Chapter 5: Gan Tang Part 2

At first, Zhou Fei was completely shocked, like a small snake that was startled by a lawn edger. Subconsciously, she rushed into the forest nearby. However, halfway through, Zhou Fei quickly came to her senses, ultimately still worried for that one whose last name was Xie. [1] She found a large tree and hid in it, watching from above. She had so many questions that were unanswered—she didn't understand why Xie Yun would be willing to deliver a letter for an old man who was a complete stranger to him and also didn't understand why he would come back and walk right into a trap when he had finally escaped and made it through the night.

His words were clearly complete nonsense, but if you thought about them closely, they were somehow so natural and right that you couldn't refute them at all.

Right after Zhou Fei ran off, Xie Yun was surrounded by a group of disciples who were armed to the teeth. Zhou Fei nervously clutched a handful of tie lian-zi (iron lotus seeds) [2]; looking through the gaps between the tree leaves, she recognized several outstanding shixiong—it seems Li Jinrong placed all of the 48 Strongholds' elite in ambush near Zhou Yitang's courtyard.

These people must have received Li Jinrong's instructions as when they rushed up, they didn't say anything and immediately began to attack in a well-coordinated manner.

Four-five people each went and sealed off Xie Yun's path of retreat. Afterwards, three people skilled at swordsmanship rushed up in a crowd; two people who were good at qinggong leapt up onto two large trees on the side, one after the other, to prevent him from retreating through the trees; on the other side, thirteen long and short crossbows were propped up, each pulled back and aimed toward Xie Yun—even if he was a bird, they could still shoot him into a sieve.

Zhou Fei quietly lowered her head even more, thinking about what she would do if it were her. She didn't like to hide; she would likely land under the tree as the tree branches and leaves could help block some hidden arrows. As long as she was fast and harsh in her blows, after choosing a direction and bearing a few cuts, she could carve a way through. However, she didn't think Xie Yun would do that. Based on his perfect qinggong, his other abilities are sure to be unfathomable.

Zhou Fei wasn't really worried. In fact, she was kind of curious.

But unexpectedly, all Xie Yun said was "ai-ya". Seeing that there were people swinging at him, he instinctively stepped back. Closing his eyes, he put his bamboo flute in front of him and it was instantly shortened. He appeared to be in shock: he lifted the hems of his clothes and hopped three times on the tree branch, scrambling to hide. In a flash, there were some more cuts on his clothes and he became a beggar with a "gracious bearing", scurrying between the glint and flash of knives and swords like a frightened rat.

Watching all of this, Zhou Fei was flabbergasted. She was perplexed and thought: is this the legendary hiding one's skills?

Right at this moment, numerous crossbow arrows shot through the air, aiming right at Xie Yun. Zhou Fei was shocked and the tie lian-zi in her hands were almost thrown out when Xie Yun suddenly, like catkin in the wind, leapt up groundlessly more than three chi (1 chi = 0.33 meter) in the air. His technique was so beautiful it was like the flowing clouds and flying xian (immortals).

Zhou Fei lightly collected her fingers together and enclosed the tie lian-zi in her palm, thinking: he's strong after all.

But before her heart had completely settled down, the three swordsmen caught up with Xie Yun once again. He suddenly lifted his hand and Zhou Fei perked up, waiting to see his masterstroke. Contrary to expectations, he threw down the bamboo flute in his hand and called out: "Ai ai, stop fighting, stop fighting, I can't beat you guys! Ah! Be careful, you're going to stab someone to death!" ("ai ai": in this context, similar to "hey hey")

Three swords were placed on the neck of that "Flowing Clouds Flying Xian", catching him and removing him from the tree. To prevent accidental injuries, Xie Yun made an effort to extend his neck, saying: "All of you heroes show me some mercy, your lao da [3] might ask me questions, I won't say anything if you cut my neck."

At this time, the crowd suddenly went silent. The group of disciples split into two, saluting one after another. Turns out, Li Jinrong arrived. It may have been her senses messing with her, but Zhou Fei felt that Li Jinrong seemed to have glanced in her direction. She rushed to move even lower.

