“What’s there to see?” The fat woman rudely said.
Huang Rong already had intentions of creating trouble and she couldn’t have been happier now that the fat woman took the initiative to stir it up. Halting the little red horse and blocking the way, she grinned and said, “I’m admiring your slim figure, it’s really nice!” All of a sudden, she lifted the reins with a cry and the little red horse charged straight at the sedan chair. Shocked, the two sedan-bearers dropped it immediately and escaped to the sides. The sedan chair toppled over and the fat woman came tumbling noisily out, landing right smack in the middle of the path. Her arms and legs Eagle Shooting Hero
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flailed helplessly about and she was unable to pick herself up. But Huang Rong had halted the little red horse and was now clapping her hands and howling with laughter. She had intended to ride away after this prank, but the fatty on the donkey brandished his mule whip and lashed it ferociously towards her.
He bellowed: “Where did this little witch pop up from?”
Lying horizontally across the path, an even worse string of obscenities escaped the fat woman’s mouth.
Huang Rong caught the whip with her left hand and gave it a small tug, causing the fat man to tumble off his donkey. Raising the whip, she swung it towards him. The fat woman screamed loudly, “Female robber! Murderer! She’s blocked our way and robbed us!” Unrelenting, Huang Rong pulled out her E’Mei Dagger and bent down. A “chit” sound and blood splattered across the fat woman’s face and she squealed like a dying pig. Her left ear had been sliced off.
This scared the living daylights out of the fat man and he immediately knelt, whimpering: “Mercy, big Lady King! I… I have silver!”
Huang Rong made a face. “Who wants your silver? Who is this woman?”
“She… She’s my wife! We… we… she went to her mother’s house for a visit.”
“Both of you are fat and robust; why can’t you walk? I can show mercy, but you have to follow my orders.”
“Yes, yes,” he sputtered. “We’ll obey Lady King’s orders.”
Huang Rong burst out laughing when she heard him address her as ‘Lady King’, thinking it was a pretty interesting title. She said, “Where are the two sedan chair bearers? Get inside the sedan chair
– all of you, together with that servant girl.”
Not daring to defy her, the three servants tipped the fallen sedan chair upright and climbed inside.
Thankfully, the three of them were thin and small so it wasn’t much of a squeeze. In fact, their combined mass might’ve even been smaller than that of the fat woman. Six pairs of eyes, the three servants’, Guo Jing’s and the fat couples’ were fixed nervously on Huang Rong, not knowing what strange ideas she might have.
Huang Rong said, “You, husband and wife, have led a life of power and luxury, bullying the poor just because you have a little stinking money. Now that you’ve met the big ‘Lady King’, would you like to live or die?”
By this time, the fat woman had stopped her wailing. With her left hand pressed firmly on the wound on the side of her head, she said together with her fat husband, “We want to live, we want to live! Please have mercy, Lady King!”
“All right,” Huang Rong said. “Today, it’s your turn to be the sedan chair bearers. Lift it up!”
The fat woman cried, “I… I only know how to sit in them; I don’t know how to carry them!”
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A dagger flew past her, grazing the tip of her nose. Huang Rong shouted, “If you don’t carry the sedan chair, I’m going to slice off your nose.”
Thinking that her nose had already been sliced off, the fat woman shrieked, “Aiya, the pain is killing me!” Huang Rong shouted again, “Are you going to carry the sedan chair, or not?”
The fat man quickly lifted one end of the sedan chair and said, “We’ll carry it, we’ll carry it!”
Left with no choice, the fat woman lowered her body and placed the other end of the sedan chair pole on her shoulder, then stood upright again. Both husband and wife were truly sturdy and robust, having eaten plenty of tonics. They strode away with the poles on their shoulders, looking like experienced sedan chair bearers.
Huang Rong and Guo Jing cheered in unison, “Well carried!” They trailed behind the sedan chair on their horses for about a hundred feet before Huang Rong urged her horse to a gallop.
“Jing ge ge, let’s go!”
Together, they galloped swiftly and after a short distance, turned back for a look. They couldn’t help but burst out in peels of laughter at the sight. The fat couple was still walking with the sedan chair pole on their shoulders, not daring to put it down.
“That fat woman is both cruel and hideous and is actually quite a suitable choice. I originally wanted to capture her and give her to Qiu Chuji as a wife; it’s too bad I can’t beat that Ox-nose in a fight.”
