Jianghu men of both the light and dark paths got wind of this and hurried over. But who knew they would be let down, and dejected, everyone went their own way. Turns out the envoys had reached Chengdu prefecture and had the administrative commissioner quickly send a report posthaste 800 miles to the capital. At the same time, they knew the Yangtze River pirates were formidable. If someone messed with their s.h.i.+p and it sank to the bottom of the river, who knew how many heads would roll, so they changed plans and decided to go by land. The envoys reached Hanzhong, where the Brocade Guard were swarming. Shaolin and Wudang both had received official consecration by the imperial court, and with a single letter they came en ma.s.se, even disciples who dominated the north came in large numbers. A hundred masters or more safeguarded the treasure and headed in a mighty group along the northern gallery road to Baoji, then straight to the capital. Brave men who had come to get a part of the spoils for themselves were forced to look on wide-eyed at the envoys from a distance, hanging their heads in dejection and dispersing.
More than a month pa.s.sed and Hanzhong prefecture had returned to normal. It was then that Wenchang entered the prefectural city.
First, he had to ask around to see if the s.h.i.+ family had arrived yet or not, then he had to find some travel money. Silver wasn"t going to just fall from the sky, and if there was any to be picked up from the ground someone would have gotten it already. Without money he couldn"t move about or ask around for information.
Yep, the s.h.i.+ family had yet to arrive. The gallery road was too difficult to traverse, they couldn"t go more than thirty or forty miles a day, so he had arrived soon than them.
Not long after dark, he took up his pipa and walked out of Tranquility Inn and strolled toward Prosperity Tavern by the south gates. He figured no one here in this mountainous region of Hanzhong would recognize him as Cai Wenchang, nor would any men of the jianghu here know that he was the upstart who had rocked the jianghu, known as The Fugitive.
The night markets had just opened and people crawled the clean and tidy main avenue like ants. The shops on the west side were ablaze with lanterns and was buzzing with liveliness.
He suddenly felt a wave of dizziness come over him, along with a ma.s.sive weight on his chest and his shoulders heave and he felt sick to his stomach.
He staggered and steadied himself, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew the cadaverine poison had entered a part of his meridian. He had to endure the sudden rush of pain for a moment before it subsided. This was not the first time, so he was not panicked.
He stood in the middle of the street, people swarming past him from both sides, but he just kept his eyes shut and quietly circulated his qi and regulated his breathing, trying to ease the pain, unaware of anything happening around him.
After some time had pa.s.sed there was no longer any pa.s.sersby around him.
Four valiant men wielding horse whips hollered as they came on from the north, a young lady in a slim-fitting emerald green robe riding a horse behind them. A pageboy led the horse, his whip swaying as they walked slowly. There were four more men on horseback behind her providing an escort.
The girl in green was seventeen or eighteen, her hair done up in three buns with no headscarf. Her body through her slim-fitting robe was exquisitely curved, and she had large limpid eyes and slightly thick eyebrows that looked like the sweep of distant mountains. She had a lovely nose and cherry lips, and her smile was charming.
From the way her hair was done up it was clear she was an unmarried woman, and from her figure and her flirtatious corners of her eyes and tips of her brows, Heaven knew if her soft, ample white b.r.e.a.s.t.s were an unclaimed tract of virgin soil?
The men shouted, "Make way! The daughter of Ji Manor is here." As if they worried people wouldn"t know who it was who was coming through.
Wenchang was in the process of suppressing his sudden wave of pain, sweat dripping from his forehead, his face pale, the muscles in his cheeks twitching. How could he know the men were hollering at him?
"Oh no!" a bystander exclaimed under his breath. "That man is going to be in for it."
The Ji daughter reined in and the pageboy grabbed the halter. It seemed her horse-riding skills were still limited.
One of the men came up to Wenchang and roared, "Out of the way! d.a.m.ned idiot!"
Wenchang let out a deep breath and tottered. He had not yet opened his eyes as he sucked in another deep breath. He didn"t budge. He knew someone was asking for trouble, but he was at the critical juncture, the wave of pain about to subside, so he couldn"t move, otherwise the pain would come surging back.
"Hit him!" the girl on the horse said, looking at Wenchang from behind. What an insolent young woman.
Wenchang"s back took two heavy lashes of the horse whip, followed by some curses that would be hard for anyone to stand there and take. "Son of a b.i.t.c.h! Lowly, worthless wretch."
Two more lashes of the whip.
Wenchang clenched his teeth and took two steps out.
"Hit him hard!" the girl cried.
