DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 2 of 5 (Shrouding Screen In Suzhou) by Jin Yong

Crazy All Along Part 5

Cui Baiquan was extremely startled. "I always believed that prince Duan has no skill in martial arts. Who would have imagined that he possesses such a refined, exquisite technique? The Duan family of Dali really lives up to its fame. Fortunately, I did not do a single bad thing during my time at the South-Subduing Palace. Otherwise, how could this old life of mine remained for so long?" The more he thought, the more nervous he grew, until his forehead and his clothes were soaked with sweat.

Jiumozhi fought with Duan Yu for a while. With each stroke, he was capable of taking Duan Yu's life. However, he wanted to play around with Duan Yu for a bit. But towards the end, he felt less and less contempt towards Duan Yu. He felt that Duan Yu's internal energy was exceedingly strong and vigorous, and definitely not below his own at all. But for some reason, once the energy was actually used by Duan Yu, the end result was not that impressive at all. It was akin to a three year old kid from an exceedingly rich family who owned tens of thousands of strings of cash, but was unable to use it properly. After throwing out a few more strokes, Jiumozhi's heart was suddenly shaken. "What if in the future, he grows intelligent, suddenly learning how to properly use his abilities as well as the fundamentals of martial arts? With his level of internal energy and this sword technique, what an extremely fearful opponent he would be!"

Duan Yu had long known that his continued existence lay solely under the control of Jiumozhi. He shouted, "Sister Ah Zhu and Ah Bi, hurry up and run away! If you take any longer, you won't have a chance to escape!" Ah Zhu asked, "Young master Duan, why are you rescuing us?" Duan Yu replied, "This monk relies on his high level of martial arts to bully and oppress others. Unfortunately, I don't know any martial arts at all. It is difficult for me to fight him off. Hurry up and run away!"

Jiumozhi laughed. "Far too late for that." Taking a step forwards, he struck out with the fingers of both hands, pointing towards Duan Yu's acupoints. Duan Yu let out a cry. "Aiyo!" He tried to avoid the attack, but how could he? Once more, three of his vital acupoints were sealed, and his limbs immediately felt numb and heavy. Falling on the floor, he shouted loudly, "Ah Zhu, Ah Bi, hurry up and leave!"

Jiumozhi laughed, "You are at the brink of death and unable to protect yourself. You still have the desire to enjoy perfume and cherish jade?" He returned to his original seat and said to Ah Zhu, "Young miss, there's no need for you to continue play-acting and fooling around. Who, exactly, is in charge of the manor's matter? Young master Duan fully memorized the entirety of the 'Divine Sword of the Six Meridians', but does not know martial arts and thus finds it difficult to actually use it. Tomorrow, I will take him to Mr. Murong's mausoleum and burn him in sacrifice. In the underworld, Mr. Murong will understand that his old friend did not renege upon their earlier agreement."

Ah Zhu knew that no one currently at the Pavilion of Zither Melodies was a match for this monk. Wrinkling her forehead, she laughed. "Fine! Master monk, we'll believe your words. The old master's mausoleum is a day's journey away by water. Tonight, it is too late to leave. Tomorrow morning, the two of us will personally escort you and young master Duan to pay your respects at the tomb. The four of you, please wait just a short moment. Dinner will be served soon." After she spoke, she grabbed Ah Bi by the wrist and retreated into the inner pavilion.

After an hour passed, a male servant came out and said, "Miss Ah Zhu would like to invite the four of you to the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain' for supper." Jiumozhi said, "Many thanks!" Stretching out his hand, he seized Duan Yu's arm and followed the man in. They winded their way through hundreds of feet of paved cobblestone alleys and a few stone parks before arriving by the waterside. Beneath the willow trees lay a small boat. The male servant pointed to a cabin with windows on all four sides that was situated in the middle of the water. "It is right there." Jiumozhi, Duan Yu, Cui Baiquan, and Guo Yanzhi stepped onto the boat, and the male servant rowed them there. They arrived after a brief period of time.

