The Deer and The Cauldron

**wuxiagurl** · 05-14-11, 12:23 PM

Thanks foxs!!

Wow, they do go out of their way to trick WXB. It's funny he's not afraid of death but afraid of words and writing.

Athlonmkf, I take it that the one WXB realizes is the best in the end is Shuang Er?

I'm reading Legendary Siblings and this at the same time and feel that the main characters are quite similar in some ways. Rascals with incredible luck, that I don't know whether to hate or love

**crazee** · 05-15-11, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by tweety365

Thanks foxs!

WXB is so naughty. Already at death's door, but still causing trouble. Mr. Lu won't appreciate all those turtles on his scrolls

Wonder how Mr Lu will feel when he sees the personalised signature of our hero on the precious scrolls......

Thanks Foxs....do take your time but I still visit often

**athlonkmf** · 05-16-11, 10:13 AM

Oh, I forgot to report this. In part 3 there's this part

He mused, "Good Jiejie is treating me like this, inevitably there will be intention to harm me."

I think that's a typo. (unless JY really wanted to make WXB sounds really smart, yet willing to step into danger because of beauty)

BTW. for those who want to learn more about chinese history and such: http://itunes.apple.com/nl/instituti...um/id381380446

**SkyWalker** · 05-16-11, 11:12 AM

Thanks for the update foxs.

**SkyWalker** · 05-16-11, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

It gets so much worse later in the story.... At least he understand who's the best in the end.

click to show/hide spoilers

**tweety365** · 05-16-11, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

click to show/hide spoilers

**foxs** · 05-16-11, 03:41 PM

Tweety, Wuxiagurl, Crazee, Sky, you are welcome. Here is a little bit more. Upon comparing it with Minford, I found out that he translated this part almost entirely. Hopefully (as Athlon mentioned it) after Chapter 20 we will see more details that he skipped.

Athlon, the original was 好姊姊待我这样，总有会有意害我.
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After drawing several dozen turtles, Wei Xiaobao’s hand was tired, he tossed the pen to the floor and curled up in a chair, very soon he fell asleep. When he woke up, the sky had turned dark, but unexpectedly nobody came to check him up. His tummy was growling from hunger. “This green-haired turtle want to starve laozi to death,” he mused.

After a long time, he suddenly heard footsteps outside the door, and saw light penetrating the cracks on the door, followed by the bamboo door was pushed open and Mr. Lu entered the room with a candle in his hand. He cast him a sidelong glance. Wei Xiaobao saw there was no trace of anger on his face, so the fear in his heart subsided considerably.

Mr. Lu put the candle on the table, took a quick glance around the room, and saw that Wei Xiaobao had smeared the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls so that they were no longer presentable. He could not restrain his anger from flaring up. “You … you …” he shouted, while raising his hand high, ready to strike down, but his palm stopped midair. Finally he was able to control his anger and said, “You … you …” the word choked in his throat and he could not speak.

“What do you think?” Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Is my drawing good?”

Mr. Lu heaved a deep sigh, he sat down dejectedly and said, “Good, your drawing is good.”

Surprisingly, not only he did not hit him, but he said his drawing was good. It was completely beyond Wei Xiaobao’s anticipation. Seeing his distressed expression, Wei Xiaobao knew Mr. Lu was extremely troubled, he could not help but somehow feel sorry. “Mr. Lu,” he said, “I … I’m sorry, I destroyed your paintings.”

Mr. Lu shook his head. “No … it’s nothing,” he said. He crouched on the table with his head between his hands. After quite a while, he said, “You must be hungry, let’s eat first and we’ll talk later.”

In the reception room, four dishes and a bowl of soup were arranged on the table; there were chicken and fish, the dishes were sumptuous. Soon afterwards Fang Yi and Mrs. Lu came out to accompany them. Four people ate dinner together.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly surprised, “Could it be that my dozens of turtle drawings are so good and Mr. Lu is so happy that he invited me to eat?” But he had a vague understanding in his heart that the situation did not always look like it really was. Several times he opened his mouth wanting to ask, but seeing Mr. Lu’s mixed [orig. ‘cloudy and clear’] expression, he was afraid to provoke his anger; he had not ate his fill, Mr. Lu might snatch his bowl away, then it would not be worth it. Thereupon he held his peace and ate in silence until he was full.

