Ode to gallantry, p.36
Ode to Gallantry, page 36
"I am unwilling to die," sobbed the young woman. "But the man on the bow is so vicious that Grandmother would rather die than fall into his hands. My ... my tears ... I am really sorry, please do not take any offence..."
Just then, the planks beneath them creaked. A shadowy figure sat up in the cabin.
Shi Potian's mouth and eyes were initially facing downwards into the pillow, but after the roll, he found himself lying on his side. When he saw the figure sitting up, his heart began to beat wildly. " Guniang...," he stammered, "... Guniang, your grandmother has sat up."
The young woman gasped. She could not see what was going on because she was facing Shi Potian.
Moments later, Shi Potian could be heard shouting: "Elderly Madame, please do not take her. She is unwilling to jump into the river in suicide with you. Help, help!"
"Who is that, shouting high and low?" asked the old man on the bow, surprised to hear the voice of a young man coming from the cabin.
"Come in quickly and save them!" said Shi Potian. "The Elderly Madame is about to throw herself into the river in suicide."
Greatly startled, the old man struck the fabric canopy of the cabin with his palm. Then, he reached out with his right hand and grabbed the arm of the old woman. The strength that the old woman had spent half the day accummulating in her body dispersed immediately, and she collapsed.
When the old man took the old woman's pulse, he had another shock. "Xiaocui, did you overpractise while you were training in internal strength techniques?" he asked. "Why did you not tell me about it earlier? Why did you force yourself to act strong instead?"
"Let me go!" snapped the old woman as she gasped for breath. "Leave me alone. Get out!"
"But your energy channels are all reversed," said the old man. "That is very dangerous, for if early treatment is not given, I am afraid ... afraid that you will become a cripple. Let me lend you a helping hand."
"If you touch me one more time," said the old woman angrily, "I will bite my tongue and kill myself!"
The old man quickly withdrew his hand. "Your Hand Taiyin Channel of the Lung, Hand Shaoyin Channel of the Heart and Hand Shaoyang Channel of the Three Visceral Cavities have all been messed up," he said. "This ... this..."
"You have always wanted to defeat me with all your heart and mind," said the old woman. "Now that I have suffered from overpractising the techniques of internal strength, would it not be better for you? Things have turned out exactly as you have desired."
"We will not talk about this," said the old man. Turning to the young woman, he added: "A'Xiu, how are you? You had better pursuade your grandmother about getting some help. You ... you ... eh, why are you sleeping with a man? Is he your lover, or is he your young husband?"
"No, no!" answered A'Xiu and Shi Potian in unison. "We are both unable to move."
Stumped, the old man reached out and pulled Shi Potian to his feet. Since the ropes around his body prevented him from bending his waist and limbs, Shi Potian emerged from the folds of the quilt like a very straight pillar of wood. The sight caught the old man so unaware that he jumped with fright. After taking a good look, the old man burst into laughter. "A'Xiu," he said, "the Dragon Boat Festival (Duan1 Yang2 Jie2)(2) was over a long time ago, but you have hidden such an enormous rice dumpling in the folds of your quilt."
"No," said A'Xiu at once. "He flew in from somewhere outside. I did not ... did not hide him here."
"Why then are you unable to move?" asked the old man with a laugh. "Have you turned into a big rice dumpling too?"
"If you dare to touch A'Xiu with so much as a little finger of yours," said the old woman sternly, "I will come after you with everything I have got!"
The old man sighed. "All right, I will not touch her," he said. Then, he turned to the boatman and said, "Turn the rudder around and raise the sail. Stop the boat only when I tell you to."
"Yes," answered the boatman, for he did not dare to defy the old man's orders. Then, he began to turn the rudder slowly around.
"What is going on?" asked the old woman.
"I am taking you to the Mountain of the Azure Conch (Bi4 Luo2 Shan1) so that you can recuperate well," answered the old man. "Your current incidence of overpractising is not something to be trifled with."
"I would rather die than go to the Mountain of the Azure Conch," snapped the old woman. "I have not lost to you, so why are you taking me to that dog-den of yours by force?"