Duan Yu walked up the wooden oak stairs of and entered the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain'. He saw Ah Bi waiting to attend to the guests, wearing light green clothing. By her side stood a young maiden who wore a light red yarncloth garment. She was also around sixteen or seventeen years of age, and she aimed an expression that seemed like a smile yet wasn't quite towards Duan Yu. Her face was full of mischieviousness and cleverness. Ah Bi had a 'melon seed' face and was elegant and beautiful. This maiden had a 'goose egg' face. Her eyes were lively and intelligent, and she displayed a different type of stirring aura.

As soon as he entered the room, Duan Yu once again smelled that faint fragrance. Laughing, he said, "Sister Ah Zhu, you are such a beautiful woman. It must have been tough for to so convincingly portray an old lady." That maiden was indeed Ah Zhu. She batted him a glance, then laughed, "You kowtowed to me three times and aren't content in your heart. Am I right?" Duan Yu shook his head repeatedly. "There was a lot of reason for me to kowtow three times to you. Only, my guesses were a bit off." Ah Zhu asked, "What did you guess wrong?" Duan Yu replied, "I guessed from the beginning that you were just like Ah Bi, that both of you were beauties the likes of which are rarely seen in the world. But in my heart, I imagined that you must have been about on par with Ah Bi. I didn't imagine that upon actually seeing you...well...well..." Ah Zhu interjected, "You found that I was far inferior to Ah Bi?" Ah Bi said at the same time, "You were greatly startled, because she is ten times more beautiful than me, right?"

Duan Yu shook his head. "Neither. I just felt that the heavens are really capable and are truly worthy of mankind's admiration. After wracking their brains and creating such a beautiful girl as sister Ah Bi, they should have totally exhausted all of their ability to portray the spirit and beauty of Jiangnan. Who would have imagined that they would be able to create a sister Ah Zhu as well? The two of you look totally different, yet each of you possess you own unique beauty. It makes me want to say a few things in praise, but I couldn't manage to say a single word at all."

Ah Zhu laughed. "Bah! You glibly just said a lot of things in praising us, and still want to claim that you couldn't manage to say a single word?"

Ah Bi smiled slightly, then turned her head and spoke to Jiumozhi and the rest. "I'm afraid that we don't have the resources to properly welcome you four esteemed personages. I'll have to ask that you just make do with our watery wine and do your best to enjoy some of our local Jiangnan dishes." She immediately invited the four of them to be seated, with her and Ah Bi taking seats to the right.

Duan Yu saw that the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain' was surrounded by water on all four sides. Glancing out the window, he saw mist covering the waters of the lake. Turning back to the table, he saw that all of the dishes on the table were made of exquisite porcelain. In his heart, he couldn't help but exclaim in praise.

Shortly afterwards, the male servants brought some dishes made from fruits and vegetables. Four vegetarian dishes were especially prepared for Jiumozhi. Next came a number of cooked dishes; white water chestnuts with shrimp meat, lotus leaf and winter bamboo shoot soup, cherry ham, dragon well vegetable leaves with chicken, and the like. Every dish was extremely unique. In the middle of the fish, shrimp, and meat were intermixed flower petals and fresh fruit. The dishes were extremely beautiful, and gave off a natural, pure fragrance. Duan Yu tried a few chopsticks of every single dish. All of them were wonderful and tasty. He praised, "Only such a wonderful landscape as this place can produce such talented people. In turn, only such talented people can be so intelligent and wise as to produce such elegant dishes."

Ah Zhu said, "Guess if I cooked the dishes, or if Ah Bi cooked the dishes?" Duan Yu replied, "The cherry ham and the plum blossom duck are fragrant, tender, and rosy. I think you made them. The lotus leaf and winter bamboo shoot soup and the round jade fish slices are verdant and cleanly chopped. Naturally, they were made by sister Ah Bi."