“Why would you give her to Priest Qiu?” Guo Jing asked, baffled. “He wouldn’t want a wife.”
“Of course he wouldn’t. But at the same time, why doesn’t he understand you? You said you didn’t want to marry Miss Mu but he still tried to force you to. Hmph, one day when I can defeat that Ox-nose priest, I’ll force him to take a wicked and ugly woman as his wife and let him have a taste of being forced to marry!”
Hearing this, Guo Jing’s smile faded and he was silent for a moment. Then he said, “Rong’er, Miss Mu is neither wicked nor ugly. But I’ll only take you as my wife.”
With a lovely smile, Huang Rong said, “Even if you didn’t say it, I know.”
They continued their journey until the sound of rushing water emerged from behind a row of trees.
Huang Rong wove her way past a big tree and gave a cry of delight. Guo Jing followed and soon saw a clear stream; so clear in fact that you could see the stream bed made up of green, white, red and purple pebbles. Hanging willows graced both banks and their branches lightly brushed the water’s surface, beneath which many fish swam freely. Huang Rong removed her outer robe and jumped into the water with a splash. Alarmed, Guo Jing went near the edge of the stream only to see both her hands raised high, grasping a green fish that was about one chi long [33.3cm / 13in.]. The fish wriggled desperately, struggling to escape. Huang Rong called out, “Catch!”
She threw the fish towards him. Displaying his seize and control method, Guo Jing caught the fish.
But the fish was extremely slippery and slid out of his hands immediately and flipped wildly on the ground.
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Clapping and laughing, Huang Rong called, “Jing ge ge, come in and swim.” Having grown up on the steppes, Guo Jing did not know how to swim and shook his head with a smile.
“Come in, I’ll teach you,” she urged.
Huang Rong looked like she was having a lot of fun in the water, so he removed his outer clothes and slowly waded in. Huang Rong gave his leg a tug and he lost balance, falling in and gulping down a few mouthfuls of water in panic. Huang Rong laughed as she helped him up, and began teaching him the technique of swimming. The essentials of the skill lay in regulating one’s breathing. Since Guo Jing was acquainted with internal energy practice techniques and proficient with breath regulation, it took him only half a day’s practice to get the hang of swimming. That night they slept near the bank of the stream; early the next morning it was back to one teaching, one learning. Growing up on an island in the sea, Huang Rong had been proficient in aquatic skills since she was young. Be it literature or martial arts, there was nothing Huang Yaoshi did not excel at, yet his aquatic skills were far behind those of his daughter. Under the guidance of this brilliant instructor, Guo Jing spent eight to ten hours underwater every day. After seven or eight days had passed, he could swim up and down as he pleased; float and sink as he chose.
On this particular day, they had been swimming for hours and their enthusiasm still seemed boundless. They defied the current and had just swum a few li upstream when they heard the sound of falling water. Rounding a bend, their eyes were greeted with what looked like flying pearls and sprinkling jade – it was actually a waterfall of a few hundred feet in height, with large amounts of water spilling down ceaselessly from the cliff peak.
“Jing ge ge, let’s try and make it up to the cliff from the waterfall,” Huang Rong said.
“Okay, let’s give it a try. You’d better wear your ‘Soft Hedgehog Armor’.”
“No need!”
With a determined shout, the pair plunged their way into the waterfall. The current was extremely swift – forget climbing, they couldn’t even stand properly, and with a slight shift of their feet their bodies were pushed far downstream by the current. After a few unsuccessful attempts, they finally gave up in exhaustion. Feeling extremely discontented, Guo Jing said with rising anger, “Rong’er, we’ll have a good rest tonight and come again tomorrow.”
Huang Rong said, laughing, “Okay! You needn’t get angry at the waterfall, though.”
Realizing he was being silly, Guo Jing laughed along with her. The next day they tried again, and this time managed to climb over ten feet. Fortunately, both were proficient in their lightness skills (qing gong) and every time they were pushed down by the water, they only fell into the deep waterfall plunge pool and did not hurt themselves. On the eighth day, Guo Jing finally managed to reach the top. Stretching out his hand, he hauled Huang Rong up and they jumped up and down in jubilation, delirious with their triumph. Then, hand-in-hand, they slid down the waterfall.