The Deer and The Cauldron

[crazee]

Wow...what the best way to start the day ????
Logging in to the net and finding an update....and an update with Shuang Er.....beautiful.

Thanks Foxs.

Somehow, my mind is always one track....sigh, I seldom compare characters with other novels, senarios, maybe but character....I simply wonder why. It makes me feel so incapable. maybe my mind is a single processor, bad for multitasking......gotta read my manual...err anybody have it ???? oops I don't even know what's my model number.

Yah...shuang er to the rescue, and even at a time when he is imprisoned, XB is still thinking of Fang Yi. Stupid fellow, only now he realises Shuang Er is still the best and most loyal to him.

Shucks....time to work after 3 days off.......emails, meetings....spreadshits....leaves, ots, PRs, .... KPIs and so on....sigh, How I wish I have shuang er to help me

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Foxs

[foxs]

Sablemagi, Anh, you are welcome. Drak, Smurf, Athlon, IMHO, Jiang Yulang was on par with Xiao Yu'er in term of craftiness. He was afraid of XYE's martial art. On the other hand, WXB usually succeeded in besting other people because they were afraid of somebody/something else, for instance, Thin Toutuo was afraid of Hong Jiaozhu, or Wu Sangui was afraid of Kangxi, etc.; i.e. they are not exactly afraid of 'the person' WXB. In battle of wits WXB vs. Jiang Yulang, I would say 50-50, simply because JYL was not as gullible as WXB's victims. Crazee, no matter what, WXB was still thinking of Ah Ke; Shuang'er was not really 'wife material' for him.

---

Wei Xiaobao said, “I am already dead, my wife good Shuang’er is also dead. The two of us are buried in the grave, cannot move anymore. Good Shuang’er and I had eight sons and nine daughters, they all are in front of the grave, crying loudly, ‘Ah my father, oh my mother …’”

“Pfft,” Shuang’er let out a giggle, her entire small face blushed bright red; she said, “Who is going to give birth to that many sons and daughter for you?”

“Alright,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Eight sons and two daughters are too many, then we’ll have three!”

Shuang’er laughed and said, “Not …”

Several spotted deer slowly walked toward the two, apparently they were very curious. In the animal kingdom, deer’s intelligence is very low, far inferior to dogs, horses and foxes; as a result, there is a saying, ‘stupid like deer and swine’. These several spotted deer lowered their heads to scratch and sniff Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er’s faces with their nose, while letting out some noises.

Wei Xiaobao called out, “Turn over and get on the horse, Di Qing subdued the dragon!” He sprang up and mounted the deer’s back, while reaching out to hold onto the antler. Shuang’er lightly and deftly also jumped onto another spotted deer’s back.

The flock of deer was startled, they kicked their hoofs and leaped away. Shuang’er called out, “Use your dagger to kill the deer!”

“No hurry to kill,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “We ride the deer and run for our lives, Hong Jiaozhu will never catch up with us.”

“Yes, absolutely right,” Shuang’er said, “But we must not separate.” She was afraid that the two deer, one would run to the east, the other rush to the west, then it would be bad for them. Fortunately spotted deer are usually in flocks; these eight big deer ran together for quite a while. And then there were other seven or eight big deer joined the flock. Spotted deer has tall body and long legs, when they run, their speed is not inferior to that of fine horse; it’s just that riding on a deer was very rough, they were jolted and shaken very bad.

The flock ran northwesterly and covered a stretch of several li before slowing down. The two deer with riders on their backs were bucking and kicking, trying hard to shake their riders loose, but Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er held on to the antler tightly, whatever happened they won’t be thrown down. Wei Xiaobao called out, “Once we get down, it would be difficult to get back up; we might as well run away the farther the better. This is called ‘A real man gave his words, live deer cannot chase.’”

That day, although the two of them were so hungry that they almost fainted with blurred vision, they still held on tight to the deer’s neck and grabbed the antler, letting the flock of deer galloped on the vast and obscure, limitless snow-covered plain. They knew that the longer the flock of deer ran, the farther away they were from Hong Jiaozhu and the others, while at the same time the snow would not have their footprints anymore.

By nightfall, the flock of deer entered a forest. Wei Xiaobao said, “Good enough! Let’s get down!” Pulling his dagger, he ran it across the male deer’s neck. The deer ran a few steps before it collapsed to the ground.

Shuang’er said, “One deer is enough, let’s spare my deer.” And she leaped down from the deer’s back.

Wei Xiaobao’s body was weary, his strength exhausted, the bones in his entire body felt like they were about to disintegrate. He was lying on the ground, gasping for breath for quite a while. Finally he crawled toward the stag’s neck and put his mouth on the cut. ‘Glug, glug’ he drank several mouthful of the warm blood. “Shuang’er,” he called out, “Come and drink some.” Quite a bit of deer blood entered his stomach, his spirit was revived, his body was also slowly warming up.

