Chapter 35 – Three golden needles, Part 11
The people all praised it and that old man was very proud; then he said, “This snow Ginseng can cure terminal diseases, neutralize hundreds of poisons; it’s even said to be able to resurrect a person. This lady will live to be a hundred, so she doesn’t have to use it. But on her 100th birthday, she just may need to take it so she can live for another 100 years.” The people all clapped and praised him.
The fat Ren Chuzi took out a money box from his bosom and laughed, “This is a small toy, and hopefully it can amuse the lady.” He opened the box and took out two metal-cast monks of around seven inches tall and activated a mechanism, causing the monks to exchange punches and kicks. The people all laughed as they watched this. The monks displayed strokes from Shaolin’s Luo Han boxing, and exchanged dozens of moves before stopping, then standing at attention, which was the style of highly-skilled Shaolin monks.
The people all stopped laughing when they saw this and their faces changed colour. The scar-faced woman said, “Ren Chuzi, don’t bring trouble to Miss Guo! This is the metal Luo Han from the Shaolin Temple, how could you steal them?”
Ren Chuzi laughed, “Heh-heh, even if I’m not afraid of the sky or the Earth, I wouldn’t dare steal anything from the Shaolin Temple. This was given to me by Reverend Wuse of the Shaolin Temple’s Luo Han Hall. The elder said when this lady celebrates her birthday, quickly go down to Xiangyang to wish her a happy birthday. Eh, this is my gift.” He took off the inner lid from the box and took out a black jade bangle.
The black bangle looked dull and nothing special. Ren Chuzi then drew a thick-backed ghost-headed knife from his waist and chopped down on the bangle. The knife hit the bangle with a ‘dang’ sound and flew upwards, not even leaving a scratch on the bangle. The people all cheered, then the scholar, priestess, Head Camel and the woman all presented their gifts to Guo Xiang, all highlighting how unique their gifts were. Guo Xiang smiled happily as she received the gifts.
Guo Fu was more and more curious and surprised, so she headed back to the banquet hall and told everything to Huang Rong.
When Huang Rong heard this, she was even more surprised than Guo Fu, so she waved to Zhu Ziliu and the three people went to Guo Xiang’s room. Huang Rong told her daughter to repeat the story. Zhu Ziliu was equally surprised and said, “Ren Chuzi and Bai Chaoxian actually came to Xiangyang? That black-robed priestess should be the Merciless Killer Priestess Shenying. The scholar’s fan has a drawing of a ghost, hmm; he should be the Turning Wheel King Zhang Yimang.” As he said this, Huang Rong nodded her head. Zhu Ziliu kept shaking his head instead, saying, “There’s nothing much to this. Miss Guo has never gone beyond 10 li of Xiangyang except for once recently, how could she get to know such strange people? Moreover, I heard Shaolin Temple’s Reverend Wuse has not shown his face in recent years; even eminent people of Wulin who visit the Shaolin Temple don’t get to see him. Why would he come to Xiangyang to wish a girl happy birthday? Hmm, maybe she just wants to fool around with her sister by coming up with this.”
Huang Rong said lowly, “But we seldom mention people like Priestess Shenying and Zhang Yimang, so even if Xiang’er knew, she couldn’t have thought of this.”
Zhu Ziliu said, “Then it must be true. Let’s go take a look and meet them. Since they’re her friends, they wouldn’t have any bad intentions by coming to Xiangyang.”
Huang Rong said, “I think so too, but people like Priestess Shenying and Turning Wheel King Zhang Yimang are hard to classify as good or bad. Although this is not a big problem, it is enough to cause a headache. Here we are defending against the enemy and now we’re not sure how to deal with these weird people…”
Suddenly someone outside the window laughed, saying, “Madam Guo, this group of people are visiting Xiangyang only to convey our birthday wishes, we have no other intentions, why the headache? When the last few words were heard, the voice was already far away. Huang Rong, Zhu Ziliu and Guo Fu went to the window together and saw black shadows flashing out and disappearing behind the wall. Guo Fu wanted to give chase but was held back by Huang Rong, who said, “Don’t bother; you can’t catch up with them!” Then they saw a white fan hanging from a tree branch outside.
That fan was up in the tree about four yards away, Guo Fu knew she couldn’t reach it and called, “Mother!” Huang Rong nodded her head, and lightly leapt forwards and grabbed a branch with her left hand, then flipped around and grabbed another branch with her right hand. She caught the fan and lightly jumped to the ground.
The three people went back indoors and under the candle light, saw the drawing of a ghost sticking out it’s tongue with a silly grin and both hands clutched together. On the side were several words, “Wishing Miss Guo many happy returns and living to a ripe old age.” Huang Rong flipped over the fan and the words said, “Black-robed priestess Shenying, Bai Chaoxian, Jiu Sisen, Dog-meat Head Camel, Han Wugou and Zhang Yimang greet Hero Guo and Madam Guo. We celebrated your daughter’s birthday without permission, we apologize for the offence.”
Zhu Ziliu was an expert in calligraphy, so he praised, “Good, good calligraphy!”
Huang Rong said, “Let’s go see Xiang’er.”
Zhu Ziliu was already quite old and was not suspicious of the girl so they all went into Guo Xiang’s room. They saw Little Wooden Head and another servant clearing the dishes. Guo Xiang said, “Uncle Zhu, Mother, Sister, look at the birthday gifts my guests have given me.”
When Huang Rong and Zhu Ziliu saw the snow Ginseng, twin iron Luo Han statues, black jade bangle and the other presents, they both praised and marveled at them. Guo Xiang activated the mechanism and the two Luo Han statues started to spar, which made her feel really proud. Huang Rong watched the Luo Han perform the Luo Han Boxing. When they had finished she gently asked, “Xiang’er, what’s going on? Tell Mother.”
Guo Xiang laughed and said, “A few new friends knew my birthday is approaching, so they gave me these amusing things.”
Huang Rong asked, “How did you get to know these people?”
Guo Xiang said, “I got to know them only today. I was alone in the room drinking wine, when Sister Han Wugou stood outside the window and asked, ‘Little lady, we’d like to come in and drink with you, alright?’ I said, ‘Nothing could be better, please come in!’ All of them jumped in through the window then said that on the 24th itself they would come and celebrate my birthday. How do they know my birthday? Mother, they are yours and Father’s friends, right? Or why else would they give me such wonderful things?”
Huang Rong said, “Your Father and I don’t know them. You met some strange friends by appointment, true?”
Guo Xiang laughed, “I don’t have any strange friends, unless it’s Brother-in-law.”
Guo Fu angrily said, “Rubbish! How can your brother-in-law be a strange man?”
Guo Xiang stuck out her tongue and laughed, “After he married you, how can he not be strange?” Guo Fu stretched out her hand to hit her but Guo Xiang laughed and evaded to the side.
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