Kou Zhong burst into laughter, "Xiao Ling!” he said, "You fell in love with that woman, didn't you? Be careful, I think she might want to take your little life. Hey! Ha ha! Ow! Ay! You are not supposed to laugh on an empty stomach.”
Xu Ziling shot him an angry glare, "I am just afraid she slipped away for personal gain, taking along our secret manual with her!”
Startled, Kou Zhong felt his back. Suddenly he sprang up, his countenance changed. "Stinky woman, mother thief, she really stole our secret manual!”
Xu Ziling still thought he was joking; reaching out to feel Kou Zhong's back and lower waist, he let out a miserable scream and threw himself to the ground. Spreading out his hands and feet, he sobbed, "It's finished! The person is gone, the money is gone, the secret manual is gone, and we have become fugitives. O God! Everything is finished.”
Gnashing his teeth, Kou Zhong stood up, made a fist toward the heavens and shouted madly, "No! I will do whatever it takes to get the secret manual back! Ah …!” Something flew across and hit his face. Kou Zhong screamed miserably and tumbled down to the ground.
Xu Ziling sat up, aghast. He saw standing on a rock about a zhang away, was the woman-in-white. Her beautiful face looked as if it was covered in a layer of cold frost; with her apricot eyes opened wide, she glowered at them.
When Kou Zhong was struggling to crawl up, he discovered that the ‘secret projectile' that attacked him was precisely the darling of their hearts, their life treasure. With a strange cry he returned the book inside his clothes on his back. His manner of regarding the book as important as his life was ridiculously funny.
With a cold snort the woman-in-white said, "What martial art secret manual? Don't make people laugh until they die. Just by looking at those seven diagrams, I know that it's a plaything about training to reach immortality that the Taoists use to cheat people. Those talisman scribbling are to make it deliberately mystifying. Only Yuwen Huaji and you, the two ignorant children, consider it a treasure.”
Greatly delighted, Kou Zhong said, "It is best that Dashi is thinking that way. Hee hee …! Last night we finally managed to save Dashi's life. Although there's a saying, ‘confer a favor do not expect recompense', slight reward is always one's duty under the circumstances. Is it possible for Dashi to give us a couple of coin strings? And then everybody may peacefully take different roads and urge the horses on. Good beginning and good end.”
‘Pow!' Once again Kou Zhong tumbled down to the ground. Five clear finger marks appeared on his face. Of course it was the woman-in-white who sent him a slap through the air.
The woman-in-white ignored Kou Zhong's cry of pain; she turned her eyes on Xu Ziling. Xu Ziling raised his hands to show his innocence.
"I didn't say anything,” he said, "Could you not stare at Zaixia [lit. under, a humble way to call oneself. I think only Jianghu people used this, I've never seen usage among ordinary/common citizens.] like that?”
"You didn't say anything?” the woman-in-white indifferently said, "Then who said just now that I slipped away taking your rotten book along?”
Xu Ziling scooted several cun [1 cun is approx. an inch/a thumb] backward, while putting up a big smile on his face, "It was just a misunderstanding! And now the misunderstanding has been dispelled, let the bygone be bygone.”
By this time Kou Zhong has crawled back up; while stroking his burning cheek, he nodded incessantly and said, "Right! Right! There's no more misunderstanding, we all are still good friends.”
The woman-in-white cast him a sidelong glance; she said in disdain, "You little demon, who do you think you are that you are fit to bargain with your Miss? I only wanted to look at your stinking book with weird scribbling, that's why I took it. Alright, I want each of you to give yourself ten heavy slaps on your mouth; let's see if after this you still dare to call me ‘woman, woman'?” [See the beginning of this chapter.]
The two boys looked at each other. Xu Ziling suddenly stood up straight with indignant look on his face. "A warrior can be killed, must not be humiliated,” he said firmly, "You can kill me!”
Kou Zhong got a shock. "Xiao Ling!” he said, "We can discuss everything slowly.” Turning toward the woman-in-white, he said, "My Dashi Miss, after we slap ourselves, will we go our own ways, from now on all gratitude and grudges, kindness and enmity, will be severed, both parties won't have anything to do with each other anymore?”
The woman-in-white's cold eyes flashed with thick killing aura; she said coldly, "I changed my mind. One of you must take my sword. The two of you may decide for yourself, which one will die.”
The two boys looked at each other, and then they exclaimed together, "Me!”
‘Ring!' The woman-in-white unsheathed her treasured sword.
The two boys exchanged glances again, and then they screamed together, turned around and ran toward the river. But before they could even take two steps, the clothes on their back tightened, because the woman-in-white picked them up like a couple of chicken. The wind swished by the two boys' ears. They left the riverbank, but not toward the plain or the forest lining up both sides of the rivers for hundreds of li.
‘Bang! Bang!' The two were dropped down one after another from about a zhang away, along a hard surface on inclined slope. Because of their own momentum, they rolled down the slope seven, eight times, before finally landed on the bottom, totally confused, and with all four limbs facing the sky.
They had been hungry for a day and a night, their limbs had been devoid of strength early on, it was with great difficulty that they were finally able to crawl up. Looking around, they found out that they were actually at the entrance of a small town. People were walking around, the place was buzzing with activity, it was a lively town, but the woman-in-white was nowhere to be seen.
