Eagle Shooting Hero 2(87)

Wanyan Honglie sighed. “Jin Lord Liang’s desire to dispatch soldiers to the south and to stand on Wu Shan on horseback did not come true, but his heroic spirit to cross the river was inherited by us, his descendants. Once he inscribed this poem on a folding fan: ‘With a great fan in the hand, bringing a cool breeze over the entire world.’ That’s the kind of ambition he had!”

Yang Kang repeated that poem. “With a great fan in the hand, bringing a cool breeze over the entire world.” He sounded like he was really impressed by it.

Ouyang Feng laughed and said, “Someday the Prince’s dream of having great authority and standing on Wu Shan will come true.”

Wanyan Honglie quietly said, “I do hope Sir’s words will come true. There are too many ears and eyes around here…let’s just drink some wine.” So the three people changed the topic of their conversation immediately and instead talked about the scenery, what they’d seen and heard about local conditions and social customs.

Huang Rong whispered into Guo Jing’s ear, “They are having a good time drinking wine and I don’t want them to have a good time.” The two slipped away from their chamber and went to the backyard. Huang Rong took out her flint and ignited the firewood in a shed and spread the fire around. In a short moment flames arose and people shouted in confusion, “Fire!” Then they heard copper gongs being struck noisily.

“Quick…we must go to the front or we’ll lose track of them again,” Huang Rong said.

Guo Jing was filled with hatred. “Tonight I must kill that traitor Wanyan Honglie!” he said.

Huang Rong said, “First we must take Master to the palace to eat. Afterwards we will entreat the Old Urchin to face the Western Poison. Only then can we deal with the other two traitors.”

“That’s right,” Guo Jing said.

Amidst the commotion, the two walked to the front of the restaurant just as Wanyan Honglie, Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang emerged from the building. Guo Jing and Huang Rong followed them at a distance through streets and alleys towards the west market. They entered the Guan Gai Inn.

The two waited outside the inn for a long time without seeing Wanyan Honglie or the others coming back out. They concluded that they must be staying here. “Let’s return to our inn, fetch the Old Urchin, and come back here to deal with them,” Huang Rong said. They went back to the Jin Hua Inn immediately.

Approaching the inn they heard Zhou Botong shouting. Guo Jing was frightened because he thought his Master’s injury was getting worse. He rushed forward anxiously only to see Zhou Botong squatting on the ground squabbling with six or seven boys. As it turned out, he was gambling with these kids in front of the inn’s gate and he’d lost. He argued with the kids, and the kids argued back, hence the noise.

With Huang Rong’s return he was afraid she would scold him, so he turned around and went back into the inn. Huang Rong smiled and brought out the masks. Zhou Botong was delighted and Eagle Shooting Hero

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squealed again and again. He put on a mask and become the ‘Judge of Hell’, and then became a little demon.

Huang Rong expressed their desire to take him back to help them fight the Western Poison. Zhou Botong readily agreed. “Don’t worry,” he said, “My two hands can use two different fist techniques to fight him.”

Huang Rong recalled the time on Peach Blossom Island when Zhou Botong was afraid he might involuntarily use the martial arts from the ‘Nine Yin Manual’. He tied his own hands and as a result was injured by her father. “The Western Poison is very bad,” she said, “You can’t be considered disobeying your martial brother’s death wish if you injure him with the martial arts from the manual.”

Zhou Botong stared hard at her. “No, I can’t do it” he said. “I have trained hard and I don’t need to use the techniques from the manual.”

By this time Hong Qigong’s heart was already inside the Imperial Palace’s kitchen. He had waited until the second hour of this night with great difficulty. Guo Jing carried Hong Qigong on his back and the four walked on the roofs towards the Imperial Palace. The palace was taller than the other buildings and its roof glittered with gold inlay. It was very easy to identify. Before long, very quietly and without making any noises, the four leaped over the palace’s wall.