"Li Da Dang Jia." [4] Xie Yun smiled at her from far away, glancing at the three swords placed at his neck.

Li Jinrong wasn't afraid that he would play any tricks in her presence and in a reserved manner, nodded her head once. The three swords that were placed on Xie Yun returned to their sheaths at the same time. Xie Yun touched his neck with much after fear. He then fished out a simple-looking lingpai [5] from his sleeve. He glanced at it and said with a laugh: "This is the An Ping Ling. [6] 'May the nation have a flourishing future'—so lucky and prosperous, but it couldn't grant me carefreeness for a while longer."

Li Jinrong's gaze swept over the lingpai in his hand and said sharply: "Back in the day, the Qin Emperor had made a 'By the order of the Heavens, may [we] have eternal prosperity' Imperial Seal and also had grand implications with very everlasting and unchanging auspicious words. But so what? [It] collapsed after two generations, Wang Mang revolted, Shao Di was abducted—in the end, everything that [the Qin Emperor] had worked so hard to achieve, whether good or bad, wound up in flames." [7]

Zhou Fei had never heard her mother say so many words before and almost thought she was possessed by Zhou Yitang. However, in response to Li Jinrong, Xie Yun shook his head and hung that "An Ping Ling" on a tree branch nearby.

Li Jinrong's eyes flashed: "Didn't you say where it goes, you go?"

Smiling, Xie Yun said: "The reason why wanbei came from far, far away in the first place was to deliver a letter. The An Ping Ling is only a very small token; now that the letter has been delivered, this thing is only a piece of scrap iron. If I put my life on the line for it again, wouldn't I have my priorities mixed up?"

Li Jinrong's expression began to turn even more sullen: "The letter has been delivered? You really believe that by casually playing a far-fetched tune, you can save yourself? I might as well tell you, the one you are looking for isn't here at all."

In the tree, Zhou Fei paused in realization—right, to not alarm her father, Da Dang Jia even postponed her beating, how could she allow Xie gongzi to come and play his flute as he pleased outside of Zhou Yitang's courtyard? Is the courtyard empty? For a moment, she was a bit nervous, but she didn't know who she was nervous for. Zhou Fei thought, her mother would definitely not harm her father, so there must be some responsibility in that letter. But if Xie gongzi's "letter" isn't delivered in the end, would he be chopped into dumpling filling by Da Dang Jia?

As Zhou Fei was "the emperor isn't anxious that something is anxious" [8] on her side, Xie Yun seemed like he didn't care at all, continuing to leisurely speak to Li Jinrong: "Da Dang Jia, timing [of an opportunity], fate and luck is not something that I can control. If the letter cannot be delivered today, then it is only my luck [at this moment]—but your [9] luck [atm] and Zhou Xiansheng's luck [atm] will not change because of nonentities like us. What will come will always come; you can avoid it for now, but you can't avoid it for your whole life. Da Dang Jia surely understands this, otherwise how would you not even dare to let Zhou Xiansheng hear a short tune?"

These words clearly angered Li Jinrong. She squeezed her words through her teeth: "You think I won't kill you?"

Before she finished speaking, the crossbows close by that had been lowered were put up again. Everyone's hands were placed on their weapons and the atmosphere suddenly turned cold. A young disciple's crossbow somehow slipped and with a buzz, that thin arrow flew straight towards the center of Xie Yun's back. Unexpectedly, in the middle of its travel, it was knocked away by a tie lian-zi.

Zhou Fei had watched for a long time and felt that this Xie gongzi seemed to be bluffing and likely had a gilded exterior. By this time, there probably wasn't any more drama to be made and she jumped down from the tree, calling out: "Mother!"

Li Jinrong didn't even move her head and said: "Get lost." (滚 gun, literal meaning: roll)

Not only did Zhou Fei not leave (lit. "roll"), she even remained completely calm as she walked a few steps forward and stood in front of Xie Yun. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the lingpai that hung on the tree branch. Its color and luster were very antique and dull, and it really looked like a scrap that couldn't even be pawned for a string of 1,000 copper coins if it were placed at a pawnshop.

