Tweety, Sky, Crazee, you are welcome. You'll get the answer below.
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Sure enough, approximately one hour later, a large group of people swarmed toward the back of the mountain, and arrived outside the little temple. Someone called out, "Go in and search!"
Xing Dian suddenly sprang up, grabbed his golden pestle, and stood on the vihara's doorway. Wei Xiaobao went to the window and peeked outside. Under the moonlight he saw a dense mass of heads. Turning his head around, he saw Yulin and Xing Chi were still sitting motionless. Shuang'er quietly said, "What should we do?"
Wei Xiaobao replied in low voice, "When those people rush in, we'll save the Old Emperor, and go out from the back door." After a short pause, he continued, "If along the way we get separated, we'll meet again at Ling Jing Temple."
Shuang'er nodded and said, "I am only afraid I can't carry the Old ... the Old Emperor."
"We might have to drag him away," Wei Xiaobao replied.
Suddenly the people outside shouted one after another, "Who's there randomly breaking through here?" "Grab them!" "Don't let them in!" "Damn it, get them!"
Shadows of people flashed, two men entered the door, swept past Xing Dian's body. They put their palms together toward Yulin, and then sat cross-legged on the floor. Turned out they were monks wearing gray robes. The door to this vihara was actually narrow, plus Xing Dian's bulky body was blocking it, there was really no gap between Xing Dian and the door, yet these two monks lightly and easily slipped through and came in, it seemed that they did not even touch Xing Dian's clothes. Indeed, nobody knew how these two entered the room.
Outside, the people were shouting again, "Someone is coming!" "Stop him!" "Get him!" But they heard a series of 'bang! bang! bang!' noise, some people flew out and fell to the ground. Two more monks entered the room. Without saying anything, they sat down a little bit lower than the two monks who came in first. In this way, a pair by a pair, several monks successively entered the room.
Wei Xiaobao was amused, he wondered how many more monks would come in; if several more pairs came, very soon there would not be enough room to sit in that meditation room. But after the ninth pair, no more monks came in. To his surprise, one of the ninth pair of monks was the Qing Liang Temple's Abbot Cheng Guang. Wei Xiaobao was baffled, but was grateful at the same time. "If these seventeen monks' martial art skill is more or less the same as Cheng Guang's, we don't have to fear even if more enemies were coming," he mused.
Outside, the people were still making a lot of noise, but nobody dared to rush in. After a while, an old-sounding voice said, loud and clear, "Since Shaolin Temple is determined to stand up for Qing Liang Temple, are you going to take the responsibility over this matter on your own heads too?" In the meditation room, nobody answered.
After another moment, the old man outside said again, "Very well, since they have showed off the faces of Shaolin Temple's Eighteen Luohan, we'd better leave!" Shouts and yells outside repeated continuously, everybody withdrew down the mountain.
Wei Xiaobao sized up the eighteen monks; the old ones were approximately sixty, seventy years old, the young ones were approximately in their thirties, some were tall, some were short, some were handsome, some were ugly. Their Buddhist robes were bulging, apparently they all carried weapons. "They are the Shaolin Temple's Eighteen Luohan," he thought, "In that case, Abbot Cheng Guang is also one of the Eighteen Luohan. The old bald thief Yulin is secure in the knowledge that he has a strong backing, turns out he had early on arranged these formidable helpers to escort the Emperor. These monks are meditating in here, I don't know until when they are going to do this. Laozi cannot waste my time with them, sitting here for nothing. Wei Xiaobao must not sit here until he turns into Wei Laobao[8]!"
Standing up, he went to Xing Chi and knelt down in his presence, saying, "Great Monk, with the Shaolin Temple's Eighteen Luohan escorting your holy self, you, the Great Monk, is as safe and unmovable as Mount Tai. I am prepared to go back, I wonder if you, Senior, have any instruction?"