After dinner, Mr. Lu took him back to the study room. Mr. Lu picked up the brush from the floor and wrote ‘Wei Xiaobao’ three characters on the paper. “This is your own name,” he said, “Can you write it yourself or not?”

“It recognizes me, but I don’t recognize it,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “How can I write it?”

“Hm,” Mr. Lu looked out the window and was deep in thought for half a day. With his left hand he picked up the candle and walked toward the tadpole script calligraphy. Carefully he looked at it, pointed to the characters one by one, while with his mouth he read the characters. Returning to the table, he fetched a blank piece of paper, lifted up his brush and started to scribble rapidly. He counted the number of tadpole characters with his index finger, and then counted the number of characters he wrote on the paper. And then he rapidly scribbled again on the paper, turned his head around to look at the tadpole characters, all the while he was mumbling to himself, “Those three characters are identical, these two look the same. It must be flawless, or it won’t be believable!” He pondered for half a day, then scribbled again on the paper, and said delightedly, “Got it!”

Wei Xiaobao did not know what trick he was playing, but he did not care since his tummy was full. He saw Mr. Lu picked up another sheet of blank paper and then carefully wrote several characters. This time he wrote very slowly. Finished writing, he softly read what he wrote, swaying his head rhythmically. Wei Xiaobao only heard words like ‘Divine Dragon Island’, ‘Hong Jiaozhu’, ‘long life the same as the heaven’s’, and so on. Finally he heard something like ‘the first copy is in such and such place on such and such mountain’, ‘the second copy is in such and such place on such and such mountain’. Suddenly it dawned on him that those words were the exact words he boasted wildly to the Fat Toutuo at the Pu Ji Temple. Unexpectedly the Fat Toutuo believed it wholeheartedly and spread it out as soon as he returned here. He also thought, “That day the Fat Toutuo invited me to the Divine Dragon Island to see Hong Jiaozhu. I told him that I did not want to come, no matter what. Unexpectedly, with the demons and deities at work, the ship was sailing to this place. Now that my trickery is exposed, Hong Jiaozhu will know about it. He will definitely throw a fit; perhaps he would throw Good Jiejie and me to the snake pit, so that tens of thousands of vipers could feast on us that even our bones cannot be saved.” Thinking about endless stream of poisonous snakes crawling over his body, he was shivering all over although it was not cold.

Mr. Lu turned around with a very pleased-of-himself expression on his face. He smiled and said, “Wei Gongzi, you know the tadpole script written on the stone tablet, it is certainly a cause of delight and a reason to congratulate you. It is also our Cult’s Hong Jiaozhu’s flood of good fortunes fills up the heavens that such a child prodigy like you dropped in from the sky, that you are able to read the tadpole script.”

“Humph,” Wei Xiaobao snorted, “You don’t need to make fun of me,” he said, “How could I tell tadpole script from frog script? Laozi did not even know scabies toad script. I was simply talking nonsense to swindle that thin, bamboo-pole like toutuo.”

