Eagle Shooting Hero 2(48)

While thinking about her mother she decided to get out of the room and walked through the hall to the front door. Her house on Peach Blossom Island had a front door that was always open, night and day, unless there was storm coming. Huang Rong went out into the yard. There was a starry sky and the air was heavy with the scent flowers. “Jing ge ge must be many li away by now; I wonder when we are going to see each other again,” she wondered in her heart. She heaved a deep sigh, wiped the tears from her eyes with the end of her long sleeve, and walked toward the flower bushes at the end of their yard. Entering the bushes and brushing away the leaves she arrived at her mother’s tomb.

The exquisiteness of the coffin’s wood, the various plants and rare orchids and the different flowers that bloomed at different seasons, were all Huang Yaoshi’s personal choices. They glowed in the moonlight with each radiating its own unique scent. Huang Rong pushed the entrance stone three times to the left and three times to the right; then exerting her strength she pushed it. The entrance stone slowly moved to the side, revealing a long and narrow stonewalled tunnel. She went in, and after making three turns, she arrived at another secret door. Beyond this door was where the coffin Eagle Shooting Hero

581

was placed. The room was lit by an oil lamp inside a precious stone container, illuminating Huang Rong’s mother’s memorial tablet.

Alone in that small underground room and seeing the painting of her deceased mother made by her father’s own hand, Huang Rong’s heart was filled with a roller coaster of emotions. She thought, “I have never seen Mother. I wonder if, after I die, will I meet her? Was she really that young and beautiful as in the picture? Where is she right now? Is she in the heaven above, in the earth below, or still in this room? I am going to stay here forever to accompany her.”

Along the walls of this tomb there were precious jewels, antique collections, paintings and calligraphy from famous artists; each worth a fortune. After his wife died, Huang Yaoshi roamed the sea and lakes to collect these precious articles. Whether it was inside the imperial palace, inside the house of some rich government official, or in a robbers’ den high up in the mountains, as long as he knew there was a treasure, he would come and steal it or take it by force. His martial arts were high and he had keen eyes and sophisticated tastes, so he managed to collect quite a few treasures which he piled up inside his wife’s tomb.

Huang Rong could see bright pearls, beautiful jade, emeralds and amethysts glimmering in the firelight; she thought, “These precious jewels don’t have any feelings, yet they will last for millions of years. Today I am looking at them in here, but in the future my body will turn into dust and they will still be here. Is it true that among living things, the smart and intelligent won’t have a long life?

Was it because she was so smart that my mother died when she was only twenty?”

Huang Rong stared at her mother’s picture for a moment, heaved a sigh, then blew out the light and walked to her mother’s coffin. She stroked the coffin lovingly and sat on the floor. Her heart was heavy with self-pity. She was leaning on the coffin, pretending she was being cuddled at her mother’s side, relying on her for consolation. Earlier that day she experienced great joy and great anxiety; that night she was completely exhausted and after a while she drifted off to sleep.

She dreamt she was inside the Zhao Palace in Beijing, all alone and fighting a group of martial artists; then the scenery changed, she was in the northern area and unexpectedly met Guo Jing there.

She’d barely said a few words to him when her mother suddenly showed up. She just knew it was her mother even though, try as she might, she could not see her face clearly. Then her mother started to fly into the sky while she called and pursued on the ground. Her mother was flying higher and higher and she was so scared. Then out of the blue she heard her father’s voice calling her mother. At first it was a distant sound, and then the voice got nearer and clearer. Huang Rong awoke with a start but her father’s voice could still be heard, mumbling indistinctly in front of the curtain. Then she calmed herself and realized that it was not a dream; her father was indeed inside the tomb, talking to her mother’s spirit.

When she was little her father often brought her here; he would tell her mother anything that happened outside, regardless of how trivial those matters were. For the past several years she did not go with her father as often, yet it did not surprise her to hear her father talking in front of the coffin. She was still upset with him and did not want to see him. She wanted to wait quietly until he left, but what she heard next surprised her.

