BANDITS: LEGEND OF FEI (Book 1, Chapter 8)

Book 1: Wanderings of Youth / Chapter 8 – The Dark Jail

Lo and behold, she had neighbours in this godforsaken place!

This was the first time that Zhou Fei had used the real Snow-breaking Sabre.  She was a little stunned by its infinite, chilling viciousness, and stood there in a daze.

You mean he ‘s dead…just like that? She thought in disbelief.

In the 48 Zhai, Zhou Fei had basically done nothing everyday apart from practicing her skills.  But she had never slaughtered even a chicken, let alone a man.  She suddenly realised that there was something on her face, and reached up to wipe it off.  There was blood on her hand.  Zhou Fei didn’t quite feel afraid, nor any sort of guilt – just the sudden urge to wash her face right now. 

Old Madam Wang said: “Sheng, roll up the trousers of these men, and examine their legs.”

Li Sheng felt like two thorns were bitterly piercing his side: the first, because he had nearly allowed a masked man to escape, due to his cowardice; the second, from witnessing Zhou Fei’s dazzling display – the Snow-breaking Sabre that Zhou Fei wielded today, and on the Flower Picking Dais, were as different as night and day.  It was obvious that Mistress Li had imparted the technique to her.  

The Snow-breaking Sabre was the crowning glory of the Li Clan, passed down from generation to generation, and his aunt had imparted it to Zhou Fei, without a single word to him. 

These two thorns now lodged uncomfortably in his throat, and he could barely mumble out a distracted ‘yes’.  He used his dagger to roll up one of the men’s pant legs, but nothing about that leg seemed out of the ordinary.  He said calmly: “What’s wrong with their legs, Madam?” 

Old Madam Wang pointed at the other corpse: “Look at that one.”

Li Sheng lowered his head and walked towards the corpse in front of Zhou Fei, deliberately not looking at her.  Fixing his gaze on that maimed corpse, he thought to himself: I’m not going back.  If I don’t accomplish anything that would make Aunt proud, I’m not going back. 

Distracted with soothing his wounded pride, he half-heartedly rolled up the pant legs of the second corpse.

Zhou Fei said: “This person’s legs are very thick.”

Finally focusing on the task at hand, Li Sheng examined the man’s legs closely.  They were very unusual, their calves more than twice as thick as an ordinary person’s, and gleamed with a stone-like lustre.  It was evident that this person’s legs were extraordinarily hard.  It was fortunate that Zhou Fei’s blade had moved quickly, giving him no opportunity to flex his legs. Otherwise given the ‘little finger’s worth’ of internal strength that she possessed, a flying kick from him would surely have meant game over for her.

Deng Zhen and the other disciples finally reached their courtyard.

Old Madam Wang was stroking her cane, her eyes half-closed.  She asked them: “Did any escape?”

Deng Zhen had spent many years in the martial arts world, and this wasn’t his first rodeo.  He replied: “No. There were some who tried to escape, but we managed to seize every single one of them, both man and horse.  We’ve counted all of them, don’t worry.”

“Good.  Clean things up.” Old Madam Wang said.  “Fei, bring me my hairpin.  Let’s leave tonight.”

Old Madam Wang had been the acting leader of the Xiaoxiang Sect for some time, and the disciples were all used to obeying her commands.  They immediately dispersed, and not long after, finished cleaning up the scene.  The corpses, bloodstains, abandoned weapons…even all traces of their own party, had been completely eliminated.  As long as the villagers kept their mouths shut, even if someone came to investigate, they would not be able to find anything amiss.   

Zhou Fei gazed wide-eyed as the disciples went about their business.  She had only known that the Xiaoxiang Sect’s swordsmanship was vicious and that they were adept at using hidden weapons like the ‘Xiaoxiang Dart’, but was unaware that they possessed these ‘special skills’.  A clean-up job like this was tedious and meticulous.  Observing quietly in a corner, she tried to learn as much as possible from them.  Only when she saw that they were more or less done, did she run to the river to wash her face.  Seeing that the robes which the village chief’s wife had given her were also splattered with blood, she removed them and started scrubbing them in the river. 

Just then, the village chief’s wife came over, and quickly snatched the tattered robes from Zhou Fei’s hands, saying: “Give them to me, you are not meant to do work like this.”

Zhou Fei didn’t object, and stepped aside.  That large brown dog which had narrowly escaped death crept quietly over, stopping nearly a metre away from her.  It looked as if it wanted to get closer to her, yet was also a little afraid of her.  Zhou Fei stretched out her hand for the dog to sniff.  It cautiously rubbed its nose against her hand, then lumbered over to her side, looking up at her with large, wet eyes.  It didn’t look fierce at all, and in fact quite meek. 

Seeing this, the village chief’s wife said: “This is a good dog, perceptive and well-behaved.  If you like it, feel free to take it with you.”

