Eagle Shooting Hero 1(119)

‘Regrets’.”

Guo Jing didn't understand anything about these matters, but he tried to memorize them in order to reflect upon them later. To learn martial arts, he always had adopted the same method: ‘To that which others may assimilate in a morning, I will devote ten days!’ Then he concentrated on the study of the palm technique. At first, the pine absorbed each of the blows that it received. Towards the end, these blows became more and more powerful, but the tree shook less and less. He realized that he had progressed and rejoiced somewhat. His palm had become red and swollen, but he did not treat it and continued to train with determination, never relaxing.

Hong Qigong, who had initially laughed at his persistence, had stretched himself on the ground and snored contentedly. Little by little, Guo Jing felt more comfortable as he attained a mastery of his energy…to carry the blow and to keep it. He brought his breath into his dan tian, advanced his palm violently, and withdrew his force immediately; so well that the tree did not move at all. Delighted, the young man repeated it in the same way while concentrating his force on the edge of his palm.

He heard a ‘craack’, and the small pine broke apart.

“Bravo!” Huang Rong, who had seen the scene from a distance, cried. She approached slowly, carrying a heavy shopping basket.

Before even opening his eyes, Hong Qigong had smelled the delicious aroma of the food that she brought. “That smells good! That smells very good!” he shouted, jumping to his feet. He seized the basket from the girl's hands and opened the lid. He beheld a dish of roasted frogs thighs, a very fat duck suited to the ‘Eight Treasures’, and a big bowl of white and immaculate money noodles. With joyful sounds, he pounced on the food, continuously praising as he devoured it. But, since his mouth was full, one couldn't understand anything he said. In an instant, the bowls containing the frog thighs and the duck were emptied. Realizing that Guo Jing again had not eaten, the old beggar felt a little ashamed of his gluttony. “Go on, eat up,” he said, “these noodles aren't bad...” And as he felt really bothered, he added, “They are even better than the duck!”

Huang Rong laughed and said, “Elder Hong, you haven't yet tasted my best dishes!”

Surprised and delighted, the old beggar eagerly asked, “What dishes? What dishes?”

“You can't name them all,” Huang Rong replied. “For example, stir-fried Chinese cabbage, steamed tofu, stewed eggs, sliced meat...”

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As a well-informed gourmet, Qigong knew well that it was in the simplest dishes that the true masters really showed their talents. The same applied to martial arts…wondrous execution of the simplest techniques…that was the hallmark of the great masters! These words of Huang Rong’s delighted him so much that his expression was almost imploring. “Good, good!” he said. “I always said that you were a brave little girl. Do you want me to buy you cabbage and tofu? Please?”

“It's not worth your while,” Huang Rong said, laughing. “What you buy may not necessarily suit me.”

“Fair enough,” Qigong said. “No other but you can choose your ingredients.”

“Just now,” Huang Rong said, “I saw him break the trunk of a pine; he's already more powerful than me!”

“Not at all,” Hong Qigong protested, shaking his head. “He isn't up to standard at all! It's necessary that the point where the trunk breaks be perfectly neat. Look, it's all twisted like a saw's teeth…what pathetic kung fu! Besides, this pine is as slender as a stick, no, as slender as a toothpick! This kid isn't up to the mark at all!”

“But if he attacks me with this palm,” objected Huang Rong, “I will not be able to defend myself.

This is all your fault! If he bullies me later, how will I resist?”

Qigong, who wanted to get back into her good books and did not want to keep annoying her, clearly saw that she was being devious. “So what, according to you, must I do?”

“Teach me a skill with which I can beat him. After that, I'll cook for you.”

“Very well, we're agreed,” Qigong said. “He only learned a single blow; it's easy to beat him. I will teach you a fist technique called ‘Wandering Strides’.” No sooner had he finished speaking, he rose to his feet to demonstrate. He jumped to the right and to the left, with grace and nimbleness, while his big sleeves flew...