Three more cracks of the whip and Wenchang felt his head and shoulders and chest were on fire. Those seven lashes had made him see stars. He resentfully pushed down the pain of the cadaverine poison seeping into his meridian and turned around awkwardly, the stars in his eyes dissipating. He looked at the girl with the clear, sharp voice, and said, "Wh… Why are you… hitting me?"
The street lanterns were lit, illuminating his sweaty face. Finally, the stars in his eyes and the dark fog in his head cleared and he got a good look at the girl, as well as the four men surrounding him. There were also many bystanders stopped on the street to watch.
"Why are you blocking the road?" one of the men shouted. "You d.a.m.n swine!"
Wenchang raised his eyes and looked around, wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve. The wave of pain had not completely subsided, so he couldn"t strike back yet to get back at them. He gritted his teeth. "The street is… is three carriages wide, how… how am I blocking your… your way?"
"Hit him!" the girl on the horse shouted harshly.
The whip cracked and a welt appeared on Wenchang"s face.
From the left of the crowd a man and a girl rushed out. The girl was dressed all in white, dazzling white. She leapt over and the man, dressed in purple, yelled, "Stop! Don"t push him too far."
The man"s second las.h.i.+ng was falling and a white figure arrived, the girl in white. She reached her delicate hand out and hooked the man"s arm and jerked him hard.
"Ah…" the man cried, and flew ten feet, cras.h.i.+ng to the ground in front of the crowd of people gathered. One of the bystanders gave him a swift kick while he was down, then scurried back into the crowd and slunk away. The kick made the man howl.
"Nice throw!" several people called out from the crowd.
The figure stopped suddenly and everyone was terrified. A young lady had reached out and tossed a man ten feet, wasn"t that frightening?
"Ah! You all have a lot of nerve." It was the girl on the horse, fuming.
The man in the purple robe cut quite a figure. His face was dark like old bronze and his eyebrows slanted upward like a sword, his eyes shone like a tiger"s. His three-tufted beard stroked his chest; he was an intimidating figure, but right now he was smiling. "Miss, if you wanted to wreck a whole family it would be too easy." He patted the sword at his waist.
The girl in white patted her sword as well and sneered, "You lowlife, you think this girl won"t kill you? Why don"t you try me?"
Another man suddenly sprang at the girl, trying to grab her around the neck.
The girl seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. She spun around and knocked the man"s big hairy arm away with one hand while her left hand shot out like lightning, four slaps back and forth across the face, knocking the man down, knocking a tooth out. He grunted, struggling to get up.
The girl in white shouted and went for the nearby horse.
"Don"t, girl," the man in purple said.
The girl on the horse gritted her teeth and turned her horse around, then looked back and said, "You all just wait…"
Wenchang wiped the sweat from the corner of his eye and gnashed his teeth. "I"ll be waiting. I say, you"ll receive your retribution. Your whole family will be destroyed, you will wish for death, you will regret being so rash and unreasonable tonight."
The girl in white turned around suddenly, a surprised look on her face. "Eh? It"s you, it"s you… Are… Are you alright?"
Wenchang recognized her too and gasped. "Thank you, Miss Xia." He turned and walked away.
The girl in white was none other than White Dragongirl Xia Yuanjun. The man in purple was her father, Four Seas Dragon Xia Chengguang.
White Dragongirl looked at Wenchang"s face and the humiliation he had suffered out on the street, and she knew he had endured something that was hard to bear. How could a proud man like him stand to be humiliated like that in the street in front of all those eyes? She felt a feeling of pity and sympathy rise up in her heart. This chance encounter had shaken and stirred her to no end.
Wenchang"s wave of pain subsided and his face slowly returned to normal. He thanked White Dragongirl, then turned and walked off.
White Dragongirl swayed and strode forward, blus.h.i.+ng as she hurriedly put in, "Sir Cai, you"re in trouble, you must…"
"I"ve never been troubled by anything. Those eight lashes might seem too difficult to bear, but I will get them back well." He strode toward the crowd in front.
Four Seas Dragon suddenly stepped in front of him. "Sir Cai, we are not strangers."
"That"s right, we met once in Fine Horse Village."
"I am Xia Chengguang."
"Eh? Elder Four Seas Dragon Xia Chengguang, pleased to meet you. Your name has long resounded in my ears…"
"Sir Cai, no need for all that meaningless polite talk. You are in trouble, your face is pale and you"ve broken out in a cold sweat, is…"
"You needn"t worry about this junior. I"ve never been used to accepting pity from others. Excuse me, this junior must make a living, I"m afraid I must be going now." He cupped his hand over his fist in salutation and walked off proudly, squeezing through the crowd and then taking off.
Father and daughter stood their blankly, having lost face.
"What a stubborn, proud young man," Four Seas Dragon mumbled.
"Dad, we have to keep an eye on him. He needs help." White Dragongirl sounded anxious.
