by Jin Yong
He went in to the narrow pathway, picked up the axe, and came back by the rock wall. But after staring at those exquisite and brilliant moves for a good while, he simply could not raise the axe to chop at the drawings. He stood there and pondered upon the decision back and forth. Finally, he said to himself loudly, “I, Linghu Chong, will never do such shameless and undignified things!”
All of a sudden, he remembered about the masked man in green robe. “That man has such excellent sword skills. He probably had something to do with the drawings in the cave. Who is he? Who is he?”
He stepped back to the front cave and pondered upon the question for half a day, then went back again to the back cave to study the drawings on the rock wall. He went back and forth between the front and the back cave until it was getting late in the day.
Sounds of footsteps came, and it was Yue Lingshan who came with the meal basket in her hand. Linghu Chong was overjoyed. He rushed by the edge of the cliff to greet. “Little apprentice sister!” His voice trembled from joy.
Yue Lingshan didn’t answer. She climbed up the cliff and threw the meal basket on to the big rock heavily. Without even looking at Linghu Chong, she turned around and started walking away.
“Little apprentice sister, little apprentice sister, what’s the matter?” Linghu Chong called out in despair.
Yue Lingshan gave a snort and then leapt off the cliff onto the path going back. And no matter how Linghu Chong called her again and again, she never answered or even looked back.
With thoughts surging through his mind, Linghu Chong didn’t know what to do. He opened the meal basket and found one bowl of rice and two bowls of vegetarian dishes, without the small calabash of wine. He stared at them blankly, lost in thought. For several times he had wanted to start eating, but each time after the first bite, he would feel bitterness in his mouth and totally lose his appetite. He finally gave up, thinking, “If little apprentice sister is mad at me, why did she bring the food up for me herself? If she is not mad at me, why didn’t she say a word and didn’t even cast a glance at me? Is sixth apprentice brother sick so she had to bring food up? But if sixth apprentice brother can’t bring food up, fifth, seventh, eighth apprentice brothers or any other person can do it. Why did little apprentice sister come by herself?” He pondered hard upon the question and completely forgot about the sword moves on the rock wall in the back cave.
At dusk the next day, Yue Lingshan brought food up again. As same as the day before, she didn’t look at Linghu Chong or say anything to him at all. On her way down the cliff, she even started singing Fujian folk songs loudly. Linghu Chong felt like someone was stabbing him hard in the heart. He thought to himself, “So she came to annoy me intentionally.”
At dusk the day after, again, Yue Lingshan threw the meal basket on the big rock and immediately turned around and left. Linghu Chong could not hold it any longer and called out, “Little apprentice sister, please stop. I need to talk to you.”
“Speak out, please.” Yue Lingshan turned around. Her face looked as if it was covered by a layer of frost. There was no trace of a smile at all.
“You…you…you….” Seeing the expression on Yue Lingshan’s face, Linghu Chong stammered.
“What about me?” Yue Lingshan demanded.
“I…I….” On normal days, he was the unrestrained and unconventional type, and would have been clever and fluent, but now he was completely lost in words.
“If you don’t have anything to say, I am leaving,” Yue Lingshan said as she turned around to leave.
Linghu Chong was greatly worried, thinking that once she had left, she wouldn’t be back until dusk the next day, and if he couldn’t get an answer out of her today, how could he ever endure the anxiety for another night? And judging from the look on her face, maybe she wouldn’t even come the next day, and it wouldn’t be surprising that she might not come for an entire month. In the moment of desperation, he reached out and grabbed onto her left sleeve.
“Let go of me!” Yue Lingshan snapped, as she pulled back hard. With a tearing sound, the sleeve was tore off completely and half of her left shoulder was exposed. Greatly nettled and embarrassed, Yue Lingshan didn’t even know how to place her exposed shoulder and arm. As a martial arts student, Yue Lingshan didn’t bother with small matters as much as an average girl, but when a potion of her shoulder and her arm suddenly became exposed, she found herself in a very awkward position.
“How…how dare you!” she yelled.
“Little apprentice sister, sor…sorry, I…I didn’t mean to do that.” Linghu Chong explained hurriedly.