Unfazed by her protests, the old man replied: "We had an agreement to participate in a martial arts contest on the Long River. If I lose, I would go to your home and bow before you, but if you lose, you would have to come to my home. It does not matter if you have overpractised, or if you are unable to defeat me. As far as I am concerned, you have no alternative but to make this trip to the Mountain of the Azure Conch. Then, the desire that I have harboured in my heart for decades would be finally met. How wonderful, how wonderful indeed!"
"I am not going!" roared the old woman in fury. "Not going! Not going! Not...." Her voice became shriller as her protests grew. Then, suddenly, due to a difficulty in catching her breath, she collapsed.
The old man smiled, as if he had accomplished a small triumph. "You have to go even if you do not want to," he said. "Do you really have any choices left?"
By then, Shi Potian could not help but interrupt the conversation with a comment of his own: "How can you force her to go when she does not want to?"
The old man became angry once more. "Do I need you to fart like a dog here?" he shrieked as he turned his palm over to give Shi Potian a slap on the face. From the looks of things, the slap would probably make the young man dizzy, put stars in his eyes and knock a few teeth out of his mouth. Then, the old man noticed the inky-black palm-print on Shi Potian's face. Retracting his palm in surprise, he soon burst into laughter: "A-ha! Big Rice Dumpling, I had initially wondered who had you bound up like this, and now I know. It was that dear grandniece of mine. The palm-print on your face appeared after she hit you, did it not?"
"Your grandniece?" asked Shi Potian, for he did not understand what the old man was talking about.
"Do you not know who I am?" asked the old man in return. "I am Ding Busi. Ding Busan is my elder brother. Although he is older than I, his martial arts skills are not as good ... As for my grandniece..."
Shi Potian could indeed see some facial resemblance between the old man and Ding Busan. The clothes they wore were similar too, except for the bright golden yellow belt that the younger Ding had around his waist. "Ah, yes," said Shi Potian at last. "Ding Ding Dang Dang is your grandniece. You are right; the palm-print appeared after Ding Ding Dang Dang hit me. She was also the one who bound me up."
Ding Busi held his stomach and roared with laughter. "I have always said that there is no one under the sun besides the girl A'Dang who is capable of such mischief!" he remarked. "Very good, very good, very good! Why did she bind you up?"
"Her grandfather wants to kill me," answered Shi Potian. "He finds my martial arts skills too poor, and calls me a moron."
Thrilled, Ding Busan laughed until he had to bend over at the waist. He said, "When Old Fourth runs into a man whom Old Third wants to kill, he ... he..."
"He would kill him too?" asked Shi Potian in fright.
"Who is there under the sun who can guess the desires of Ding Busi's heart?" the old man asked in return. "You would think that I would have you killed too, but no, I intend to do otherwise." Standing up, he lifted Shi Potian by the scruff of the neck with his left hand. Then, he drew the edge of his right palm quickly over the ropes around Shi's body, moving the palm in a straight line from top to bottom. The thick ropes were cut immediately in a spectacular sight that was not necessarily matched by the sharpest of blades.
" Laoyezi(3), this skill of yours is very formidable," said Shi Potian appreciatively. "What is it called?"
"This skill is indeed amazing," answered Ding Busi as his anger dissipated with the young man's praise. "I am afraid that there is no one under the sun who is capable of such strength, except Ding Busi himself. The skill? Well, it is called ..."
"Hmmph, the rat has climbed on to the weighing scales," remarked the old woman with a cold and sarcastic laugh. Having regained consciousness a while ago, she could not help but interrupt when she heard Ding Busi blowing his own trumpet. "Imagine, praising your own and calling it great! This skill is called 'The Swift Sabre Cuts Through Hemp' (Kuai4 Dao1 Zhan3 Luan4 Ma2), and all the farmhands who have learnt a few moves from a three-legged cat know how to execute it. Who would not?"
Ding Busi spat in disgust. "*Pei! Pei!* Those who have learnt a few moves from a three-legged cat know how to execute my 'Swift Sabre Cuts Through Hemp'?" he asked. "You should just do it, and show me!"
