THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Vengeance Part 4

Yingying giggled and remembered the days when she had just met Linghu Chong and he kept on calling her granny at that time. She felt warmth in her heart as she jumped down from the carriage to go towards that farmhouse. Linghu Chong saw her leaping lightly to go over the wall, followed by the sound of a dog barking. But after one bark, it became quiet again, he thought Yingying must've kicked it dizzy. After some time, he saw her coming out with some clothes in her hands. When she reached the side of the carriage, he saw that she appeared to be smiling and she had a funny expression on her face. She quickly threw the clothes into the carriage, jumped into the carriage, then started laughing loudly. Linghu Chong picked up some of the clothes and inspected them under the moonlight. They were the clothes of an old peasant and an old woman. The clothes of the old woman were particularly big, inlaid with green flower laces. It was in an old style and clearly not the clothes of a young farm girl at all. Among the clothes, there was also a man's cap, a head cover for a woman, and a tobacco tube.

Yingying laughed. "You're Linghu the half deity! You guessed right there was a granny in the farmhouse, but it's a pity there's no kid..." She said till here when she blushed furiously and stopped talking.

Linghu Chong smiled teasingly. "So they're brother and sister. The two are really good to each other. One doesn't want to take a wife, the other doesn't want to get married, they live till seventy eighty years old and they're still together."

Yingying bit her lip smiling. "You know it's not like that."

"They're not brother and sister? That's really strange."

Yingying couldn't help laughing. Then at the back of the carriage, she put on the clothes of the old farm woman on top of her gown and she also put on the head cover on her head. Then she grabbed some dirt from the side and rubbed it on her face. After that, she helped Linghu Chong to change into the old peasant's clothes. Linghu Chong was barely a few inches away from her cheek and when he felt her breath caressing his face, he couldn't help feeling moved. He really wanted to just give her a hug and kiss her, but he knew she was extremely stern and wasn't the least bit licentious. If he offended her and raised her ire, then it would be hard to say what would happen, so he quickly collected his thought and didn't dare to move.

He suddenly looked quite strange as he was restraining himself from doing something. Yingying saw him and understood. She smiled. "Good kid, granny adores you." She extended her palm and rubbed the dirt on his face. Linghu Chong shut his eyes closed and felt her warm and soft palm lightly massaging his face all over. He felt unspeakable comfort and hoped she could continue doing this forever.

After some time, Yingying said, "Done. Your little martial will definitely not recognise you at night, but be careful not to speak."

"Rub the dirt on my neck too."

"Who's going to look at your neck?" Yingying asked with a laugh. But she quickly understood his meaning. Linghu Chong wanted her to massage his neck. With a bent middle finger, she knocked softly on his forehead and turned around to sit on the driver's seat. With a whistle, she urged the mule forward and suddenly she couldn't help laughing, and she laughed harder as she went on. She was actually laughing till she bent forward and was finding it hard to sit.

Linghu Chong smiled and inquired, "What did you see in that farmhouse?"

"I didn't see anything funny. That grandpa and grandma are... are husband and wife..." Yingying laughed.

"So they're not brother and sister, but husband and wife instead," Linghu Chong smiled.

"You're teasing me again, I'm not talking."

"Alright, they're not husband and wife, they're brother and sister."

"Stop interrupting me, can you not? I jumped over the wall, and a dog barked, so I gave it a slap and made it faint. But the grandpa and grandma were woken up because of it. The grandma said: 'Amao must've seen a weasel coming to steal the chicken.' Grandpa said: 'Old black isn't barking anymore, it can't be a weasel.' That old grandma suddenly laughed and she said: 'I think that weasel must've followed your example from the past when you visited my home in the middle of the night. You always brought a piece of meat to give to my dog.'"

Linghu Chong smiled. "This grandma is really bad. She's scolding you and saying you're a weasel."

He knew Yingying was very shy. She was talking about the private matter between the old husband and wife farmers, so he pretended not to understand. Then, perhaps, she would continue with her story. Otherwise, if he said something a little bit romantic, she would stop talking altogether.

Yingying laughed and continued, "That grandma was talking about the time before they got married..." She said till here when she straightened her body and lifted the rein high to urge the mule to quicken its run.

"So what happened before they got married? They must've adhered to customs really strictly. Even in the middle of the night, sitting all by themselves in a carriage, they definitely wouldn't dare to hug or kiss." Yingying snorted and stopped talking.