Yue Lingshan placed her right sleeve on her left shoulder to cover it up. “What exactly are you trying to say?” she ranted.
“I just don’t understand,” Linghu Chong said, “why are you treating me like this? If I really somehow offended you, little apprentice sister, you…you…can just draw your sword and stab me a dozen times or something, and I’ll die with no grievance.”
“You are the big apprentice brother, how dare us to offend you, not mentioning stabbing you a dozen times?” Yue Lingshan sneered. “We are your junior apprentice brother and sister. As long as you don’t discipline us with punishment, we’d be thanking Heavens already.”
“I’ve been thinking very hard, but I still can’t figure out how I offended my apprentice sister,” Linghu Chong said.
“You can’t figure it out? Didn’t you figure out how to have Monkey Six complain to Dad and Mom?” Yue Lingshan said furiously.
“I had Monkey Six complain to Master and Master-Wife? Complain…complain about you?” Linghu Chong asked in great surprise.
“You knew Dad and Mom love me dearly and it would be useless to complain about me. How clever of you to complain about…complain about…humph! Why are you still pretending? Don’t you know what you did?”
It only took Linghu Chong an instant to guess what really happened, but that only brought more bitterness. “Master and Master-Wife found out about Lu Dayou’s wound from his sparring with apprentice brother Lin and punished apprentice brother Lin, didn’t they?” he asked, but in his heart, he thought, “Because Master and Master-Wife punished apprentice brother Lin, you actually become this mad at me?”
“It was only an accident in a sword spar between apprentice brothers. He didn’t do it intentionally. But Dad sided with Monkey Six and gave Little Lin a good scolding, saying that Little Lin didn’t have enough skills and shouldn’t have learned the kind of moves like Graceful Phoenix. He banned me from teaching him sword skills. Fine, you won! But…but…I…I’ll never pay attention to you again! Never ever ever!”
The phrase “never ever ever” was something Yue Lingshan used quite often when she joked with Linghu Chong in normal days. When she had said it before, she would always be casting a sideway glance at him with a big grin on her face. But this time she looked so serious and sincere, and from the way she said it, it seemed as if she really was determined to end her relationship with him.
Linghu Chong took a step forward and said, “Little apprentice sister, I….” He had wanted to say, “I really didn’t ask sixth apprentice brother to complain to Master and Master-Wife.” But then he thought, “I didn’t do it. I have a clear conscience. Why should I beg pity from you?” So after the word “I”, he stopped abruptly.
“You what?” Yue Lingshan asked.
“I nothing.” Linghu Chong shook his head. “I just thought, even though Master and Master-Wife banned you from teaching apprentice brother Lin sword arts, that’s nothing major, why did you get so mad at me?”
Yue Lingshan blushed. “I am mad at you! I am mad at you! You’ve got ill will in your heart. You figured that since I can’t teach apprentice brother Lin sword arts anymore, I would be your company everyday. Humph, I’ll never pay attention to you again! Never ever ever!” She stomped her foot on the ground heavily and then stormed off.
This time Linghu Chong dared not to pull her clothes again. With a stomach full of grievanc
e and bitterness, he heard her loud and clear singing the Fujian folk song again. He walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down, only seeing her slim receding figure turning around the shoulder of the peak. Vaguely, he could see her left arm and shoulder still covered by her right sleeve. He became worried.
“I tore her sleeve off. If she runs to Master and Master-Wife to complain, the respectful Master and Master-Wife might think that I was taking liberties with her, then…then…what’s going to happen? If this gets spread around, even the bunch of apprentice brothers and sisters would look down on me.”
But then he reconsidered, “I wasn’t taking liberties with her. What do I care how others would think of it?” But when he thought that she got so mad at him just because she couldn’t teach Lin Pingzhi sword skills anymore, he couldn’t help but feel great sorrow.
At the beginning, he was still able to comfort himself by thinking, “Little apprentice sister is young and playful. Since I am meditating on the cliff, and there is no one else who would chat with her and play with her, she just wanted apprentice brother Lin, who happened to be about the same age as her, to be her companion. She doesn’t have any other thoughts.” But then after reconsideration, he thought, “I grew up together with her. That’s a much deeper relationship and affection. Apprentice brother Lin has only been on Mount Huashan for several months, but she has treated us so differently, so out of ordinance.” At that thought, he felt even more bitterness.
