Chapter 13
The wheels of the carriage are turning. I looked at the man in purple across of me, whose eyes are closed. I grabbed on the wood fence. I shouted to the two people in front of the carriage: “Hey! Stomachache, urgency.”
“You sure have many things, brat!”
One stopped the carriage, while the other jumped off it. He opened the door and dragged me out of the carriage.
“Hurry.”
He pointed at the bushes on the roadside and said: “After you’re resolved your business, come out.”
The man was holding the other end of the rope on my body. I looked around. There’s no other way, I had to squat on the grass and resolve my business.
The man sitting on the carriage is cursing. He said they should’ve leaved me on the mountain to survive on my own. Bringing me is too much trouble. Besides selling me, won’t bring them much money.
The other one said laughingly: “This is still a success. Although the ginseng of a thousand years ran away, but we’ve caught something better. Well, this woman, if we can’t sell her, we still can bring her back for our own pleasure. The two are idiots. They can’t do something serious. Just bear with it for a few days.”
I rubbed my empty stomach. I miss shifu more now. Yes, I’m kidnapped. This situation began three days ago, when I left shifu. Originally, I was planning to go to Shengling sect and stay there for two days. Then I’ll bring back food and continue to massage shifu’s legs and shoulder. But the improper dressed I, met two brawny men on the hillside. It’s the two men in front of me. They were carrying an unconscious man in purple, the man that’s now asleep in the carriage.
The two brawny men are now discussing where they should go eat and drink. I said with good intention: “The food at Shengling sect is really delicious.”
The two men stared at me for a long time. Suddenly one of them raised his hands against me. I didn’t win the fight, so I was forced in the carriage again.
We were on the road for three days. The man in purple slept for three days. I missed shifu for three days.
I don’t remember ever leaving shifu for so long. Although shifu likes to order me to do things I don’t like, like doing the laundry, making his bed and massage his legs and shoulder. He also likes to make fun of me to past time, but shifu is always there when I’m sick. When I wake up form a nightmare shifu is also there. When I’m being bullied, shifu will bully that person back. I scratched my head and thought that compared to ginseng soup or stewing mushroom with chicken, the look shifu have when he rubbed my head and say “Xiao Xiang Zi, good”, is more delicious. I really want to go back to shifu, ah…But now how do I go back to shifu….
The carriage seems to be hit by a stone. I was thrown to the other side of the carriage. The man in purple opposite me was also fiercely thrown to the other side of the carriage. His breathing became disorderly. I lifted my head and saw that his eyes opened a little.
“Ah, you’ve woken up.”
Because of my shouting, the two men driving the carriage turned to look at us. They stared alertly at the man in purple before they continue to drive. I understand. The man in purple’s hands and feet were chained. His face is pale and his breathing is weak. He looks like someone who is about to die. The two men have nothing to worry about.
The man moved his hands and feet. The chain caused a ringing sound. He seemed to be aware of the situation his in now. His body turned stiff. He raised his head to look at his surroundings. His eyes stared at the backs of the two big men for a while before he turned to look at me.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Xiao Xiang Zi.”
I kindly reminded him that we’ve been kidnapped.
He wrinkled his brow.
“You look really cheerful.”
“Because now, aside from me, there’s someone else who is uncomfortable. Shifu said that in a bad situation, looking at somebody who’s in a worse situation than you, will let your heart be more balanced.
The man sighed and dropped his head.
“Fool…”
Seeing that he was really depressed, I kindly leaned against his ear and whispered: “Don’t worry, shifu will come and save. I’ll let him save you too.”
The man glanced at me and didn’t speak.
Because I’ve a companion now, I’m not feeling lonely anymore. So I began chatting with him. But this person doesn’t seem to like talking, I told him about my life with shifu and the interesting things we did. He blinked and kept listening, I talked from afternoon to midnight, and still this man hasn’t spoken a word. Suddenly one of the two men in front of us growled: “She! Is the idiot disciple of Shengling sect’s shaozhu, whom he treats like a precious thing!”
I scratched my head and was about to say that shifu doesn’t treat me as a precious thing, when a sudden gust of wind made me close my eyes. When I opened my eyes, at the end of the road there was a dim light. A figure of a person slowly came from the light.
“Ah! Shifu! Shifu,”I yelled.
I was so excited that I crashed against the wooden fence again. I couldn’t wait for shifu to crush this thing and to fly into his arms.
But shifu hasn’t yet approached when I heard a “hehehe”cold sneer.
My spine went cold, my hairs stood up. In my memories, shifu rarely sneered like that, but once he sneers like that….
“Very good, very good.”
Shifu pulled a whip from his waist. I’ve never seen him used the whip before. But I don’t know why, seeing him with the whip in one hand, laughing with a murderous look, I actually felt at peace.
“Xiaoye1 searched the whole mountain for this person, but she has been abducted by you two.”
The whip touched the ground with a “pipa”sound. My body also got startled by the sound.
Shifu said laughingly: “Let xiaoye be busy for a few days without results. Say, how do you want to die? Xiaoye will follow your wishes.”
The two looked at each other. One said: “We didn’t mean to offend Shengling sect. This lady is shaozhu’s disciple; we shall certainly return her to shaozhu.”
I looked at the man in purple next to me. He remained silent and quietly observed the situation.