Xing Chi opened his eyes; he smiled and said, "Thank you for your trouble. Go back and tell your master: he does not need to go up Mount Wutai and disturb my peaceful meditation. Even if he is here, definitely I won't meet him. Tell him this: if he wants the whole world at peace, 'never raise taxes', these four words [yong bu jia fu] should be firmly planted in his mind. If he can accomplish these four words, it is good enough for me, my heart will be happy."
"Yes!' Wei Xiaobao replied.
Xing Chi reached into his bosom and took out a very small bundle, he said, "Give this copy of scripture to your master. Tell him: in the matters of the world, he must let nature take its course, nothing can be forced. It would be best if he could benefit the common people of the Central Plains. But if the common people wanted us to leave, then from the place we came, there we should come back to." While saying that, he lightly patted the little bundle.
Wei Xiaobao recalled what Tao Hongying had told him; he mused, "Could it be that this is another copy of the Forty-two Chapter Sutra?" Seeing Xing Chi was handing him the bundle over, he reached out and received it with both hands.
After being silent for half a day, Xing Chi said, "You may go!"
"Yes!" Wei Xiaobao said. He crawled down and kowtowed.
"I do not dare," Xing Chi said, "Benefactor, please rise."
Wei Xiaobao stood up and walked toward the door. Suddenly his mischief arose, he turned his head toward Yulin and said, "Old monk, you have sat for a long time, don't you need to pee?" Yulin acted as if he did not hear anything. Wei Xiaobao giggled, and took a step over the threshold.
Xing Chi said, "Tell your master, even if his mother is at fault, she will always be his mother, he must not fail to observe etiquette, he also must not harbor grudge toward her."
Wei Xiaobao turned around to respond, but in his heart he said, "I am not going to pass on this words of yours."
Xing Chi said, as if he was muttering to himself, "Tell your master to be careful in everything."
"Yes," Wei Xiaobao replied.
Back at the Ling Jing Temple, Wei Xiaobao closed the door and opened the bundle. As expected, it was the Forty-two Chapter Sutra, only the envelope was made of yellow silk. He pondered over what Xing Chi had said, and thought that it corresponds with what Tao Hongying had told him. Xing Chi said, 'If the common people wanted us to leave, then from the place we came, there we should come back to.' From outside the mountain pass Manchu people came to the Central Plains; if want to return, naturally they should go back outside the pass. Xing Chi patted the little package once, obviously he was saying that when the Manchus go back, they could rely on this little package to live their lives. Wei Xiaobao also thought, "The Old Emperor told me to give this sutra to Xiao Xuanzi, should I give it to him or not? I have already had five copies in my hands, with this one, altogether I have six. Of the eight copies, I only short two. If I give this to Xiao Xuanzi, I am afraid the five copies I have will be quite useless. Luckily he did say that even if Xiao Xuanzi goes up Mount Wutai, he won't meet him; dead men tell no tales. This is a good thing dropped in front of my door, if I don't embezzle it, I am letting my Wei family's ancestors down." But then he thought about how the young emperor had complete confidence in him, embezzling his stuff means he was unworthy to be his friend, that he was being tactless and impulsive toward a friend, not the character of a hero or a warrior. Besides, even if he embezzled the book, he could not read it anyway, so giving it to a good friend seemed to be the right thing to do.
By daybreak the next morning, Wei Xiaobao led Shuang'er, Yu Ba, and their retinue going down the mountain. In going to Mount Wutai this time, he managed to see the Old Emperor, and thus achieved the mission Kangxi entrusted to him. Along the way, he acquired Shuang'er, such a good-looking, tender girl [or servant girl] with superior martial art skill; his heart was very happy.
After walking about a little over ten li, they saw a toutuo [see footnote 1 (on the title of this chapter)] coming from the opposite direction on the mountain road ahead. This toutuo was very tall, compared to that giant monk Xing Dian, it would be difficult to tell who was taller, but he was strangely very thin. Abbot Cheng Guang was already very thin, but this toutuo was at least half as thin as him. His face looked like skin wrapping a skull, his eyes were very deep, he really looked like a zombie. Perhaps it would take four of this toutuo combined to equal one Xing Dian. His long hair was draped across his shoulder, with a steel hoop on the top of his head to control his hair. He wore an oversized cloth robe, which was fluttering in the wind, as if it was hanging on a clothes-hanger.
