Treasured Sword, Golden Hairpin

Treasured Sword, Golden Hairpin, Chapter 2, Part 1.
from w.a.n.g Dulu"s Baojian Jinchai.

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CHAPTER TWO

The story of the young lady Yu Xiulian single-handedly saving her father outside the city, seizing a saber unarmed and holding her own against those four fools, had become a legend in Julu before the next day. People all discussed it with astonishment, saying, “Oh my! It turns out the young lady of the Yu family has much stronger martial arts than her father!” When those young men whose hearts are filled with an ambition for remarkable beauties heard about this, they couldn"t help but become despondent. It"s all over. If the young miss were a gentler person, we might still have hope of getting closer to her. But now that she"s so powerful, able to beat back four armed men by herself, who would dare flirt with her going forward! We might lose our lives at a poke of her finger! Thus not only did the average man of Julu continue to marvel at the young lady Yu"s grace, but they also carried some wariness of her martial ability, sincerely afraid that if their looks lingered on her too long, they would incur a beating from her.

Just after lunch on the fourth day after the incident outside the city, young lady Yu heard drumming coming from outside, thinking that she ought to purchase some thread in order to finish a pair of embroidered shoes. So she ran out, opened the gate and beckoned with her hand while calling out, “Peddler! Peddler!” An old peddler of fifty-some years carrying a wooden box on his back and a small drum turned around and addressed his familiar customer, “Yes, miss, what kind of thread would you like?” So saying, he placed his wooden box on a stone step in front of the gate. The young lady Xiulian stood at the threshold and reached out with her hand to select threads of various colors.

Then she suddenly heard someone shout, “Miss!” The young lady Xiulian looked up and saw a young man of thirty or so years with a light tan face, thick eyebrows and a very conspicuous red mole on the right side of his face. He was wearing a lightly creased jacket and pants and a pair of blue satin shoes. He clasped his hands firmly toward Xiulian and asked with a smile, “Pardon me, miss. Is old uncle Yu at home?” The man seemed a bit familiar to Xiulian, but she could not place where you had met him. A rosiness came immediately to her face as she called inside, “Brother Cui, brother Cui, there"s someone here!” She did not respond to this young man, nor did she look directly at him. She chose a few red and green threads and tossed over some copper coins before running back inside.

Third Cui the Underground Ghost came out just now and upon seeing the young man, asked, “Who are you looking for?” The young man cupped his fists toward Third Cui while also watching Xiulian"s pretty figure as she went inside, saying, “I am looking for old uncle Yu. Please go inside and give him word!” Third Cui felt the situation to be a bit improper so he looked up and inquired, “And who are you? If I"m to give word, I need to know what you"re doing here first!” The young man cupped his fist once again at Third Cui and said, “My family name is Liang and I live at Taidehe on the west side of town. Old uncle Yu has met me before.”

Before Third Cui could go in to pa.s.s the message along, old escort Yu himself came out with a saber in hand. The young man was quick to bowed deeply and call out, “Old uncle yu!” It took the old escort Yu a moment before he recognized him. This was the young man with the sword who persuaded the two parties outside of the city to stop their fighting. Old escort Yu smiled at him and promptly invited him into the western room at the outer courtyard.

Sun Zhengli was presently there, so old escort Yu introduced him, “This is my disciple Sun Zhengli. And your name, good sir?” The man cupped his fist at Sun Zhengli and answered the old escort Yu, “I, your humble nephew, am called Liang Wenjin. The Taidehe grain shop on the east side of town is run by my family.” The old escort Yu said, “Ah, so it is Master Liang. I have not had the opportunity to call on you enough. We are fortunate that you were there to calm things down that day outside of the city. Otherwise, some lives might have been lost!” So saying, he leaned his sword up again the wall and called for Third Cui to pour some tea for Liang Wenjin.

At that moment, Liang Wenjin spoke, “My family resides in Nangong, but since we do business here, I come here often for pleasure. The other day, I was returning from visiting a friend when I came upon old uncle fighting against those men with the a.s.sistance of the young miss. I watched for a moment and when I saw both old uncle and the young miss with such proficiency in saber skill., your humble nephew"s heart filled with admiration. But I also felt that if old uncle had killed them, it would be hard to avoid getting in trouble with the law, so I intervened. I had originally wanted to visit old uncle yesterday, but because of other business, I could not find the time. I"ve come here especially to see old uncle to ask if you and the young miss made it back home alright?” Old escort Yu said, “Thank you for your concern. It has been nearly ten years since I left Jianghu and I am not easily willing to provoke others. The incident that day happened so suddenly, I still don"t understand why those men were after me. I think I must have carelessly offended someone in the past, and they have finally come to face me.”

