DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 2 of 5 (Shrouding Screen In Suzhou) by Jin Yong

Wishes Of The Present Part 1

Both of them rode a horse together. After running very fast for a while they scanned around and saw that there were mulberry trees everywhere, in a short time they had already outdistanced the Western Xia warriors and no longer saw any sign of them.

Duan Yu asked: 'Miss Wang, how do you feel?' Wang Yuyan said: 'I've been poisoned. There's not any strength left in my body.' Hearing the words: 'Been poisoned' Duan Yu was startled. He hurriedly asked: 'Is it serious? How can we find the antidote?' Wang Yuyan said: 'I don't know. You urge the horse on to a safe place then we'll talk about it again.' Duan Yu said: 'Where is safe?' Wang Yuyan said: 'I don't know either.' Duan Yu thought: 'What is it? I've already promised to keep her safe from dangers, why do I ask her to give directions?' Without any feasible idea he had no alternative but to ride the horse aimlessly.

After running quickly for a meal's time they did not hear the sounds of the chasing soldiers anymore and gradually became relax, but the rain started to drip down. Duan Yu kept asking after every short period of time: 'Miss Wang, how do you feel?' Wang Yuyan always replied: 'I'm fine.' Being able to travel together with the beauty Duan Yu was unspeakably happy, but he also feared that the poison in her body would become more dangerous, therefore he could not help but to smile for a while then to be anxious for a while.

The rain became heavier and heavier, Duan Yu took off his gown and covered Wang Yuyan with it. But that only worked for a short period of time, before long both of them were soaked through. Duan Yu asked again: 'Miss Wang, how do you feel?' Wang Yuyan sighed and said: 'Both cold and wet. Let's find a place to shelter from the rain.' To Duan Yu, whatever Wang Yuyan said was like an imperial decree. When she wanted to find a place to shelter from the rain, even though Duan Yu knew clearly that they had not escaped from dangers he still continuously said yes, but he also dazedly thought: 'The person Miss Wang constantly has in her mind is her biaoge Murong Fu. Today I and she have encountered dangers together I must do my utmost to protect her. Even if I die for her, someday in the rest of her life she'd once in a while remember me a little bit. When she and Murong Fu get married later and have children, when she tells her descendants about the past in leisure time perhaps she'd mention today's events. At that time her head would be full of white hair, when she mentions the three words 'Mr. Duan', her pearly tears would fall down drop by drop...' He lost in thought and could not prevent his eyes from reddening.

Seeing that he had a distressed look on his face and had not started to look for a shelter, Wang Yuyan asked: 'What's wrong? There isn't any rain shelter?' Duan Yu said: 'At that time you'd tell your children...' Wang Yuyan said: 'What, my children?'

Duan Yu was startled, only now did he wake up to reality, he smiled and said: 'Sorry, I was daydreaming.' He looked around and saw a big mill in the northeast. The water of a rivulet was pushing the wooden wheel. The mill was in the process of pounding rice. He then said: 'We can shelter from the rain there.' and rode the horse to the mill. At this time it was raining heavily with cascading noises, all around was haze of water vapor.

He jumped off the horse, seeing that Wang Yuyan looked pale he could not help feeling very sorry for her and asked again: 'You have a stomach ache? Have a fever? Have a headache?' Wang Yuyan shook her head, smiled and said: 'I'm fine.' Duan Yu said: 'Alas, I wonder what the poison the Western Xia people used was, let me go find the antidote.' Wang Yuyan said: 'It's raining heavily like this! Help me get off the horse first and go inside. It won't be late to talk about it later.' Duan Yu hastily said: 'Yes, yes! You see, I could be very silly.' Wang Yuyan smiled and thought: 'You're just inherently silly.'

Seeing her smiling expression, Duan Yu could not help but to feel as if he was on cloud nine and almost forgot to go open the door of the mill. After opening the door he came back to help Wang Yuyan to get off the horse. Because his eyes had focused on her lovely face all the time, he did not notice that there was a ditch in front of the mill. His left foot stepped right in the middle of the ditch. Wang Yuyan called: 'Be careful!' But it was too late. Duan Yu cried out 'Ah' and fell plump into the mud. He climbed up after struggling for a while. His face, his hands, and his body were covered with mud, he continuously said: 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Are you... are you okay?'

Wang Yuyan said: 'Alas, are you okay? That fall didn't hurt did it?' Duan Yu was over the moon when he saw her showing concern for himself. He hastily replied: 'No, no. Even if it did hurt, there'd still be no problem.' He held out his hands to help Wang Yuyan get off the horse. All of a sudden, seeing that they were covered with mud, he drew them back and said: 'Not good! I go clean up first and will come back to help you.' Wang Yuyan sighed and said: 'You're really fussy. My whole body is already drenched, what's the matter if there's some more mud?' Duan Yu smiled apologetically and said: 'I have only messed things up and haven't cared for you well." Still he cleaned the mud off his hands in the rivulet before helping Wang Yuyan get off the horse and walk into the mill.