“I have found your heart’s desire,” he said, “I know you suffered a lot that year you rewrote the

‘Nine Yin Manual’. I wanted to find it and burn it in your presence, so your spirit in heaven will be consoled. I have searched in vain for fifteen years, but today I found it.”

582



Eagle Shooting Hero

Huang Rong was surprised, “Where did Father get the ‘Nine Yin Manual’?” she wondered.

“I did not intentionally want to kill your son-in-law,” she heard her father continue. “But it was they who insisted on riding on that boat.”

Huang Rong was puzzled, “Mother’s son-in-law? Is he talking about Jing ge ge? He’s on that boat, then what?” She opened her ears and listened attentively.

Huang Yaoshi recounted how miserable and lonely his life had become since his wife passed away and how badly he missed her. Huang Rong listened to him pouring out his heart and her own heart was filled with sorrow. “Jing ge ge and I are mere youngsters and we love each other. I don’t think it will be impossible to see each other in the future; but I cannot leave my father,” she thought.

Once her mind was set, she continued listening to her father. “The Old Urchin destroyed the entire

‘Nine Yin Manual’ with the strength of his hands. I thought my hopes of sacrificing the manual to you were shattered. Who would have thought that, perhaps by divine intervention, he would insist on riding the boat I made for our future meeting?” he said.

“Every time I wanted to play aboard that boat Father always sternly prohibited me; how would he use the boat to meet Mother?” Huang Rong wondered.

Huang Yaoshi loved his wife very much. Moreover, his wife died because she wanted to make him happy. Therefore, he wanted to commit suicide as a sacrifice to her. But he knew his martial arts were profound, so he could not die easily by hanging himself or simply drinking a poison. Besides, if he died on the island, he was sure his deaf and mute servants would mutilate his body. Therefore he went to the mainland and kidnapped a highly skilled boat builder to build him this fancy boat.

This boat’s keel was no different than a regular boat’s, except that the bottom of the boat was not nailed together with metal nails, but put together with ropes and glue. Moored at the marina it looked like an extremely magnificent and beautiful yacht; but as soon as it sailed onto the sea, the waves would destroy the ropes and glue, and the boat would certainly sink.

Originally he intended to put his wife’s coffin on the boat, take the boat onto the sea and while the waves rocked the boat, he would play on his jade flute the ‘Jade-Colored Tidal Wave’ song.

Together with his wife they would be buried thousands of feet beneath the sea. That way he would make a clean end to his life without disgracing his reputation as the martial arts master of his age.

However, every time he wanted to go, he could not bear the idea of taking their daughter along, but who would raise her if he died? Finally he decided to build a tomb and placed his wife in it. He repainted the boat every year, so it always looked new. He was going to wait for their daughter to grow up before taking his last voyage.

Of course Huang Rong did not know of her father’s plan. But she kept listening anyway. “The Old Urchin was able to recite the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ completely and that Guo kid could also recite it from memory. If I sink those two into the sea, it would be the same as though I was burning the two manuals for you. If your spirit in heaven knows this, you can then rest in peace. My only regret was that the Old Beggar Hong will lose his life in vain; it is rather unfair to him. Within one day I have killed three martial arts masters for your sake. When we meet again, you can certainly say that your husband has fulfilled his promise to you. Ha ... ha … !”

Eagle Shooting Hero

583

After listening to this last part, the hair on Huang Rong’s neck stood up and her heart turned very cold. She did not completely understand what was going on, but knowing her father’s abilities very well, she was sure that there must be something terribly wrong with that boat. She was anxious for the safety of Guo Jing and the other people on board. Her heart was filled with shock and sorrow at the same time. She wanted to stand up and beg her father to save them, but she was neither able to stand nor speak; her legs were weak and her throat dry from fear. She only heard her father’s long and mournful laughter – sounding like a song or a cry, as he walked out of the tomb.

Huang Rong tried to calm herself down and thought out loud, “I must go to rescue Jing ge ge. If I can’t make it, I will still die with him.” She knew her father’s strange temper well; he’d become crazy because of his excessive love for his deceased wife and it would be useless to ask him for help. She dashed out of the tomb towards the seashore where she jumped on a boat, woke up the deaf mute servants in charge of the boat and immediately set sail.