THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Collaboration Part 2

Taking the letter from Linghu Chong, Fang-Sheng took a good look at the letter, which said:

"Yue Buqun, the Head Master of the Huashan School, here presents his greetings to the Head Master of the Shaolin School: As the Head Master of the Huashan School with unmerited reputation, I have not being sending my regards to your highness, so as not to disturb your peace. This letter is in regard to the defiant apprentice of our school, Linghu Chong, who, with the disobedient character, had been repeatedly breaking school rules and even took up with evildoers and associated with brigands. Buqun must have been an inept Master, because even after strict reprimands and stern punishments, I still failed to show effect. In order to uphold the righteousness of the Martial World and the clean name of an orthodox school, I hereby expel the defiant apprentice Linghu Chong from the Huashan School. From no on, this defiant apprentice is no longer a member of our school. If he continues to collude with evil and bring calamity to the world, I request all friends of the orthodox schools to eliminate him with no mercy. With great anxiety and shame, I am writing this letter, and the words could not express my feelings to the full extent. I wish for your forgiveness."

This also took Fang-Sheng by great surprise. He wanted to comfort Linghu Chong but failed to find any words. Giving the letter back to Fang-Zheng, he took a glance at Linghu Chong, whose face was now covered with streams of tears, and heaved a long sigh.

"Alas, young hero, you really shouldn't have affiliated with members of the Dark-Wood Cliff."

"Every Head Master of the orthodox schools must have received similar letters from your respectful master and have already informed all their members. Even if you were perfectly fit, as soon as you walk out of this door, it will be like walking on thorns every step of the way, and all members of the orthodox schools will consider you a fatal enemy," Fang-Zheng spoke again.

These words stunned Linghu Chong. He immediately remembered hearing similar words from Ying-Ying by the mountain gully. By now, not only all the heterodox school members would be on his heels with a mission to kill him, all the orthodox school members would also consider him a fatal enemy. As vast as the world under heaven was, there seemed to have not a place he could shelter himself. Then he remembered the deep love of Master and Master-Wife, who could almost be considered his foster parents. They not only taught him Kung Fu, but also brought him up from a child. But he had been willful and committed all kinds of outrages, which ultimately caused his expulsion from the Huashan School. He could imagine in his mind how Master must have felt more pain and sorrow than him when Master wrote these letters. Feeling of grief and shame welled in his heart; he almost itched to just bump his head against a wall to kill himself.

Out of his tear-filled eyes, he could vaguely make out the expression of deep pity on Fang-Zheng and Fang-Sheng's faces, and suddenly he remembered something: Liu Zhengfeng wanted to have his Gold Basin Hand Washing ceremony so he could quit the Martial World, but only because he had taken up with the Demon's Cult Elder Qu Yang, he ended up dying under the Songshan School's sword. It was obvious that Righteousness and Evil were not irreconcilable. Even someone as powerful and prestigious as Liu Zhengfeng could not escape the fatal destiny, much less he, an isolated young man not worth mentioning and without any help, let alone the fact that the Five-Tyrant Ridge gathering of heresy could only be worse.

"The sea of bitterness has no boundaries, if one only turns his head, there is the shore," Fang-Zheng said slowly. "As long as one awakes to his errors, even if he were an unpardonably wicked person, Buddha will not turn his back to him. You are still young, and only took a wrong step in life for the moment and affiliated with the wrong kind of people mistakenly. That's not to say that you won't be able to make a fresh start. Your affiliation with the Huashan School has made a thorough break. Henceforth, as a member of our Shaolin School, you can thoroughly rectify your errors and be reborn again. I am sure it's not likely that someone in the Martial World would want to make trouble for you." He had spoken these words in a very casual manner, yet these words showed a sign of stateliness.