THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Wine Cups Part 3

The five Fairies hurriedly acknowledged the order, and within seconds, all five of them sat down in the hold, their hands on their knees and their backs straight up, making sure that no one could have behaved any better than them.

"Master Ping, I heard that you have this rule when you treat your patients: after you've cured the patient, he will have to kill someone for you. Is that true?" Linghu Chong asked.

"That's correct! I do have this rule," Ping One-Finger admitted.

"But I don't want to kill anyone for you, so please save your trouble and don't treat me," Linghu Chong exclaimed.

"Huh!" Ping One-Finger uttered a cry of surprise. He looked Linghu Chong up and down as if he had seen something totally eccentric and abnormal. After a long pause, he spoke again.

"Firstly, your case is too severe and I can't cure you; secondly, even if I could cure you, someone else has already agreed to kill for me. You don't have to worry about it at all."

Ever since Yue Lingshan had shifted her love interests to someone else, Linghu Chong had lost the joy of life. But when he heard from this famous doctor, who had such a great reputation with his capability of bringing the dying back to life, that even he couldn't cure the wounds, Linghu Chong still found himself swept by utter desolation.

The Yue couple gave each other a stare, both thinking, "Who has gotten such great due respect that could have made 'Killer Doctor' to make house calls? What kind of relationship does he have with Chong?"

"Brother Linghu," Ping One-Finger spoke again. "There are eight streams of foreign energy forces inside your body that could not be discharged, nor dissolved, nor tamed, nor overpowered, which have caused all the injuries and suffering. I was entrusted the task to cure your wounds. It's not that I am holding any effort back from you. Because your injuries are related to inner energy, that's why medicine and medical treatments won't do you any good. Ever since I became a doctor, I've never seen any injuries like this. Alas, there's really nothing I can do. I am so ashamed."

He took a china bottle out from his chest pocket and then poured ten vermilion pills into his palm.

"These are ten 'Heart-Soothing' pills. They contain many kinds of precious medicinal materials and took me a long time to make. Take one pill every ten days and you will be able to live for another one hundred days."

"Many thanks!" Linghu Chong took the pills respectfully.

Ping One-Finger turned around and headed toward the bank. But suddenly he turned back again. "There are two more pills in the bottle. I might as well give all of them to you." He took out the china bottle and handed it out.

But Linghu Chong didn't take it. "I can tell that senior master really treasure these pills very much. They must contain great healing power. It's probably better to keep them with you to save someone else in the future. Even if I could live ten days or twenty days longer, it's not gonna do anybody, even I myself, any good."

Ping One-Finger threw a sideways glance at Linghu Chong for a moment and then murmured, "Having no regards of one's own life, you do show the qualities of a true man. No wonder! No wonder! Alas, what a pity! I am sorry!"

He shook his giant head, turned around, leapt off the boat, and then walked off in big strides. He came and went so abruptly and completely ignored Yue Buqun, the Head Master of the Huashan Sword School. Yue Buqun was greatly annoyed. But there were still five menaces sitting in the boat's hold. Getting rid of them was not going to be an easy task.