Zhou Fei said in surprise: “Ah?”

The village chief’s wife rolled up her sleeves, and swept aside the loose hairs framing her face with the back of her hand.  “It wouldn’t have a good life with us.  This past year, it has had to eat like a rabbit – at this rate I think its ears are going to start growing longer.”

The brown dog seemed to understand that its mistress was about to give it away, and immediately bounded over to her side, rubbing its head against her knee while barking pitifully.  The village chief’s wife looked down at it in surprise for a second, then smiled ruefully: “Silly beast, I’m letting you live a better life elsewhere, yet you don’t want to.”

Zhou Fei was silent for a while, then asked: “Does nobody care about these things?”

“By right, the local government officials should do something about it,” the village chief’s wife said evenly, “But for quite some time now, they have been busy fighting – I’m not sure who’s fighting who – and countless people have been killed.  They don’t even have time to dispose of all the corpses, where would they even find the time to look into these trivial things? And now, with the local government having more or less disintegrated – we can even appoint our own selves officials if we so wish – it’s even less likely that anyone would do anything about this.”

Zhou Fei furrowed her brow: “Since things are so unsafe here, why don’t you move to another place?”

“Move?” The village chief’s wife glanced at her, thinking that this ruthless young maiden’s eyes were clear and bright, even naïve, and sighed: “Where would we go? At least here we have a few rooms and a few acres of land.  If we go to a foreign place with unfamiliar faces, we would have to beg and borrow to get by.  We are not people of great abilities and means.  Unless we are at the very end of our rope, we don’t dare leave.  And anyway…aren’t things just as bad everywhere else?”

Zhou Fei did not know how to respond.

“Shimei,” Just then, Deng Zhen walked over, horse in tow, and nodded at Zhou Fei.  “We should get going.”

The little party left the village under cover of darkness.

Only after leaving the 48 Zhai did the two youths realise that a good night’s sleep was a luxury. 

The masked man whose skull had been pierced by Zhou Fei had a leg that, if chopped off and smoked, would look exactly like a large leg of ham.  It was obvious that he was from the Huo Clan.  Old Madam Wang dared not trust the Huo Clan now.  But she was still most concerned about finding her son, and was not in the frame of mind to look into this.  So the party circled around Yueyang City, and headed straight for the Dongting Region instead. 

The missing disciples, together with General Wu’s family members, would certainly have attracted some attention regardless of how low-profile they had attempted to be.  Old Madam Wang’s party might therefore have a chance to trace their whereabouts by asking about them at the roadside inns in the Dongting Region.  This last-minute detour meant that they had to spend two nights in the wild.  But this was not a problem for the disciples, who were used to roughing it out, and they took turns standing guard at night.

On their second night in the wild, it was Li Sheng’s turn to stand guard.

Since witnessing Zhou Fei’s Snow-Breaking Sabre that night, Li Sheng had been like one possessed – he had become fixated on the idea of running away.  His determination only grew once Old Madam Wang made the decision to circle round Huo Jia Bao, as Li Sheng knew that the main reason for his participation in this mission was to make it easier for them to ask the Huo Clan for assistance.  But now that they were no longer going there, there was even less of a need for him to stay.

Thoughts of leaving had filled his mind for the past two days.  And now, the time was right.

Li Sheng left a note, placing it in a book that everyone often saw him carry around.  He decided to make his move just before dawn, when both humans and horses were at their drowsiest.  Taking a deep breath, he turned his head towards the direction of the carriage, thinking: Zhou Fei, we’ll see who comes out tops in the end.

Then he turned around and ran off into the distance, without looking back.

Zhou Fei had been assigned to stand guard in the first half of the night.  While several of her seniors had volunteered to take her place, she felt embarrassed to be given this concession when she spent the entire day sitting comfortably in Old Madam Wang’s carriage, and had rejected all of their kind offers.  But they had kept coming to her to chat, keeping her wide awake.  Even after she passed her duties on to Li Sheng in the second half of the night, and returned to the carriage, she was unable to fall asleep. 

While Li Sheng was thinking of nothing else but running off to the ends of the earth, Zhou Fei suddenly longed to go back home.  Perhaps absence truly made the heart grow fonder – when she was at home, she would get irritated by just a few words from her mother, and was not close to her at all.  Ever since Zhou Yitang left, she had constantly thought about leaving the mountain and going to Jinling to find her father.

But when she finally left the mountain, only a few days had gone by before Zhou Fei suddenly started missing her mother a little.  She kept thinking about the prosperous villages at the foot of the 48 Zhai, as well as what the village chief’s wife had told her, and concluded: If such attacks had happened in the 48 Zhai, someone would definitely look into it.

Mistress Li was frequently irritating, unreasonable, and often too quick to whip her.  But on this wide earth, the lands that stretched out all around them seemed cold and desolate; only in the region of the Shu Mountains, where the Li Clan planted its flag, were there people bustling on crowded streets, prosperous and happy. 