Shuang’er also drank the deer blood. She sheared a deer leg with the dagger, gathered some dry sticks, and built a fire to roast it. “Oh deer,” she said, “You have saved our lives, but we kill you and eat you instead. We have really wronged you.”

After eating the roasted deer leg, the two of them were in high spirit. “Good Shuang’er,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You and I should live in this forest as a pair of huntsman and huntswoman; let’s not return to Beijing.”

Lowering her head, Shuang’er said, “Wherever Xianggong go, I will follow to serve you. I don’t care if you return to Beijing to be a high-ranking official, or live here as a hunter. I will always be your little servant girl.”

The flame shone on her face, Wei Xiaobao saw a rosy, tender, beautiful and cute face. He laughed and said, “In that case, didn’t we achieve great success?”

“Ah!” Shuang’er cried out and leaped onto the pine tree above her head. She laughed and said, “We did not, we did not.”

That night the two of them huddled up by the bonfire, and slept peacefully for the whole night. The next morning they woke up, Shuang’er roasted some more deer meat. The two of them ate to their hearts’ content. During the riding on the deer’s back the previous day, Wei Xiaobao’s hat fell down. Shuang’er peeled some deer skin and made one for him.

Wei Xiaobao said, “We ran away for a whole day yesterday, it won’t be easy for Hong Jiaozhu and the others to find us, but there are still some dangers that they would. We’d better ride the spotted deer and rush to the north three, four more days, then I, Wei Jiaozhu and you, Madame Shuang’er, would enjoy immortal good fortune forever, our long lives would be the same as the heaven’s.”

Shuang’er laughed and said, “What Madame Shuang’er? So unpleasant to hear. You want to ride the deer? That won’t be difficult, isn’t that another flock of deer coming over?”

Indeed they saw more than twenty big deer and little deer from the east strolling over the snowy ground. They stretched out their necks to chew the tender leaves of the trees. Human’s footprints were rare in this forest, when the flock of deer saw these two, they were not afraid at all.

“Deer are very good-natured,” Shuang’er said, “It would be best if we don’t kill them too much. This big deer of yesterday is enough for us to eat for a dozen of days.” She cut several large chunks of meat from the dead deer, and using deer skin as ropes she wrapped the meat and divided it between Wei Xiaobao and herself to be carried on their backs; and then they walked slowly toward the deer.

Wei Xiaobao reached out to gently pet a big deer. The deer turned its head around and licked his face; it was not scared at all. Wei Xiaobao called out, “Aiyo! This deer has achieved great success with me.”

Shuang’er giggled and said, “You get up first.” Only after the two humans leaped onto their backs that the two deer were startled and ran.

The flock of deer ran along the forest. The two humans held on to their antler to steer them to the north, leaving Hong Jiaozhu and the others farther and farther away. By this time Wei Xiaobao had learned how to ride the deer; it was not difficult at all. After riding more than four hours, he and Shuang’er jumped down and let the flock of deer run on their own.

Traveling this way, they rode the deer in the forest for more than ten days. Every now and then they did not meet any deer, then they would go on foot slowly. When hungry, they would eat roast venison. Their original clothes already unbearably tattered by the thistles and thorns of the forest, Shuang’er made new sets of upper garment and underpants from deerskin. Even their shoes were made of deerskin now.

One day they were out of the forest, suddenly they heard the rumbling noise of water. After walking for a while, they reached the bank of a big river. They saw in the river the water was surging up violently, the current was very strong. The two of them had been in the dense forest for more than ten days, suddenly seeing this big river, they felt that the darkness in their heart was suddenly lifted up.

After walking for several hours northward along the river, they suddenly saw three men wearing animal skin clothing; they had hoe and iron fork in their hands, from their appearance, they seemed to be hunters. Wei Xiaobao had not seen any other people for quite a while, he was greatly delighted. Hurriedly he came forward and asked, “Three Dage, where are you heading?”

A man about forty something replied, “We are going to the market at Mudanjiang[3]. Where are you going?” His accent sounded very strange.

“Aiyo,” Wei Xiaobao said, “So Mudanjiang is that way? We took a wrong turn. Nothing can be better than following the three Dage.” Immediately they followed the three hunters.

Bit by bit Wei Xiaobao tried to strike conversation with them. Turned out the three men were Tungus people who made a living by hunting and gathering ginseng. They always went to the market at Mudanjiang to do their business with Han people, hence they knew a little bit of Han language.

Mudanjiang was actually a small town of considerable size. Wei Xiaobao had always had the banknotes, he never lost it; he invited the three Tungus men to an inn to drink some wine. While they were still drinking, suddenly he heard someone on the adjacent table said, “This wooden club of yours looks very fine. Last month, there is someone who came down from Huma’erwoji Mountain …”

As soon as Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er heard the words ‘Huma’erwoji Mountain’, their hearts were shaken. They looked at each other, and then turned toward the speaker. They saw two old men fiddling with newly picked ginseng, tied with a strip of leaf, in their hands. Wei Xiaobao took out an ingot of silver and handed it over to the waiter, telling him to get more wine and meat, and a large slice of cooked beef, two catties of white wine, and deliver everything to the next table.

