Guo Jing, seeing that Huang Rong was able to control Sha Gu, walked out of the inn and jumped onto the roof. He looked around for any traces of other people but found none. He jumped back down, walked around the building and noticed that this desolate inn was a stand-alone building, a
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few ‘zhangs’ apart from other houses in the area. There were no other people hiding around it. Now at last he felt relieved.
When he walked inside the inn, he saw Huang Rong holding a dagger in front of Sha Gu’s eyes, threatening her, “Who taught you martial arts? Tell me quickly or else I will kill you”. While saying that she made two stabbing moves with the dagger.
In the light from a candle, Sha Gu’s smile could be seen. Looking at her expression, it did not seem like she was brave or mad. It was more a stupid smile, completely oblivious to the danger. It seemed like she was thinking that she and Huang Rong were just playing around. Huang Rong asked her again and Sha Gu laughed and said, “You kill me, I will kill you too!”
Huang Rong’s eyebrows rose as she said “This stupid girl is not telling us anything, so we should take a look inside the hidden room. Big Brother Zhou, please take care of Master and keep an eye on this girl. Jing ge ge, let’s go in.”
Zhou Botong waved his hands and said, “No, I am going in with you.”
Huang Rong told him, “I don’t want you to come in with me.”
Although Zhou Botong was a Senior with a higher level of martial arts, for some reason he did not dare to defy Huang Rong. He could only beg, “Good Miss, next time I won’t argue with you.”
Huang Rong smiled slightly and nodded her head. Zhou Botong was very happy. He found two pine branches, lit them, and fumigated the dark hidden room for a long time. The fumigated room still emitted a very foul odor. Huang Rong picked up a pine torch and threw it into the room. There was a clatter as the torch hit the far wall and fell to the floor. The room was not very deep at all.
With the light from a torch she looked inside. The room was quiet and there was no trace of people.
At that moment Zhou Botong became impatient and snuck past Huang Rong into the room. Huang Rong followed Zhou Botong cautiously. The room was not large. In fact, it was quite small. Zhou Botong cried out “We were fooled…we were fooled, this is no good!”
Huang Rong then let out an “ah!” sound as she spotted the skeleton of a person lying on the floor.
The skeleton faced upward and the clothes had decayed. Two rows of the skeleton’s ribs were broken. There was another skeleton in the east corner of the room. This skeleton lay on top of an iron chest. There was a long sword blade penetrating the skeleton’s ribs and piercing the iron chest’s lid.
Zhou Botong noted that the room was small and dirty and he found those two corpses not that interesting. While Huang Rong carefully examined the two skeletons, Zhou Botong got really impatient and wanted to interrupt her. But he feared that Huang Rong might get angry so he did not dare say anything and behaved quietly. Inside, his mind was going crazy. He asked her, “Rong’er, Good Miss, I can go out now, can't I?”
Huang Rong said “Fine, you can go. Get Jing ge ge for me.”
Zhou Botong ran out happily and said to Guo Jing, “Go in quickly, it’s very interesting in there,” He was afraid Huang Rong might call him back but he’d found a replacement. Guo Jing went in.
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Huang Rong raised her torch to show Guo Jing the skeletons and asked, “How do you think these two people died?”
Guo Jing pointed to the skeleton on the iron chest; “Looks like this person died while trying to open the iron chest. He died from sneak attack with one thrust. The other person has two rows of shattered ribs, so he was probably attacked by a palm of great internal strength.”
Huang Rong said, “I think so too, but there are some things I don’t quite understand.”
Guo Jing replied, “What things?”
“Sha Gu obviously used Peach Blossoming Island’s ‘Jade-Green Wave Palm’ technique. Although she only knew six or seven moves and was not very proficient, her technique was good and correct,” Huang Rong said. “The two dead people…I wonder what their connection is to Sha Gu.”
Guo Jing responded, “I will ask the girl.” Because he was often called ‘stupid kid’ by others he was not willing to call that girl ‘Sha Gu’ [stupid / silly aunt].
“I truly think that girl is retarded, so it will be difficult to get any information from her. Perhaps we can investigate what little evidence we have here on our own,” Huang Rong suggested. She lifted her torch and slowly examined the skeleton on the chest and noticed a shiny object beside it. She picked it up and looked carefully. It was a gold medallion. In the middle, there is a gate engraved into the gold. On the back of the medallion, there were several engraved characters that read ‘By royal decree bestowed on the loyal martial arts master responsible for defending the state, special guard Shi Yanming’.