Seeing this kind of appearance, Wei Xiaobao was rather scared, he did not dare to look too much, thus he turned his head away and evaded to the other side of the road, letting him walk pass. As the toutuo walked to him, he halted his steps and asked, “Did you come from Qing Liang Temple?”
“No,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “We came from Ling Jing Temple.”
The toutuo reached out with his left hand toward Wei Xiaobao’s left shoulder and turned his body around, so that Wei Xiaobao was face-to-face with him. “Are you the little eunuch Xiao Guizi from the Palace?” he asked.
His big hand pressed on Wei Xiaobao’s shoulder, immediately Wei Xiaobao felt his body went weak, he was unable to move a single step. “Rubbish!” he hastily said, “You think I look like an eunuch? I am Wei Gongzi [young master, son of nobility] of Yangzhou.”
“Let go of him quickly!” Shuang’er shouted, “How can you be so rude to our family’s Xianggong?”
The toutuo stretched out his right hand to press on Shuang’er’s shoulder. “Listening to your voice, you must be a little eunuch too,” he said.
Shuang’er dropped her right shoulder to dodge, her finger swiftly pointed toward his tian huo acupoint, ‘plop’ it hit right on target, but she felt as if her finger was touching am iron panel, her fingertip was in a lot of pain, even her finger was almost broken. “Ah!” she could not help but crying out. And then she felt her shoulder was in pain too, because the toutuo’s hand, which was as big as a palm-leaf fan, had grabbed her.
“Hey, hey, hey!” the toutuo laughed three times, before saying, “You, this little eunuch, has a very good martial art skill. Formidable, really formidable.”
Shuang’er’s left leg flew up, ‘Bang!’ it landed on his crotch; this time, she felt as if she was kicking a large rock. “Aiyo!” she cried out, tears flowed out of her eyes.
“Little eunuch has amazing martial art, really formidable,” the toutuo said.
“I am not a little eunuch!” Shuang’er shouted, “You are the little eunuch! Aiyo!”
The toutuo laughed, “Do you think I look like a eunuch?” he asked.
“Let me go!” Shuang’er shouted, “If you don’t, I am going to curse you.”
The toutuo said, “You sealed my acupoint, you kicked my thigh, I am not afraid of you; do you think I will afraid your cussing? Your martial art skill is superior, you must be sent out from the Palace, I must search you.”
“Your martial art skill is even higher,” Wei Xiaobao said, “So you must be sent out from the Palace even more.”
The toutuo said, “You, little eunuch, muddle things together." With left hand carrying Wei Xiaobao and right hand carrying Shuang’er, he rushed up the mountain as if he was flying. The two young people shouted and screaming, the toutuo did not pay any attention, he carried the two people as if they were nothing, his footsteps were very fast. Yu Ba and the others were dumbstruck, nobody dared to make any noise.
The toutuo rushed several zhang along the mountain path, suddenly he turned towards the hill; there was no real path there, but he tread on it as if treading on a plain ground. Wei Xiaobao felt the wind whistling past his ears; he thought, “This toutuo is very formidable, could he be he is a mountain god or some demon?”
After rushing for a while, the toutuo dropped the two people on the ground. He pointed up and said, “If you don’t tell me the truth, I am going to carry you to that mountain peak and toss you down.” What he was pointing at was a very high peak, the top of the peak is hidden in the clouds and mist.
“Alright,” Wei Xiaobao said, “I’ll tell you the truth.”
“If you are sensible,” the toutuo said, “Tell me truthfully, who are you? And who is this kid?”
“Dashi Fu [Great Master father],” Wei Xiaobao said, “She is not a kid, she … she is my … my …”
“Your what?” the toutuo asked.
“She is my … wife!” Wei Xiaobao said.
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[8] 'Xiaobao' - little/young treasure, 'Laobao' - old treasure.