Qiu Chuji stopped and looked around. Seeing only several rider-less horses running off, he laughed heartily. Turning to the two men by the door, he waved and said: "How did you men like that?"
Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin had just opened the door and walked out, so they had not completely calmed down from what they just witnessed. Guo Xiaotian asked: "Reverend Qiu, who are these people?" Qiu Chuji replied: "We'll know when we search their bodies."
Guo Xiaotian searched the body of that saber using man and found an official document. It turned out to be an order from that very Magistrate Zhao, who had pretended to be a dog, saying that the Ambassador from Jin has ordered that the Song government troops and Jin troops to work together to catch the man that murdered Wang Daokun as soon as possible. Guo Xiaotian was just about to explode in rage when Yang Tiexin yelled out. In his hand were some tags found on the bodies of some other men, the tags were written in the Nuzhen language. It meant that within this group of men, there were several Jin soldiers.
Guo Xiaotian spoke up: "The enemy soldiers can do whatever they want, including capturing and killing, within our borders, and our Song officials are actually obeying orders from their Ambassador! What kind of world is this?!" Yang Tiexin sighed: "Even the Emperor of Great Song has to refer to himself as an official of the Jin emperor, so it's no surprise that our officials and generals are becoming their servants as well." Qiu Chuji bitterly said: "We priests are supposed to be merciful and benevolent in our hearts and actions. But then we see a bunch of traitors and enemies that do nothing but add to the suffering of our people, and I could never be merciful nor benevolent." The two other men replied at the same time: "You were right to kill them! They deserved to die!"
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Eagle Shooting Hero
This small village did not have many people to begin with. Now with the blizzard blowing, nobody was coming out at night. Even if someone witnessed what just happened, they would have ran back home a long time ago. Who had enough guts to come out to inspect and ask questions? Yang Tiexin took out shovels and hoes and the three of them buried all of the bodies in one big grave.
Bao Xiruo picked up a broom and started to sweep all traces of blood on the snow. After a while, the smell of blood went straight to her stomach. Her eyes went blank for a second as she let out a little moan and sat down on the snow-covered ground. Yang Tiexin was shocked and immediately ran over to help her up, all the while asking over and over: "What's the matter?" Bao Xiruo's eyes were closed and she did not answer. Seeing her white face and feeling her cold hands, Yang Tiexin just got more and more worried.
Qiu Chuji came over, grabbed Bao Xiruo's right wrist, and felt her pulse for a bit. Suddenly he burst out laughing and said: "Congratulations! Congratulations!" Yang Tiexin was quite taken aback and asked: "What?" At this time Bao Xiruo suddenly woke up with a grunt. Seeing the three men standing around her, she can't help but feel a little shy and immediately walked back into the house.
Qiu Chuji said with a smile: "Your wife is pregnant!" Yang Tiexin couldn't quite believe it and asked: "Really?" Qiu Chuji smiled and replied: "Of all the things I learned in my life, I take comfort in saying that I know a little something about only three things. First is medicine, I couldn't master inner strength, but came into contact with a lot of medicinal and herbal knowledge because of that.
The second thing is writing a couple of messed up lines of poetry. The little cat-like tricks called kung fu that I know can only be placed third." Guo Xiaotian replied: "Reverend, if your kung fu can only be called 'little cat-like tricks', then we two brothers can only lay claim to 'not even rat-like skills'!" The three of them finished burying the bodies while talking and laughing. After that they went back into the house and started on the food and drinks again. With all the Jin that Qiu Chuji killed today, all of them felt great joy and excitement.
Thinking about his wife's pregnancy, Yang Tiexin could not stop smiling. He thought: "Reverend here knows poetry, then that means he excels in all facets." So he suggested: "Brother Guo's wife is pregnant as well. Could we bother the Reverend to think of two names?" Qiu Chuji thought for a bit and said: "Brother Guo's child will be called Guo Jing, and Brother Yang's child will be called Yang Kang. It doesn't matter if they are boys or girls, they can still use these names." Guo Xiaotian replied: "Great! Reverend's reminding us two to remember the disgrace of the Year of Jing Kang, the humiliating capture of the two emperors."
