Huang Rong caught his glance and she stuck her tongue out while making an ugly face. “Brother Ouyang,” she said, “You captured Sister Mu and put her inside the coffin at the ancestral temple.
You suffocated her to death. She came into my dreams last night; her hair was disheveled, her face covered with blood and she told me she is looking for you; she wants to take your life.”
Ouyang Ke had forgotten about her long ago and now, out of the blue, Huang Rong mentioned her name; he was startled, “Aiyo! I forgot to get her out of there!” He thought in his heart, “It’s a pity a young girl like her died of suffocation.” But then he noticed Huang Rong was smiling; apparently she was joking. “How did you know she was in the coffin? Did you rescue her?” he asked.
Ouyang Feng knew Huang Rong was trying to muddle his nephew’s mind, so that he would not be able to remember the text. “Ke’er,” he said, “Don’t bother with other matters; just concentrate on the book.” Ouyang Ke shivered. “Yes,” he said; and quickly turned his eyes back to the book.
Guo Jing noticed that the sentences in the book were nearly the same as the ones Zhou Botong taught him. The ones in his memory had even more integrity than the ones in this book. This book contained many holes, incomplete sentences and missing words, in it. He raised his head and looked up at the tree branches, trying to make some sense out of it all.
A little while later Huang Yaoshi turned the last page. “Who will recite first?” he asked.
Ouyang Ke thought, “This book is confusing and very difficult to memorize. I’d better recite it while it is still fresh in my memory.” Snatching the opportunity he said, “I will.”
Huang Yaoshi nodded his head, then to Guo Jing he said, “Please go to the bamboo groove over there. You cannot listen to him reciting.”
Guo Jing obeyed him and walked a few dozen steps towards the bamboo groove. Huang Rong saw this as a good opportunity for them to escape together, so she quietly walked towards him. Huang Yaoshi suddenly called out, “Rong’er, come here! You have to listen to them recite, otherwise you’ll say I am one-sided.”
“You are one-sided,” Huang Rong replied, “You don’t need other people to say that.”
Eagle Shooting Hero
557
“That’s nonsense!” Huang Yaoshi laughed, “Come here!”
With her mouth Huang Rong silently said, “I don’t want to come,” but she knew her father’s temperament very well; once he’d decided to keep her under his watchful eyes, it would be even more difficult for her to escape. Slowly she walked back towards them, giving Ouyang Ke her sweetest smile and said, “Brother Ouyang, what’s so good about me that you like me so much?”
Ouyang Ke’s heart melted and his vision blurred. Grinning widely he replied, “Little sister, you …
you …” he could say no more than that.
“Don’t go back to the West too soon,” Huang Rong added, “Stay on Peach Blossom Island for several days. The west is very cold, isn’t it?”
“The west is much bigger than you think. There are some cold regions, no doubt, but other parts are warm and sunny, much like the south (Jiangnan),” Ouyang Ke replied.
“I don’t believe you,” Huang Rong smiled, “You love to deceive people.”
Ouyang Ke was about to debate with her, but Ouyang Feng coldly said, “Child, you can chat again later; right now you need to recite the book.”
Ouyang Ke was startled; he realized that Huang Rong’s conversation was intended to confuse him, and indeed he had now forgotten many characters from the confusing parts. He therefore refocused his attention and slowly recited the book. “The way of Heaven: A simple fix is not enough to repair damage; it truly is an empty victory, insufficient for a real one ...”
His memory was quite good; he managed to remember most of the theory in the front part, but towards the latter part of the book – where the training methods were explained, he missed a lot. It was not surprising actually, since Madame Huang did not know martial arts and it was some time later that she re-wrote the book from memory, so the words were unknowingly jumbled. Ouyang Ke only managed to recall about ten percent of this latter part. All the while Huang Rong kept trying to divert his attention by saying, “Not right! You remembered wrong!” He could not even remember ten percent towards the end of the book.
Huang Yaoshi smiled and said, “You remembered that much and that was very good!” Raising his voice he called out, “Nephew Guo, it’s your turn to recite.”
