Book 2 Chapter 8 - Clan Leader of the Fairer Sex[1]
While the two boys were running around in circle trying to unfurl the sail, the battle was moving away from them. Now the moonlight shining on tranquil sea became dozens of small dots.
A sea breeze blew. The boat sailed toward the shore at high speed.
Kou Zhong crouched on the sacks of salt that was lost but now was won back. He mumbled at himself, and was so happy that nearly went crazy.
Xu Ziling was at the helm; he suddenly called out, "We'll reach the shore very soon!”
Kou Zhong sprang up and saw the pitch-black land ahead was getting larger and larger at an alarming rate. Aghast, he called, "Can we slow down?”
"We can't!” Xu Ziling called back.
That night happened to be high tide, plus the wind was strong, the boat sailed like an unbridled horse running away on an open field; it was totally out of control.
Kou Zhong pointed to a spot that looked like a sandy shore, "Steer toward that place!” he called out.
Xu Ziling turned the rudder, the sailboat changed course on a slightly oblique angle, speeding toward the sandbar.
Kou Zhong was about to cheer, suddenly his countenance changed. "Not good!” he cried.
Xu Ziling was also shocked. Turns out under the moonlight they could see that all around them there were reefs sprouting from the seabed. That they had not had shipwreck by now was indeed a miracle.
‘Screech! Screech!' The hull emitted such a harsh grinding noise. The boat was pushed to the right, the two boys lost their balance and fell into the water.
‘Crash!' The boat ran into an especially huge rock and disintegrated immediately. All the salt went down to the bottom of the ocean.
The boys managed to swim across the shallow water; the lower half of their body was still immersed in continuously rushing tide.
Their body weary, their strength exhausted, the two boys lay face down on the sand, while continuously gasping for breath. Their mouth and nose were bloody from the collision with the reef, while their body was bruised all over. It was not even clear when did their weapons fall off.
However, the physical pain they suffered was far less than the emotional pain they suffer from losing the salt.
The effort they spent on stealing this batch of salt has become their highest standard of struggle, it had an incomparably deep meaning for them, and it has thrown them into an endless rollercoaster of emotion.
Yet in the end the salt was gone. Just like that.
When salt meets water, won't it vanish without trace?
Xu Ziling spat out a mouthful of saltwater mixed with his own blood. He groaned, "Those who have never been underwater will never know that the seawater is so bitter.”
Kou Zhong wanted to laugh, but he choked and coughed hard, "Who told you to drink it? Ha! Fortunately I still have a couple of money purses. Ah!”
Xu Ziling groaned. "Don't tell me: you lost your purse as well!”
Kou Zhong smiled bitterly. "That's exactly what happened,” he said, "Don't blame me! Next time you'll take care of it.”
Xu Ziling made a show of turning his head around; after giving him a quick look, he sighed and said, "Zhong Shao, is your tummy hungry? It seems to me that we make another progress in martial art; for two days and one night we did not eat a single grain of rice, but I am not that hungry.”
"Don't mention the word ‘hungry',” Kou Zhong sadly replied, "Ay! I am so tired that I feel like dying.” Finished speaking he buried his face into the sand.
Xu Ziling also felt senses faded; finally he succumbed to his weary body and fell asleep right there.
The next thing he knew, someone was slapping his face, hard. Kou Zhong's excited voice penetrated his ears, "Heavens! Get up! This time gods and fairies are helping us.”
Xu Ziling opened his eyes; the sky was very bright. He sat up with blank expression, but as he turned his eyes, he was dumbstruck.
The tide has receded a hundred zhang or so, exposing the spacious seabed, littered with jet-black reefs. Those dozens of sack of salt, along with the debris of the boat and everything else left after the shipwreck, were strewn over the rocks; it was indeed a breath-taking, magnificent sight.
Kou Zhong ran toward the nearest sack of salt. Xu Ziling was overwhelmed with fiery emotion. He sprang up, and only then did he realize that most of the wounds and bruises on his body were completely healed. Other than his growling empty stomach, he felt that his entire body was full of energy. Hastily he ran after Kou Zhong.