Zhou Fei tossed and turned for a good long while, until she felt that she must have disturbed Old Madam Wang.  She quietly exited the carriage, deciding to go for a walk nearby.  After making a round of their camping grounds, she spied a person riding off on a horse, a travel sack on his back.  Shocked, Zhou Fei immediately set off in hot pursuit.

After chasing for a bit, she realised that this deserter was in fact Li Sheng, and quickly shouted after him: “Li Sheng, what are you doing?”

To her surprise, when Li Sheng turned around and saw that it was her, his expression was shadowed and unreadable, and his eyes darkened.  He viciously dug his heels into the sides of his horse, spurring it into a full gallop.

Zhou Fei: “…”

Was she really that detestable?

While Zhou Fei’s qinggong was not bad, it was only ‘not bad’, and two legs were ultimately no match for four – four legs that were much longer and stronger than hers at that.  She tried her best to catch up with Li Sheng, but it became increasingly clear that doing so was impossible.  She began to wonder if she should continue the chase, or return and inform Old Madam Wang.   

Just as she was deciding what she should do, she suddenly heard a horse’s panicked neighing in the distance, followed by the clang of metal striking metal.  Zhou Fei’s pupils dilated, and she quickly headed in the direction of the sounds. 

She could vaguely make out Li Sheng shouting “Who’s there!”, but nothing else after that.  When she finally reached the scene, all that was left was Li Sheng’s horse stamping around aimlessly, and one of his daggers was on the ground.  The boy himself was nowhere to be found, leaving few traces of a struggle on the surrounding trees and grass.  Either his opponent was highly skilled, or had ambushed him, taking him unawares. 

Zhou Fei was standing downwind.  She suddenly heard some muffled sounds in the distance, carried over on the night breeze.  Following her instincts, she ducked into a thicket of trees nearby.

A moment later, two masked men darted into the clearing, one of them grumbling: “I wanted the horse, not the boy! How much can a little brat like that be worth? Thankfully this horse hasn’t run off yet, or else…”

The other man stood there in meek silence.  Zhou Fei held her breath, thinking – Those robbers at the village had also wanted horses.

The two masked men departed soon after taking the horse, leaving Zhou Fei alone with her thoughts.  If she went back now to tell Old Madam Wang, it would take too long, and these men would probably be far away by the time she came back with reinforcements.  Having just recently witnessed the true power of the Snow-breaking Sabre, and not having met any foes that were really her match on the journey thus far, Zhou Fei was feeling pretty confident about her abilities.  She decided to go after the men alone. 

It is said that newborn calves do not fear tigers. While it is impossible to verify a calf’s actual feelings, for Zhou Fei at least, fear was still foreign to her.

Zhou Fei had only just barely picked up fundamental martial arts survival skills, such as how to clean up a fight scene.  She certainly was not adept at more advanced skills like tracking someone over a great distance.  Her pursuit of the men was the work of a bungling amateur, and at quite a few points she was nearly found out, or thrown off.  Zhou Fei was in unfamiliar territory, and had a mediocre sense of direction – after chasing them for some time, she realised that she had completely lost her bearings.  But she wasn’t too concerned, as she figured that she could always find her way back later.  It was more important to catch up to them first. 

Fortunately, those two masked men had probably assumed that as they were firmly in their own territory, they could afford to let their guard down.  Everything seemed to be working in Zhou Fei’s favour – the men were not moving quickly, the path was heavily forested, and they were advancing against the wind.  Although it took quite some effort, she managed to tail them all the way through. 

The two masked men started up a narrow mountain path that turned and twisted, making Zhou Fei feel even more lost than she already was.  After walking for what seemed like forever through this maze of trees and rocks, she suddenly heard sounds of life.  Lifting her head to take a look, she was astounded by what she saw.

Not far ahead was a massive stronghold, sitting astride this secluded mountain in the middle of nowhere.  Guard posts could be seen all along its walls, lights flickering within. 

The path before her ran between two mountains and snaked back and forth, making it difficult for her to see what lay ahead.  She could make out the silhouette of a hanging rope bridge, with people flitting back and forth beneath flaming torches.  No flags could be seen, and the stronghold was heavily guarded.  The wind whistled from across the mountains, carrying over faint sounds of angry shouts and insults which Zhou Fei’s sharp ears were able to pick up.

Zhou Fei was quite astonished.  She had originally thought that these men were part of a grubby band of horse thieves, who had likely managed to drug or tie up the careless Li Sheng, and were no big deal.  Would people who were a really big deal do things as petty as stealing horses? Why would they have their eye on a nobody like Li Sheng and his lousy horse?

Zhou Fei concluded that perhaps her understanding of the words ‘a big deal’ was incorrect.