Guo Jing walked back and, seeing the smug expression on Ouyang Ke’s face, he thought, “This man is really smart, he only read it once, yet he can still recite this mumbo-jumbo text. I don’t have that capability, so I’d better recite the ones Big Brother Zhou taught me. If it is incorrect, oh well ...
I don’t have any choice.”
Hong Qigong said, “Stupid kid, they intentionally want to make fools out of us; they planned it all.”
Huang Rong suddenly kicked the ground and leaped to the top of the bamboo pavilion. With a flick of her hand she pointed a dagger at her own chest and said, “Father, if you insist on my going to the West with that stinky boy, I will die right here right now in your presence.”
Huang Yaoshi knew his precious daughter would do what she said so he called out, “Put that dagger down! We can talk it over.”
558
Eagle Shooting Hero
Ouyang Feng thrust his staff onto the ground and with a humming sound something flew from the staff straight towards Huang Rong. The hidden projectile was very fast; before Huang Rong could see what it was, she’d already heard a clanking sound and the dagger flew from her hand, falling to the ground. At the same time Huang Yaoshi leaped to the roof, stretched his hand, grabbed his daughter’s shoulder and softly said, “It’s all right if you don’t want to get married. You can stay on Peach Blossom Island and accompany your father for the rest of your life.”
Huang Rong flailed her arms and legs, crying, “Father, you don’t love Rong’er! You don’t love Rong’er!”
Hong Qigong was amused to see Huang Yaoshi, who roamed the lakes and the sea fearlessly, who killed people without batting an eye, was actually having trouble controlling his own daughter. He could not help laughing very hard.
Ouyang Feng thought, “I will wait for the final decision and then I’ll take care of this Old Beggar and that boy surnamed Guo. We’ll sort out the other things later. If this girl acts like a spoiled brat, what do I care?” Therefore he said, “Nephew Guo’s martial arts skill is excellent; he is a real young hero. His intelligence must be excellent as well. Brother Yao, you’d better ask him to recite.”
“Exactly!” Huang Yaoshi said, “Rong’er, if you keep babbling you will disturb Nephew Guo’s concentration.” Huang Rong closed her mouth immediately.
Ouyang Feng wanted to humiliate Guo Jing very much. “Nephew Guo, please start reciting. We are going to listen respectfully,” he urged.
Guo Jing’s face reddened as he thought, “I can’t do it; I’d better recite what Big Brother Zhou taught me.” Thereupon he started reciting, “The way of Heaven: A simple fix is not enough to repair damage; it truly is an empty victory, insufficient for a real one ...” He had recited the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ from beginning to end hundreds of times before; by now it was deeply imbedded in his brain. He recited slowly but steadily with no hesitation at all.
About half a page later everybody was stunned and they thought, “This kid seems slow and dim-witted, who would have known that he is actually very smart.”
Very soon Guo Jing had reached the fourth page. Hong Qigong and Huang Rong knew very well that Guo Jing did not have that kind of intelligence and they did not know what had possessed him, but they were extremely and pleasantly surprised.
Huang Yaoshi listened attentively and compared every word with the ones in the book. He discovered that Guo Jing’s sentences were ten times more logical; firmly resembling the original text that he remembered. His heart turned cold and he unknowingly broke into a cold sweat. “Could it be that my deceased wife’s spirit in the underworld is so smart that she managed to recall the full text and passed it on to this boy?” The words kept coming out of Guo Jing’s mouth like trickling water. Huang Yaoshi was beginning to be convinced that his wife’s spirit was helping this youngster; he looked up to the sky and softly muttered, “A Heng, A Heng, you loved me so much that you have used this boy’s mouth to impart the manual to me. But why don’t you let me have a glimpse of you? I’ve played my flute every night for you; did you hear it?”
Eagle Shooting Hero
559
‘A Heng’ was Madame Huang’s nickname and nobody else but him knew this; naturally no one else knew what he was talking about. They saw that his face looked different; his eyes were glazed with tears, his mouth quivered but nothing came out of it; they were puzzled.
After being in that dazed condition for a while Huang Yaoshi suddenly had another thought. He waved his hand to stop Guo Jing. His face was as cold as if there was a layer of frost on it; fiercely he asked, “The ‘Nine Yin Manual’ that Mei Chaofeng lost, where did you find it?”