Kpu Zhong was greatly delighted, "That wo … ha! Dashi has left.”
Licking his lips, Xu Ziling said, "How can we find something to eat?”
Kou Zhong slapped his chest, assuming an upright and unafraid stance. Walking away from the wilderness, he took the ancient road leading to the entrance of the town, and went straight into the marketplace.
Xu Ziling ran after him. He saw the signboard above the city gate had three big characters ‘Bei Po Xian' [lit. north slope county] written on it. "I wonder if they have militia army in here,” he said hopefully.
Kou Zhong snapped, "When our tummy is rumbling, even Emperor or Laozi[1] will have to step aside.”
By this time the two boys have reached the main street, which was lined on both sides with houses, shops, and inns and restaurants. When the people saw their shabby clothes and unkempt hair, they raised their eyebrows and cast a despising look on them. They were accustomed to this kind of look; therefore, they did not think differently.
Walking about a dozen zhang, a sweet smelling of food assaulted their nostrils. The two boys could not stop their feet from stepping toward the direction of the smell. There was a small lane crossing the main street, turning to the left, they saw spiraling smoke from kitchen chimneys rose to the air; they were wondering which house was producing such a fragrant smell.
They had just decided to go in and take a chance when a shout coming from behind them; evidently someone was calling out to them, "Stop!”
The two of them turned around in shock, only to see two official looking men, with devils and monsters' appearance, were coming toward them. From their expression, it was clear that their intention was not good.
Seeing they were not Yuwen Huaji or his men, Kou Zhong was relieved. Taking the initiative, he stepped forward, raised his cupped fist and said, "Finally seeing Uncle Officers, this is very good indeed.”
The two officers were taken aback. The one that looked a bit older asked in surprise, "Why is seeing us good?”
Kou Zhong's eyes turned red, as he narrated his sad story, "We, two brothers, are Daxing [district, in Beijing] people, My name is Yuwen Zhong, his is Yuwen Ling. We embarked a ship to Yangzhou, who would have thought that en route we were attacked by rebels? The boat capsized, the people perished, more than a thousand entourage were buried at the bottom of the river, only us, two brothers escaped with our lives, but we lost our way. The purpose of our trip to Yangzhou this time is to visit our uncle, the Zongguan of Yangzhou, Uncle Yuchi. Ay!”
Listening to him, the two officers looked at each other. One of them asked suspiciously, "Where exactly did the mishap happen? How did you arrive here?”
Xu Ziling caught on, "The accident happened at the Grand Canal[2]. To evade the thieves, we were in panic and did not see where we were going; it was after walking for many days that we are finally here. I wonder what are Uncles' honored surname and great given name? If you could send us off to Yangzhou, Uncle Yuchi will definitely reward you handsomely.”
The older officer replied, "My name is Zhou Ping, and he is Chen Wang.”
Noticing that the two officers were eyeing their shabby clothes that made them look more like beggars than young masters of prominent family, Kou Zhong promptly offered a remedy, "During our journey over the mountains and across the forests, our clothes were ripped and damaged beyond repair, fortunately we came across a small village, where we exchanged our jade ornaments for two sets of clothing, but we were given random direction that we ended up in here. May I ask Uncles, how much farther is it from here to Yangzhou?”
Chen Wang and Zhou Ping exchanged glances; their eyes lit up simultaneously. Zhou Ping let out a dry cough; his mannerism suddenly became a lot more respectful. In a low voice and less air he asked, "May we ask which one is your esteemed father?”
With a straight face Kou Zhong replied, "My father is Yuwen Huagu, my father's younger brother is Yuwen Huaji. Ay! Father has never been good in martial art matters, he made us, two brothers, to work hard on the teaching of Confucius and Mencius. Every day we have to read some ‘first concern is affairs of state, enjoying the pleasure comes later'[3]. Otherwise, if we only learned one-tenth of our Uncle's martial art skill, we won't be in such a sorry state today.”
Zhou Ping and Chen Wang were two straw bags. Hearing him quoting some literature, although they did not understand, plus they were intimidated by Yuwen Huaji's prestige, their suspicion vanished. Hurriedly they fell on their knees and loudly expressed their respect.
Kou Zhong was delighted. He said with a laugh, "Two great uncles need not be overly-courteous. I wonder which restaurant nearby has quite decent dishes?”
Zhou Ping respectfully said, "Two Gongzi [young master], please follow lowly ones! Our town's Gao Peng Xuan [gao peng - high/respected friend, xuan - pavilion with a view], although it is local, its appetizer is exceptionally well-known.”
Chen Wang turned around and said, "I must report to County Deputy Chen immediately that Yuwen Daren's [lit. big/great man, a term of respect toward superiors, usually government officials] nephews have arrived.”
The two boys jumped in fright, but their stomachs were rumbling violently, so they did not care too much about other things.
[1] Lao-tze (c. 500 BC), Chinese philosopher, the founder of Taoism.
[2] Da Yunhe, the Grand Canal, 1800km from Beijing to Hangzhou, built starting from 486BC.
[3] Quotation from essay ‘On Yueyang Tower', by Song Dynasty writer Fan Zhongyan; ergo, it was in the future since this story supposedly happened before Tang Dynasty.