While Li Sheng was an idiot, he was a well-mannered one, and would certainly stew silently instead of swearing loudly at his captors.  This could only mean that besides him, there had to be many others also held captive here.  These masked men had seized both men and horses, and built a towering prison deep in the mountains.  What were they up to?

The more Zhou Fei thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.  Her hairs standing on end, she cautiously pondered her options, wondering if she should survey and familiarise herself with the surroundings first before making any moves. 

Perhaps it was because fortune favours fools, but when Zhou Fei had made the foolish decision to pursue the masked men, she had been incredibly lucky throughout the entire journey.  But when she finally started thinking…well, the heavens decided that it was high time for her to be punished.

Before she could settle on a course of action, the wind shifted its direction, wailing loudly through the mountains.  The masked man, who was passing through the guard post, suddenly lost control of the horse.  The horse neighed as it reared up on its hind legs, and made a break for it. 

The other guards immediately hollered and gave chase, startling the horse further.  Braying loudly, it charged away with all its might, stumbling right in the direction of Zhou Fei’s hiding spot!

Zhou Fei: “…”

Since young, Zhou Fei had always been secretly fond of feeding little animals – good-looking birds that she saw in the mountains, the cats and dogs that the senior disciples kept as pets, and even the horses in Old Madam Wang’s party, she had fed them all.  She even had a leftover handful of beans in her pocket now.  Li Sheng’s dumb horse had probably caught her scent when the direction of the wind changed, and instinctively headed to a friendly person for help – bringing that friend down in the process.

Zhou Fei knew that she could not remain hidden for much longer, and thought: I might as well strike first and gain the upper hand.

Unfastening the long sabre at her waist, she leapt forward in a graceful arc above the horse’s head.  She unsheathed her weapon, executing three blows in midair.  The person leading the chase for the horse bore the brunt of her surprise attack, and was forced to duck left and right – unsuccessfully.  Letting out a hoarse cry, blood spurted from his chest and he fell to the ground, his fate unclear.

The others behind him were astonished, shouting: “Who’s there!”

Zhou Fei didn’t respond.  Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and all the blood in her body rushed to those two hands clasping the sabre.  She was the tensest she had ever been, almost to her breaking point, yet the intense pressure made her feel like she had broken through to a higher level of clarity, all her senses attuned razor-sharp to the fight at hand.  The second man was before her in an instant.  Instead of brandishing his weapon, he swept his leg out in a flying kick.  Zhou Fei heard a loud whoosh.  The thing hurtling towards her didn’t seem like a human leg at all, but an incredibly hard iron rod.  She leapt to the side, and looked down to see that that kick had left a shallow cavity in the ground.

Six men immediately surrounded her, all highly skilled.  After exchanging just one round of blows, Zhou Fei already felt her wrists start to ache.  She knew that if she continued on like this for much longer, either her knife would break or her wrists would.  In her desperation, Zhou Fei wielded her blade better than she ever had, even managing to execute the third move of the Snow-breaking Sabre: ‘Wind’. 

This move was also called ‘Irregular Wind’.  It was so named as it seemed to possess the viciousness of the howling winter winds, sweeping wildly across barren tundra and battering everything in their wake.  It undulated powerfully, and was most suitable for when one was up against many.  While the technique was powerful and sophisticated, unfortunately Zhou Fei was only strong enough to unleash less than one-fifth of its full power.  Yet this relatively paltry force was already enough for her to make a crack in this human wall surrounding her, before these men’s astonished faces. 

Just as she was about to make a run for it, Zhou Fei instinctively lifted her head, only to see that a row of crossbows were lined up along the guard posts high above, lying in wait for her.  If she dared to take even another step outwards, she would immediately sport a whole new coat of arrows.  In that instant, a thousand different options flashed through Zhou Fei’s mind.  Making her decision, she suddenly whistled loudly.  At the sound, the horse that had been stampeding wildly turned back and ran straight towards her, bashing through the circle of men.  Taking advantage of the chaos that ensued, Zhou Fei forced her way out, simultaneously flinging a handful of beans behind her and shouting: “Watch out!”

In the darkness, those men thought that she had flung out some kind of poison or weapon, and they dispersed in an attempt to take cover.  Zhou Fei leapt onto the horse’s back and grabbed the reins, pulling the dumb beast back from trying to sniff after the fallen beans.  She dug her heels into the horse’s belly.  Instead of running away, she guided it straight towards the stronghold.

Guilt probably makes the wicked more nervous – it is perhaps for this reason that the stronghold was plunged into utter chaos by Zhou Fei’s sudden forced entry, and frantic shouts echoed from all around.  As her galloping horse passed a shadowed spot, Zhou Fei spied a narrow crack in the rocks.  Eerily calm, the young girl leapt off the horse’s back without hesitation while slapping its backside hard, causing it to bray loudly and charge forward like a rocket.    

