Chapter 33 – Conversations at night in Fengling, Part 8
When Guo Xiang looked at the nine people, she saw two females, one of whom was a senile appearing old woman while the other was dressed in scarlet from head to toe. She looked like she was on fire and appeared to be even more glaring in the snow’s reflection. The other seven people’s appearances could not be seen clearly. Guo Xiang thought carefully, “From what I heard, the Xishan Ghosts consist of ten people. At present there are exactly ten people, so this group of people must be the Xishan Ghosts. Uncle Song Wu only warned me about getting into trouble with them and that person knocked him out with one palm; this really looks ominous. They said they will take me to meet the Eagle Hero, so they shouldn’t be deceiving me. They must already be acquainted with the Eagle Hero, so they can’t be that evil.”
In a short while they’d already covered ten li, then the first person made a “de er” sound and the horses stopped at once. He led the horse up a small hill and then turned around. Guo Xiang saw his appearance and found it startling yet funny – this person was also a dwarf, his upper body was less than two feet, but his beard was actually three feet long, hanging over the horse. His face had wrinkles, his double eyebrows tightly knit and his face was filled with worry.
She heard him say, “From here to Mapingyi is less than 3 li. The Jianghu (pugilistic world) people say that the Eagle Hero’s martial arts are superb, we must discuss this in advance and not spoil the Xishan Ghosts’ reputation.”
The old woman said, “Then we request Eldest brother to issue an order.”
The long bearded man said, “Should we fight with him on chariots or surround him?”
Guo Xiang was shocked and thought, “From his tone, they must be enemies of the Eagle Hero.”
The old man said, “What are the Eagle Hero’s abilities like? Seventh brother, please explain clearly.”
A burly man with a body like an iron tower said, “Although I have seen him, I never fought with him, I saw… I saw… that he has some sort of demonic aura.”
The red clothed woman said, “Seventh brother, how did you become enemies with the Eagle Hero? Now is the time to explain clearly so that before everybody starts fighting, we would know what’s going on. You always stammer and stutter and you usually fail to reveal the whole truth.”
The man got angry, saying, “We Xishan Ghosts will live and die together; since this person dares to come forward to find us, do we cower away?”
A tall and skinny person with a gloomy voice said, “Who said anything about cowering away? But even if Ninth sister didn’t ask, I would ask. We have not offended him. Why did he want to expel the Xishan Ghost from Xishan?”
The man got angry and said, “Everybody, look, he cut off my ears. If you won’t help me get back at him, what kind of good brothers and sisters are you?” As he said this he took off his felt hat. Under the bright reflection of the snow, everyone plainly saw his head missing both ears. The Xishan Ghosts got angry and started cursing and swearing with thunderous rage, all wanting to fight the Eagle Hero to the death.
The red clothed woman said, “Seventh brother, why did he cut off your ears? What offense did you commit? You were harassing decent women again, is it not so?”
A person with a laughing face got angry and said, “Even if Seventh brother harasses decent women; other people have no right to interfere.” This person was born with a really unusual face; although he was angry, the smile on his face did not disappear. Guo Xiang looked carefully and saw that the corners of his mouth curled upwards with both eyes squinting, so even if he was sobbing sadly, it would seem like he was smiling from ear to ear.
The man said, “No, no! On that day my wife and four concubines were quarrelling over some small matter and things were about to turn violent. This, so called, Eagle Hero passed by and saw this; he was such a busybody and unexpectedly persuaded my wives to stop. My third wife had no shame and smiled at him…”
The red clothed woman said, “Ah ha, I know, Seventh brother got jealous and forbade her to smile.”
The man said, “Get jealous? I don’t need other people to poke their noses into my affairs. I punched my concubine’s three front teeth and told the broken-armed scum to scram.”
When Guo Xiang heard this she could not bear it and said, “He gave you well-intentioned advice, why did you speak so impolitely? You were wrong there.” The ten people turned their heads to look at her and could not believe this young girl dared to act so boldly.
The man got really angry and shouted, “Little twit, how do you dare to tell me what to do! Fifth brother, is this cutie your girl?”
The big headed dwarf said, “She wants to see the Eagle Hero so I brought her along to take a look, I don’t care about other matters.”
The man said, “Good, then I shall teach her a lesson.” He raised his horse whip and lashed down towards Guo Xiang’s head with a “pa” sound.
Guo Xiang lifted her whip and blocked, the two whips struck each other and interlocked together. The man used his arm to seize the whip and Guo Xiang felt a great force vigorously tugging her whip. She could not hold on any longer and released her whip, causing her palms to be scratched with searing pain. The guy took back his whip, raised it and wanted to lash down again, but the old man shouted, “Seventh brother, it’s getting late, let’s hurry, why do you lower yourself and fight with a child?” The man’s whip was in midair, but he did not strike.
That long-sleeved old man sneered, “The Xishan Ghosts are not afraid of the sky and the earth, even Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s reputation does not scare us. Little girl, if you talk again, I will butcher you immediately.” He leaned forward, saying, “Seventh brother, a true man will get up again if he falls, my long beard was cut off by my enemy several years ago. How were your ears sheared off?”
The man then said, “I told the Eagle Hero to get lost, so he smiled, turned around and walked away. It’s all my third concubine’s fault, she cried out, saying she was forced to marry me and at that time she was not willing. Now she was bullied by my first wife. She added that after I married her, I also married a fourth concubine and did not have a conscience. That Eagle Hero turned around; his expression changed greatly and asked, ‘Is this woman speaking the truth?’ I said, ‘So what if it is? So what if it’s not? My nickname is Fairy Ghost and I kill without blinking, do you know that?’ He said calmly, ‘If you like her, why did you marry someone else after you married her? If you do not like her, why did you marry her at all?’ I laughed loudly and said, ‘At first I liked her, now I’m tired of her. It’s common for a man to have three wives and four concubines. I even want to marry another four.’ He said, ‘You heartless creatures are far too many, how can the world’s females live in peace?’ Suddenly he stepped forward, drew out a dagger from my waist and sliced off my ears. Then he pointed the dagger at my chest, shouting, ‘I’ll dig your heart and liver out to take a look, what colour are they?’”
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