I whispered: “Don’t worry, my shifu is not a soft and big hearted person. This two people will certainly get whipped.”
The man in purple looked at me for a moment and suddenly said: “If your shifu heard this, you’ll also be whipped.”
“Shifu will not whip me.”
Saying that I remembered that shifu never has used his hands against me. Every time he’ll get mad at me. At most he’ll pinch my cheeks really hard. Remembering this, I felt that shifu is pretty good. When we go back to the manor, I’ll do my best at massaging him.
While I was lost in my own thoughts, shifu said: “Hmpf…I always prefer to get back what was stolen from me, with my own hands.”
His body began to move and the two men immediately pulled out their swords.
The first whip was not in the direction of the two people.
I only heard a “pa ”sound. I turned my head and saw the wooden fence being split into pieces. Shifu threw a dagger at my feet and glanced at me with great dislike. He turned around and began fighting with the two men. This two brawny men’s martial arts are surprisingly good. They actually have a draw with shifu.
I immediately picked up the knife and cut the ropes. I turned to the man in purple and said: “I’ll help you cut the chain.”
“Don’t waste your efforts, “he said. “This dark steel, stone chain can’t be cut by an ordinary dagger. Those two men aren’t using ordinary martial arts, but they’re using martial arts which can catch demons. No matter how good your shifu’s martial arts are, fighting with them at the same time is quite laborious. If you’re clever, you should escape now.”
I blinked and stared at the man for a moment.
“My shifu is also not using ordinary martial arts.”
I picked up the dagger and meditated a formula that shifu taught me several months ago. I cut the chain really hard. The chain broke. I put the dagger safely in my clothes and said to the surprised man: “This is also not an ordinary dagger.”
I pulled the man.
“We hide first. After shifu is finished with them, we can come out.”
I was just about to lead this man away when I heard: “That brat wants to abducts our good!”
After yelling that the man left his partner and rushed to me.
I was shocked. My mouth called for shifu. My hands dragged the man and desperately ran into the woods.
I heard shifu yelled: “Where do you want to go, demon catcher?”
The voice is not far away from me. They must be chasing me.
The man in purple ran for a few steps and struggled to breath. He said: “You put…put me down…they will not come after you.”
After hearing that, I immediately let go of him. My steps haven’t even stopped, when a heavy blow came to my knee. My legs went soft and I embarrassingly fell onto the ground. I looked up and angrily accused the man in purple: “Liar! I let go and they still hit me!”
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He was speechless.
My chin was burning with pain. My skin was scraped. I haven’t had the time to cry when a shadow grabbed me. I lifted my head and saw the brawny man waving his sword. He wants to cut me into half. I blinked and saw that suddenly a whip was wrapped against his waist. I don’t know how much power the person holding the whip used, but he gently moved and the brawny man flew aside like a puppet.
Shifu dressed in full white, handsomely landed in front of me. One hand was holding the whip. With the other he pulled me up. Even if shifu’s face was really gloomy, in my eyes, it’s beautiful like spring flowers.
I hugged him and rubbed, rubbed a few times against his chest and cried out loud: “Shifu, I was wrong! Huhu…I don’t want ginseng soup anymore…huhu….”
Shifu pulled me away, looked at my chin, squeezed my arms and legs and asked in a bad temper: “How many times did they beat you?!”
I sniffed: “I didn’t count…”
Shifu’s face turned even darker: “Have you beat them back?”
“Couldn’t win…”
“Stupid brat!”
Shifu gritted his teeth. He glared angrily at the two brawny men standing together.
Full of hate he said: “You dare to want to kill the pig I raised…”
The brawny man who was thrown aside by shifu said: “We already apologized to you and are willing to give the girl back to you. In the past few days we haven’t abused her. Why are you making things difficult for us?”
Shifu sneered and pulled me behind him. Quite furious he said: Do I need a reason to make things difficult for you?”
“Shengling sect must not go too far! We two only want the good back…”
“Xiaoye doesn’t want to return it.”
Shifu picked up his whip and said arrogantly: “You come and steal it, ah.”
Seeing that shifu and the two men are about to fight again, I scratched my head and went to sit beside the man in purple.
“You see, my shifu is really narrow minded.”
The man in purple was silent for a moment and said: “Your shifu isn’t an ordinary human.”
I nodded: “En, his more narrow minded than the average people…but shifu’s always tolerant with me.”
I turned and looked at the man in purple.
“Ah, I still don’t know your name.”
He was silent for a moment and said: “My name is Zihui.”
I was about to friendly introduce myself to him when suddenly a glimmer of light flashed before my eyes. Zihui’s face turned pale. He pushed me to the ground and shouted: “Hidden weapon! Be careful!”
I haven’t realized the situation yet, when three needles flew in our direction. At that point it was too late to hide. I was in a trance. Suddenly a black whip was before us. Even though the whip is rough, but it stopped the needles.
I was about to shout “almighty shifu”, when I saw that the two brawny man take advantage of shifu’s distraction. One person fight with shifu and the other raised his sword to cut shifu. I was startled, unable to make a sound and just kept staring at them…
“Don’t bully my shifu!”
Comments:
小爷 (Xiǎo yé): the meaning is little master. This is what Chu Kong used to call himself. If it used by oneself, it has an arrogant meaning. But it’s also used by servants of the noble class.