The horse’s bray drew the attention of her pursuers, who all rushed madly after it.  Zhou Fei quietly slipped into that little crack in the mountain rocks.

That crack was extremely narrow and incredibly deep, and only large enough for children and very slender young girls to squeeze into.  Pressed against the rocks, Zhou Fei belatedly reflected on the hair-raising situation she had just been in, and let out a long breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding.  She didn’t know how she had managed to make it this far. 

Zhou Fei felt a slight breeze passing through the crack in the rocks.  It could only mean that this wasn’t a dead end.  When she heard the sounds of the men getting further and further away, she started trying to venture further inwards.  The space between the rocks started to get even narrower, and even Zhou Fei had to suck in her breath slightly to be able to squeeze through.  As she shimmied inward, she pondered how she would go about finding Li Sheng.  Lost in thought, her feet suddenly met with thin air. 

She didn’t even have time to shriek, falling downwards through the loose earth.  This mountain was really heartless to her, literally – its very heart was hollow!

Zhou Fei hit the ground, loose soil and rocks falling all around her.  Fortunately she had fast reflexes, using her sabre to break her fall.  A little stone cave, of indeterminate human or natural origin, was actually hidden beneath this crack in the mountain.  The light covering of soil that had accumulated over it was naturally not strong enough to support a human’s weight.

Catching her breath, Zhou Fei felt like she was ready to throw her hands up in surrender.  She didn’t know which deity she had offended – she realised that each time she tried to be clever, she would certainly be punished for it within the next few minutes or so.

Her horoscope must have read that she should avoid using her brain today.

She had used her hands to cover her face when falling, and a layer of skin had been scraped off the back of her hands.  It hurt.  Zhou Fei sucked in a breath, licking her wounds as she cautiously felt her way around the pitch-black cave.  This cave was not very big, and after going around the entire space and not finding anything untoward, she felt a little more at ease – it looked like this was not a manmade chamber, and was therefore safe for the time being.

It was probably dawn already outside, and dim shafts of morning light were beginning to filter into the little cave.  It was not convenient to run around on enemy territory in broad daylight – so Zhou Fei had no other options but to wait.  Finding a comfortable spot, she closed her eyes.  Just when she felt like she had calmed down completely after her night of adventure, she heard the sound of a little rock hitting the floor, followed by a low whistle.

Even though Zhou Fei had been a blazing ball of courage thus far, she was almost scared out of her wits.

She leapt to her feet instantly, and whipped her head around – it was probably completely bright outside by now, such that she could begin to make out her surroundings in the dark cave.  She saw a small hole in the rock that was about the size of her palm, and through it, a scruffy-looking man peering in her direction.   

Zhou Fei: “…”

Lo and behold, she even had neighbours in this godforsaken place!

The next minute, she heard that man say exactly what she was thinking: “Lo and behold, I even have a neighbour in this godforsaken place.  It must be my lucky day today – good things are bound to happen.  How do you do, my beauty.”

This fellow seemed like quite the lecher.  Zhou Fei grasped her long sabre tightly, and wondered whether skewering him through the hole in the wall would alert the masked men. 

“My beauty, you really have some guts,” that man looked pointedly at a corner of the cave, “Look there, look there, see what is at your feet?”

Zhou Fei looked down, only to see a skeleton lying beside her.  She hadn’t noticed it in the darkness just now, and had sat shoulder-to-shoulder with it till dawn in blissful ignorance.

That man continued: “Now, I’ve been staring that brother over there in the eye for more than two months now.  This man was probably an old geezer when he was alive, and isn’t much to look at.  Why don’t you look at me instead.”

Zhou Fei ignored his idle chatter, and got straight to the point: “More than two months? Were you imprisoned here for that long?”

“Precisely,” the man sounded positively buoyant, as if being imprisoned were a great honour.  “Quite a lot of people are locked up here too.  Didn’t you see when you came in? The sides of the mountain are filled with prison cells, and the heroes within spend their days yelling insults and curses at the people below.  It’s quite a sight.  Unfortunately my cell is below ground.  It’s tranquil here, but I can’t join in the excitement above.”

Zhou Fei had landed in this cave completely by coincidence, and hadn’t gotten a clear look at her surroundings at first.

She had never known that a prisoner could be in such a good mood.  He also seemed vaguely familiar, almost friendly.  Her desire to stab him waning, she asked: “Who is the boss here? Why did he lock you up? What is he planning?”

The prisoner stretched lazily.  With an air of nonchalance, he said: “Last night I heard a great commotion down there, lots of shouting.  It must have been for you then.  Since you’ve already exchanged blows with them, can’t you tell which sect they’re from?”

Recalling that terrifying kick delivered by those iron-like legs, Zhou Fei blurted out: “Can it really be the Huo Clan?” 