The two ginseng pickers were greatly surprised; they wondered why this young hunter was so hospitable, immediately they expressed thanks repeatedly. Wei Xiaobao went over to their table and toasted them several cups. With his eloquence, in just a few words he was able to find out the location of Huma’erwoji Mountain. Turned out it was located due north of where they were, still two, three thousand li away; but those two ginseng pickers had never been there either. Wei Xiaobao called Shuang’er over, and told her to ask about some mountain and river’s names on the map. The two ginseng pickers gave direction to those places one by one, and how they were. Indeed their explanation did not the slightest bit disagree with the information from the map.

After drinking wine and eating their meal, they took their leave from the Tungus men and the ginseng pickers. Wei Xiaobao pondered in his heart, “Turns out that Lu Ding Shan [deer and cauldron mountain] is still several thousand li from this place. But since we don’t have anything else to do, we might as well go dig some treasure.”

Actually, whether to dig or not to dig the treasure, he did not care too much. In the deepest part of his heart, he was afraid to meet Hong Jiaozhu, Thin Toutuo, and that bunch of people. Since Hong Jiaozhu and the others were in the south, if he went north two, three thousand li, no matter what Hong Jiaozhu would not be able to find him. He thought further, “If Shuang’er and I wait for him in the wild, mountainous country for ten or eight years, Hong Jiaozhu will definitely die. Could it be that his long life is as long as the damn heaven’s?”

Thereupon he went to leather store and bought two sets of fine mink fur coat, which he and Shuang’er put on immediately. Afraid that Hong Jiaozhu would still be able to overtake them, outside the mink fur coat they were still wearing the coarse deerskin clothing. They also used soot to blacken their faces, so that even if they were overtaken, he hoped that they would not be recognized. He hired a large carriage, and travelled north. Inside the carriage he chatted with Shuang’er. Occasionally he would ‘achieve great success’; their relation was warm and happy.

They rode the carriage for more than twenty days. The farther north they went, the colder the weather got, until finally the road was covered with ice and snow that the large carriage could not continue. The two of them then bought horses and continued north, until even the horses could not continue anymore, hence just like in the forest before, they continued on foot on snowy ground.

Luckily treasure hunting, along with seeking refuge, was what Wei Xiaobao was good at; seeing the barren hills and treacherous rapids, uninhabited open plain everywhere, he felt safer instead. Shuang’er’s memory was very good, following the direction on the map, they searched slowly to the north. Whenever they met hunters or ginseng pickers, they would inquire about the name of the place to verify their location based on the map. The map had eight small circles in four colors, which marked the location of Lu Ding Shan, where two great rivers converged.

One particular day, according to their calculation they were not too far from their destination. The two of them were walking hand in hand in a pine forest. Suddenly there was a loud bang from the northeast direction, it sounded like a firearm was being shot. Wei Xiaobao was startled. “Aiyo, not good!” he cried out, “Hong Jiaozhu has caught up with us.” Hastily he pulled Shuang’er and hid in the long thick patch of grass behind a tree. And then they heard more than a dozen people were shouting and screaming as they rushed over toward them, followed by the sound of hoof beats.

Wei Xiaobao was only afraid that Hong Jiaozhu was coming to capture him, to pull his tendon and peel his skin; this moment, as he heard the noise had nothing to do with Hong Jiaozhu, he felt slightly relieved, and looked out from among the thick patch of grass. He saw more than a dozen Tungus hunters screaming wildly while running for their lives. Suddenly there were unending ‘bang, bang, bang’; the Tungus hunters fell down, rolled around several times, and died, blood was seeping out from their bodies. Wei Xiaobao gripped Shuang’er’s hands; he thought, “This is foreign devils’ firearms.”

Following the sound of hoof beats, seven or eight riders charged in; the riders were indeed yellow-bearded, blue-eyed foreign troops. Each and every one of them was tall and powerfully built, with fiendish expression. Some were holding guns, some brandishing their cutlass wildly. In just a short period of time the rest of the Tungus hunters were all hacked to death.

The foreign troops laughed aloud, jumped down from their horses, and started raiding the hunters’ belongings; they took away several sheets of mink fur, six or seven silver fox fur, talked gibberish for a while, and then mounted their horses and left.

---

[3] A prefecture level city in Heilongjiang province, northeast China.

[crazee]

Yeah.....First to post again....

Thanks Foxs....

it's a lovely way to start the day...(before all the headaches....) a long update with XB and Shuang Er...
Real smart these 2 youngsters.
Looks like it this part is not that dry...