Kou Zhong was shouting and yelling in excitement, "My Niang! All these salt have become hard lumps; nothing dissolves in water. This time Laotianye really appeared.”
Xu Ziling saw something among the rock crevices flickered under the sunlight; in great delight he threw himself in that direction. As expected, he found the sword. And then, not too long afterwards, he found Kou Zhong's short halberd. After losing everything and gaining it back, the happiness in their hearts was something that no pen and ink can describe.
Kou Zhong still wanted to find the two money purses, but after suffering untold hardships, he could only find one; no matter how hard he searched the other one simply eluded him. Upon opening it, unexpectedly he found five silver ingots and some change; in his heart he was extremely grateful to Laotianye.
The two boys were afraid the tide would come back; busily they moved the sacks of salt ashore. After working hard until nightfall, they counted forty-eight sacks of salt; two sacks went missing; most probably when the boat disintegrated the sacks burst.
By this time the two boys were so hungry that they no longer feel it. Hastily they went to the forest by the shore to pick some wild fruits to allay their hunger.
Returning to the shore, they saw the tide was rising again; the waves were crashing onto the reefs, spraying seawater everywhere. They felt like they had just been granted a new lease of life.
The two boys stood facing the ocean. They still had the feeling that the enemy might come anytime, hence they went to the nearby forest to find a safe place to hide, and once they found it, they moved all the salt there, and covered everything with leaves. Only then did they snuggle up to sleep.
In their semi-conscious state, they felt like they were back at that little valley where they buried Fu Junchuo, training internal energy to withstand the cold night.
About midnight, they heard noises coming from the shore. The two boys were shocked; taking their weapons, they crawled behind a large rock where they had a clear view of the beach and took a peep.
They saw two small boats anchored at the beach, more than a dozen men with torches in their hands were carefully inspecting the debris of their boat that was washed to the shore.
Farther away into the ocean, they saw eight medium sized two-mast ships, but they did not look like Haisha Bang battleship.
Kou Zhong whispered, "Loot at that girl, she is prettier than our Niang!”
Xu Ziling turned his attention to the woman. She was wearing lake-water-green [i.e. teal] colored warrior outfit, covered by long white cape on the outside. Her beauty was something that those who saw her would forget about taking a breath. It was the first time that he saw such a classy woman.
Kou Zhong's throat suddenly created a ‘glug' noise; he was swallowing his own saliva, "If I can spend the night with her, I am willing to have my life cut by three days.”
Xu Ziling let out a ‘ha'; he nearly guffawed, but quickly covered his mouth. Who would have thought that the woman was a martial art master indeed? They were about twenty zhang apart, yet his laughter could not escape her ears; she immediately turned her head in their direction, scaring the two boys that they instantly shrunk back behind the huge rock.
After quite a while, the beach became quiet, they breathed a sigh of relief. How could they still dare to have devious thought?
Kou Zhong said in low voice, "Even in term of martial art this beautiful woman [orig. poniang, see Book 1 Chapter 4] could be superior to our Niang, but she is still outwitted by us, Two Dragons of Yangzhou.”
Suddenly a sweet-sounding, alto voice calmly descended from above, asking, "Was she really outwitted by you?”
The two boys were so scared that their soul flew away and scattered; they rolled toward the sloping grassy knoll first before springing up, holding a halberd and grasping a sword, putting on a false bravado, but in their hearts they were seriously lacking confidence.
The Bloody Battle Ten Styles they learned from Li Jing, only Xu Ziling had the opportunity to test it in armed combat with the enemy, but that one time he was useless to the extreme that he even lost Li Jing's treasured saber.
Therefore, the thing that these two boys lacked the most was real combat experience; so if they were not scared in the face of battle, that would be strange indeed.
That stunningly beautiful woman sat leisurely on the rock, she even had a wind lantern sitting next to her, shining its light on half of her so that it looked like her beautiful figure was glowing, adding some mysterious, yet pure and holy aura to her already out-of-this-world beauty.