The prisoner didn’t respond, only saying with excitement: “Look, there’s a shaft of light at your left, why don’t you walk towards it? I’ve been staring at a skeleton for ages, and am bored out of my mind.  Now that a pretty girl has finally come along, quick, let me take a look at you.  I need to refresh these sore eyes.”

The words ‘pretty little girl’ immediately tugged at Zhou Fei’s memory, and she realised in a flash why he seemed so familiar.  Straining to see the man in the dim light of the cave, she scrutinised his features through the little hole in the wall.  Still a little unsure, she asked: “You…is your name Xie…”

What was the name of that fellow who had come to deliver a message?

It had been three years, and she couldn’t quite remember.  Feeling tongue-tied, she hazarded: “..that ‘No-luck’ person”?

At her question, this strangely contented prisoner looked blankly at her for a moment.  Looking her up and down, he finally exclaimed: “Ah! Don’t tell me that you’re that girl from the 48 Zhai?  Called Zhou…”

“Zhou Fei.”

Hearing her state her full name, that fellow who had been full of nonsense just seconds ago suddenly went quiet.  Having shamelessly flirted with an old acquaintance, he was probably feeling pretty embarrassed right now.

The two of them stayed silent for a while.  Then Zhou Fei saw her ‘neighbour’ shuffle backwards a little, clear his throat, and adjust his features into a more serious expression, before saying: “I was just joking with you then, my real name is Xie Yun – why are you here?”

Zhou Fei thought: that, my friend is a long story.  Instead, she said briefly: “We left the mountain to settle some affairs, and these people seized my cousin.”

Xie Yun said with amazement: “Why is it that every time I see you, you and that unlucky cousin of yours are always in some kind of trouble?”

Zhou Fei felt like saying in frustration – Because that bastard Li Sheng keeps seeking out trouble unnecessarily!

But one’s dirty laundry should not be aired in public, so Zhou Fei simply imagined all the different ways she would beat Li Sheng up once she got ahold of him, and kept her mouth firmly shut.

Xie Yun said: “Don’t worry, I’ve been here for more than two months, and it’s quite alright, they give you food to eat and water to drink.  Your cousin is probably fine for the time being.”

Zhou Fei opened her mouth again to say something, but quickly shut it and darted into a dark corner of the cave when she heard a sound in the distance.  At the same time, Xie Yun covered the hole in the wall with a rock, blocking his line of sight but still allowing sound to pass through.  Zhou Fei heard something that sounded like metal clanging against rock.  After a while, Xie Yun removed the rock and beckoned to Zhou Fei, saying: “It’s alright, they just delivered my food – are you hungry?”

Zhou Fei had been up and about for the entire night, and was starving.  Yet she felt a little embarrassed to be blatantly begging someone else for food, so she hesitated for a moment and then said: “Not too much.”

Just as she finished speaking, the smell of food wafted wickedly through the little hole.  Zhou Fei had had a difficult journey thus far, mostly sleeping in the open and only getting some proper food whenever they were able to stay in inns along the way.  The smell of a piping hot meal caused her to swallow subconsciously, and her stomach growled.

But Xie Yun only said: “If you’re not hungry then I’ll just eat now, and if you’re hungry…then I’ll just cover this hole up and eat out of your sight.”

Zhou Fei stroked the hilt of her sabre slowly, gritting out: “It’s fine, go ahead.”

Xie Yun really did ‘go ahead’, picking up a steamed bun and chewing several times.  Then he picked up a small rock and covered the hole again, saying: “I still feel bad just eating in front of you like that, I think it’s best if I cover this up.  If I get the chance in future, I’ll treat you to the best restaurants in Jinling.  Ah, since the Southern Dynasty was established, half of the culinary delights in this world have shifted to Jinling.”

Now Zhou Fei really didn’t feel like talking to him.

Xie Yun continued: “I won’t treat you to this meal today, it’s been drugged.”

Zhou Fei was shocked: “What?”

Xie Yun said slowly: “Have you ever heard of the poison called ‘Wen Rou San’[1]?  I’m sure you mustn’t have, since it’s an underhanded old thing used by crooked and unorthodox sects, and is used specifically to knock out horses – the heroes and experts of the martial arts world cannot be felled by any old drug, so a potent poison like this is needed.  After eating a meal laced with it one will be unable to get up for most of the day, and of course there’s no way one would be able to exert any internal or external strength.”

Zhou Fei said with amazement, “Then why are you still eating it?”

“Because I am neither a camel nor a tortoise,” Xie Yun gave a beleaguered sigh. “If I eat it, I won’t be able to get up for most of the day, but if I don’t eat, I’ll never be able to get up again.”

Zhou Fei thrust the hilt of her sabre through the hole in the wall, dislodging the little rock that Xie Yun had covered it with. She said to Xie Yun, who was scarfing down mouthful after mouthful of drug-laced food, “Young Master Xie…”

Xie Yun waved his hand, “Even though we barely know each other, we always seem to meet under the most dangerous of circumstances – making us practically comrades sworn to live or die together. Feel free to call me your big brother.”

