THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Medicine Part 4

Yue Buqun had been hiding on the tree outside of the wall and was even further from it. Although he initialized the "Divine Art of the Violet Twilight," he was only able to hear fragments of the conversation. At first, when he heard Linghu Chong forcing the girl, he had wanted to rush inside to stop it, but then he changed his mind, thinking that all these people, Linghu Chong included, had been so secretive and unusual, who was it to say that they weren't conspiring something. The best thing for him to do at the time would be to observe calmly and not act recklessly. So he simply listened on with his 'Divine Art of the Violet Twilight' fully loaded. Then the dialogues between the Peach Valley's Two Fairies and the ones between Old and Zu kept ringing in his ears. He was also convinced that Linghu Chong must have taken advantage of the girl's precarious condition and had molested the girl. Later when he heard the conversation between Old and Zu, he figured that since Linghu Chong was a dissolute and unconventional young man and the girl probably did carry her father's genes and was a short and fat, ugly girl, it would only be natural for her to fall in love with Linghu Chong after losing her virginity to him. Seeing how ludicrous the episode has become, he couldn't help but shake his head in despair.

The girl's screaming voice rose again all of a sudden. "Don't...don't...too much blood. I beg of you...."

Suddenly, someone shouted from outside the walls, "Old Man, I've finally lost those Peach Valley's Four Goblins." Then came a gentle thud as the man leapt over the wall and entered the hall. It was none other than the man with the white banner who had provoked the Peach Valley's Four Fairies into chasing him.

"What's going on?" He was shocked to find Old Man and Zu Qianqiu both tied up to their chairs. He flipped his right hand swiftly and a shining dagger magically appeared in his palm. Waving his arms hurriedly a few times, he had cut lose the ropes around the two's legs and arms.

The girl's scream rose from her room once again, "Please...please...I beg you...no more."

Picking up the urgency in her tone of voice, the man uttered a cry of shock, "It is Miss Old Not-Dead!" He dashed toward the door.

Grabbing the man by his arm quickly, Old Man yelled, "You can't go in there!"

Stunned, the man put a halt to his steps. Then came the voice of Branch Fairy from the courtyard.

"I bet you the short melon must be thrilled to have a son-in-law like Linghu Chong."

"Linghu Chong could die any day now. Why would he be so thrilled to have a half-dead half-alive son-in-law?" Fruit Fairy challenged.

"His daughter could die any day as well. They make a perfect half-dead half-alive couple," Branch Fairy explained.

"Now, who will die and who will live?" Fruit Fairy asked.

"What a dumb question! Of course Linghu Chong will die. Miss Old Not-Dead's name is Old Not-Dead. How can she ever die? Dummy!" Branch Fairy mocked.

"That's not necessarily true. Does one's name always reflect the reality? What if everybody in this world were named Old Not-Dead? Would every one of them grow old yet do not die? If that's the case, then our training in martial arts would have been no good at all," Fruit Fairy rebuffed.

Amid the arguing between the two brothers, a loud thud came from inside the room. Something had collapsed onto the floor. Miss Old screamed again, though her voice was weak, it was filled with panic.

"Dad, Dad! Come here, hurry!"

Old Man sprinted into the bedroom, only finding Linghu Chong lying on the floor unconscious, a china bowl leaning by his chest upside down and blood all over his upper body. Miss Old leaned by the bed. There was also blood by the corner of her mouth. Zu Qianqiu and the other man stood behind Old Man and stared at the bizarre scene, each with a stomach full of questions.