That night, he paced up and down, from the cave to the edge of the cliff, then back from the edge of the cliff to the cave, again and again, for thousands of times, and the same the next day. All he could think of was Yue Lingshan. The drawings on the rock wall in the back cave and that man in the green robe who showed up that night were all completely forgotten from his mind.
At dusk, it was Lu Dayou who brought the food up. He set the food on the rock and filled the bowls with rice. “Big apprentice brother, let’s eat,” he said.
Linghu Chong merely answered a slight snort as he picked up the bowl and the chopsticks. He placed some food in his mouth but had no appetite whatsoever. After casting a glance down the cliff, he slowly set down his bowl.
“Big apprentice brother, you don’t look too good. Are you feeling alright?” Lu Dayou asked.
“It’s nothing.” Linghu Chong shook his head.
“I picked those mushrooms for you yesterday. Have some and see how they taste?” Lu Dayou suggested.
Not having the heart to go against Lu Dayou’s good will, Linghu Chong ate two mushrooms. “Very good,” he said. Actually, the mushrooms were quite tasty, but he didn’t even notice.
“Big apprentice brother, I’ve got good news for you!” Lu Dayou said with a grin. “Starting from yesterday, Master and Master-Wife banned Little Lin from learning sword arts with little apprentice sister.”
“You couldn’t beat apprentice brother Lin in a sword fight, that’s why you complained to Master and Master-Wife, didn’t you?” Linghu Chong said coldly.
Lu Dayou jumped onto his feet. “Who said that I couldn’t beat him? I…I was doing it for….” He suddenly stopped.
Linghu Chong knew very well that even though Lin Pingzhi wounded Lu Dayou with a move of Graceful Phoenix by surprise, Lu Dayou still had been in the school much longer, and Lin Pingzhi would be no match for him. The reason he complained to Master and Master-Wife was really for Linghu Chong’s sake. He suddenly came upon a thought, “So all the apprentice brothers and sisters were pitying me in their hearts. They all know that little apprentice sister is breaking up with me. Only because sixth apprentice brother is close to me, he managed to do something about it. Humph, a true man does not need pity from others!”
All of a sudden, he jumped up like a mad man. Picking up the bowls and the plates, he threw them off the cliff one by one, shouting, “Who asked you to poke around? Who asked you to poke around?”
Lu Dayou was shocked. He had always respected and admired the big apprentice brother, and had no idea that Linghu Chong would be provoked into such an outrage. Flurried, he kept stepping back, murmuring, “Big apprentice brother, big…apprentice brother.”
After throwing all the bowls and dishes into the deep valley, Linghu Chong didn’t feel any better, so he randomly picked up one rock after another and kept throwing them into the deep valley.
“Big apprentice brother, it’s my fault. Why…why don’t you give me a beating,” Lu Dayou said.
Linghu Chong was just about to throw a rock when he heard Lu Dayou’s words. He turned around and asked in a stern voice, “Why is it your fault?”
Lu Dayou took another step back in fear and murmured, “I…I…I don’t know!”
Linghu Chong heaved a deep sigh. He threw the rock in his hand far away and then grabbed Lu Dayou’s hands. “Sixth apprentice brother, I am sorry. I am just depressed myself. It has nothing to do with you.”
Lu Dayou let out a breath of relief. “Let me get down and bring up some food again,” he suggested.
“No, don’t bother. I don’t feel like eating.” Linghu Chong shook his head.
Seeing the food in yesterday’s meal basket still untouched, Lu Dayou became worried. “Big apprentice brother, you didn’t eat yesterday either, did you?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I just don’t have good appetites these days.” Linghu Chong forced out a smile.
Lu Dayou dared not to argue, but the next day when it was still early in the afternoon, he had already brought food up the cliff. He thought, “I’ve managed to get a big calabash of good wine today together with two delicious dishes. I’ll have to get big apprentice brother to eat some more.” But after he climbed up the cliff, he found Linghu Chong sleeping on the rock in the cave, looking very wan and sallow.