Liang Wenjin said, “Old uncle is a renowned hero of Jianghu. The old sir has previously brought righteousness to many places. It is naturally hard to avoid making enemies. Now they see that old uncle is advanced in years and plan to come and bully you, but they did not think that even though old uncle is aged, his gallantry has not diminished from years past, nor did they expect the young miss to have such strong martial arts. Now that they do know, it is unlikely they would dare to seek old uncle out again.” Old escort Yu shook his head and said, “That is not certain!” Liang Wenjin said, “Not to worry. Your humble nephew rather knows some martial arts as well. If anyone comes to find old uncle, please have someone send word to me. No! I can drop by every day. No matter how many people come, old uncle need not act himself. Leave it to me and the young sister. The two of us can beat back those thugs!”

The old escort found the young man Liang"s talk to overrate himself, but he didn"t feel like responding, so he simply nodded. Sun Zhengli the Five-taloned Hawk found the young man to be a bit irritating and wished to throw him out. Just then Liang Wenjin stood up and asked the old escort Yu to take him to the inner quarters to see his aunt. At this, the old escort grew impatient and blurted out, “She is ill and does not wish to see anyone, so forgive me for allowing you inside.”

Liang Wenjin could see that the old escort was not happy and that Sun Zhengli was glaring at him with his two big eyes, seeming to be angry, so he didn"t dare linger here much longer. He hurriedly stood up and bid them farewell. The old escort showed him out but Liang Wenjin glanced at the inner gate a bit before stepping outside. Sun Zhengli followed behind, shook his fist and yelled, “What trash!” Liang Wenjin walked out of the alley without turning back.

Sun Zhengli shut the gate and returned to the room, saying to old escort Yu, “Master, pay that man no heed. It looks to me he"s come here with no good intentions!” Old escort Yu waved his hand and said, “Never mind. Let"s not mention it anymore. I know this man. He is the young boss at the Taidehe grain shop. They are the rich and well-known Liangs of Nangong. All the sons of that family know a bit of martial arts and have never properly worked a day in their lives. I know why he"s come now. He"s after your disciple-sister. But I did not want to antagonize him, because when the security firm was still open, we had some dealings with his family.” After he said this, he went back to the inner quarters.

Sun Zhengli the Five-taloned Hawk remained fuming. He thought the old escort Yu had grown soft in his old age, stepping gingerly around every situation as to not provoke conflict. He Feilong"s sons came after your life with sabers in hand. Then, when your daughter helped you by cutting one of them, you should have captured them and brought charges against them for attacking you with harmful intent. You didn"t want to cause trouble, so you let them go, but then you brought me here to guard your house because you were scared they"d be back. Now, this little twit named Liang came into your house to flirt with your daughter, but you still didn"t want to cause trouble. Were you also like this twenty years ago? I cannot imagine how Jianghu"s famous Old Eagle has now become so weak!

After sitting in his anger for a moment, he went into the city to teach fists at Moneybags Liu"s house. It wasn"t until after he ate dinner that he returned to the Yu house. Third Cui the Underground Ghost spoke to him, “Brother Sun, let me tell you something. The young master of Taidehe came back this afternoon.” Sun Zhengli quickly asked, “What the h.e.l.l for?” Third Cui said, “He didn"t come in. He just walked back and forth through the alley, constantly watching our gate here. Later on when I was on the street, I saw him walking and laughing with a couple other rich, young wastrels. They ended up at the Qingji wine hall.” Sun Zhengli asked him, “Did you hear what they were talking about?” Third Cui laughed and said, “I was right behind them so I heard them crystal clear. The one called Liang said, ‘If I don"t get the young lady of the Yu family in my grasp, I won"t ever return to Julu."”

Sun Zhengli the Five-taloned Hawk cursed, “d.a.m.n it, this fellow does not have it wrong. Ha ha, we need not even bring up that the Yu"s young miss is already betrothed. Even if she wasn"t, and the Old Eagle planned to make you his son-in-law, I would not agree to it without making it known that the people of Julu are not so easily bullied.”

Third Cui the Underground Ghost said, “But we can"t blame this entirely on him. That sister of ours attracts too much attention to herself. As they say, young ladies must never go out the main gate and never step through the second. But our sister makes three or four trips across the city a day and she dresses herself so showily. How could she not draw the ill intentions of young men? If you go into the city now and ask around, you won"t find anyone who doesn"t know that our sister is known for her beauty. That old master of ours has spoiled his daughter and does not keep her in line!”

Sun Zhengli shook his head and said, “What you say is not right. I see our sister as very dignified. That she goes out to buy needle and thread is unavoidable because the household does not make use of a servant. And you say she"s pretty, but that"s even more out of her hands. Did you want her to cut off her nose out of a fear of other people feeling ill intentions toward her? In fact it is those young men who are disgraceful. Just wait until I get my hands on them!” He snorted with anger. Third Cui pulled a small pot of wine from his bosom and took sips from it while picking peanuts out of his pocket and tossing them in his mouth. Sun Zhengli himself felt a bit impetuous, because he had nothing to do while he spent these few days at the Yu house. It seemed without a place to make use of his martial arts, his hands and feet felt restless.