Mr. Lu smiled and said, “Wei Gongzi, why be too modest? This is simply the writings on the stone tablet that I wrote down from memory. I am asking for Gongzi’s direction whether I made any mistake or not.” Finished speaking, he started reciting: “In the tenth month of the Zhen Guan’s second year Jiazi[6] of the Great Tang, Distinguished (National) Duke Wei, Li Jing, along with Chief of Right Army Great General (National) Duke Su, Cheng Zhijie, Glorious Grand Master Ministry of War Duke Shang Shoucao, Li Ji, Commander-in-chief of Xuzhou (National) Duke Hu, Qin Shubao, had visited the Jinxiu Peak of Mount Wutai, to see the glorious read eastern sky, which appeared like big golden lettering on the border of the clouds, the writing says: ‘In a thousand years, there will be the Great Qing. In the East, there will be an island, Divine Dragon is its name. A certain Hong Jiaozhu will obtain favor, his supernatural spirit reaches out to relieve, his grand, awe-inspiring might is all powerful. Subduing monsters conquering demons like a rising sun. The feathered wings support his rule, breathing out stale air and breathing in fresh air. Ten thousands luck a hundred good fortune, there will never be a year without plentiful harvest. He will enjoy immortal happiness forever, universal evil spirit will venerate him. His long life will be the same as the Heaven’s, a kind sage of both pen and sword.’ In a moment, dark green characters appeared in the sky, the writing says: ‘The Heaven bestows this certain Hong by eight copies of the Forty-two-chapter Sutra. The first is stored in Dang Mo Temple [lit. sweeping away demons] on Mount Funiu in Henan, the second is kept in Tianxin Nunnery [lit. center of the sky, the will of heaven] on Mount Bijia in Shanxi, the third is in Ling Xiao Taoist Monastery [lit. rising high firmament] on Mount Qingcheng in Sichuan. The fourth is kept in Shaolin Temple on Mount Songshan in Henan, the fifth in Zhenwu Taoist Monastery on Wudang Mountain in Hubei, the sixth is stored in Jiaye Buddhist Temple in Kongtong, Sichuan border. The seventh is in Mu Palace, Kunming of Yunnan, the eighth is in Ping Xi Wang Mansion of Kunming, Yunnan.’ This tranquil revelation by the Heaven is engraved on the stone tablet, waiting for the future.”

Mr. Lu read in a pattern of falling, remaining even, and rising in pitch and rhythm. When he finished, he asked, “Is there any mistake?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “That was a stone tablet from the Tang Dynasty, how did they know that in later generation there will be Ping Xi Wang Wu Sangui?”

Mr. Lu replied, “God is intelligent and wise, He is omniscient, nothing escape his knowledge. Since He knew that in later generation there will be Hong Jiaozhu, naturally He also had foreknowledge of Wu Sangui.”

Wei Xiaobao was secretly amused; he nodded his head and said, “That’s true.” While in his heart he thought, “I wonder what trick are you playing?”

Mr. Lu said, “The inscription on this stone tablet must be accurate to the last character. Although Wei Gongzi is gifted and smart, but in my opinion, it was also the holy spirits at work, so that you understand these tadpole script. Someday in the future, perhaps some mistakes will be found. It would be best if Wei Gongzi know this writing inside-out, so that when Hong Jiaozhu summons you, you can recite it from memory fluently. If Hong Jiaozhu is happy, naturally he will heap you with rewards.”

Wei Xiaobao rolled his eyes; immediately he understood. Repeatedly nodding his head, he said, “So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is!” He guessed that the Fat Toutuo and Mr. Lu had reported to Hong Jiaozhu, telling him that a child knew the writing on a stone tablet, hence Hong Jiaozhu was determined to summon him to verify. Who would have thought that it was entirely bogus? Mr. Lu was afraid the Cult Leader would place the blame on him, he had no choice but to forge the inscription on the stone tablet to deceive the Cult Leader.

Mr. Lu said, “And now I will read one sentence, Wei Gongzi reads one sentence, always remember to read it correctly from start to finish. ‘In the tenth month of the Zhen Guan’s second year Jiazi of the Great Tang …’”

Wei Xiaobao did not want to read, he did not have the ability, much less wanted to be in cahoots with Mr. Lu in deceiving Hong Jiaozhu; but he thought it was amusing, so he repeat after Mr. Lu anyway.

His natural disposition was quick-witted and clever, for him, listening to a segment of several hundred characters and then repeating it, would not require the least bit of effort, but asking him to study was akin to asking for his life. Although this segment of writing was only several hundred characters long, it had sentences that were very difficult to pronounce, with the meanings that were even harder to comprehend, for instance his grand, awe-inspiring might is all powerful', 'breathing out stale air and breathing in fresh air'; he was completely clueless as to their meaning. Therefore, he did not have any choice but to follow Mr. Lu one sentence at a time. Fortunately, Mr. Lu did not mind the repetition and he was very patient in instructing him. Nevertheless, it took more than thirty times going through the entire writings before he could recite it without any mistake.

