouts along the road, but was not able to learn anything. Eight days later, he entered Jiangxi province. He asked for directions to Nancang and went there straightaway. He thought that the Escort House branch in Nancang should have some information. If not, at least he could get some money and a fast horse.
After entering the town of Nancang, he asked someone on the street about the Fortune Prestige Escort House.
“Fortune Prestige Escort House? Why do you ask? It has been burned down to the ground. Even the neighbors’ houses were burnt down all together. There’s nothing left,” the man answered.
Lin Pingzhi groaned inwardly. He came to the street of the Escort House and saw with his own eyes that the entire street was littered with debris. He stood there silently for a long time, his heart aching.
“It must be those gangsters from the Qingcheng Sword School again. If I cannot have my revenge, I would rather die!” he resolved.
Without delaying in Nancang, he immediately went on with his trip westward. Several days later, he arrived at Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. He had thought that the Qingcheng Sword School might have also burned down this Escort House branch, but when he asked people about news regarding the Fortune Prestige Escort House, no one had heard anything. Lin Pingzhi felt great relief and started heading toward the Escort House in big strides. Soon, he arrived at the gate.
Although the Hunan branch of the Escort House was not as big as the Fuzhou Headquarters Escort House, it too had a huge vermilion gate with two big majestic stone lions sitting on either side. Lin Pingzhi peeked inside, but did not see anyone.
“I am almost in rags, and look so awkward; the escorts in this branch might scoff at me.” He hesitated at the doorway.
He raised his head and then noticed that the sign “Fortune Prestige Escort House Hunan Branch” was upside down. “How could the escorts in this branch be so absentminded as to hang the sign upside down?” he was quite surprised.
Then he turned his head to look at the flags on the flagpoles, and his heart sank. A pair of dirty saddles hung on top of the left flagpole. On the right flagpole was a pair of flower-patterned woman’s pants. The pants were torn to shreds, but still fluttered in the wind. While he looked on in shock, a man walked out from the Escort House.
“Hey, you son of a turtle. What are you doing sneaking around here? You trying to steal something?” the man yelled.
Recognizing that the man had the same kind of accent as Fang Renzhi and Jia Renda, Lin Pingzhi knew that he must have come from Szechwan as well, so he did not even look at him and immediately started walking away. Suddenly, he felt a pain in his backside. The man had given him a hard kick. Infuriated, Lin Pingzhi wanted to turn around and fight the man, but he qua
shed the urge in an instant. With the Escort House obviously occupied by the Qingcheng Sword School, it was a perfect opportunity for him to try and get information about his parents. All he needed to do was to stay calm.
Pretending to be just an ordinary person with no skill in Kung Fu whatsoever, he pretended to take a spill onto the ground, and feigned an inability to get up. The man burst into loud laughter and called him “son of turtles” a few more times before walking back inside.
Lin Pingzhi stood up slowly and ambled into a small alley. He begged for a bowl of cold rice and ate it.
“The enemy is so close by; I’d better not get careless!” He kept reminding himself.
Finding some coal ashes on the ground, he smeared them onto his face until it was completely black, then huddled up in a corner against the alley wall and fell asleep.
Lin Pingzhi waited till about ten at night, then took out his long sword and hung it at his waist. He circled around to the back door of the Escort House and listened carefully. After making sure there was no sound from within the walls, he jumped on top of the wall. Inside was an orchard. He jumped down quietly and started creeping slowly along the perimeter of the wall. Darkness engulfed the orchard. There was neither light nor sound; he could feel the beating of his heart. He had his hand out against the wall as he walked, and was dreading the moment he would step on a rock or dry hay and make a noise that would give him away. After walking through two courtyards, he saw light coming from the East Hall window, so he crept a couple of steps closer, when he heard somebody talking. Slowly moving closer and resting under the window, he held his breath and lowered himself, inch by inch, until he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. Just after he sat down, he heard someone’s voice.