Xie Yun was a smoothtalker by default, and if the young lady next door had been someone else, he would likely have started another round of flirtations by now. But perhaps it was because the memory of Zhou Fei standing between him and her mother’s wrath, broken knife in hand, was too deeply ingrained in him, that Xie Yun still saw her as that little girl from three years back. Smoothtalking a ‘young lady’ was socially acceptable, even considered good-natured flirting, but when faced with a ‘little girl’, he couldn’t help but feel the need to be a little bit more serious…and even if he was only being just a little more serious, at least he sounded like a normal human being.

Zhou Fei asked: “When I asked you just now who the boss around here was, you dodged my question. Is it because there’s something you can’t say?”

Zhou Fei lifted a bowl of soup to his lips and drank slowly, pondering for a moment.

Anyone who had been sequestered in a cave for more than two months, even a deity, was bound to be more than a little dishevelled. Zhou Fei observed that while he spoke with insouciance, he had only eaten half of a small steamed bun and several paltry mouthfuls of food, certainly not befitting a grown man’s appetite. He was probably only eating just enough to keep him alive. His cheeks were sunken in, his lips were cracked, and his face was scruffily bearded. But when he sat up straight (and refrained from talking), this person still looked inexplicably like a young nobleman – albeit a slightly sloppy-looking nobleman.

“It’s not that.” Xie Yun said softly. “It’s just that I didn’t know who you were just now, and there is too much involved in this for me to be speaking freely.  I’ve heard that the previous Master of the 48 Zhai was a sworn brother of Old Master Huo Chang Feng of the Huo Clan.  When you passed by Yueyang City, did you go and see him?”

Zhou Fei shook her head.

Xie Yun said, “This story began more than two months ago, when Old Master Huo invited his friends and relatives to attend his seventieth birthday celebrations.  In his younger days, he was renowned for his unparalleled Huo Clan leg combat techniques, and was a fiercely loyal friend, magnanimous and kind by nature – he made a wide set of friends, and many people going through tough times came to him for help.  So once the invitations went out, his friends and acquaintances all came in droves.  You probably didn’t know all this.”

Zhou Fei certainly didn’t.

Xie Yun continued: “I suppose they didn’t dare to invite the 48 Zhai, because if Mistress Li really came, it would have been difficult for them to proceed with their plan.  I tagged along to the event with a client of mine, and although I searched high and low, I didn’t see a single person from the 48 Zhai.  There wasn’t even a single congratulatory gift from the 48 Zhai.  That was when I knew that something was up.  Unfortunately that foolish client of mine was rich in dollars but poor in sense, and refused to listen to me.  I thought it wouldn’t be good for me to just leave him there, so I ended up joining him in this dark prison.”

Zhou Fei asked: “You saw Old Master Huo?”

“Indeed.”  Xie Yun paused, then said: “But he appeared to have lost his mind.”

Zhou Fei exclaimed: “What?”

“He doesn’t recognise anyone anymore, nor could he even remember his own name, saying that he was ‘Chang Feng’ one moment, and then ‘Pi Feng’ the next.”  Xie Yun sighed, “I heard that he fell very ill a few years back, and began deteriorating after that.  Now, he needs to be accompanied at all times and speaks unintelligibly, like a baby.  Looking at him, who used to be such a hero of his times, one can’t help but feel bad…ever since Old Master Huo has become unfit to take on any responsibilities, his younger brother Huo Lian Tao has become the de facto boss of the Huo Clan.  Eh, if you ever see Huo Lian Tao in future, please avoid him like the plague.  His nose doesn’t look like a nose and his eyes don’t look like eyes…Mm, a shifty character if I ever did see one.”

Zhou Fei: “….”

The criteria that Xie Yun used to judge people seemed a little problematic. 

“Huo Lian Tao is an ambitious creature.  He certainly didn’t gather all those people together just to celebrate his loony brother’s birthday.  He wanted to gather them to form an alliance, consolidate power, and establish his own little fiefdom.”  Xie Yun explained, “They said that they wanted to form yet another so-called ‘48 Zhai’.”

Zhou Fei was stunned: “Then they’d lock up anyone who didn’t agree to join them?”

Were they insane?

Xie Yun shook his head, and said: “Although that sounds like what they might have been trying to do, it’s not completely like that.  To explain, I need to go back even further, to three years ago, when Gentleman Gan Tang left the Shu Mountains…”

At the sudden mention of her father’s name, Zhou Fei immediately sat upright.