Linghu Chong continued, "Dear, darling, what did they say? Tell me please." Yingying smiled but kept her silence.

In the middle of the night, they only heard the hooves of the mule hitting the road and the peacefulness was really pleasing to the ear. Linghu Chong looked out and saw the moonlight was like water flowing out into the straight and broad road, and the mist enveloped the trees on the side of the road. The mule-drawn carriage slowly entered the mist and everything outside couldn't be seen clearly anymore, even the back of Yingying's body was wrapped around a haze of mist.

It was just at the beginning of spring, so the fragrance from the flowers was sometimes thick and sometimes light as the wind carried it, the pleasure of it all was unspeakable. Linghu Chong had not drunk any wine for a long time, but with this feeling in his mind, it felt just like being intoxicated. Yingying was still carrying a smile on her face as her thought went back to what those two old husband and wife were talking: The old grandpa said: 'That night I didn't have any meat at all, so I killed a chicken from your neighbour and fed it to your dog. What's that dog called?' Old grandma answered: 'Big Flower.' Old grandpa said: 'That's right, Big Flower. It ate half a chicken and didn't bark anymore. Your father, mother, all didn't know. Our Amao must've have gotten the same thing tonight.' Old grandma said: 'You knew you're merry, and paid no attention to others' hard work. Later on, my tummy became big and father hit me viciously.' Old grandpa said: 'Lucky your stomach became big, otherwise why would your father agree to marry you to such a poor kid like me? That time, I was looking forward to your stomach getting big!' Old grandma suddenly got mad and scolded: 'You devil, so you did it deliberately and you've been hiding the truth from me. I... I won't spare you now.' Old grandpa said: 'Don't be noisy! Amao will also bear a kid. What are you noisy about?'

By that time, Yinying was afraid Linghu Chong would be worried, so she didn't listen anymore and stole the clothes before leaving a big silver ingot on the table and going out. She was going around lightly and that husband and wife didn't notice at all. It was because they were already old and slow, and they were talking excitedly, so they didn't feel her presence at all.

When Yingying thought of the conversation between the two of them, her face and ears turned red. Fortunately, it was at night, otherwise if Linghu Chong were to see her face, she would've been totally embarrassed. She stopped urging the mule and the big carriage gradually slowed down to normal speed. They turned around a bend and arrived besides the bank of a large lake. There were willows hanging around the bank of the lake and in the middle of the lake was the reflection of the round moon flickering about as the surface of the lake moved.

Yingying softly asked, "Brother Chong, are you asleep?"

"I'm asleep, I'm dreaming."

"What are you dreaming?"

"I'm dreaming I'm carrying a big piece of meat and going up the Dark Wood Cliff to feed your family dog."

"You're not a proper person. No wonder your dream is also not proper," Yingying said smiling.

The two of them sat alongside each other inside the carriage, gazing at the lake. Linghu Chong extended his right hand and put it on the back of Yingying's left hand. Yingying's hand trembled slightly but she didn't take her hand back. Linghu Chong thought, "If only we could be like this forever and not see the bloodshed in Wulin ever again. Even if I were to become a god, I still wouldn't be as happy as right now."

"What are you thinking?" Yingying asked and Linghu Chong told her what he was just thinking of. Yingying turned over her hand and gripped his hand. "Brother Chong, I'm really happy."

"Me too."

"Even though I appreciated you commanding that group of heroes to attack Shaolin temple, I wasn't as happy as I am now. If I were your best friend, and I was trapped inside the Shaolin temple, you would've also tried to save me because of the code of righteousness of Jianghu. But right now, you only think of me, and are not thinking of your little martial sister..." As she mentioned 'your little martial sister', Linghu Chong's whole body quivered and he blurted out, "Aiyo, let's go catch up to her!"

Yingying softly said, "Only now I believe that in your heart, you finally thought of me a bit more, and thought of your little martial sister a bit less."

She lightly pulled on the rein to turn the mule around. The mule-drawn carriage returned to the major road, and with a crack of her whip, the mule ran quickly. In just a short time, they had covered more than twenty li and their mule had become weary, so it slowed down. After turning a couple of bends, they saw a field of tall sorghum in front of them with the major road running straight through the middle of it. The pale moonlight on the ground looked like a piece of big green silk spreading throughout the ground. As they gazed far away, they saw a carriage at the other end of the road, which seemed to be still and unmoving.