“Let’s just burn the whole son of a turtle Escort House tomorrow morning, so we don’t have to stay here and make fools of ourselves.”
“No! We can’t!” another voice said. “Senior apprentice brother Pi and others just burnt down the entire Escort House Nancang branch, and I heard that dozens of neighbors’ houses were burnt down as well. Something like that won’t be good for the reputation of our chivalrous Qingcheng Sword School. That incident will most likely get them punished by Master.”
Lin Pingzhi was outraged. Now, there was no doubt that the Qingcheng Sword School was behind these despicable acts. He cursed their hypocrisy for having the gall to still call themselves chivalrous.
“Well then, we really shouldn’t burn the house down. But are we going to just leave the house intact?” the previous voice asked.
The other one laughed. “Junior apprentice brother Ji, think about it. We’ve already hung the sign of the Escort House upside down and also raised a pair of women’s pants on top of their flagpole. The name of Fortune Prestige Escort House has already been totally trashed. We should leave the pants hanging there for as long as possible. Why bother burning down the house?”
“You’re right, senior apprentice brother Shen!” Ji laughed. “Ha-ha, the pair of pants is going to bring the Escort House so much bad luck, they won’t be able to regain their reputation for at least another three hundred years.”
The two laughed for some time, then Ji said, “We’re going to the town of Hengshan tomorrow for Liu Zhengfeng’s ceremony; what present shall we bring? The news of the ceremony came so unexpectedly. If the present isn’t valuable enough, it won’t look very good for our Qingcheng Sword School.”
“I’ve got the present ready,” Shen said in good humor, “and relax; I guarantee you that we won’t lose face for the Qingcheng Sword School. The present might even get us a lot of attention at the banquet for the Gold Basin Hand Washing ceremony.”
“What is the present? Why don’t I know about it?” Ji asked delightedly.
Shen was quite content and let out a chuckle. “We are just liberating it, so we can make a gift of it. No need to take anything out of our own pockets. Look, is this good enough?”
The sound of someone opening a package came through the window.
“Amazing!” Ji burst out in a cry of surprise. “Senior brother Shen, do you have magic powers? Where the hell did you get such expensive items?” Ji asked in awe.
Lin Pingzhi was really tempted to look inside through the crack of the window to see what kind of present it was, but he maintained his discipline, realizing that if he were to stick his head up, a shadow could fall on the window; it would be all over if he let the enemy find him. So, he suppressed his curiosity. Then he heard Shen’s voice, again.
“Did you think that we occupied the Fortune Prestige Escort House for nothing? I was going to present this pair of jade horses to Master, but right now, it is probably better to let old Liu Zhengfeng be the lucky recipient.”
A tide of anger washed over Lin Pingzhi. “So they robbed the treasure from our Escort House and used it for their own advantage. What a bunch of burglars! What treasure would the Hunan Escort House Branch have? It was probably a client’s goods, waiting to be escorted. The pair of jade horses must be extremely valuable. If we can’t get them back, Father would have to be the one to compensate.”
Shen laughed again. “There are four bags here, one for all of Master’s wives,24 one for all the apprentices, one for you, and one for me! Go ahead, pick one.”
“What are these?” Ji asked. After a short while, he burst out with another exclamation of surprise, “Wow, these are all gold and jewels! We are damn rich now!!! What a son of a turtle the Escort House is! The hell with them! They really have extorted a lot of money! Senior apprentice brother, how did you find these? I searched all over the Escort House over a dozen times, and I was just about to dig up the grounds. All I found was about a hundred taels of silver. How did you find all this treasure without breaking a sweat?”
Shen sounded very pleased with himself. “Do you think they just put their gold and treasure anywhere? For the last couple of days, I watched you open drawers, smash boxes, take down walls, and have a good time searching. I knew that you’d be busy over nothing. But you would not have believed me, even if I had told you. Anyway, all that searching wouldn’t hurt you, big boy.”