Huang Rong said, “If this medallion is his, this government officer’s rank was not low.”
Guo Jing replied, “A high-ranking official died in here…this is strange.”
Huang Rong checked the skeleton on the floor again and she noticed something sticking out of the rib area. She used the torch to push on it. The object fell, raising a cloud of dust, revealing a sheet made of iron. She called out in a low shocked voice and picked up the object.
Guo Jing also saw the object in her hand, “Ah!” he exclaimed.
“Do you recognize this?” Huang Rong asked.
“Certainly,” Guo Jing replied, “This is the iron ‘Eight Trigram’ [ba gua] of Village Master Lu of Cloud Manor.”
“It is an iron ‘ba gua’ alright, but it doesn’t necessarily belong to Martial Brother Lu,” Huang Rong said.
“That’s right!” Guo Jing said, “These two men’s clothes and flesh have decomposed. They have been here for at least ten years.”
Huang Rong was silent for a long time. Suddenly a thought came into her mind. She pulled out the blade stuck in the iron chest’s lid, brought it close to the flame and she saw the character ‘Qu’
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engraved on the blade. She could not help blurting, “The one lying on the floor was my older Martial Brother Qu [Qu Shige].”
“Ah!” Guo Jing exclaimed in surprise.
“Martial Brother Lu said that Martial Brother Qu was still alive. Who would have thought that he was already dead in this place … Jing ge ge, look at his leg bones,” Huang Rong said.
Guo Jing stooped down and looked, “Both of his legs were broken. Ah, it was your father who broke them,” he said.
Huang Rong nodded her head. “He is indeed Qu Lingfeng. My father once said that amongst his disciples, Martial Brother Qu had the strongest martial arts. He was also my father’s favorite …” At this point she suddenly dashed out the room. Guo Jing followed.
Huang Rong quickly went over to Sha Gu and asked, “Your surname is Qu, isn’t it?” Sha Gu giggled but did not answer.
Guo Jing gently asked, “Miss, what is your surname?”
“Surname…surname!” Sha Gu said giggling.
The two wanted to ask further, but Zhou Botong called out, “I am starving! I am starving!”
“Alright,” Huang Rong said, “We’ll need to eat first.” She untied Sha Gu and invited her to eat with them. Sha Gu was not bashful about it as she smiled, held out her hands to take a bowl, and ate.
Huang Rong told Hong Qigong everything she’d found in the secret room. Hong Qigong also thought it was peculiar. “It seems like that government officer named Shi killed your Martial Brother Qu. Who would have thought that your Martial Brother Qu, before he breathed his last, threw the blade and killed him.”
“Most probably so,” Huang Rong concurred. She took the blade and the iron ‘ba gua’ and showed them to Sha Gu. “Whose are these?” she asked.
Sha Gu’s countenance suddenly changed. She leaned her head sideways to think, seemed as though she recalled something, but after a while her expression went blank. She shook her head and took the blade, unwilling to let it go.
“Apparently she has seen this blade before,” Huang Rong said. “But it must have been a long time ago and she can’t remember anymore.”
After they finished eating she took care of Hong Qigong and let him sleep. Then she and Guo Jing went back to the room to take a further look. They thought the key to this mystery must be hidden inside the iron chest, so they removed the skeleton lying on top of it and opened the lid. It turned out the lid was unlocked and could be opened easily. In the torch light their eyes were dazzled by a chest full of gleaming pearls, jade, and all sorts of treasures and antiques.
Guo Jing only felt surprise, but Huang Rong knew each article was a very rare and precious treasure. Her father’s collection was not as extensive as the contents of this chest. She grabbed a Eagle Shooting Hero
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handful of pearls and let them roll through her fingers. The pearls made nice clinking sounds as they fell back into the chest and hit other pearls and jades. She sighed, “There must be a history behind all these treasures. If father were here he would be able tell us the origins of each.” She took them one by one and explained what they were to Guo Jing. This one was a jade bracelet, this one a rhino skin case, that one was a carnelian cup, that one was an emerald dish, and so on.