Chapter 28 – The wedding, Part 8
Yang Guo gazed at her face, his heart filled with apprehension. Time passed. A candle flame flickered and then went out by itself.
He suddenly remembered a vertical couplet in a small room at the Peach Blossom Island:
“Silkworms will not stop spitting their threads until they die; the candle has burned to ashes when tears dry up.”
Missing his wife, Huang Yaoshi wrote these two lines of a Tang poem and hung them outside the study where she used to embroider. At that time, Yang Guo saw them but paid no attention. He was just too young to understand. Now he slowly absorbed the true meaning of the lines and his heart was breaking. Suddenly before his eyes, another candle was flickering it’s last light. He thought, “These two candles are just like Long’er and I. One has burned out and the other is about to be extinguished.”
He was deep in thought for a while and then heard Xiao Longnü quietly murmur, “I’m not going to die. Guo’er… I’m not going to die. The two of us will live for many, many, many years.”
Yang Guo said, “That’s right. You can’t die. You’ll slowly improve and then you’ll be well. How does your chest feel?” Xiao Longnü didn’t reply. She was just talking in her sleep.
Yang Guo stretched out his hand to brush her forehead but felt it was burning. He was both worried and sad. He thought, “Li Mochou did all kinds of evil things but she is now alive and well. Long’er has never caused anyone harm. How come her life is cut short? Oh God, Oh God, you open your eyes but don’t see?”
In his entire life, he was never a prisoner of fear and he always acted as he pleased. But right now, facing a hopeless situation, he couldn’t do anything. He gently put Xiao Longnü’s body to the side and knelt down on the ground. He secretly prayed, “So long as God has mercy and let her injured body recover, I will… I will…” To redeem Xiao Longnü’s life, how would there be anything he was not willing to do?
While he was praying, Xiao Longnü suddenly said, “It was Ouyang Feng. Sun Po Po [Grandma Sun] said it was Ouyang Feng! Guo’er, Guo’er, where are you?” She called out in alarm and lifted her body up. Yang Guo quickly sat down by the bed, grabbed her hand, and said, “I’m here.” In her sleep, Xiao Longnü felt her body without support so she immediately woke up. Seeing now that Yang Guo was still right by her and hadn’t gone anywhere, she was greatly consoled.
Yang Guo said, “Don’t worry. In this lifetime, I’ll never leave you. And in the future, when we leave Gu Mu, I will never leave your side even for a bit.”
Xiao Longnü said, “In the outside world, sure enough there are so many good places to go. But when we get outside, I’ll still be afraid.”
Yang Guo said, “Today we don’t have to fear anything. We’ll wait for a few months for your body to recover, and then we’ll head south. I’ve heard that Lingnan [a place in South China] is warm like spring all year round. The flowers bloom and don’t wither and the leaves always stay green. We’ll put down our swords. We’ll grow plants and raise small chickens and ducks. We’ll live under the southern sun for the rest of our lives and have many, many boys and girls. Do you think these are good ideas?”
Xiao Longnü daydreamed and gently said, “We’ll put down our swords forever. That’s wonderful! Nobody hurts us and we don’t need to hurt others. We’ll grow things on a farm and we’ll keep chickens and ducks.... Oh, only if I don’t die…”
For the moment, the two hearts flew to a far-away Southern place, which was blessed with spring breezes and morning sun. They could smell the rich flower fragrances and they could hear the sounds of small chickens clucking and ducks…
No longer being able to support her head, Xiao Longnü’s mind was about to slip into a blur. But she was determined not to sleep so she said, “I don’t want to sleep. You keep talking to me.”
Yang Guo said, “Just now in your sleep you said something about Ouyang Feng. What was the matter?”
Xiao Longnü then said, “I said Ouyang Feng? What about him?”
Yang Guo added, “You also said Sun Po Po [Grandma Sun] decided that it was him.”
As Xiao Longnü heard him saying that, she immediately recalled something and said, “Oh! Sun Po Po said the man who injured my master had to be West Poison Ouyang Feng. She said in the world there were only very few people who could have hurt my master. And Ouyang Feng was the only bad person among those people. Until her death, my master never said that evil person’s name. Sun Po Po asked her ‘Is it Ouyang Feng, is it Ouyang Feng?’ but my master shook her head, smiled, and then passed away. Isn’t that Ouyang Feng your adoptive father? His martial skills were really high; no wonder my master couldn’t defeat him.”
Yang Guo sighed and said, “My adoptive father has died. Martial Grandma and Sun Po Po have died. Master Chongyang and Ancestor Grandma have died. Hatred, love, and death were all written off by God. It was like my Martial Grandma could see the future so she was not willing to say my adoptive father’s name…” But suddenly he shouted, “Oh…that must be it!”
Xiao Longnü asked, “What have you figured out?”
Yang Guo replied, “Li Mochou didn’t unseal my adoptive father’s pressure point that Martial Grandma hit. Actually, it was because Martial Grandma didn’t hit the mark in the first place!”
Xiao Longnü said, “She didn’t hit the mark? That was not possible. My master’s accupoint sealing skill was really remarkable.”
Yang Guo said, “My adoptive father had two of the world’s strange martial skills. In his whole body, the vital energy could circulate against the normal flow. The opposite circulation shifted all his pressure points so sealing the pressure point actually meant missing the point.”
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om