"Da Dang Jia," Zhou Fei corrected herself and did a zi-zhi li (sons and nephews salute) [10] that was identical to the salute of the other disciples in her Stronghold. In a low voice, she said: "Last night, Da Dang Jia already said that as long as he turned in this pai-zi (refers to the lingpai), he could leave. Since you said that, why are you now going back on your word?"

"Zhou Fei," Li Jinrong said with a pause between each word, "I ordered you to stay in your room and reflect on your mistakes but you dared to secretly escape. Today I will definitely break your legs [through a beating]. Now roll off to the side, I don't have the time to deal with you right now!"

A disciple who had been holding a sword said hurriedly: "Da Dang Jia please calm down—A-Fei, be obedient, hurry and move away."

In her lifetime, there were two words Zhou Fei could never learn. One was "怕" (pa, Afraid/Fear) and one was "听话" (ting hua, Be obedient). Speaking of which, it was odd. If the children of households grew up under a cudgel, they would be fearful of strict zhangbei (seniors/elders). But she happened to be bizarre: the more she was beaten, the more she disobeyed; the more she was struck, the more she was unafraid. Zhou Fei didn't hide as she met Li Jinrong's gaze: "Alright, then it's a deal. Da Dang Jia remember your words and send him out of the 48 Strongholds. I'll stand here and allow you to break my legs."

Xie Yun, who had been like a flying xian for this whole time, was finally shocked. He couldn't help but say: "Hey, um, little guniang…"

Li Jinrong yelled angrily: "Take [him] down!"

A disciple on the side who held a sword whispered: "A-Fei…"

Li Jinrong shouted: "Take that little treacherous animal [11] down as well!"

The disciples didn't dare to go against Da Dang Jia, but all of them watched Zhou Fei grow up and didn't really want to fight her. After dawdling for a long while, one person finally decided to just go for it and placed his sword horizontally in a starting position. At the same time, he signaled Zhou Fei with a glance, telling her to acknowledge her mistakes—but who expected that little girl to pay no attention to his signal. Her dao had been broken by the Qian Ji but she pulled out a sword from somewhere, replying with dead seriousness: "Shixiong, sorry to offend you." [12]

As she spoke, Zhou Fei turned her wrist and the chang jian (long sword) swung out sharply, the scabbard appearing at a tall height, prising that disciple's weapon. The group of shixiong got even more overwhelmed. Seeing that she wouldn't compromise, they didn't dare to go easy on her in front of Li Jinrong. Immediately, four people surrounded them with two swords pointing towards Xie Yun, one above and one below. The remaining dao and sword came towards Zhou Fei, wanting her to block it with the chang jian.

Zhou Fei usually used a zhai-bei dao, which was much harder (referring to the material) than this sword. The two disciples anticipated that she didn't have enough nei li [13] and that they only needed to use one move to suppress the sword in her hand, preventing her from making trouble. It wouldn't be enough to injure her. But they didn't know that Zhou Fei, to often avoid Li Sheng, was used to hiding her skills—the dandao [14] only has one blade and was extremely solid. It was much harder to hide than to let go and her actual skill was far higher than what she showed. She speedily stepped back, perfectly matching (as in blocking) multiple blows. At the same time, she made one hand available and pushed Xie Yun away with force.

And Xie Yun met expectations, immediately falling down with the push of a small girl. He perfectly avoided the two swords and even made space for Zhou Fei. Using her left foot as an axis, she placed her sword horizontally in front of her and suddenly began to spin. The jarring sounds of metal clashing with metal emerged. Using her sword as a dao, she knocked away three swords. Then, the soft body of the sword got caught up with the last steel dao that was quickly approaching. The one who held the dao only felt a wave of immense force sweep over him and the dao forcibly slipped out of his hand. It was broken into two by Zhou Fei!

