Chapter 5 - A Girl Named Dawan

 

Dry twigs burned very fast, and the fire was becoming weaker by the minute. Ma Rulong willed himself to stay calm as much as he could but his mind just wouldn't let him. His body grew colder and would soon freeze. The fire was about to die out but he still had no idea when the pressure points on his body would be unsealed.

And now wasn't even the coldest time of the night. If this went on, perhaps he would freeze to death in here. He'd never thought of this before. A possibility of someone like him freezing like this was truly what life was all about. No one could really predict the future, nor could he know his destiny. What a twist of fate!

Ma Rulong sighed inwardly, just realizing that his old arrogant self was gone. By this time, that girl suddenly lifted her head from the fox fur coat.

Ma Rulong's pressure points were still blocked, but hers were not. With that pair of small mousy eyes, for a long time she looked really like a mouse surveying the area. Then she let out a long, long sigh and said, "Who would have thought that that fat person would suddenly left and that you would still be alive?"

This indeed was an unforseen incident! Nobody could have imagined that Peng Tianba would suddenly let Ma Rulong off and run away like a rabbit struck by an arrow, fleeing into the wilderness.

She stood up, putting on Ma Rulong's fur coat. With a smile she said, "The fur on this coat is really not bad. It's light, soft, and warm. The size also happens to be just right."

Luckily, Ma Rulong could still speak.

He couldn't stop himself and said, "What a pity that the coat appears to be mine."

The girl shook her head and said, "This is not yours. It's no longer yours."

"How come?" Ma Rulong asked.

"Because you already gave it to that fat person, who then gave it to me," explained the girl.

Then she added with a delightful smile, "So the coat now belongs to me."

Ma Rulong didn't argue. He'd never been a petty person, and he simply didn't care about this kind of matters. But he was really very cold. So, again, he couldn't bear it and asked, "Could you stir up the fire?"

"Why should I stir up the fire? I'm not cold," replied the girl.

With a bitter smile Ma Rulong said, "You are not, but I am."

"I'm not cold. How can you be cold?" The girl said.

Ma Rulong was stupified. This girl was really crazy, so crazy that he couldn't cry even if he wanted to. He couldn't laugh either. There suddenly was no air in his stomach. This was just his luck.

To his surprise, the girl continued, "Young people must be able to endure hardships and hard work. What's the big deal with being a little cold? You are young. If you can't bear a bit of discomfort, how do you think you will accomplish anything big in the future?"

Ma Rulong shut his mouth. He eventually learned that explaining things to this kind of person was not only futile, but downright stupid. When a man met a woman like this, the best he could do was to keep his eyes and mouth shut.

The girl suddenly let him off and muttered, "Don't know if the sky's already cleared up. I'll go and take a look." She talked to herself while walking out the door. But she suddenly gave out a loud cry and ran back in, looking as if an arrow had hit her in the butt.

Ma Rulong actually didn't want to pay her any attention. But even though this girl was nasty, she was pretty good to him.

Not only did she say he was a good person, she risked her life trying to hold Peng Tianba so he could flee. As long as he lived, he had to live with a clear conscience, being able to distinguish between gratitude and resentment.

And so, Ma Rulong had no choice but to ask, "What's the matter?"

"Outside.. .. there's someone outside." The girl said in fright.

The weather was cold, the earth was frozen, and it was late at night. How could there be anyone outside of this abandoned and tumbledown temple?

Again, Ma Rulong had to ask, "Who?"

"It was that fat person just now," replied the girl.

Ma Rulong's expression changed. He said, "He didn't leave?

The girl replied, "No, he didn't."

He hadn't left, but why didn't he come in?

Ma Rulong asked, "What was he doing out there?"

The girl replied, "Who knows what he was doing? He just lay there by himself, looking like he was sleeping."

Surprisingly, she could still reason, "Fat people always like to sleep."

But no matter how fat one was, or how much one liked to sleep, he couldn't possibly be sleeping in the snow.

Ma Rulong said, "Maybe you saw something else."

The girl said, "I certainly did not. Not only can I see far into the distance, my eyesight is also the best."

Her eyes didn't look so ugly from afar, at least they looked a little better than those of a mouse.

"Could you go out and take a look again?" Ma Rulong requested.

"Why don't you go see for yourself?" The girl asked.

The girl looked at him and suddenly laughed. She said, "I got it. You are like me. You got kicked by that fat person, so right now you can't move."

Ma Rulong said nothing.

Unexpectedly the girl said, "Okay, I'll go check it out for you. You've been quite nice to me anyhow."

But just after her exit, she screamed and ran back into the temple again, looking even more frightened than a moment ago.

"He wasn't there?" Ma Rulong asked.

She gasped for breath and said, "He.. ..he was there. He wouldn't be leaving anymore."

"Why?" Ma Rulong asked.

The girl replied, "Because he was already dead!"

How could Peng Tianba die? A moment ago he was still very much alive. Besides, he was healthy, without illness or pain, looking like he would outlive anybody.

"He was really dead?" Ma Rulong asked.

The girl replied, "Dead as dead can be, totally dead, absolutely dead."

"Did you find out how he'd suddenly died?" Ma Rulong asked.

The girl said, "Of course, I did."

She appeared to be trembling. "No matter who it was, I would certainly know that he couldn't possibly live after his throat was slashed!

Ma Rulong was even more puzzled. Peng Tianba's saber had ranked among the best and most famous in the martial realm. How could someone slash his throat? Who did it? Was there anybody in the world who had a faster and more famous blade? And why would such a person cut his throat?

There was only one explanation. Peng Tianba was not the real culprit. There was another person behind this scheme, who gave orders to him. And this person had just killed him to eleminate another witness. Who was this person? After killing Peng Tianba, why didn't he come in to finish off Ma Rulong?