I suppose with Shuang Er alone, XB have not much choice but to appreciate her.
I wonder how would she rank in terms of beauty ??? In terms of loyalty and love for XB, I would say she ranks No 1.

[aliderhamy]

thanks for this FOXS

[Drak17]

@crazee, I think she'll rank 1 in term of cute-ness, instead of a beauty. The novel described her as so, so I guess she's not the "beauty" type, but much more adorable than the rest of Xiaobao's wife. The 2008 adaptation portrayed her really well in term of adorableness lol. Somewhere in there Xiaobao once said that even if he traded in all the jewelry he got for many many maids, there wouldn't be one as adorable as Shuang'er. Lol.

And of course Shuang'er is the best in term of loyalty and understanding Xiaobao!

@foxs, Ahh I forgot that Xiaobao being crafty because he held everyone weaknesses lol. I guess it's a 50-50 duel against Yulang and Xiaobao!

The stage they are in right now, they will meet that "person" from "that place", right? The adaptation I watched, the director cut some part out, for whatever reason. So I didn't know what happened then. I guess I will find out soon. Hehe.

[foxs]

Crazee, perhaps like some men and women I know, Shuang'er is not challenging enough for WXB. As we discussed it here earlier, Shuang'er had that 'servant mentality'; hence WXB never really thought of her as his 'equal' (not status-wise, since WXB himself was not someone who flaunted his status). Ali, you are welcome. How's the weather down there? The leaves are starting to fall, I suppose. Drak, I guess there is no secret here, WXB is going to Moscow soon. But I don't know if the 'cut' part is in the novel, perhaps the adaptation was correct.

Short update today, the end of Chapter 35.

---

Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er waited until the sound of hoof beats go far away before they slowly came out of the thick patch of grass. When they looked at the hunters, they found not one person was alive. The two of them looked at each other in dismay, they both saw abject terror on each other’s eyes. Wei Xiaobao said quietly, “Those foreign devils are robbers.”

“They are more vicious than robbers,” Shuang’er said, “After robbing their belongings, they also killed the people.”

Wei Xiaobao suddenly remembered something. “How could there be foreign robbers?” he wondered aloud, “Could it be that Wu Sangui already arise in rebellion?” He knew Wu Sangui and Luocha Country had made a pact; as soon as Yunnan sent their troops, Luocha Country would attack from the north. This moment suddenly saw a lot of foreign troops, could it be that for several weeks they did not hear any news from outside, Wu Sangui had already made his move? Thinking about the troops and horses under Wu Sangui’s command were numerous, he could not help feeling anxious for Xiao Xuanzi. Looking at the bodies scattered around on the ground, he only felt worry.

Shuang’er sighed and said, “These hunters are really pitiful; right now their father and mother, wife and children at home must be waiting for them to come back.”

“Oh,” Wei Xiaobao mumbled. Suddenly he said, “I want to see the young Emperor.”

Shuang’er was greatly surprised, “You want to see the young Emperor?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Wu Sangui is sending his troops to revolt, the young Emperor must have a lot of things he wanted to talk to me. Even if I cannot offer any ideas, I can still talk to him to relieve his boredom. Let us go back to Beijing.”

“We are not going to Lu Ding Shan?” Shuang’er asked.

“Not this time,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “We’ll go again next time.” Although he was eager to find the treasure, but he had already amassed gold, silver, money and valuable that he did not even know to spend it all. Thinking that Lu Ding Shan was related to Xiao Xuanzi’s dragon vein, in all honesty he did not really want to unearth it; he was afraid that as soon as he dig it out, he would jeopardize Xiao Xuanzi’s life.

He searched and discover the eight copies of ‘Forty-two-chapter Sutra’, found the pieces of sheepskin, assembled the pieces into a map, ascertained the mountains and rivers’ names on the map, all along he was enthusiastic; but by the time he had really arrived on Lu Ding Mountain, suddenly fear overcame his enthusiasm. He was only hoping to find an excuse to go as far as possible. If he said that he really wanted to give careful consideration of yi qi toward Kangxi, it might not necessarily be the truth, it’s just that this ‘digging treasure on Mount Lu Ding’ business was simply too great. He only had Shuang’er, one person, by his side; at the last moment, he could not stop cowardice from taking over. If he were leading several thousand of Valiant Cavalry Brigade officers and men, perhaps by this time he would yell, “His granny, send the troops to Lu Ding Shan!”

Shuang’er did not have any idea, naturally she would follow obediently. Wei Xiaobao said, “We go back to Beijing, but must be careful not to bump into any foreign robbers. We’d better follow the riverbank and see if we can catch a boat.”

Immediately they entered the forest and walked toward the east. Traveling until the afternoon, they reach the bank of a big river. In the distant they saw a fortified city wall. Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he thought, “When we reach the city, we can either hire a boat or ride on horses. Having money makes everything easy.” Thereupon he walked faster.

