THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

The Wager Part 5

Even though Linghu Chong had no idea what Mr. Bald-Brush had meant, he figured that it must have been some kind of good intention. So he bowed.

"Many thanks for the great kindness. Unfortunately I am not very literate; I am sure I won't be able to recognize Third Master's brush strokes."

Mr. Bald-Brush was slightly disappointed. "You don't know calligraphy?" he said. "Okay, let me explain it to you first. The stroke form I am about to use is called 'General Pei Poem,'[16] which transformed from Yan Zhenqing's[17] calligraphy book. There are a total of twenty-three characters, and each character contains between three and sixteen moves. Now listen carefully: 'General Pei! The great lord that ruled the Six Directions![18] The valiant general that guarded peace in the Nine Fields![19] His war-horse as valorous as the dragon or tiger, galloping above the high mound with grand and heroic spirit!'"

"Thanks for the guidance," Linghu Chong replied, but inwardly, he thought, "You can explain about the poem or the calligraphy all you want. I know nothing about them anyhow."

Mr. Bald-Brush swung the big pen and pecked three times toward Linghu Chong's left cheek. These were none other than the first three strokes of the character "Pei." These three pecks were actually fake moves. Raising his big pen high in the air, he was just about delineate down from the top, when Linghu Chong suddenly thrust his long sword out in a preemptive strike and stabbed toward his right shoulder. Mr. Bald-Brush was forced into holding his big pen crosswise to block the strike, but by then Linghu Chong had already retracted his sword. Their two weapons did not collide with each other; both moves turned out to be fakes. But Mr. Bald-Brush was only able to execute half of the first move of the "General Pei" form and couldn't complete it.

After blocking only to thin air, Mr. Bald-Brush immediately launched the second move. Before the head of the pen had a chance to strike forward, Linghu Chong had already thrust at another spot where he had no alternative but to defend. Without delay, Mr. Bald-Brush swung his pen backward to fend it off, but Linghu Chong had retracted his long sword once again, and Mr. Bald-Brush's second wave terminated again only half way through.

Right from the beginning, Mr. Bald-Brush's two moves were both interrupted midway through. Not able to complete the pen form he was very proud of, Mr. Bald-Brush couldn't help but feel quite annoyed, as though a calligrapher had just picked up his brush to write, but only a few strokes into it, a naughty kid began catching his penholder or pulling his arms, and prevented him from finishing writing a character smoothly.

"I have already read the entire poem of 'General Pei Poem' to him beforehand. He knows the order of my strokes and is able to predict my moves and stop me ahead of time. I'd better not follow the order of the characters with my later moves," Mr. Bald-Brush thought inwardly. After a fake dot, the big pen curved downward from the upper right corner to the lower left corner with abundant strength, writing the character "As" in the Grass Style. But Linghu Chong quickly pushed his long sword forward and pointed at his right rib cage. Astounded, Mr. Bald-Brush reversed the movement of the Judge's Pen and smash it toward Linghu Chong's long sword. Who would have expected that this stab of Linghu Chong's was not a real stab? All he really did was just showing the posture, but once again, Mr. Bald-Brush was only able to execute half of his move. With this Grass Style stroke, he had put out a great amount of energy and strength. When suddenly the movement was redirected, not only did the stroke become stagnant, his internal strength was also forced to reroute, which stirred up quite some energy disruption inside his lower stomach and caused indescribable discomfort.

After taking a deep breath, he waved his Judge's Pen rapidly in an attempt to finish the "Galloping" move, but only half way into it, he was forced to retract his Judge's Pen in defense by Linghu Chong's attack just as usual.