Qiu Chuji replied: "That's right." He reached into his shirt, took out two daggers, and put them on the table. The pair of daggers are identical in everyway with a green leather sheath, gold hand guard, and ebony handles. He picked up one of the daggers and carved the words "Guo Jing" on the dagger's handle. Then he carved "Yang Kang" on the handle of the other dagger. He carved with great speed and quickness, faster than most people can write. Before Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin figured out what he was doing, he had already finished carving the words. Smiling, he said: "I do not have anything else worthy with me, only this pair of daggers. Why not leave them for the two kids?" The two men thanked him and took their respective daggers. When the daggers were unsheathed, a sinister coldness came from them. Their blades were obviously very sharp.
Qiu Chuji explained: "This pair of daggers came into my possession by coincidence. Although they are sharp, their small design does not fit me at all. But the kids can use them to protect themselves.
Ten years from now, if I’m lucky to be still in this world, I will come to this place again and teach Eagle Shooting Hero
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the kids some kung fu. How does that sound?" The two men could not be any happier and thanked him repeatedly. Qiu Chuji concluded: "The Jin are occupying the north and torturing the people there. This situation cannot last long. Gentlemen, please take care of yourselves." He picked up his bowl of wine and downed it in one gulp. Then he got up and walked out of the door. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin jumped up to try to invite him to stay. But his steps were fast and steady as he was already very far away.
Guo Xiaotian sighed: "Masters like him are always coming and going like the wind. We were lucky to make his acquaintance today, I was thinking of talking to him and asking for his views a bit more. But alas, it was not to be." Yang Tiexin smiled and replied: "Big Brother, at least Reverend Qiu was able to kill many Jin today and vented some of our anger for us as well." He held up the dagger and unsheathed it again. Gently stroking the blade, he suddenly spoke up: "Big Brother, I have a stupid idea, tell me what you think of it?"
Guo Xiaotian asked: "What is it?" Yang Tiexin explained: "If both our kids are boys, then they will be sworn brothers. If they are girls, then they'll be sworn sisters....” Guo Xiaotian cut in: "And if it is a boy and a girl, then they'll be husband and wife." The two of them grabbed each other's hand and laughed heartily.
Bao Xiruo came back out from the sleeping room, smiled, and asked: "What has made you two so happy?" Yang Tiexin repeated what they just said to her. Bao Xiruo blushed, but she was happy in her heart as well. Yang Tiexin suggested: "Let's trade daggers right now as a pledge to the engagement. If they turn out to be sworn brothers or sisters, we can still switch back. If they are a little couple....” Guo Xiaotian joked: "Then I'm really very sorry, for both daggers would belong to my family then." Bao Xiruo laughed and replied: "You never know, maybe they will both belong to our family instead." So the two men switched daggers right there. Actually, arranging marriages before a child is born happens very often, there was nothing unusual about it.
Guo Xiaotian took the dagger and happily ran back home to inform his wife. When Li Ping heard it she was quite happy as well.
Playing with the dagger and drinking by himself, Yang Tiexin was drunk before he knew it. Bao Xiruo helped her husband onto the bed and collected the dishes and bowls. Noticing that it is quite late, she went out to the backyard and collected the chicken cages. As she was closing the back door, she suddenly saw some drops of blood in the snow just in front of the door. Startled, she thought: "So not all of the blood was taken care off. If some official sees this, then we will all be in trouble." So she hurriedly grabbed a broom and started sweeping.
The drops of blood led all the way to the woods behind the house. There were also traces of someone crawling along in the snow. Bao Xiruo’s suspicions rose as she followed the blood trail into the pine trees. She arrived behind an old grave and saw something black curled up on the ground.
Bao Xiruo walked closer for a better look. Turned out it was a corpse. The man was covered in black, obviously one of the men that came for Qiu Chuji earlier. He probably didn't die right away after being wounded and crawled here. She was just about to go wake her husband to take care of this corpse when she suddenly thought: "What if someone came and saw him right at this moment?"
So she summoned up her strength and went over to the corpse. She wanted to pull it into a bush 18
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