Huang Rong, quick to learn, silently memorized every movement. When the old man had finished the complete chain, she had already half-learned it. After he had given all the supplementary instructions, it didn't take more than two hours for the girl to execute perfectly the thirty-six movements of the ‘Wandering Strides’. In the end, she executed the skill at the same time as Qigong. They moved together and leaped in concert, the one to right, the other to the left, twirling like a jade swallow and gliding like a great eagle in the skies. At the end of the thirty-six movements, they landed on their feet at the same time. While looking at each other they burst into laughter and Guo Jing applauded vigorously.

“This little one is a hundred more intelligent times than you,” Hong Qigong said to Guo Jing.

“So many movements and variations,” marveled the latter while scratching his head, “how did she learn so quickly? And how does she manage not to forget? Me, when I learn the second movement, I've already forgotten the first one!”

Qigong burst out laughing, “Indeed you absolutely cannot learn this ‘Wandering Strides’! Even if you memorized the steps, you are incapable, in practice, of producing the spirit of striding!

Executed by you so painstakingly and clumsily, this fist technique would become a real chore!”

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“You've got a point!” Guo Jing laughingly conceded.

“The ‘Wandering Strides’,” Hong said, “is a kung fu that I practiced in my youth. I taught it to the little girl because it compliments her style of kung fu. It actually doesn’t match my current kung fu style.. Thus, I haven't used it myself once during the past ten years.” What he implied was that the

‘Wandering Strides’ was a lot less powerful than the ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’.

Huang Rong was delighted. “Elder Hong, if I beat him again he'll surely be unhappy; please teach him some other blows.” She herself had no real intention to learn and it was only a pretext to push the old beggar to give more lessons to her love. If she really had wanted to learn martial arts, she had at her disposal a great master in the person of her father, all of whose skills she never could have learned.

“This dumb kid,” Hong said, “He hasn't even fully digested the single blow that I taught him. He’s bitten off more than he can chew! As long as you prepare me lots of dishes and I will grant all your wishes!”

“Very well then,” Huang Rong said, smiling. “Ill leave for the market.” Hong Qigong laughed heartily and returned to the inn leaving Guo Jing alone in the pine forest where he resumed training with determination, late into the night.

That night, Huang Rong indeed prepared a cabbage dish and a plateful of tofu for Qigong. She had carefully selected the most tender cabbage heart, then she stir-fried with chicken oil and duck leg filaments. But the plateful of tofu was really extraordinary - she had cut a ham in two and then dug twenty-four small spherical cavities in which she placed balls of tofu, before closing the ham and beginning to steam it. At the end of cooking, the flavor of the ham had passed into the tofu, while the ham itself was left out. After tasting this dish, Hong was naturally overwhelmed. This steamed tofu had a name inspired by Tang poetry and was called ‘Full Moon Night on the Twenty-four Bridges’. [Note: This refers to poetry composed during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). The most famous poets of the era were Li Bai (sometimes known as Li Po) and Du Fu.] If the girl had not had at her disposal the family technique called ‘The Orchid Skims the Point’, her ten nimble and delicate fingers would not have been able to cut twenty-four small balls in the fragile mass of the tofu. To do it demanded as much delicacy as engraving characters on a grain of rice or sculpting a boat in a nutshell. It would have been easy to cut pieces of tofu in cubes, but where has one seen square full moons?

After dinner, each retired to bed. Hong Qigong was astonished to see Guo Jing and Huang Rong going to separate rooms. “Huh? Aren't you husband and wife? Why don't you sleep in the same room?”

Huang Rong, who had joked with him without reserve, felt embarrassed. Her cheeks blushing and looking upset she said, “Elder, if you continue to talk nonsense, I won't cook for you tomorrow!”

“What's this?” Hong was astonished. “When did I talk nonsense?” After a moment’s reflection, he realized, “I'm old and senile, indeed,” he said, laughing. “You're clearly dressed like a girl and not a wife. You are therefore promised to each other secretly, without the consent of parents or a matchmaker or a wedding ceremony. Don't worry; I will be your go-between. If your father does not accept, I'll challenge him to a duel and we'll fight, my goodness, for seven days and seven nights if we have to, until he yields!”