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[6] The first of 10 heavenly stems and the first of 12 earthly branches of the Chinese calendar, a cycle of 60 years. The last Jiazi year was 1984, by a quick calculation, since the Tang Dynasty was 618-907, the Jiazi during that period was the year 664.

**pannonian** · 05-16-11, 07:16 PM

And in the next chapter, we see Zhou Botong teaching Wei Xiaobao the 9 Turtle Manual until he can recite it from memory.

**crazee** · 05-17-11, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by pannonian

And in the next chapter, we see Zhou Botong teaching Wei Xiaobao the 9 Turtle Manual until he can recite it from memory.

Eh? You mean LOCH's Zhou Botong leapt into this thread ?
Again Foxs thanks, This episode explains what happened..... I was blurr as to what exactly happened from the serials...

**Lzydude** · 05-17-11, 06:22 AM

the 2008 adaption skipped over this part...in that, WXB fell unconscious and was taken straight to hong jiaozhu with pang toutou and mr. lu "escorting" him

**SkyWalker** · 05-17-11, 11:19 AM

Thanks foxs.

Originally Posted by tweety365

click to show/hide spoilers

**tweety365** · 05-17-11, 12:54 PM

Thanks foxs.

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

click to show/hide spoilers

**smurf120** · 05-17-11, 02:07 PM

It continues to irk me that the religious people in Jin Yong's novel are surprisingly nonchalant about their "religions". No concept of the cult leader has godly powers and will see right thru this lie and burn me with fireballs shooting out of his eyes or I will go to the 9th level of hell for lying today. From Shaolin to Wudang to Ming to Divine Dragon cult, there really is no explanation of religion or any type of fanaticism amongst believers.

click to show/hide spoilers

**foxs** · 05-18-11, 05:44 PM

Pannonian, your comments always crack me up. Crazee, Lzydude, Sky, Tweety, Smurf, thanks for dropping by. I haven't seen any adaptation, so no comment here.

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That evening he slept in Mr. Lu's home, the next morning he recited again. Seeing he was able to memorize everything, Mr. Lu was very pleased, thereupon he picked up a pen and a sheet of paper and started to write the tadpole characters one by one, asking him to identify which one was the 'wei' character, which one was the 'zhen' character. This time Wei Xiaobao could not help but whining incessantly. These tadpole characters twisted to the left and to the right, they all looked almost the same. Asking Wei Xiaobao to tell one character from the other and rewrite it one by one was as hard as asking him to climb the heaven, as painful as having his head chopped off. He was not able to sit quietly even for a moment, how could he have the patience to learn the tadpole script?

While Wei Xiaobao was frowning and worried, Mr. Lu was even more anxious. By this time Mr. Lu was already aware that the inscription on the stone tablet had a totally different meaning. He had counted the number of characters from the rubbing Fat Toutuo obtained from the stone tablet, and had composed another set of writings as best as he could, with only the exact number of characters as the rubbing, with the sole purpose to win Hong Jiaozhu's favor, he could not care about what the original inscription really mean. Composing the writing this way, naturally there were hundreds of holes in his work. For example, in the sentence 'In the tenth month of the Zhen Guan’s second year Jiazi of the Great Tang', the word 'second' (二) was the sixth character, but on the stone tablet, the sixth character had altogether eighteen strokes, no matter how you say it, it could not be a 'second' character. The fifth character only had three strokes, so it would be extremely hard to say that it was the 'Guan' (观) character. However, taking everything into consideration, even if Mr. Lu had more talent, he could not possibly fabricate a flawless article in such a short time. Hong Jiaozhu was extremely intelligent, most probably this fake article would not escape his eyes, but with the imminent great catastrophe, it was the best he could do to avoid it for the time being. About the disaster of the future, he had no choice but to wait and see.

Teaching Wei Xiaobao to write that day, the progress was painstakingly slow. By afternoon, he could only write four characters. Luckily that the tadpole characters looked very strange to begin with, so that with Wei Xiaobao's extremely ugly penmanship, the characters did not look too unsightly. If it were regular script, and it was written by a child who had never learned to write, people would be able to see if it was true or bogus as soon as they saw it.

