THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

In Love Part 7

"Well...well...I promised the grandmaster that I'll never let out his story and his whereabouts," Linghu Chong muttered.

"Humph, who cares? Even if you do tell me, what makes you think I'd be interested? Do you know who I am and what kind of backing I have?" the girl challenged.

"I don't know. I don't even know what's your name," Linghu Chong answered, shaking his head.

"You are holding things back from me, so I won't tell you, either!" the girl exclaimed.

"Although I don't know, I've figured most of it out," Linghu Chong replied.

"You figured it out? How did you figure it out?" The girl's face changed color slightly.

"Well, I am not a hundred percent sure yet, but it will be all crystal clear tonight."

"How would it be crystal clear tonight?" the girl couldn't help but ask, feeling even more surprised.

"I'll just look up in the sky and see which star is missing, then I'll know which goddess has decided to descend to the world. You are as beautiful as an angel, and angels don't come from the secular world."

"Bah!" the girl spit at him, blushing wildly, yet feeling immense pleasure inward. "You are talking nonsense again," she murmured gently.

By then, she had already lit the fire with the dead twigs and fuzz sticks. Stringing the already cleaned frogs onto a sharp stick, she roasted them above the bonfire. Frog grease dripped into the bonfire and made funny sounds as the wonderful smell of roasted frogs soon filled the air. Staring at the white smoke rising from the bonfire, she spoke gently.

"My name is 'Ying-Ying.' Now that I've told you, I wonder if you'll still remember it as days go by."

"Ying-Ying? That's a pretty name. If I had know that your name was Ying-Ying, I would never have called you Granny," Linghu Chong uttered.

"Why's that?" Ying-Ying asked.

"The name Ying-Ying obviously is the name of a little girl, then of course you can't have been an old granny."

"When I get old and really become an old granny, I wouldn't change my name. I'd still be called Ying-Ying," Ying-Ying smiled.

"You wont' become an old granny. You are so pretty, even when you are eighty years old, you'll still be a very beautiful little girl."

"Wouldn't that make me a monster?" Ying-Ying beamed. She waited for a few seconds and then said with a serious face, "I've told you my name, but you are not allowed to use it to call me."

"Why?"

"You are just not allowed. I don't want you to."

Linghu Chong stuck his tongue out and made a face. "This is not allowed, and that is not allowed. Later whoever becomes your...." he muttered. Then at the sight of Ying-Ying pulling a long face, he quickly stopped, and Ying-Ying grunted heavily.

"Why are you getting angry again? I was saying that later whoever becomes your apprentice has gotten to be suffering some hardship." He had wanted to say "husband" at first, but after sensing trouble ahead, he quickly changed it to "apprentice."

Ying-Ying of course had a very good idea what he had wanted to say at the first place. "You are neither serious nor honest," she exclaimed. "Out of every three sentences of yours, there are at least two of them incoherent. I...I won't force anyone to do anything. If he likes to listen to my words, then he'll listen. If he doesn't, that's his choice."