"You know full well that I have overpractised," answered the old woman. "Now that I do not have any strength, you have come and uttered these irresponsible and sarcastic remarks. Big Rice Dumpling, let me tell you this: If you go to any town or marketplace, and come upon people who perform martial arts and sell medicinal pastes to swindle others, just give them a wen or two (1-2 pieces of copper-cash, or about 1 gramme of silver) and they will show you 'The Swift Sabre Cuts Through Hemp'. I assure you that what these people do will look exactly the same as what this old cheat here has done. Not only are there no differences between the two, the marketplace swindlers' skills may even be better than his! Since all the unscrupulous swindlers under the sun know this skill, how rare and desirable can it be?"
Ding Busi found the old woman's words so unkind and caustic that he could not help but become furious. Then, he reached out and made a grab for her shoulder.
"Do not be violent!" shouted Shi Potian. Moving his body aside, he turned his hand over and sent a cutting move against the old man's right wrist. This was 'The Hand of the White Crane' (Bai2 He4 Shou3), one of the eighteen moves from the seizing tehcniques that Ding Dang had taught him. He could move freely again because his acupoints -- blocked by Ding Dang much earlier -- had been released gradually by the flow of internal strength in his body. In addition, the flow of blood to his limbs was no longer restricted after the ropes around him were cut.
Ding Busi gasped in surprise, before turning his hand over and grabbing the young man's lower arm.
Shi Potian responded by changing his moves at once, for he was already very familiar with the execution of the eighteen moves that made up the Seizing Techniques of the Ding Family. As his left palm went out, his right hand headed for his opponent's eyes.
"Good!" said Ding Busi in a loud voice. "These are Old Third's seizing techniques." He stretched his arm forward and pressed it down against the other's elbow.
Shi Potian brought his arms around in a circular move and struck the old man's temples with his fists. Ding Busi lowered his arms and moved them apart, hitting the young man's arms with a lightning-fast and bone-shaking strike. He thought that the strike would break Shi's arms at once; hence, he did not expect to feel a burst of pain and numbness throughout his own torso when the four arms met. As Shi stood steady and still in response, the plank beneath Ding's feet snapped. The boat rolled violently to the left and the right. Ding took a step backwards as quickly as he could, avoiding the broken plank as he went. Then, he uttered another gasp of surprise.
Ding Busi's first gasp was merely to register his unexpected discovery of Shi Potian's ability to use the eighteen moves in the Seizing Techniques of his Ding Family. However, his second gasp was one of true astonishment, for it had occured after he was forced to take a step backwards subsequent to engaging Shi's arms in a duel of strength. Ding found the young man's internal strength so rich, profound and full-bodied that it seemed to flow endlessly. Although he had not used all his strength in the strike, the ability of his opponent to stand as if nothing had happened and the fact that he had broken a plank himself were sufficient to count as the loss of a stroke.
This man is so formidable, so how could he have been captured by Ding Dang? How did his face end up getting struck by her palm?
Doubts and suspicions crept into Ding Busi's mind.
The old woman was no less amazed by what she saw, but she quickly burst into laughter. "Even ... even a muddle-headed young man can ... can ... can...," she began, only to be stopped by the shortness of breath.
"Let me finish the sentence for you," said Ding Busi in an irritated voice. " 'Even a muddle-headed young man can defeat you, so what heroism and bravado have you left to display?' Did I say it right? If you did not give utterance to these words, you would have probably died of constipation."
The old woman nodded in agreement as laugh-lines appeared all over her face.
Ding Busan turned to Shi Potian and asked: "Big Rice Dumpling, who is your teacher?"
The young man scratched his head. Although he had learnt martial arts skills from Xie Yanke and Ding Dang, he had never actually acknowledged them as his teachers. Thus, he replied: "I do not have a teacher."
"Rubbish!" snapped Ding Busi. "In that case, where did you steal the eighteen moves of our seizing techniques from?"
"I did not steal any moves," answered Shi Potian. "Ding Ding Dang Dang taught them to me in ten days. She is not my teacher, but my ... my...." Although he wanted to say 'my wife', he found it rather inappropriate. So, he simply left the fact unspoken.
"Curse your grandmother!" said Ding Busi as his anger grew. "Did you say that A'Dang taught you these skills? What nonsense!"