That afternoon he learned three more characters. That evening he learned two more. That day he learned nine characters altogether. Wei Xiaobao did not stop making loud ruckus and shouting, several times he threw the brush and refused to learn. Mr. Lu threatened him, coaxed him, finally he asked Fang Yi to come and sit by his side to keep him company, only then did Wei Xiaobao reluctantly able to endure and continue to study.

While teaching him, Mr. Lu was anxious, he was afraid Hong Jiaozhu would summon him at any time. If Wei Xiaobao had not finished learning the entire writings and the Cult Leader already summoned him, no doubt Wei Xiaobao's head could not be guaranteed, but it would also be difficult for his own entire family to avoid losing their lives. However, this learning process could not be hurried at all; the more he was expected to learn faster, the slower Wei Xiaobao's progress was. His brain was stuffed full with these tadpole characters, it was like the tadpoles were actually swimming and moving, so that it was really hard for him to differentiate one character from another.

After studying for several days, the viper bite injury on Wei Xiaobao's body was completely healed, but after so much difficulty, he only managed to learn about twenty, thirty characters; not only that, he was so confused that out of ten characters, often times he would make seven or eight mistakes.

While in distress, Mr. Lu suddenly heard Fat Toutuo's voice calling out, "Mr. Lu, Jiaozhu is summoning Wei Gongzi!" Mr. Lu's countenance turned ash-grey, his hand trembled, the writing brush, which he had just dipped into ink, fell onto his lapel. An extremely tall and extremely thin man entered the study room, Fat Toutuo had indeed arrived.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, "Fat Reverend Monk, how come you have not seen me until today? I have been waiting for you for a long time."

Seeing Mr. Lu's expression, Fat Toutuo knew their important project was far from good; he did not answer Wei Xiaobao, but muttered to himself, "I should have known this little demon was talking nonsense. I was so confused and lost my capacity of clear thinking, in my eagerness to set up a great merit to protect my own life, unexpectedly I will die sooner instead."

With a cold laugh Mr. Lu said, "You are just a single person, the one surnamed Lu has eight people in my household, all of us will accompany you in delivering our lives."

The Fat Toutuo heaved a deep sigh and said, "Everybody's fate should be like this, this is called 'destiny is inexorable, there is no fleeing it'. Even if this matter did not happen, Jiaozhu will not necessarily allow us to live a few days longer."

Mr. Lu cast a quick glance toward Wei Xiaobao; he said, "It's those people who are in power, we are already old, it's time for us to die, what can we do?" The tone of his voice was full of resentment.

The Fat Toutuo sighed and said, "I'll say he is young, but happened to obtain a good position, and then he just report everything, disregarding seniority, to our superior. Ay!"

Mr. Lu stared at him for a moment, and then said, "Young people should know their place."

"Lu Xiong," the Fat Toutuo said, "Things have gotten to this point, you and I have lived and will die together, if real men have to die, we will simply die, what are we afraid of?"

Wei Xiaobao clapped his hands and said, "The Fat Reverend Monk is right, for hero and warrior, what is there to be afraid of? If I am not scared, you must not be scared even more."

"Ignorant child," Mr. Lu said with a sneer, "You don't know the immensity of heaven and earth. By the time you know the meaning of fear, it will be too late." After being lost in thought for half a day, he said, "Fat Reverend Monk, please wait a moment, I have some instructions I'd like to leave to my humble wife."

A moment later, Mr. Lu returned to the study room, there were traces of tears on his face. The Fat Toutuo said, "Lu Xiong, please give me one of your Sheng Tian [lit. to ascend to heaven/to die] pills."

Mr. Lu nodded; he took a porcelain bottle from his bosom, pulled the cork, and tipped a red pill out. He gave it to the Fat Toutuo and said, "This pill will stop your breathing as soon as it enters your mouth, you must wait for the very last moment, do not act blindly without thinking."