Even Li Jinrong was slightly in shock. But immediately afterwards, when Li Da Dang Jia realized what was up, her anger instantly increased even more and she reached towards Zhou Fei's back. Although Zhou Fei shrank away from talking back or arguing and occasionally had thoughts of treason, when it came to actually fighting with her mother, she still didn't dare to put any of it into practice. She immediately nimbly jumped into a tree with a "Yan Zi Dian Shui" (Swallow Taps the Water) and locked her sword hilt into a branch and performed a spin. Without looking behind her, she avoided Li Jinrong's second attack and danger after danger, landed on the ground along with the broken tree branch.

Off to the side, the disciples watched with fear. Their only fear was that Zhou Fei, who was all over the place, would actually anger their Da Dang Jia and that in anger, she would severely beat Zhou Fei. They rushed to intercept her and sealed her paths of retreat.

Right at this moment, someone yelled: "Stop!"

Xie Yun, who had been somewhat nervous earlier, suddenly relaxed, revealing once again his odd smiling expression. He calmly got up from the ground, brushed the dust off his body and readjusted the front of his clothes. Leisurely, he saluted towards the approaching person: "Houxue [15] greets Zhou Xiansheng."

"No, no." [16] Zhou Yitang slowly walked over. His footsteps were not quick, they were even slightly superficial. He first bent his finger and knocked it once on Zhou Fei's head, reproaching, "[You have] no manners."

Then, he and the nearby Li Jinrong met each other's gazes. His gaze slowly turned to the lingpai hanging on the tree and said in a soft voice: "The gratitude of shi-tu (master and disciple) [17], Zhou Mou [18] has already repaid it. These days, I am only a useless person who turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to reality, why did you come find me?"

Xie Yun smiled, saying: "I am only a messenger who is passing by. Gratitude [19] or former enmity, I do not know. However, if Zhou Xiansheng didn't want to see me, you could have chosen to not show yourself, could you not?"

Zhou Yitang glanced at him, asking: "And if I didn't hear anything at all?"

"That's of no worry. [S/He] who cannot hear my flute is not the one I am seeking. Shu [Mountain] is a fine natural environment that nurtures great talents and the scenery is excellent. On my path here, my eyes have been blessed. Even if I return with no results, my journey has not been made in vain." Xie Yun replied with a very open mind. Immediately afterwards, he thought up something and stung him with a sentence, not too light and not too deep. With a smile, he continued: "The struggles of a kunpeng caught in the shallows, the pain of a canglong with a snapped horn, us river carp cannot understand. Xiansheng, there's no point in discussing the cold with summer insects." [20]

—

安平令 An Ping Ling – the lingpai Xie Yun was given and needs to give to Zhou Yitang

—

[1] 姓谢的 xing Xie de: the format of 姓x的 is commonly seen as a way to call someone, usually in anger. It would literally be 'last name' '[insert last name' 'is'.

[2] 铁链子 tie lian zi: literally means an iron lotus seed. The only thing confusing about this word is because I wasn't sure if Zhou Fei was holding individual tie lian-zi or this kind of bracelet/necklace monks have that are also made of tie lian-zi. Since she throws them, they're probably individual ones but just leaving this here anyway.

[3] 老大 lao da: lao means old and da means big. However, 老 lao is often used as an add-on to a name to draw relations closer. However however, here it doesn't mean that either. As you may know, when ordering people (whether siblings or group or whatever), the eldest one is always referred to as 大 da. For example, my eldest paternal aunt would be 大姑 da gu(just like Li Sheng and Li Yan call Li Jinrong Da Gu). Anyway, here Lao Da refers to the leader of something, usually an unofficial group. (And usually a group of people who fight/steal/etc. but depends on context)

[4] Li Da Dang Jia efers to Li Jinrong, in case you were confused. Li is her last name and Da Dang Jia is her title.

[5] 令牌 ling pai: as a refresher, it's this token that gives you permission or power.

[6] 安平令 an ping ling: 安平 an ping means peace and 令 ling comes from the word lingpai. Xie Yun is laughing because it doesn't bring any peace, unlike its name.