“Excellent, excellent! Senior apprentice brother Shen, where did you find these?”
“Think about it, there is one thing in this Escort House that was out of place. What was it?”
“Out of place? Lots of things are out of place in this son of a turtle Escort House. For one, their Kung Fu skills were so damn poor, but they hung a picture of a vicious looking lion on their flagpole,” Ji scoffed.
“We replaced the big lion with a pair of woman’s pants. Now it is appropriate.” Shen laughed. “Think again! Are there any other strange things in this Escort House?”
“These Hunan asses have too many odd habits. For example, Escort Zhang is the chief of the entire branch Escort House, but he put a coffin in the room next to his own bedroom. What bad luck! Ha-ha!” Ji slapped his leg.
“Use your head!” Shen chuckled. “Why would he put a coffin in the next room? Could it be the body of his wife or son that he really hates to part with? I think not! I figured he hid something important in the coffin. The coffin was just used to….”
“Aha!!” Ji jumped up in realization. “That’s it! That’s it! These treasures were hidden in the coffin! Cool! Damn! These sons of turtles Escorts are just too sneaky. Senior brother Shen, these two bags are of the same size. How can I take the same amount as you? You should take a greater share.” Then there came the sounds of gold and jade, tumbling against each other; apparently, Ji took some jewels out from one bag and put them into another.
There was no sound from Shen declining the offer.
“Senior apprentice brother Shen, I’ll go get some water. Let’s wash our feet and then get some rest,” Ji suggested. He yawned, and then pushed the door open and walked out.
Lin Pingzhi shrank his body under the window, not daring to move a muscle. He peeked from the side of his eyes and caught the glimpse of a short and fat
man. It was the one who had kicked him earlier in the day.
A little while later, Ji returned with a basin of hot water.
“Senior apprentice brother Shen, this time, Master sent dozens of apprentices out. I’d say that the two of us have achieved the most. Thanks to you, even I will look good this time. Senior apprentice brother Jiang and other apprentices went to strike the Guangzhou branch, and senior brother Ma and some other apprentices went to strike the Hangzhou branch; they are so careless, even if they see a coffin, they wouldn’t figure out that there could be treasure inside.”
“Senior apprentice brother Fang, junior apprentice brother Yu, and Jia Renda got the Fuzhou Headquarters. They must have found more than we did. But since Master’s precious son got killed in Fuzhou, they’re going to end up with more blame than credit,” Shen said cheerfully.
“Master, himself, organized the attacks against the Fortune Prestige Escort House headquarters; senior apprentice brother Fang and junior apprentice brother Yu were just scouts,” Ji said, “Master won’t blame senior apprentice brother Fang and junior apprentice brother Yu for the death of junior apprentice brother Yu. This time we are striking out in full strength. All the apprentices started the attacks against the headquarters and the branches of the Escort House at the same time. But no one expected that the skills of the Lin family were nowhere near their reputation; just three scouts alone were enough to capture Lin Zhennan and his wife. Even Master didn’t see that coming. Ha-ha!”
Lin Pingzhi felt cold sweat dripping down his forehead. It was clear that the Qingcheng Sword School had been plotting the attacks for a long time, and attacked all the Escort Houses simultaneously. The trouble didn’t start because he had killed that man named Yu; even if he hadn’t killed that rascal Yu, they would have attacked the Escort Houses all the same. Even Yu Canghai, himself, came to Fuzhou; it was no wonder then, that there was an attacker with the skill necessary to perform the “Heart Crushing Palm.” But how did the Escort House offend the Qingcheng Sword School? Why did they attack so viciously? By now, he realized he no longer needed to blame himself for causing all the trouble and his rage was ready to explode. If it weren’t for the fact that his Kung Fu skills were no match for his enemies, he’d have broken through the window and chopped the two animals inside into little bits! Then he heard splashing from inside. The two had begun washing their feet.