"He won"t accept our help. Last time you humiliated him in public out on the street as well." He shook his head with a wry smile.
♦♦♦
Prosperity Tavern was Hanzhong prefecture"s most reputable tavern. It was the place for simple banquets and a place to have a few drinks. Almost all of its customers were well-off merchants and travelers. There were no petty adornments, and there no sounds of singing from here.
There were two floors, both laid out in simple, antiquated elegance. Famous calligraphy and paintings hung on the walls, and there was a huge central scroll in the main hall, Zhuge Liang"s Memorial On Going to War written in none other than famed Song dynasty calligrapher Cai Xiang"s running script.
Upstairs was just as simply equipped, but there were four screens sectioning off private rooms in each corner, convenient for customers who were bringing female family members along with them.
Wenchang was carrying a bellyful of resentment with him when he walked up the steps to the second floor of the tavern, which was full of customers. He found a waiter and put on a smile. "Big brother, let me trouble you to give me a seat, I"m a traveling singer."
The waiter was equally polite. "Little brother, you"re just in time. There"s several customers looking for a singer. Come with me."
Five rough-looking men with big eyes and bushy eyebrows sat at a square table by the window on the right. They wore simple azure robes and azure headscarfs, and they had travel bags slung under their arms, along with slender, three-foot long leather scabbards at their waists. The handguards were not large, so it was clear at a glance that they were watershedding stingers, good for use in water, or some kind of three-edged awl-like weapon.
On the left were four middle-aged merchants in plain clothes and caps. They were talking and laughing in low voices, drinking from tiny cups.
The waiter led Wenchang to the table and brought over a four-legged stool, and said to one of the middle-aged men who had a mustache and said, smiling obsequiously, "Master Chen, what a coincidence, I found someone. This gentleman here awaits your request." He bowed slightly and withdrew.
"You gentlemen honor me," Wenchang said. "I await your request." He took his pipa out of its bag and bowed slightly and sat down.
The four middle-aged men were polite in return. The one with the mustache said, "Can you recite poetry?"
"Please make your request, sir, I can recite a little. If you gentlemen would like to hear a solemn, stirring, rousing little ditty, I have composed a bit myself, I just worry it won"t satisfy you."
"Great! By the quality of your speech I"m sure it must be impressive."
Wenchang tuned the strings and then strummed, the clear notes rising into the air. Then, in a deep and sonorous voice he sand loudly:
Lightning fist, cold gleaming blade.
Through a sea of swords, a charge through sabers braved.
Shaking heaven and earth, a hero loses heart;
Love and pa.s.sion true, man and woman never part.
No matter, in Luoyang flowers bloom;
Don"t linger, Jiangnan"s a work of art.
Fame and fortune are like morning dew.
Family and wealth like clouds pa.s.sing through.
The sea of men is vast, but I float among;
Rivers and lakes boundless, but I rise above.
The room fell silent, and the eyes of over a hundred customers fell on him.
Four Seas Dragon and his daughter sat quietly in a far corner. White Dragongirl"s starry eyes were misty. She whispered, "Poor thing, being so down on his luck like this."
One of the five big men suddenly called out, "Hey fella, who are you f.u.c.kin" boasting about? That"s some big talk, though you do sing it quite well."
Wenchang ignored him and strummed his pipa, the notes crisp like broken pearls on a jade plate, skipping through the air and tugging at one"s heartstrings.
He forced himself not to be rash, not to get angry. He couldn"t reveal his name because the s.h.i.+ family would soon arrive in Hanzhong. No matter what, he couldn"t get too reckless so as to avoid making things troublesome and risking the s.h.i.+ family"s safety. He was grateful to Miss s.h.i.+ and greatly respected her, which made him put up with and hold his rising anger in check. Normally, it would be strange for him not to start slinging his fists by now.
The pipa"s final note fell, and he sang in a downcast, bleak voice:
To back of beyond, my spirit wanders as in dream.
I"ve tasted every bitterness life can bring.
Roaming the world, long and worn.
Exiled from men, lone, forlorn;
his hero is gone, when will he return?
His voice gently faded, the notes lingering, the thrum of the strings fading out, the notes seemingly still clinging to everyone"s ears.
From a far corner a small Daoist priest suddenly fell into a white-haired old man"s arms, weeping in silence.
Glittering tears appeared in the corners of White Dragongirl"s eyes as she gazed at Wenchang sadly from behind.
The room was quiet for a moment, then someone let out a deep breath and the room returned to its previous hubbub.
Wenchang doffed his headscarf, a sad look on his face, and stood quietly and turned to the mustached man. He took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "That was nothing, I fear it has polluted you gentlemen"s ears."