Chapter 28 – The wedding, Part 10
Three times a day, Yang Guo would go out to feed Guo Xiang with honey and boiled pumpkin. Other than that he rarely left Xiao Longnü’s side. To clear major pressure points, sometimes it would take four or five hours during which their hands could not be separated. At the time Guo Jing was injured, Huang Rong spent seven days and seven nights helping him cure the injuries. Compared to Guo Jing’s sturdy body, Xiao Longnü’s was far more delicate and so her injury was many times more serious.
That day at the outskirts of the woods, Huang Rong used her “Orchid Brushing Accupoint” skills to defeat Li Mochou. Then she looked everywhere but still couldn’t find her baby Guo Xiang. She was filled with anxiety and sorrow. As she came out of the forest, she shouted at Li Mochou, “What kind of tricks did you use? Where did you hide my baby?”
Surprised, Li Mochou said, “Isn’t the little girl tucked behind the thorn fence?”
Huang Rong was so worried that she almost broke down in tears. She shook her head and replied, “She’s disappeared.”
Li Mochou had been fostering Guo Xiang for many days and was quite attached to her. Suddenly hearing that she was missing, her heart skipped a beat. She quickly said, “Must be either Yang Guo or Jinlun Fawang.”
Huang Rong then asked, “How do you know?”
Then Li Mochou told her about her fight with Yang Guo and Fawang over the baby outside the walls of Xiangyang. As she talked about the dangers, Huang Rong couldn’t keep her indifferent appearance. Seeing Li Mochou’s worried expression, Huang Rong was then convinced that she didn’t know where Guo Xiang was and so she stretched out her hand to unseal the “Jade Pearl” pressure point [Xuan Ji] on her chest. With Huang Rong’s technique, Li Mochou could move round but she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone for a twelve-hour period.
With a forced smile, Li Mochou straightened up her body and brushed away the dirt. She said, “If it was Yang Guo who took her, she wouldn’t be harmed. I’m only afraid that Fawang snatched her.” Huang Rong asked again, “Why is that?” Li Mochou replied, “Yang Guo was extremely good with the little baby girl. He quickly protected her from harm. That was why I blindly thought she was his daughter.” Having realized what she just said, she suddenly shut up for fear that Huang Rong would get angry again.
But really Huang Rong’s mind was occupied by another matter. She was thinking about how Yang Guo and Li Mochou battled with Jinlun Fawang to protect Guo Xiang, while she herself and Guo Fu wrongly accused him of abominable crimes, and how Guo Fu had cut off his arm. Deep down in her heart was a grim regret. She blamed herself, “Alas, Guo’er has saved Jing Ge Ge [Brother Jing]. He’s saved me. He’s saved Fu’er. And this time he’s saved Xiang’er… First impressions always stuck in my heart. I thought about his terribly evil father and then concluded that the son had to be like the father. I’ve never trusted him… Occasionally I treated him nicely and then I’d suspect him of doing something again. Rong’er… Rong’er… You’ve prided yourself on being intelligent. You’ve spoken of confidentiality and righteousness. You are really nothing like Jing Ge Ge [Brother Jing].”
Seeing tears brimming in her eyes, Li Mochou thought she was worried about her daughter’s safety. So she urged, “Guo Fu Ren [Madame Guo], your daughter is only a month old. She’s gone through quite a catastrophe but not even a single hair on her head is damaged. She was born as pretty as a doll [jade snow]. Even a she-devil, who killed people without batting an eye like me, likes her very much. She must have been born with a lucky life… the life that will change misfortune into fortune. And for all that, you can be at peace. Let the two of us go look for her together.”
Huang Rong wiped away the tears with her shirt sleeve and thought that what Li Mochou said was quite right. She also thought, “Honesty is the best way. Later on, I’ll let people think badly of me but I won’t think badly of people.” Then she stretched out her hand to unseal Li Mochou’s “Jade Pearl” point [Xuan Ji] again and said, “Li Dao Zhang [Sister Li] is willing to go find my daughter with me, I’m very grateful. But if you have an important matter to attend to, I can see you later.”
Li Mochou said, “What important matter? The most important thing is to find this little baby. You wait a minute!” Having said that, she rushed to the big hole inside a big tree and untied a rope on a leopard’s foot. Then she slapped its behind and said, “Off you go.” That leopard let out a low roar and quickly disappeared into the long grass. Puzzled, Huang Rong asked, “What did the leopard do?” With a laugh, Li Mochou said, “That was your daughter’s ‘wet-nurse’.”
Huang Rong smiled faintly and the two people headed back into town. Then they saw Guo Fu standing at the road that led into town. She was waiting impatiently for her mother.
