THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Wine Cups Part 2

"Wait a minute," Branch Fairy suddenly stopped crying and instead, burst into loud laughter. "If sixth brother can be cured, wouldn't we be just crying for nothing? Come on guys, let's get a clear answer first, and then we can cry later."

"What you just said doesn't make sense at all. If sixth brother can be cured, then why would we be crying later?" Flower Fairy disagreed.

Amid the non-stop arguing, the five men rushed out of the shrine in quick steps.

"Whether that man will survive or not is of great importance to us," Yue Buqun said to Madam Yue. "Let me go look into this. Junior apprentice sister, you, Lingshan, and the other apprentices can stay here and wait for me."

"You can't just go all by yourself. Let me go with you and watch your back," Madam Yue replied in a determined tone and then ran out of the shrine first.

In the past, when Yue Buqun had important matters to deal with, Madam Yue would always go with him to aid. Hearing what his wife had said, Yue Buqun knew that it would be impossible to change her mind, so he simply followed quietly.

After the two of them went out of the shrine, from a distance, they could see the Peach Valley's Five Freaks turn into a col from a small path. Following the five men quietly, they dared not stay too close and kept a good distance. Thanked to the loud and non-stop arguing from the five, it wasn't hard for them to shadow the freaks from a long distance behind.

Following the mountain path, after passing by a dozen or so big willow trees, they came to a small creek. Several tile-roofed houses stood next by the creek. The arguing sound from the five freaks went straight into one of the houses.

"Let's circle around to the backside of the house," Yue Buqun suggested.

The couple ran toward their right using their Qing-Gong skills and circled back after about a quarter of a mile. A row of willow trees stood at the backside of the house. The two hid themselves behind the willow trees and listened.

Suddenly, the yelling voice of the Peach Valley's five freaks broke out abruptly.

"You just killed our sixth brother!"

"Why...why did you cut his chest open?"

"I am gonna kill you son of a bitch!"

"We'll cut your chest open too!"

"Oh, no! Sixth brother! You have died a horrible death! We...we'll never take a piss again, even if our bladders explode."

Yue Buqun and Madam Yue were astonished. "Did someone just cut their sixth brother's chest open?"

After exchanging some gestures, the two of them crept next to the window and looked inside from a crack of the window.

About seven or eight lights lit the entire room and a large bed occupied the middle of the room. A naked man lay on the bed facing up, his chest cut wide open and blood gushing everywhere. The man's eyes shut tightly as if he had been dead for sometime. His face showed clearly that he was none other than the Fruit Fairy who took a stab from Madam Yue on top of Mount Huashan. The remaining five Peach Valley Freaks stood around the bed, shouting and yelling hysterically at a short, stocky man.

The short, stocky man had a larger-than-average head. The sparse mustache on his lips and the way he moved his head back and forth added much comical effect to his appearance. Both of his hands were covered with blood, the short dagger in his right hand also had blood dripping down from the tip of the blade. He stared at the five Peach Valley Freaks for a while and finally spoke.