After walking several li, they saw another big river winding from the northwest and merged with this turbulent-water big river. Shuang’er suddenly said, “Xianggong, these are Amur River and Heilongjiang [river], and that … that … that must be Lu Ding Shan.” While saying that, she pointed to the fortified city.

“Are you sure you remember correctly?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “This is such a happy coincidence.”

Shuang’er said, “The map is indeed drawn like this, but on the map there were only eight colored circles, it did not say anything about fortified city.”

“There is a fortified city on Lu Ding Shan; that’s really strange,” Wei Xiaobao said, “I’ll say this city cannot be trusted. Let’s not go in there.”

“What do you mean the city cannot be trusted?” Shuang’er asked.

Wei Xiaobao replied, “Look, there is a demon cloud above the city, apparently there is a big demon inside the city.”

Shuang’er jumped in fright. “Aiyo!” she hastily said, “I am most afraid of demon. Xianggong, let’s go quickly.”

Right this moment, suddenly they heard sound of hoof beats, several dozen riders were galloping along the riverbank from the south. All around them was open plain, there was no where they could hide. Wei Xiaobao pulled Shuang’er, the two of them rolled away from the river shore and withdrew behind a large rock by the riverbank. Not too long afterwards, they saw a group of horses sweeping past; the riders were indeed foreign officers and men.

Wei Xiaobao stuck out his tongue; he followed the foreign troops with his eyes until they disappeared into the city wall. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said, “I said this city cannot be trusted, and I was right. Turns out that is not demon cloud, those are foreign cloud.”

Shuang’er said, “We have found Lu Ding Shan with great difficulty, who would have imagined that this mountain has been occupied by foreign robbers?”

“Aiyo,” suddenly Wei Xiaobao exclaimed; he sprang up and cried out, “Bad, bad!”

Seeing the huge change on his face, Shuang’er busily asked, “What is it?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “The foreign robbers must have found out the secret of the map, otherwise how can they be here? The hidden treasure and the dragon vein cannot be guaranteed.”

Shuang’er had never heard him mentioning anything about hidden treasure and the dragon vein, but the map was constructed with great difficulty, hence she had already guessed that the secret of Lu Ding Mountain must be concerning something of grave importance. Seeing the deep frown on Wei Xiaobao’s face, she said consolingly, “Xianggong, if the foreign soldiers have found the secret first, there is nothing we can do. Foreign robbers have firearms, they are very ferocious, the two of us cannot fight with them.”

Wei Xiaobao sighed and said, “I just feel strange, after we put the map together, it was only a few days before we burned it; how did the secret leak? I wonder if the foreign robbers have dug the hidden treasure and broken the young Emperor’s dragon vein. We must investigate clearly.”

Thinking about the viciousness and ruthlessness of the foreign soldiers when they massacred the people in the woods a moment ago, he could not help but shiver. “I want to go to Lu Ding Shan to investigate clearly,” he muttered to himself, “But it’s too dangerous. I must think of a better way. Good Shuang’er, let’s wait until it is dark before going, that way it won’t be too easy for the devils to detect us.”

[smurf120]

The only adaptation that addressed this part of the novel was probably TVB 1980's version. The rest tends to gloss over this part in less than one episode. It wasn't until I read Minford's version that I realized how much time WXB and Shang'er spent in Russia. It was actually very interesting (perhaps it was new information) and the only part of Minford's western voice in translating that did not bother me. Very excited to read in Chinese voice the happenings in Siberia!!!

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Foxs

[ycb5959]

I am constantly amazed at the speed of translation for WXB!
Thanks for all the hard work!

[currently watching the chinese 2008 version]

[crazee]

Yep as Smurf had said, Russia part is almost non existent in the adaptations.
I remember some snow scenes that's about it. I suppose it's difficult to get deers to mount for the movies.

Thanks foxs...

[Han Solo]

Yay! Some alone time with WXB and Shang'er! Hoping the next sections will be very interesting since their adventure in the ice cold North.

Not for long.....

Han Solo

[Drak17]

Sweet! So fast! Thanks foxs.

[Gubrak]

Don'tr know whether luocha people know kungfu.
Thanks Foxs

[foxs]

Smurf, Minford has the entire story, but Jin Yong has more details on what's going on in WXB's head before he offered any advice to Sophia. Anh, Ycb, Drak, you are welcome. Crazee, I guess it was budgetary problem. :-) I mean, Hollywood would not have that problem. Han, are you talking about Shuang'er, or the ice cold north? Gubrak, they do, but different.

---

Chapter 36 – Predator birds over ten-thousand li of barbarian flower’s sky, the beginning of the edge of clouds over thousand winding snowy roads.
(Translated by Foxs)

The two of them ate some dried venison, and then slept on the beach; by the time the second watch of the night [between 9-11pm] arrived, they quietly moved toward the fortified city. It was quiet all around, that night the moonlight was bright. They noticed that the fortified city was constructed from big lumber and big stones, the circumference was indeed not small; it was definitely not a one-day, one-night effort. Wei Xiaobao thought, “This fortified city was built sometimes ago, so nobody peeked at my map and informed Luocha people to come over here and build the city.”