Seeing Huang Rong, Guo Fu jumped up with joy and called out, “Ma [Mother], little sister was…” She cut herself off in mid-sentence when she unexpectedly saw that standing behind her mother was Li Mochou and she couldn’t help being frightened. She prepared herself to fight. In past times, she’d heard Wu Di Xiong [The Wu Brothers] say that Li Mochou killed their mother, so in her heart this was the most evil person on earth.
Huang Rong said, “Li Dao Zhang [Sister Li] is helping us search for your little sister. What did you say about your sister just now?”
Guo Fu replied, “Mei Mei [Sister] was kidnapped by Yang Guo. And he also snatched my little red horse. You look at this sword.” Having said that, she raised a bent sword to show her mother and said, “He used his empty shirt sleeve to strike it. The sword hit the corner of a wall and it turned out like this.”
Huang Rong and Li Mochou asked at the same time, “Using his shirt sleeve?”
Guo Fu replied, “Yes, it was really weird! Who would have thought he’d learned a devil Kung fu.”
Huang Rong and Li Mochou looked at each other in amazement. The two of them naturally knew that a person with extremely profound internal energy could definitely turn silk into a stick, or use a soft material to strike a hard object. However, even if such a renowned and talented master could be found, he would still need thirty or forty years of practice to reach that level. At a very young age, Yang Guo surprisingly had reached this high stage. And this was extremely rare. As Huang Rong heard that her daughter was taken by Yang Guo, she felt quite relieved. Li Mochou, on the other hand, thought to herself, “This boy’s marvelous Kung Fu must be the result of learning from my master’s Jade Heart Manual. Right now I have Guo Fu Ren [Madame Guo] with me. If I help her get her daughter back, she will help me snatch the manual. I’m the first disciple of the sect. Even though Shi Mei [Apprentice Sister] was Master’s favorite, she’d already broken the sect’s rule. How could I let the manual fall into a man’s hand?” And with this thought, she felt herself quite righteous.
Huang Rong had tracked down Yang Guo’s direction and said, “Fu’er, you don’t have to go back to the Peach Blossom Island anymore. We’ll go find Yang Da Ge [Big Brother Yang] together.”
Guo Fu was very pleased, and said, “Okay, Okay!” But then when she thought that she would have to see Yang Guo, her face turned completely pale.
Huang Rong’s face was grim and she said, “When you see him again; don’t ask him if he’s forgiven you. You have to sincerely take the blame and apologize.”
In her heart, Guo Fu didn’t want to submit so she said, “Why do I have to do it? Isn’t he the one kidnapping Mei Mei [Sister]?”
Huang Rong simply rephrased Li Mochou’s words and said, “If he really had an evil intention, do you think your sister would still live today? Also, if he didn’t just hit your sword but rather aimed at your small head, don’t you think right now this would be quite a pretty scene?”
Hearing her mother’s words, Guo Fu still couldn’t help but shiver inside. She secretly thought, “Is that to say he’s really shown mercy?” But since she had been spoiled since she was little she still argued, “He’s snatched my sister away; naturally he is on his way to the Passionless Valley!”
Huang Rong shook her head and said, “No, he would definitely go back to Mount Zhongnan.”
Guo Fu pursed her lips and said, “Ma, you are actually helping him! If he really had a good intention, why wouldn’t he bring Mei Mei back to us in Xiangyang? For what reason would he have to take her to Mount Zhongnan?”
Huang Rong sighed and said, “You and Yang Da Ge [Big Brother Yang] grew up together. For all that you still don’t understand his character! He’s always been arrogant and he’s never taken kindly to insults. You cut off his arm. He could have taken your life but he didn’t have the heart to. But for this matter, he also wouldn’t back down. He took your sister away to make us worry. When time passes and his anger disappears, he’ll just bring your sister back to us. Have you understood? You accused him of stealing your little sister so he simply did it to show you that he could!”
Huang Rong returned to the small restaurant that they just visited. She borrowed stationary and penned a short letter. Then she gave the store partner two silver coins for him to deliver the letter to Guo Jing in Xiangyang.
That man said, “Guo Da Sha [Hero Guo] protects our borders and keeps our mind at ease. He really is our people’s Buddha. If we little people can help in anyway, we’ll not hesitate.” He was not willing to take the money. He picked up the letter and happily left. Guo Fu saw that many people revered her father like this; she was very pleased in her heart.
The three people bought mules and set out toward Mount Zhongnan. Guo Fu didn’t like Li Mochou and they rarely talked on the way. When she bumped into Li Mochou by chance and couldn’t avoid talking, her expression would turn cold. They started traveling in the morning and stopped at night to rest. The journey was smooth. But this afternoon, while the three of them rode in a line, they saw someone speeding her horse towards them.
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