The white cape against the lake-water-green warrior outfit, made her look exceptionally charming, very pleasing to the eye.
The woman looked at them with her cold gaze, and said emotionlessly, "I really don't understand how could these two virtue-less, incompetent street urchins stole the ‘Secret to Long Life' from under Yuwen Huaji's nose, and then swindled Du Fuwei until his head and face were filthy with grime, and now you even messed with Haisha Bang that their head spins. Tell me! Do you always have your good luck charm with you?”
Hearing this, the two boys looked at each other with eyes open wide but their tongue tied. How could this woman know them like the back of her hand?
Ashamed, Kou Zhong put his halberd down and used it to prop himself against the grassy ground. In deadly earnest he said, "May I ask Miss' honored surname and great given name? Who are you? How come toward Zaixia [lit. under, referring to self] two brothers' matter you seem to be very familiar [orig. as if enumerating one's family valuables]?”
The pretty woman let out a cold snort and said, "Am I not called a woman [poniang]? How come now I become a Miss? Such an inconsistency, evidently you are a despicable man.”
Kou Zhong's countenance fell, "You call that despicable?” he said, "Even if in your heart you are dying to kill the opponent, but on the surface don't you still need to be polite? In this world who has never had his mouth in disagreement with his mouth? You, this … hey! You, this Miss, how much more noble do you think you are compared to me?”
It was very rare that Xu Ziling saw Kou Zhong lost his temper like that; he was completely blown away.
The pretty woman stared at Kou Zhong for half a day. Suddenly ‘Pfft!' she burst out laughing. "You little demon, you have quite a stinky temperament. But don't blame your Miss for not warning you: as far as I'm concerned, I kill people like splitting gourd or chopping vegetables; no hesitation whatsoever.”
Xu Ziling finally came to his senses, he could not help exposing her bluff, "You want to make your move then make your move! Why bring up that much superfluous words?”
Kou Zhong stuck out his chest and said, "Those with enough guts don't need to call others for help. You alone against the two of us.”
The pretty woman did not stop laughing; she laughed so hard that her body trembled like fluttering twigs. "Looking at your appearance: clothes not covering your body, scars and bruises all over, yet you have devious thought of the two of you can beat me, one person. Ay! Dead little demon! You made me laugh so hard that it hurt.”
Xu Ziling angrily said, "Do you want to fight or not? If not, we'll go back to sleep.”
Naturally the pretty woman was able to see his hard shell but empty inside, showing strength while weak inside. She reached to her back and pulled a clear, golden-colored copper xiao [Chinese flute[2]], about four chi long, placed it horizontally on her lips, and blew a clear note, like a cool breeze entering their ears. And then she placed the flute on her jade legs, looked down on the flickering flame inside the wind lantern, and said softly, "Can you not view people with hostility? The reason I did not hesitate to declare a war with Haisha Bang was precisely because I wanted to see if we have any possibility of cooperation.”
The two boys looked at each other in confusion, but there was also a little bit of ‘overwhelmed by favor from superior' feeling.
Kou Zhong reaction was comparably quicker; with a giggle he also sat down on another big rock, nodded his head, and said, "Miss [or Young Lady; here he used ‘guniang', whereas previously he used ‘xiaojie'] please state your attractive conditions first, so that we can see if we can reach any agreement.”
The pretty woman did not even cast him a glance; she still acted as if she was talking to herself, "Shall I give them a hard beating first, so that these two little demons will behave a bit more?”
Kou Zhong jumped in fright; he adopted the first stance of the ‘Bloody Battle Ten Styles', the ‘Two Armies Encamped Face-to-face'.
Being treated with ‘sudden hard and sudden soft' by her like that, the two boys felt a headache.
[2] Xiao usually refers to vertically blown flute (as opposed to Dizi, traverse flute), yet the next sentence says ‘horizontally' or ‘across'. I don't know, perhaps I misunderstood the sentence.