He saw his own shadow as well as Shuang’er’s on the ground, and could not help but was afraid, thinking that if there were Luocha soldiers guarding on the wall, several shots, Wei Xiaobao would turn into Wei Sibao [xiao bao – little treasure, si bao – dead treasure]. Thereupon he pulled Shuang’er and crouched on the ground, trying to see if anything was astir. He saw on the southeast corner of the fortified city there was a small log cabin, with light coming out from the window; apparently it was where the guards lived. Wei Xiaobao whispered on Shuang’er’s ear, “Let’s go over there to take a look.” The two of them slowly crawled toward the log cabin.

Just as they were outside the window, suddenly they heard woman’s laughter from the inside, the laughter sounded so lascivious. Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er looked at each other; they both felt strange, “How could there be a woman?”

Wei Xiaobao peeked through a small crack on the window. But the weather was cold and the wind strong, all the cracks on the window were tightly sealed; he could not see anything. Yet the voice from the inside continued, one man one woman, they were talking and laughing gibberish that Wei Xiaobao did not understand at all. He knew that this pair of Luocha man and woman was not doing any good deed; his heart was moved. Reaching out, he embraced Shuang’er in his bosom. Shuang’er heard the voices from the inside, she seemed to understand, but not quite understood; there was a vague feeling in her heart that it was improper. When she was held in Wei Xiaobao’s arms, for fear that they would be found by the people inside, she did not dare to make any noise.

To Wei Xiaobao, it was exactly what he wanted. His left arm hugged her even tighter, his right hand gently stroked her cheek. Shuang’er’s body went weak, she leaned on his bosom. Unexpectedly, since the ground was packed with ice, in his eagerness Wei Xiaobao forgot to mind where he stood; his foot slipped, he could not hold his stand, ‘bang!’ his head hit the window heavily. “Aiyo!” he could not help but letting out a cry.

The voices inside stopped; a moment later a man’s voice shouted a question. Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er crouched on the ground, and were momentarily at a loss of what to do. They heard a latch being pulled, the wooden door creaked open, someone with a lantern in his hand standing at the door looking outside. Wei Xiaobao sprang out lightly with his dagger going straight into the man’s chest. The man did not even grunt; his body slumped and he fell down without any noise.

Shuang’er rushed into the room, but she saw the room was absolutely empty, there was no one inside. “Uh,” she exclaimed in surprise, “Where’s that woman?”

Wei Xiaobao followed her inside. He saw a kang [heatable brick bed] inside, a wooden table, and a wooden trunk; the room was illuminated by a bear fat candle on the table, but the woman had actually disappeared without a trace. “Search her quick, don’t let her go announcing our presence.” He noticed that other than the front door, this house did not have any other exits.

He dragged the dead body inside and closed the door. He saw the dead man was a foreign soldier, the lower part of his body was naked, he did not were any pants. Wei Xiaobao looked up to examine the beam, but did not see anything out of ordinary, “She must still be here,” he said. He rushed to the trunk’s side, opened the trunk lid, and quickly stepped aside to guard against the Luocha woman opened fire.

After a moment without seeing anything astir, Shuang’er said, “She is not inside the trunk. This is really strange.”

Wei Xiaobao went near the trunk to examine it, and saw the trunk was full with fur clothing. He reached in and scooped some, but underneath it was also fur clothing. Suddenly he sniffed a strong fragrant; obviously it was the smell of women’s cosmetics. “Something can’t be trusted in here,” he said. He grabbed the fur clothing and tossed them all to the ground. To his surprise, there was a hole at base of the trunk. “In here!” he cried out in delight.

Shuang’er said, “Turns out there is a tunnel in here.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Quickly intercept that Luocha woman. If she talked, a large group of foreign robbers will swarm over, we will be in a terrible mess.” Hurriedly he took off the leather clothing that he bundled up on his body, pulled his dagger, and crawled into the hole. He was very afraid of foreign troops, but he did not take foreign women to heart.

The tunnel was inclining downward, and he could only crawl, but he was slim and agile, he was able to crawl fast and nimble in the tunnel. After crawling for more than ten zhang, he heard voices ahead. He increased the strength in his hands and feet, and crawled even faster. The voice ahead was getting closer. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed as hard as he could, and touched a smooth and soft calf. The woman cried out in low voice, and frantically fled forward. Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he thought, “If I kill you with one stab, I am not a hero or warrior. Good man does not fight with women, Chinese men do not fight with Luocha demon granny[1]. Foreign male demons I have seen a lot, but what foreign female demons look like, I must take a good look.”