The old woman, whose breathing had returned to some form of normality, interrupted the exchange. "Everyone in the realm of the rivers and lakes says, 'Of the two men in the Ding Family, one is a hero, while the other is a dog-bear coward'," she remarked in a cold and sarcastic voice. "These words are not erroneous, for I have seen with my own eyes today, how absolutely true these rumours are."
Ding Busi became so angry that he began shouting like a child. "When did these words come into existence?" he asked. "You must have made them up yourself! Tell me: Who is the hero, and who is the dog-bear coward? Who is there in the martial arts circle who does not know that my pugilistic skills are better than Old Third's?"
The old woman did not dare to speak hurriedly, so her reply came out in a slow succession of words: "Ding Dang is Old Ding the Third's grand-daughter. Old Ding the Third taught his son, and the son taught his daughter Ding Dang. Then, Ding Dang went on to teach this little muddle-headed fellow here. This fellow learnt martial arts for only ten days, but he is already able to defeat Old Ding the Fourth. Now, go and get all the people under the sun to consider ... consider ... consider...." The old woman was short of breath once more.
By then, Ding Busi had become very impatient with the sluggish pace of conversation, so he quickly said: "Let me say it for you: 'Now, go and get all the people under the sun to consider this matter: Who exactly is the hero, and who is the dog-bear coward? Old Ding the Third is the hero, of course, while Old Ding the Fourth is the dog-bear coward!' " His voice become louder as he spoke, until it rang out like thunder over the river.
The old woman smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. "It ... it is good that you are aware of this," she said in a voice that was as faint as a strand of fly-away hair, yet Ding Busi's ears found these words terribly depressing.
"Who says that this Big Rice Dumpling is better than Ding Busi?" he roared resentfully. "Come, come, come; let us have another contest! If I am unable to ... to..." He wanted to say 'throw you into the river within three moves' and lay some consequences down, but as soon as the words reached the tip of his tongue, he realised that his opponent's pugilistic skills were not to be trifled with. Therefore, 'three moves' were probably insufficient to take him down.
Then, he thought about saying 'ten moves', but he quickly decided against it because he did not have the confidence to do so. 'Twenty moves', on the other hand, sounded a little to many, while 'a hundred moves' denoted a complete loss of his heroic bearing. After all, he was a man with an established name. What wonder was there if he had to use a hundred moves before the student of his grandniece could be defeated?
As he hesitated, the old woman said, "If you are unable to defeat him within a hundred thousand moves, you will formally acknowledge him ... acknowledge him ... acknowledge him ... *cough* *cough*!"
" 'You will formally acknowledge him as your teacher!' " shouted Ding Busi. "That was what you wanted to say, was that not?" By then, he was already on his way towards Shi Potian, having leapt up into the air as soon as the words 'acknowledge him as your teacher' were out of his mouth. With his palms moving as if they were in flight before him, he struck out towards the top of Shi's head, as well as his chest.
Although Shi Potian had learnt the eighteen moves of the Seizing Techniques of the Ding Family, he could only respond to these moves as they were executed by Ding Dang because he had learnt to use them by rote. He could not apply the techniques to different situations, so how could he take on Ding Busi and the flurry of palms that seemed to be rushing towards him in the thousands and the ten thousands?
All he could do was to stretch his palms out in a bid to protect his head. Just then, he felt an immense pressure on the Da Zhui acupoint at the base of his neck. He had been struck.
Located where the six yang channels of the hand and the foot(4) met the Extraordinary Channel of Du (Du1 Mai4), the Da Zhui acupoint was a very vital part of the human body. Yet, it was this very location that enabled the acupoint to respond to attacks with a reflexive and simultaneous burst of internal energy that came from all the channels in the body.
As a result, Ding Busi received a tremendous jolt that shook his entire body before throwing him aside. However, when the old man looked at Shi Potian, he found him acting as if nothing had happened. Although Ding Busi had managed to hit Shi Potian, the fact that the old man himself was thrown back meant that the victor and the vanquished could not be determined between them.
The old woman spoke up in a rather sinister voice: "Ding Busi, he allowed you to hit him on purpose, but you were thrown back. You are really useless! All it took was a single move and you were defeated!"