Ah Zhu clapped her hands and laughed. "Your guessing abilities are really good! Ah Bi, what should we reward him with?" Ah Bi smiled. "If young master Duan has any instructions for us to carry out, we would naturally do so to the best of our abilities. What's all this talk about giving him 'rewards' and 'awards'? We're just servant girls. We aren't worthy of such." Ah Zhu replied, "Hah, as soon as you open your mouth you flatter others. No wonder every says you're good and I'm bad." Duan Yu laughed, "Gentle and refined, lively and clever. The two are equally good. Sister Ah Bi, earlier, when I heard you playing songs on the soft whip, I felt relaxed and carefree. I'd like to ask you to play some melodies on actual instruments. If you do so, even if I am turned into ash tomorrow by this great monk, my time on this earth won't have been spent in vain.

Ah Bi slowly rose to her feet. "As long as you don't find it unpleasant to hear, I am willing to embarrass myself to give some joy to our guests." As she spoke, she went behind a screen, then came out with a precious jade zither. Ah Bi sat up straight on a brocade seat and placed the jade zither in front of her. She waved towards Duan Yu and laughed, "Young master Duan, why don't you come over and see if you can identify what type of zither this is."

Walking to her, Duan Yu saw that her zither was a foot shorter than ordinary seven-stringed zithers. In addition, it had nine strings, each of which had a different color. He muttered to himself, "This is the first time I've seen this nine-stringed zither." Ah Zhu walked towards them and plucked a single string on the zither. The sound was very loud and clear. The string was made out of metal. Duan Yu said, "Sister, this zither is..."

Just as he spoke these four words, the floor suddenly disappeared underneath him. His body fell straight down. He couldn't help but let out a loud cry of alarm. Next, he felt as though he landed on a soft location. At the same time, he seemed to hear someone else say 'Aiyo!' and 'Not good!', followed by two splashing sounds. His body suddenly swayed, as the thing he was resting on began to move. This strange event happened very quickly and was totally unexpected. Startled and frightened, he hurriedly sat up. He saw that he was sitting in the middle of a small boat, with Ah Bi and Ah Zhu each sitting on one end of the boat. Each of them had an oar and were hurriedly paddling. Turning around, he saw that Jiumozhi, Cui Baiquan, and Guo Yanzhi's heads had just popped above the surface of the water. After but a short period of rowing by Ah Bi and Ah Zhu, the small boat was far away from the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain'.

Suddenly, a drenched person shot up from the surface of the lake. It was Jiumozhi. He landed on the side of the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain'. He easily snapped off part of a wooden pillar, aimed it at Ah Bi, then urgently cast it towards her. The makeshift missile made a whirring sound as it tore through the air with great force. Ah Bi cried out, "Young master Duan, duck!" Duan Yu and the two girls ducked at the same time, as half of a wooden pillar flew right over their heads. The powerful wind made by its passing actually hurt their neck.

Flexing her body, Ah Zhu turned the boat slightly sideways. Suddenly, a series of loud splashing sounds could be heard, and the small boat suddenly lifted up in the air before immediately falling down again. A large amount of lake water entered the boat and all three of them became wet. Turning his head, Duan Yu saw that Jiumozhi had already wrecked the wooden portion of the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain', and was repeatedly tossing stone vessels, incense burners, and other objects towards them. Watching the trajectories of the missiles, Ah Bi turned the boat to avoid them. Meanwhile, Ah Zhu kept on paddling forward with all her might. With each stroke of the oar, the boat travelled several feet further away from the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain'. Jiumozhi continued to lob missiles at them, but the distance between the boat and where they landed grew greater and greater. Even if his strength was greater, he couldn't compete with the ceaseless tugging of the oars by the two maidens. Turning his head again, Duan Yu saw that Cui Baiquan and Guo Yanzhi had managed to scramble onto the steps of the 'Dwelling for Listening to the Rain'. He felt delighted, but upon seeing Jiumozhi leap into a small boat, let out a cry of alarm.