He re-inserted the dagger into its sheath, and charged more than a zhang forward. With both hands he grabbed the woman’s calf. Inside the tunnel, the woman was unable to turn around; she crawled forward desperately. The woman’s strength was indeed not small, unexpectedly Wei Xiaobao was unable to pull her back, instead, he was pulled forward about a zhang or so. Wei Xiaobao spread his legs toward the tunnel wall to brace himself, only then did he manage to hold himself and not dragged forward by the woman.

The woman struggled hard, Wei Xiaobao’s hands slipped; unexpectedly the woman was able to free herself. She quickly crawled forward. Wei Xiaobao threw himself to her and grabbed her waist. Suddenly he felt his head was free; they had actually reached part of the tunnel, which was fairly spacious. The woman let out a couple of soft laughter; she turned around and kissed him. But since it was dark, she kissed his nose instead.

A burst of strong fragrant assaulted Wei Xiaobao’s nostrils, the body of the woman in his bosom was smooth and slippery; to his surprise, she did not wear even one thread. He felt the woman reached back and embraced him; his mind was blurry. He heard Shuang’er asked in a low voice, “Xianggong, what is it?”

Wei Xiaobao hummed and hawed; he was just about to reply when the woman in his bosom suddenly kissed his mouth. Immediately he was unable to speak. Suddenly he heard a voice above his head saying, “We found out that Zongdu [governor-general] has arrived at Yakesa[2], therefore, we rushed over to meet him.”

As soon as these words entered Wei Xiaobao’s ears, it was as if a bucket of iced water was drenched over his head. The speaker was unexpectedly the Divine Dragon Cult’s Cult Leader Hong. How could Hong Jiaozhu be over his head? And the Luocha woman in his bosom, how could she be so flirtatious and intimate? The number of unusual things he had seen in his life was indeed not small, but what he came into tonight in this tunnel was totally new and unthinkable. The woman in his bosom was like a warm, fragrant soft jade, the Hong Jiaozhu in his mind wanted to pull his tendon and peel his skin. In his terror, hastily he pushed away to woman in his bosom, he wanted to turn around and flee; who would have thought that the woman embraced him tightly, and did not want to let him go.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly anxious; he said in her ear, “Jiligulu, xilihuala, hulihutu.” He only hoped that she would understand this made-up Luocha language. The woman let out soft laughter, twice, and said a few words in his ear; presumably she was speaking genuine Luocha language. And then she reached out to his cheek and twisted it hard.

Right this moment, a man overhead was speaking a string of gibberish foreign words. When he finished, another man said, “Zongdu Daren said, Jiaozhu of Shen Long Jiao have honored us with your presence; he wishes to welcome you very much, yet did not come to greet you, it was very lacking in manners, hence he begs for Jiaozhu’s forgiveness. Zongdu Daren wishes Hong Jiaozhuon a long life of a hundred years, great good fortune and great longevity, that everything will be according to your wishes, and wishes to be good friends with Hong Jiaozhu, to work with a common purpose, attempting the important matter together.”

Wei Xiaobao mused, “This interpreter[3] is uneducated; he changed the ‘enjoy immortal good fortune forever, long life the same as the heaven’s’ into ‘long life of a hundred years, great good fortune and great longevity’.”

He heard Hong Jiaozhu responded, “Biren [humble one, referring to self] wishes Luocha Country Emperor ten thousand years of boundless longevity, wishes Zongdu Daren good fortune, long life, health and peace, and to rise in promotion soon. Biren will do my utmost wholeheartedly, to work with Luocha Country on a common goal, attempting the important matter together. From now on blessing will be enjoyed together, difficulty will be faced together, both sides will not renege on this oath forever.” The interpreter spoke for a moment, the Luocha Country governor-general responded with some continuous gibberish.

Wei Xiaobao asked the woman in a low voice, “Who are you? Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

The woman laughed in a low voice and said, “Who are you? Why are you wearing some clothes?” While saying that, she reached out to untie Wei Xiaobao’s undergarment.

In this kind of situation, how could Wei Xiaobao have the mood to do this kind of loose, merry-making shady business? He had heard Tang Ruowang and Nan Huairen spoke Chinese; now he heard this Luocha woman spoke Chinese, he was not surprised. “It is very dangerous in here,” he busily said, “Let us get out quickly.”

The woman said in a low voice, “Don’t move! Don’t move! You move, they hear.” Although she spoke Chinese, the tone was very stiff, it sounded very awkward. Thereupon Wei Xiaobao stayed still, he did not dare to make the slightest move.

He heard Cult Leader Hong and the Luocha Country governor-general discussing how as soon as Wu Sangui deployed his troops from Yunnan, Divine Dragon Cult and Luocha Country would attack Manchurian Qing from two sides. They laid out the plan, and sure enough, it was identical to the one explained by the Mongolian big beard Hantiemo. As the discussion progressed, Cult Leader Hong offered an idea, saying that if Luocha Country attacked from Liaodong, not only the distance was great, the route was tightly guarded by Qing troops. It would be better to take the sea route and land in Tianjian, and then go straight to Beijing with firearms and cannon; that way they might take over Beijing earlier compared to Wu Sangui. The governor-general was greatly delighted; he repeatedly praised it as wonderful plan, he said that Cult Leader Hong was so loyal that in the future he would definitely take control of several provinces of China, and would be established as ‘king’. Cult Leader Hong did not stop expressing his thanks.