“Big apprentice brother, see what this is?” Slightly shocked, he said, as he swayed the wine-calabash in front of Linghu Chong. After he opened the lid, the entire cave was soon filled with the wonderful scent of wine.
Linghu Chong took the calabash and drank half of the wine in just one breath. “The wine is not bad!” he praised.
“Let me fill your bowl with rice,” Lu Dayou said happily.
“Nah. I don’t feel like eating.” Linghu Chong objected.
“How about just one bowl?” Lu Dayou suggested, as he filled the bowl full with rice.
Not having the heart to go against Lu Dayou’s good will, Linghu Chong had to agree. “Ok, I will eat it after I finish drinking.”
But Linghu Chong didn’t eat the bowl of rice after all. The next day when Lu Dayou brought food up again, he found the bowl of rice sitting on the rock untouched and Linghu Chong sleeping on the floor. Lu Dayou noticed some redness on Linghu Chong’s cheeks, so he reached out and felt Linghu Chong’s forehead with his hand. It was burning hot. Linghu Chong must be running a high fever. He became very worried.
“Big apprentice brother, are you feeling sick?” he asked gently.
“Wine, wine! Give me wine!” Linghu Chong mumbled.
Although Lu Dayou brought some wine with him, he didn’t give it to him. Instead, he poured a bowl of water and sent it next to Linghu Chong’s lips.
Linghu Chong sat up and drank the big bowl of water in one swallow. “Good wine, great wine!” he yelled, and then fell down on his back heavily, still mumbling, “Good wine! Great Wine!”
Knowing that Linghu Chong’s illness was quite serious, Lu Dayou was very concerned, but it happened that Master and Master-Wife had some business to take care of and had left Mount Huashan early in the morning. So he ran down the cliff and told Lao Denuo and the other senior apprentice brothers.
Yue Buqun had set up a strict rule that other than the once a day task of bringing food up the cliff, no one would be allowed to go up the cliff to see Linghu Chong. But now since he was seriously ill, to go up the cliff to check on him probably wouldn’t be counted as a violation. Yet the bunch of apprentices still dared not to go up the cliff all at once and decided to go up the cliff
to check on Linghu Chong in groups and in different days. Lao Denuo and Liang Fa were the first two to go up.
Lu Dayou then went and told Yue Lingshan about it. Yue Lingshan was still quite angry at Linghu Chong, so she said coldly, “Come on, big apprentice brother has excellent inner energy, how could he become ill? You can’t fool me.”
The illness of Linghu Chong broke with such a tremendous force. For four days and four nights, Linghu Chong stayed in a coma. Lu Dayou begged Yue Lingshan to go up the cliff to pay a visit. He almost knelt down in front of her when she finally realized he was speaking the truth and also got greatly worried. She went up the cliff together with Lu Dayou, only finding a Linghu Chong with deeply sank cheeks and disheveled beard all over his face, nothing even close to the unrestrained and unconventional one he used to be.
With remorse in her heart, Yue Lingshan walked by his side and said gently, “Big apprentice brother, I’ve come to see you. Don’t be mad at me any more, alright?”
Linghu Chong’s face looked indifferent. His eyes wide open, he stared at her with a confused look, as if he didn’t know who she was at all.
“Big apprentice brother, it’s me. Why don’t you answer me?” Yue Lingshan said.
Linghu Chong kept staring at her blankly. After a while, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. Till Lu Dayou and Yue Lingshan had left, he still did not wake up.
Only after well over a month, Linghu Chong finally started to recover. During the one month, Yue Lingshan had come to visit him a total of three times. The second time she came, Linghu Chong had already regained his consciousness and was very happy to see her. The third time she came, Linghu Chong had already been able to sit up to eat a couple of the cookies she brought with her. But after that visit, she stopped coming. After Linghu Chong was able to stand up and walk around, he would be waiting by the edge of the cliff most of the day for little apprentice sister’s pretty figure to show up, but every time all he could see was either the quiet and empty valley, or the sight of Lu Dayou bending his back to climb up the cliff in a hurry.