“He took over the network of power that Liang Shao had spent his entire life painstakingly cultivating, and single-handedly dealt with those restive idiots in the Southern Dynasty, forcing them to calm down and wait for a more opportune time to charge northwards and re-capture their territory.  But with news of the false Emperor Cao Zhongkun’s illness stirring up a flurry of activity across the Northern and Southern Dynasties like a drop of water in hot oil, things elsewhere became even more chaotic.  All manner of heroes and bandits started to boldly declare their own little principalities and domains – some people would even simply plant a flag and pee at the foot of a mountain to claim it as theirs.  With all these mutinous forces popping out of the woodwork, the false Emperor was able to send his forces in to eliminate them all at once, and nearly succeeded.  Fortunately your father was just waiting for him to do so, and beat him at his own game – at the foot of the Zhongnan Mountains, he surrounded the false Emperor’s troops and beheaded ‘Alioth’, one of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, hanging his head atop the city walls for three whole days, and dealing a massive blow to the Northern Dynasty.”

Zhou Fei held her breath in anticipation.

“In that battle, the false Emperor’s forces were greatly diminished, and the various major martial arts sects that were involved were also laid low.  Being wary of martial arts sects rising up to rebel against the government in future, this was probably your father’s intended outcome as well.”  Xie Yun continued, “After that, a large majority of the martial arts sects and clans dispersed like a pan of loose sand, and the instability and chaos subsided somewhat.  But things that have been apart for long will start to come together again at some point.  The people in the Dongting Region now mostly look to the Huo Clan for leadership. For quite some time, many of them have sought to form an alliance, to find safety in numbers.  So the majority of the people that the Huo Clan invited were of the same mind as them. Only the minority were not aware of what they were getting themselves into, or had only decided to attend the celebrations out of respect.”

Zhou Fei: “And that minority has all been locked up here?”

Xie Yun nodded: “Yes, but something so underhanded was not necessarily done by the Huo Clan.  Why else would they still mask their faces while using the Huo Clan’s leg techniques – isn’t that like pulling down your pants to- you know?  The majority of people in the Dongting Region have pledged allegiance to the Huo Clan, and this spans a whole range of characters, including…”

He paused for a while, and Zhou Fei blurted out the new term she had just learned from him: “Crooked and unorthodox sects.”

“A few less than decent friends from the martial arts world,” Xie Yun corrected her politely, “The Huo Clan kept trying to make us stay, trying to persuade us with reason and when that didn’t work, move us with emotion.  But unfortunately we were suckers for punishment and didn’t relent.  They eventually didn’t force us to stay, seeing us out courteously, but we were ambushed not long after our departure, and promptly locked up here.  As long as we agree to formally sign on to their alliance, they will let us out.” 

Recalling the man she had slain in that little village, doubts flashed across Zhou Fei’s mind: Could such leg techniques be so easily copied? How was it possible for these men to conjure up such large ‘ham legs’ in a short span of time?

Then thinking a little harder, she recalled that she and Old Madam Wang had not actually seen those large ‘ham legs’ in action.  But the more she thought the less she understood, and she felt like she could barely cope with what she had learnt about the martial arts world thus far, even though it was only the tip of the iceberg.  She said: “Then I’d just pay lip service first, but it’ll be another story once I get out.”

Xie Yun laughed: “And then be accused of going against one’s word? That won’t do – once one gains such a reputation, one will never be able to go about in the martial arts world with head held high again.  Anyway, it would be extremely embarrassing for one to fold so easily, after simply being held against one’s will for no good reason.”

Zhou Fei was still too young to understand that honour and pride were what heroes prized above all.  But she was someone who preferred to ‘seek common ground while reserving differences’, and didn’t feel like she had to fully understand another’s point of view.  She thought for a bit, then said: “Then let me think of a way to get all of you out of here.”

Xie Yun gave her a look: “My dear young lady, listen to me.  Go back and tell your elders to send a note to the Huo Clan, stating that the 48 Zhai has lost someone and requesting for their help to find him.”

Zhou Fei furrowed her brow: “Didn’t you just say that this large prison isn’t the work of the Huo Clan?”

“Waters that are too clear have few fish,[2]” Xie Yun said lazily, leaning against a wall of his cell.  “You little scoundrel, you don’t even understand such basic principles, yet you wanted me to tell you all about what’s happening here?”

Zhou Fei had been swiftly demoted from ‘beauty’ to ‘little scoundrel’ in a matter of minutes.  Although this was the first time that she had ever left home, and she was extremely unfamiliar with the ways of the world, she was quick to catch on to things.  She immediately understood what Xie Yun meant – the Huo Clan had deliberately closed one eye to the activities of these ‘crooked and unorthodox sects’, with perhaps some members of the Huo Clan even joining in.  And these unorthodox sects also had another use – if anything were to go wrong, the Huo Clan could easily distance themselves from the affair and blame it all on these ‘less than decent’ friends!

What kind of bullshit was that?

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[1] 温柔散Literal translation: Dispersing/Spreading Gently

[2] A Chinese idiom that means that one cannot expect everyone to be squeaky clean, or have such high standards of others, else one will not have any friends.