Wei Xiaobao was startled and angry at the same time; he thought, “This fellow Hong Jiaozhu is also a big traitor to China, not the least bit different than Wu Sangui. His plan is very vicious, I must report to the young Emperor and have him install a lot of cannon at the Tianjin seaport. When the Luocha Country warships come to attack, ‘bang, bang, bang, bang’ we’ll blast those damn ships.”

He heard Hong Jiaozhu said, “Zongdu Daren has come from afar to China, we do not have anything good as a present to you; hereby we present a hundred Dadong [district, Liaoning] pearls, a hundred sheets of mink fur, and a hundred catties of ginseng to Zongdu Daren. Outside we also have tribute to be presented to Luocha Country Emperor.”

Listening to this point, Wei Xiaobao thought, “Unexpectedly this old dog has prepared these many gifts; indeed his magical power is extensive.”

Suddenly he felt his face was warm, the woman put her cheek against his, and then he felt she reached out to grope about his body. Wei Xiaobao said in a low voice, “You grope me, I won’t be polite to you.” He also reached out to grope around her breasts. The woman suddenly let out a squeal, and broke into laughter.

This laughter was not soft, Hong Jiaozhu immediately heard it, but he thought that the governor-general hid a woman in his room, it was nothing out of ordinary; thereupon he pretended not to hear. After exchanging some pleasantries, he said that they would discuss everything in more details the next day, and then he took his leave.

Wei Xiaobao suddenly heard a racket above his head, followed by a dazzling light. Turned out he and the woman in his bosom were inside a large wooden trunk, and the trunk’s lid had just been opened by someone.

The woman giggled tenderly, and then jumped out of the trunk. She took a robe to cover her own body, and then said to Wei Xiaobao with a laugh, “Come out, come out!”

Wei Xiaobao slowly stepped out of the trunk. He saw a tall and powerfully built foreign military officer standing by the trunk with his hand pressed on the hilt of a saber hanging on his waist. The woman laughed and said, “There is one more!”

Shuang’er originally wanted to hide inside the trunk, if Wei Xiaobao got into trouble, she would think of a way to rescue him, but since the woman had already called out, she had no choice but to jump out of the trunk as well.

Wei Xiaobao saw the woman’s hair was yellow like gold, draped over her shoulder; her pair of dark green eyes looked very lively. Her skin was snow white, her appearance was very beautiful, it’s just that her nose was a bit too high, and she was also half a head taller than he was. Wei Xiaobao had never seen a foreign woman before, he could not guess how old she was, but he presumed she must be around twenty.

The woman was looking at Wei Xiaobao with a grin on her face, she said, “You, little child, groped me, scoundrel, hee hee …”

---

[1] Orig. ‘gui po’, foreign b1tch or foreign woman (Courtesy of Ren Wo Xing and CFT).

[2] Albazino is a village (selo) in Skovorodinsky District of Amur Oblast, Russia, noted as the site of Albazin, the first Russian settlement on the Amur River. Later in 17th century, the town was center of a petty kingdom known as Yagsi (Manchu:Yaksa; Chinese: Yakesa). The name of state came from Nikifor Chernigovsky's coat of arms - Jaxa.

[3] Actually, the literal translation is: one who passes on a story or communicates a message, not necessarily an interpreter.

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Foxs

[Ren Wo Xing]

foxs, fyi, when 婆 is used in this sort of way, it's just a derogatory way to refer to a woman, with the closest translation would be 'bit.ch'; so '鬼破‘ would mean 'foreign bitc.h'.

[crazee]

Woops....sounds a bit of PG 18 in this section....
I like the woman...seems like fun heh heh heh ...I guess you know what I mean.

Thanks Foxs....
Now XB is going to meet Hong Jiao Zhu again ??? Let's see how he's gonna get away again.

Yep, Shuang Er is marvellous, she keeps being the loyal servant when she could have been the mistress.
What a girl....I suppose you can't find such loyalty nowadays....

[CFT]

foxs, fyi, when 婆 is used in this sort of way, it's just a derogatory way to refer to a woman, with the closest translation would be 'bit.ch'; so '鬼破‘ would mean 'foreign bitc.h'.

Disagree. Foreign woman would be an accurate translation. Similar to gwailo (鬼佬) for a foreign man.

[foxs]

Anh, you are welcome. Crazee, do you want Shuang'er the 'servant', or Shuang'er the 'wife'? Ren, CFT, thanks for the info. I changed it per your suggestion. I also added a bit of information on Yakesa.