The security inside the palace was tight and guards patrolled everywhere. But with the level of lightness kungfu Zhou, Guo and Huang possessed, how could they be caught by the guards? Hong Qigong knew where the kitchen was and in a low voice he explained the way to it. In a few moments they had arrived at the imperial kitchen, located behind the ‘Six Ministry Hill’ [liu bu shan]. The kitchen was to the east of ‘Fine Bright Hall’ [jia ming dian], where the imperial meals were being prepared. These places were adjacent to the imperial sleeping chamber and the imperial personal office. All were closely guarded with alarm gongs everywhere. By this time the emperor had already gone to bed and the imperial kitchen staff had been dismissed. The four people arrived at the well-lit kitchen where several young court eunuchs slumbered inside.

Guo Jing helped Hong Qigong sit on a beam while Huang Rong and Zhou Botong looked for already cooked meals in the kitchen cabinets. Very soon the four began to eat.

Zhou Botong shook his head, “Old Beggar, the food here can’t be compared to Rong’er’s culinary skills. I don’t understand why you so earnestly desired to come here.”

Hong Qigong replied, “I wanted to eat the minced ‘Five-Treasures Mandarin Duck’. I don’t know where the chef lives…but tomorrow we will catch him. Then we’ll force him to prepare something more to your taste.”

“I can’t believe his culinary skill is superior to Rong’er’s,” Zhou Botong said.

Huang Rong smiled. She knew he wanted to thank her for the masks, which was why he praised her repeatedly.

“I want to stay here and wait for the chef,” Hong Qigong said, “Since you are bored, why don’t you and Jing’er go out of the palace and let Rong’er stay with me. Tomorrow night you can come back.”

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Zhou Botong put on the ‘City God’ mask and laughed. “No,” he said, “I want to stay here with you.

Tomorrow I am going to wear this mask to scare the old emperor. Brother Guo, Rong’er, you keep your eyes on the Old Poison. Don’t let him steal Yue Fei’s legacy.”

“What the Old Urchin said was very reasonable,” Hong Qigong said. “Go quickly and be careful.”

The two gave their promise.

“Don’t fight the Old Poison tonight. Wait for me tomorrow,” Zhou Botong said.

“We can’t beat him so naturally we won’t fight,” Huang Rong said. She, along with Guo Jing, slipped away from the imperial kitchen with the intention of going back to the Guan Gai Inn to observe Wanyan Honglie and the others’ activities.

They tiptoed through two halls in the dark. Suddenly they felt a cool breeze and faintly heard the sound of water. In the stillness of the night they could also smell a faint delicate fragrance from deep in the palace courtyard. Unexpectedly they’d come across a wooded hill placed inside the palace.

Huang Rong sniffed and knew there must be a flower garden nearby. She thought there must be many wonderful flowers and unusual plants in the Imperial Palace garden. Since she was there, she certainly could not pass up this rare opportunity to take a look. So she tugged Guo Jing’s hand and followed the flowery fragrance, looking for the garden.

Gradually the sound of water grew louder. The two walked on flower-lined paths and saw pine and bamboo trees blocking the deep blue sky above along with beautiful hills quietly standing in the background. Huang Rong was deeply impressed with this place. Even though the landscaping was inferior to that of Peach Blossom Island, the flowers and trees were exquisitely beautiful.

They walked several zhangs further and saw a streak of water appearing like a silver waterfall coming out from the side of a hill. The water ran down to a pond, and in turn, a stream of water came out of the pond so that it would not overflow. There were countless red lotuses strewn across the surface of the pond. Directly in front of the pond was a hall entrance dense with flowers. Just above the entrance were written the three characters ‘Jade-Green Cold Hall’ [cui han tang].

Huang Rong walked to the front of the hall. Below the porch she saw some stairs leading upwards, surrounded by many kinds of flowers: ‘jasmine’ [mo li], ‘fragrant vegetable’ [su xin], ‘musk deer fragrant rattan’ [she xiang teng], ‘vermillion hibiscus’ [shu jin], ‘jade cassia’ [yu gui], and ‘red banana’ [hong jiao]. Each was the kind of fragrant plants that bloom in summer. Towards the back of the hal, orchids and other scented plants hung. Sweet smelling incense burned, filling the hall and assailing their nostrils.

On a table inside the hall were several bowls of lotus root, sweet melon, loquat, and many kinds of wild fruits from the forest. Several round fans were strewn about on the chairs. It seemed that this was the hall where the emperor enjoyed the cool evening breeze before going to bed.