The Fat Toutuo received the pill; with a bitter laugh he said, "Many thanks! Fat Toutuo does not consider his own life lightly; I am not in a hurry to ascend to the heavens."

On Mount Wutai, Wei Xiaobao had witnessed the Fat Toutuo's awe-inspiring power as he took on the Shaolin Temple's Eighteen Luohan; but now he was asking for a poison. Obviously he would rather kill himself than being blamed by Hong Jiaozhu. Only now did Wei Xiaobao understand the urgency of the situation; he could not help feeling afraid.

The three of them walked out the door. Wei Xiaobao heard a faint weeping sound coming from the inner hall. "Where is Miss Fang?" he asked, "She is not going?"

"Humph," the Fat Toutuo snorted, "Your age is so young, but actually are a very affectionate person. On Mount Wutai you had Shuang'er, here you have Miss Fang." With his left hand he grabbed Wei Xiaobao and lifted him up, "Let's go!" he shouted. In large strides he rushed to the east. In just a little while, he had already run faster than a speeding horse. Mr. Lu was also running by his side, he still had a distressed look on his face.

Wei Xiaobao noticed that he appeared effortless; actually he was able to run side-by-side with the Fat Toutuo and did not fall behind even for half a step. Only now did Wei Xiaobao realize that this frail-looking scholar actually possessed an excellent martial art skill. "Fat Reverend Monk, Mr. Lu," he said, "The two of you has such a high level of martial art, why would you be afraid of Hong Jiaozhu? You ..."

The Fat Toutuo stretched out his right palm to cover his mouth. "This is the Divine Dragon Island; you dare to say such treason and heresy, are you bored being alive?" he said angrily.

As soon as his mouth was covered, Wei Xiaobao could not breathe. "Damn it," he cursed in his heart, "You fear Hong Jiaozhu like this, but still call yourself a hero [ying xiong]; a coward [gou xiong] is more appropriate."

The three of them were heading toward a mountain peak on the north. Before long, he saw vipers everywhere; on the trees, in the grass, on the road, one on the east, another on the west. The strange thing was that those vipers did not give the three of them any trouble. After winding around two hillsides, when he looked up, Wei Xiaobao was able to see several big bamboo buildings on the distant peak. The Fat Toutuo was carrying Wei Xiaobao toward that peak.

**aliderhamy** · 05-18-11, 09:09 PM

this is getting a little anoying when will WXB learn some martial arts ?

**Lzydude** · 05-18-11, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by aliderhamy

this is getting a little anoying when will WXB learn some martial arts ?

he only learns a little bit soon, but other than that, none

**athlonkmf** · 05-19-11, 02:55 AM

Originally Posted by aliderhamy

this is getting a little anoying when will WXB learn some martial arts ?

It's amazing how he gets to learn the martial arts which suits him the best. And boy... he excells at that type

**SkyWalker** · 05-19-11, 03:01 AM

Thanks for the update foxs.

Originally Posted by aliderhamy

this is getting a little anoying when will WXB learn some martial arts ?

WXB is never known for his martial arts. His mouth is his greatest weapon so far.

**crazee** · 05-19-11, 05:23 AM

Well, I suppose it gets a bit dry sometimes, and then only the more interesting parts will be better appreciated. Jing Yong is definitely a good writer,

One thing though, why is it that nobody think of starting a Jing Yong Park ? It can be something similar to Disney land.... imagine going to Shen Long Dau,.... like Tarzan's tree house for tourist in Disney....and seeing Huang Rong, Xiao Long nu and have photos snapped with them..

Thanks foxs, it's a wwelcomed update.

**aliderhamy** · 05-19-11, 06:14 AM

Originally Posted by crazee

Well, I suppose it gets a bit dry sometimes, and then only the more interesting parts will be better appreciated. Jing Yong is definitely a good writer,

One thing though, why is it that nobody think of starting a Jing Yong Park ? It can be something similar to Disney land.... imagine going to Shen Long Dau,.... like Tarzan's tree house for tourist in Disney....and seeing Huang Rong, Xiao Long nu and have photos snapped with them..

Thanks foxs, it's a wwelcomed update.

you mean like amergedon xpo ?

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