Book 7 Chapter 9 - Deep Love between Sister and Brothers
Susu's gentle voice came from the inner hall. She seemed to be talking with someone else.
Even until now, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling have not been able to accept the fact that Susu had been married into the Xiang family. Especially since her husband was this Xiang kid.
Even if they thought until their brains burst, they could not find anything good in Xiang Yushan that would attract the opposite sex, something that could make Susu fall in love with him.
The one she loved should be Li Jing.
Like a whirlwind Xiang Yushan entered the inner hall and cried out, "Madame, Bangzhu, look who's here?”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, who halted their steps outside the door, were greatly astonished; who did Xiang Yushan call ‘Gang Leader'?
"Ah!” Susu's tender voice was heard, followed by another woman's voice, "Let me look for Su Jie.”
Unexpectedly it was the Jukun Bang's Gang Leader, the Beautiful Shifu Yun Yuzhen.
She rushed to the door and upon seeing Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, her pretty eyes lit up instantly, while her countenance showed that she was pleasantly surprised. "Heavens!” she cried out in her tender voice, "You are finally here!”
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and took a stride forward, reaching out toward her face, he stroked her cheek and said with a laugh, "Beautiful Shifu has lost some weight, could it be it was because you missed your disciples?”
Yu Yuzhen revealed a complicated look on her face; both angry and happy, she stared fiercely at this frivolous ‘disciple' of hers. In the meantime, Xu Ziling already flitted past these two persons and rushed inside the hall.
Susu was being helped by Xiang Yushan to rise up from her chair, her face revealed a mixture of disbelief and delight as she cried out in her tender voice, "Xiao Zhong! Xiao Ling!”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling's eyes immediately fell onto her bulging tummy. Everything seemed to be impossible and unreal. It was as if they were deeply lost in some fantastic, bizarre dreamland.
Finished crying, Susu laughed. Finished laughing, Susu cried again. She was so overwhelmed with emotion that she scared Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, who used everything they knew to console her before she was slowly calming down.
Xiang Yushan ordered his servants to prepare a sumptuous banquet, and let the two boys gorging themselves. Susu, Yun Yuzhen and Xiang Yushan also accompanied them eating a little bit.
Talking about what happened after they parted, they chatted endlessly.
Xiang Yushan sighed and said, "We escaped the very night just before Danyang fell to Fu Gongyou, Madame adamantly refused to leave, leaving Bangzhu with no choice but to seal her sleeping acupoints. Du Fuwei has always been like fire and water with us; if we were captured by him, we would surely lose our lives. We left a mark outside the brothel door; didn't you see it?”
"What mark?” Kou Zhong said with a bitter laugh, "The building had been burned to the roof.”
Yun Yuzhen said, "We waited at Yongshi for the whole month, last thing we heard was that you inflicted great damage to Haisha Bang and Shen Faxing consecutively at Yuhang and Changre. By the time we sent people over to find you, the two of you have already slipped away to who knows where.”
Susu's eyes turned red again, she said accusingly, "Don't you know how to come looking for me a bit earlier?”
Xu Ziling hastily apologized, "We are wrong. We have never thought that you would return to Baling.”
Trying to change the subject, Kou Zhong asked Xiang Yushan, "How's your current situation?”
"Our situation is really not bad,” Xiang Yushan excitedly replied, "We have just taken Yulin and Cangwu, and right now our Right Marshal Dong Jingzhen are fighting over Panyu against the Tieqi Hui. The victor will be the overlord of the South.”
Kou Zhong's spirit was greatly aroused; he said, "I was just looking for Ren Shaoming to test my saber. Where is that guy?”
Xiang Yushan and Yun Yuzhen were stunned; they stared blankly at him.
"Xiao Zhong always love to do dangerous things,” Susu said with displeasure, "In the south, Ren Shaoming's martial art is second only to ‘Heavenly Saber' Song Que, he is equally famous with Lin Shihong. Can't you consider it carefully? Jiejie wants you to stay to accompany me. Ay! You don't know how hard it was to worry over you.”
Kou Zhong laughed but did not say anything. Underneath the table he kicked Xu Ziling's foot.
Xu Ziling shook his head slightly, he was unwilling to stick his head out for him.
Kou Zhong had no choice but to turn to Xiang Yushan to probe further, "If you could deal with Ren Shaoming, Panyu would be yours.”
Knitting his brows, Xiang Yushan said, "Let's not talk about Ren Shaoming, merely the Left and Right Law Protectors under him, the Evil Monk Fa Nan and the Amorous Nun Chang Zhen are all first class martial art masters. On top of that, nowadays everyone is afraid of being assassinated, so their guard is extremely tight. Even if Ning Daoqi agreed to personally assassinate him, his chance of success would still be extremely low.”