"This carriage looks like Martial Brother Lin's carriage," Linghu Chong remarked.

"Let's go slowly and take a look," Yingying replied. She then urged the mule to go slowly as it got nearer to the other carriage. After they had travelled for a bit, they became aware that the carriage in front was actually still moving, but very slowly. They also saw there was a person walking besides the mule, who was unexpectedly Lin Pingzhi. From the shape of the driver's body, they saw it was Yue Lingshan who was sitting on the driver's seat. Linghu Chong was surprised and he extended his hand to the rein to stop their mule. "What are they doing?" he whispered.

"Wait here, I'll go have a look," Yingying said.

If they were to catch up with the other carriage, then the other party would have discovered them. So they must use qinggong to secretly peep in on them. Linghu Chong really wanted to go with her, but his injury had not healed yet so he couldn't use his qinggong. He nodded his head and replied, "Alright."

Yingying lightly leapt off the carriage and rushed into the thicket of tall sorghum on the side of the road. The tall sorghum had grown very thick so once someone entered it, they wouldn't be seen even in the light of day. But these tall sorghum had not grown very tall yet and their leaves weren't that dense, so your head would still be exposed outside. She stooped down as she went and followed the sound of the hooves, until she was finally alongside Yue Lingshan's mule-drawn carriage.

She heard Lin Pingzhi said, "My sword manual was already taken by your father a long time ago, and I don't have any other move he doesn't know. Why must you insist on following me everywhere?"

"You've always been suspicious of my father having plans on your sword manual without any reason at all. Listen to your own conscience. When you first entered Huashan School, you didn't have any sword manual, but I've always been... always been good to you, could it be, it all means nothing to you?" Yue Lingshan reasoned.

"My Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art is well known throughout the world. Yu Canghai, Mu Gaofeng, they both couldn't find anything on my father so they searched me. How do I know you didn't deliberately treat me well because of your father's and mother's order?"

Yue Lingshan whimpered. "If you think that way, then what can I do?"

"Did I mistakenly blame you then?" Lin Pingzhi vehemently asked. "This 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual', didn't your father finally take it from my hand? Everyone knows, if you want the 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' then you must take it from this little kid Lin. Yu Canghai, Mu Gaofeng, hng hng, Yue Buqun, what's the difference? The only difference is Yue Buqun succeeded, while Yu Canghai and Mu Gaofeng failed."

"You're slandering my father, who do you think I am?" Yue Lingshan angrily retorted. "If not for... if not for... hng hng..."

Lin Pingzhi halted his steps and shouted, "What are you going to do? If not for me being blind, injured, you're going to kill me, isn't that right? My eyes were blinded a long time ago."

"So when you first knew me and treated me well, your eyes were already blind?" She reined in the mule and stopped the carriage.

"That's right! How would I know you had planned everything? Because of this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual', you actually went to Fuzhou to open up a small wine shop. When that kid Yu from Qingcheng School bullied you, actually your martial art was much higher than him, but you pretended not to know any martial art and made me helped you. Hng, Lin Pingzhi, you were one blind stupid kid, relying on your three legged cat martial art and actually daring to be heroic and be outraged by injustice," Lin Pingzhi said. "You're everything to your father and mother, if not for something big and important, why would they agree to let you show your face in public? Why would they agree to let you sell wine in such a humble shop?"

"Father originally sent second martial brother to go to Fuzhou," Yue Lingshan replied. "It was me who wanted to go down the mountain to play, to follow second martial brother."

"Your father controls the school's disciples so strictly. If he believed it was inappropriate, even if you kneeled and implored him for three days and three nights, he still wouldn't allow you to go. Naturally, it was because he couldn't trust second martial brother that he also sent you to watch over things."

Yue Lingshan was quiet, looking like she felt Lin Pingzhi's conjecture wasn't completely unreasonable. After a little while, she said, "You can believe me or not, but before I got to Fuzhou, I've never heard of 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual'. Father only said, big martial brother had beaten up the disciples of Qingcheng so there's a dislike between the two parties. At that time, the Qingcheng School was carrying out a large operation and was moving to the east. So he's afraid it would be disadvantageous to our school. That was why second martial brother and I went to Fuzhou to investigate."