[7] "[It] collapsed after two generations, Wang Mang revolted, Shao Di was abducted…wound up in flames." This refers to historical events: the Qin Dynasty collapsed after two generations, then later Wang Mang revolted and then later on again Shao Di, who was an emperor, was abducted. These three events are related to political turmoil and Xie Yun is referring to how the Qin Emperor's words did nothing to affect the future.

[8] 皇上不急太监急 huang shang bu ji tai jian ji: "The emperor isn't anxious but the court eunuch is anxious" The emperor always has a court eunuch as the one who goes everywhere with him and tends to him all the time. The figurative meaning is that the person involved isn't in a rush to do things but the people around him/her are anxious about those things. Zhou Fei forgets the court eunuch part and that's why the "that something" is there.

[9] Xie Yun uses 您 nin which means "you" but much more respectful.

[10] 子侄礼 zi zhi li: this literally means sons (zi) and nephews (zhi) salute (li) and refers to a type of salute. I'm not sure what it looks like, but in the story all the disciples in the Stronghold use this salute so Zhou Fei is putting distance between her and her mother.

[11] 孽畜 nie chu: literally "treacherous animal" but this is a way of rudely calling a person, usually someone young. Li Jinrong is extremely mad and so uses this to refer to Zhou Fei.

[12] 得罪了 de zui le: it literally means "I'll offend you" but figuratively it pretty much means "sorry to offend you". In other contexts, "no offense" could also be used. Zhou Fei is attacking her shixiong and so she's like sorry, but I'm still going to do this.

[13] 内力 nei li: 内 nei means internal and 力 li means strength. This is a key concept in Chinese kung fu (martial arts) and it's pretty much literally internal strength. You use it when performing moves and you can use it for many other things (such as drying hair or at least that's what characters do in many of the stories I've read lol so DISCLAIMER).

[14] 单刀 dan dao: 单 dan literally means "individual", but this is a short-hilted broadsword.

[15] 后学 hou xue: 后 hou means behind (physically) or later (time) and 学 xue means learn or knowledge. Houxue, however, is a self-deprecating term to refer to oneself (notice a pattern here with Xie Yun's mannerisms?) as a junior scholar or student.

[16] 不敢当 bu gan dang: literally "I don't dare to". This is a set phrase (also a self-deprecating term) that means "I don't deserve this" or "It's [too much of] a compliment". Also a polite way to decline something in the "I don't deserve it manner". Zhou Yitang is saying that he doesn't dare/doesn't deserve to be called a senior above Xie Yun as he calls himself a junior by using 'houxue'.

[17] 师徒之情 shi tu zhi qing: 师 shi comes from 师父 shi fu aka the master and 徒 tu comes from 徒弟 tu di aka the disciple. The 情 qing means emotions or feelings and refers to the 恩情 en qing which means gratitude. Going deeper, 恩 en means favor and so 恩情 en qing is the feeling that comes from the favor aka gratitude that is due to the favor. The master, by teaching the disciple, has done the disciple a favor and the disciple feels gratitude to the master. The concept of "returning the favor" is pretty much repaying the master for what he did for the disciple.

[18] 周某 Zhou mou: 周 Zhou is his last name and 某 mou is a pronoun that is used here to refer to oneself.

[19] 恩情 en qing: here, this word is now actually used in the story (look at [17]).

[20] 鲲鹏 kun peng: an enormous creature in Chinese mythology that is made up of two creatures. 鲲 kun is a type of enormous fish that lives in the sea up North and it can turn into a 鹏 peng. 鹏 peng is a type of enormous bird and its wings are so large that it can block the sky and the sun. Once the kun turns into the peng, the peng moves towards the south.

苍龙 cang long: also called 青龙 qing long, which literally means green dragon but is known as the Azure Dragon. This is one of 四象 si xiang or the Four Symbols and also a mythological creature. Here's the Wikipedia page for the Four Symbols.

Pretty much, Xie Yun is saying that it's pointless for men of importance to converse with a nonentity like him about serious matters.