After a short pause, he went on, "Tomorrow I am going to submit memorial to His Highness, he has always had deep appreciation toward two Dage, he will certainly put you in important position, and this Madame will not have to worry about two Dage anymore.”
Kou Zhong said indifferently, "No need to bother you! We, two brothers, are accustomed to free and easy life, we are not used to listen to anybody else's order.”
And then, ignoring Xiang Yushan's disappointed look, he turned toward Yun Yuzhen and said, "Beautiful Shifu, what kind of business you are running now?”
Casting a coquettish glance toward him, Yun Yuzhen said, "Just menial job delivering goods here and there. Kou Gongzi can't possibly be interested.”
Hearing that, Kou Zhong immediately guessed that having acquired Xiao Xian as big supporter, Jukun Bang's power enjoyed tremendous boost, and now they were bearing the heavy responsibility of transporting supplies for him.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "What a coincidence, we are also in the cargo industry now. Ha! I almost forget to tell Xiang kid … I mean, General Xiang.” And then he told Xiang Yushan about Duan Yucheng and the others might arrive at Baling any time soon.
"Why didn't you guys travel together?” Yun Yuzhen asked in surprise.
Kou Zhong replied nonchalantly, "That muddled-egg Ba Fenghan chased the two of us for several hundred li, how could we go together with them?”
Xiang Yushan and Yun Yuzhen were greatly shocked. "Ba Fenghan?” they blurted together.
"Is there a problem?” Xu Ziling asked in astonishment.
Susu's flowery countenance lost its color, "You guys really did not know the immensity of heaven and earth. Ever since Ba Fenghan entered the Central Earth, he consecutively defeated several dozens of martial art masters from famous schools; he triumphed in every battle, his reputation flourishes even above the Four Major Clans. Several times several big schools sent their martial art masters to join hands besieging him, last I heard he was able to leisurely escape while still managed to kill a lot of them. How could you possibly provoke him?”
"We are not scared of him,” Kou Zhong sneered, "Were it not for him joining hands with that Korean Fu Junyu, we could have had him bag his food and leave before he finish it.”
Xiang Yushan and the others were dumbstruck.
Yun Yuzhen asked in disbelief, "Korean woman Fu Junyu is even more superior to Luocha woman. If she really joined hands with Ba Fenghan, how did you two escape with your lives?”
Kou Zhong stroked her thigh underneath the table, making her charming body trembled slightly. And then he shrugged his shoulders and said, "What's so strange about it? Being hunted and nearly killed was not a proud thing to say, why would we want to toot our horn?”
It was still hard for Xiang Yushan to believe; he asked, "Did you fight with them openly?”
"Of course we did,” Kou Zhong replied, "Otherwise we did not need to run his mother's several hundred li, until finally we came to this place.”
While Xiang Yushan and Yun Yuzhen were looking at each other, Susu reproached him, "Xiao Zhong! Can't you be a bit more polite? You still can't change your bad habit of using foul language.”
Kou Zhong giggled and said, "I intentionally used foul language just to hear Jiejie's touching tone in reproaching me. Ha!”
Although she was happy inwardly, she glowered at him and said, "Xiao Ling is much better than you! So naughty!”
Momentarily the banquet table was rippling with the sincere love between the sister and brothers. The beautiful circumstances when they first met in the past seemed to return this very moment.
When Xu Ziling woke up the next morning, he felt his entire body, from head to toe, was full with qi. Seeing Susu was safe and sound, and that she had found the home of her own choice, Xu Ziling seemed to put down the big stone weighing his heart.
Last night as he lay in bed cultivating his internal strength, his mind, qi and spirit entered an unprecedented level of cohesiveness.
As he lay down, looking at the top of the mosquito net, his mind was focused on the Yijian Sword inspired by Fu Junyu, which was the ideal realm during combat where one was able to grasp all the changes and the constant elements of the overall situation.
When the two sides were facing each other, it was just like they were scrutinizing each other, inevitably they would be able to home on the hidden clue. It was the insight that one could only gain via real combat experience, something that would match his own strength.
Just like the other day Fu Junyu's seemingly random and non-threatening sword strikes toward Kou Zhong, yet Kou Zhong was flustered and could only run in circles; simply because she had the insight to gain initiative, just like in chess, each move could make the opponent struggled to cope.
While he was deep in thought, Susu's voice was heard outside the door, "Xiao Ling! Are you awake?”
Xu Ziling hastily jumped down the bed, put on his outer robe, and pulled the door open to let Susu in.