When the two of them entered the mill, they saw the rice-pounding stone pestle being lifted and dropped, continuously hitting rice grains in the stone mortar, but they did not see anybody. Duan Yu shouted: 'Is there anyone here?'

Suddenly, in the straw stack in a corner of the room, two people shouted at the same time: 'A'yo!' They stood up, one was male and one was female, both were eighteen or nineteen year old young peasants. Their clothes were untidy, their heads were full of straws, and their faces flushed red and looked totally embarrassed. It turned out they were a couple of lovers. The peasant girl had been here to pound rice, the man had followed her here to be close to her. Because it had been raining heavily they had thought that no one would arrive, and had gotten really unbridled to such a degree that they had not heard anything even though Duan Yu and Wang Yuyan had been talking to each other outside for quite a while.

Duan Yu held his fist in his hand and said: 'Sorry for disturbing, sorry for disturbing! We only come here to shelter from the rain. If the two of you have something to do, please do as you wish and don't pay attention to us.'

Wang Yuyan thought: 'This bookworm is talking nonsense again. They are meeting us here, how can they keep cuddling each other?' But she could not say those two sentences. After suddenly seeing the expression and attitude of that girl and that man, her face had soon reddened, she did not dare to look at them for long.

Duan Yu wholeheartedly focused his mind on Wang Yuyan therefore he did not care about this couple of young peasants. He helped Wang Yuyan sit down on a bench and said: 'You're totally drenched, what's to be done?'

There was a layer of rosy light on Wang Yuyan's face again. An idea sprung up in her mind. She pulled out from the hair on her temples a gold hairpin in which two big pearls were embedded, turned to the peasant girl and said: 'Sister, I give you this hairpin, can you please lend me a set of clothes to change?'

Even though that peasant girl did not know that the two pearls were precious, but she recognized gold, in her mind she did not believe this was true, and said: 'Let me fetch some clothes for you to change, this... this gold hairpin I don't dare to take.' As she finished saying she climbed up the wooden ladder beside her.

Wang Yuyan said: 'Sister, please come here.' That peasant girl had already climbed up four or five rungs. She quickly went down, walked to and stood before Wang Yuyan. Wang Yuyan put the gold hairpin in her hand and said: 'I really give you this hairpin. Can you please take me to go change clothes?'

Seeing that Wang Yuyan was beautiful and amiable the peasant girl had already been totally willing to help her, now being given a gold hairpin she felt very happy. She declined unsuccessfully for a few times before finally accepting it then helping Wang Yuyan climb up to the garret above them to change clothes. The garret was stacked with paddy, straws and farm tools such as sieves and bamboo baskets. That peasant girl had some sets of worn-out clothes which she had been sewing and mending. After that young man had arrived, she had thrown them aside and stopped paying attention to them since. Now they were very suitable for Wang Yuyan to use.

That young peasant man timidly peeped at Duan Yu, he was still abashed. Duan Yu smiled and asked: 'Big brother, what's your name?' That young man said: 'I'm... I'm surnamed Jin.' Duan Yu said: 'So you're big brother Jin.' That young man said: 'No. I'm Jin A'er. Jin A'da is my older brother.' Duan Yu said: 'Hum, so you're second brother Jin.' (T/N: Jin A'er means 'Jin, the second brother', Jin A'da means 'Jin, the big brother.')

Just saying to here, suddenly they heard horse hoofbeats, more than ten horses was galloping towards the mill. Duan Yu was frightened, he rose to his feet and shouted: 'Miss Wang, the enemies have chased to here!'

Wang Yuyan was being helped by that young peasant girl. She had taken off her wet clothes, wrung water out of them, and was drying herself. Also hearing the horse hoofbeats, she was worried and frightened, and did not know how to deal with this situation.

The horses ran very fast, in a short period of time they had already arrived at the outside of the door. Someone shouted: 'This horse is ours. That boy and that girl are inside of here.' Wang Yuyan and Duan Yu, one being up on the garret, one being downstairs, secretly complained at the same time and thought: 'Had we led the horse into the mill, it'd have been so much better.' They heard a crash. Someone had kicked the door open, three or four Western Xia warriors rushed into the mill.

Wholeheartedly wanting to protect Wang Yuyan, Duan Yu rushed up the garret. Wang Yuyan had not dressed therefore she had no alternative but to take a wet gown to put before her chest. After being poisoned she felt very weak, therefore after her left hand had raised the gown to her chest, it dropped down. Duan Yu hastily turned around and said in a panicky manner: 'I'm sorry for offending you, Miss, pardon me, pardon me.' Wang Yuyan hurriedly said: 'What should we do?'