Except ‘this person,' no other people could answer these questions. Ma Rulong finally found out that this plot was even more complex, more terrifying that what he had originally thought.

The girl suddenly said, "This is bad."

"What is?" Ma Rulong asked.

"We really can't stay here," explained the girl.

Ma Rulong agreed with her. They definitely couldn't stay here any longer. Too bad he couldn't walk.

Suddenly the girl said, "I'm a woman."

"I know," said Ma Rulong.

The girl said, "All heroic true men are men. Gentlemen are also men. So.. .."

"So what?" Ma Rulong asked.

"So I'm not a gentleman, nor am I a heroic true man." She said with a sigh.

"So although you can't walk, I actually have to go." She added.

For her, Ma Rulong had stopped at this place, built this fire, and run into this trouble.

Right now she said she had to go, alone.

Surprisingly Ma Rulong replied, "All right, you should go."

Yet, the girl added, "But I can't just walk. I definitely need your horse."

Ma Rulong unexpectedly said, "Fine, you ride away."

The girl eventually felt that this person was little peculiar. She was still human after all. Unable to stifle a sigh she said, "You are really a good person. It's only too bad that.. .."

Ma Rulong asked, "Too bad that.. what?"

"Too bad that good people always die young," said the girl.

Surprisingly, she really left. She put on Ma Rulong's fox fur coat, climbed on Ma Rulong's white horse, and left. The fire had already burnt itself out. She didn't add any more firewood for him either. What the girl did was really merciless, 100 times more merciless than what the merciless monk would ever do.

It was a cold and quiet night. Even before the sounds of hoof beats faded into the distance, along with the cold wind came the sounds of extremely light and quick footsteps. They were the footsteps of two people, coming to stop right outside the ruined temple.

"There's a dead body here," a voice said. "Peng Tianba's body"

"Can we save him?"

"The wound is fatal. Even a god would't be able to bring him back to life."

Ma Rulong's heart sank. Having heard the voices, he knew that the two people were precisely the merciless monk and Feng Chaofan. They had just seen Peng Tianba's dead body. If finding him in here, they wouldn't give him a chance to explain again. Anyhow, nobody would have thought they wouldn't walk into the temple. This was because they'd seen his white horse speeding away just a moment ago.

"That was definitely the white dragon colt from the Hall of Celestial Horse."

They also saw someone on the horse, wearing fox fur.

"This was a fatal blade. He killed and left. What a cruel hand! What a vicious person!"

"He won't get away."

"But Peng Tianba.. .."

"Peng Tianba will wait here. Ma Rulong won't. We'll go after him!"

After those words were spoken, the sounds of footsteps and gown sleeves flapping in the wind disappeared into the distance. They all mistook that rider in fox fur as Ma Rulong, not realizing that there was someone in the ruined temple.

If that girl hadn't left, or if there had been a fire, or if that white horse had been here, what would have happened just now? Ma Rulong of course hadn't thought about all these things. He suddenly realized that the girl was not just merciless, but also ingenious and mysterious. He also found out that she was not a difficult and irrational female as she appeared to be. Instead, she was perhaps much smarter than other people.

No matter how cold or how long the winter nights, dawn would always come. No matter how excellent one's acupoint sealing technique, sealed acupoints would eventually become unsealed.

Right now, dawn already broke the sky. Blood and chi flowed through the sealed acupoints.

Peng Tianba certainly hadn't used a heavy acupoint sealing techique. He didn't mean to seal Ma Rulong's acupoints for very long because he'd expected him to die quite shortly. Who would have imagined that at the moment Ma Rulong was still alive but he himself had turned into an ice-cold, stiff corpse. That blade slashed the left side of his throat from front to back, severing all the major blood vessels on his neck.

This was a lethal blade, which had just killed someone. This someone was the most famous saber master of the martial realm. It seemed that nobody could ever dodge his saber strike. And there certainly was no blade in the world that he wouldn't be able to deflect. But this blade had already taken his life.

Not even in his dream did it occur to him that this person would turn against him, or that the blade would slash his throat. This was because this person was his friend -- his very close friend -- his loyal and trustworthy friend. They had plotted all this together. He hadn't expected that this person would silence him after everything was all done. Who was this person? Ma Rulong couldn't guess. Actually, he had no clue, no clue at all. Really, nobody knew the answer to this question.

The easier questions would be – After the plan succeeded, what would happen? What would be the consequences? Who would most benefit from it?

Surely, this person had concocted the plan for his own benefit. After it was executed, Ma Rulong would become the culprit. The families and friends of Du Qinglian, Shen Hongye, and Qiu Fengcheng would all come after Ma Rulong.

If they couldn't find Ma Rulong, they would go look for him at the Hall of Celestial Horse. And if they succeeded in killing Ma Rulong, the Hall of Celestial Horse would certainly retalitate. And so, eventually this would become a feud, a feud between the Hall of Celestial Horse and the Du, Shen, and Qiu families.

The feud between these powerful families would of course result in mutual destruction. When a kingfisher and a clam fought, the fisherman would profit. Who was this fisherman?

Under the cloudless sky, hoofprints in the snow were so clear that they looked like someone had drawn a line for other people to follow. Had they already caught up with the girl?

Ma Rulong could even imagine the not-knowing-whether-to-laugh-or-to-cry expression on the two people's face when they found out what kind of person that girl was. He suddenly thought that this very ruthless, very ugly, and very strange girl was actually very interesting.

This was the first time he thought she was very interesing.

Whatever, he didn't owe her anything, and later he would probably never see her again. She went east. He would definitely go west. Right now, he was awfully cold, and awfully hungry. He knew that to the west there was a big town with a very good inn. At this inn, the rooms were always very neat and clean, with freshly changed linens and luxurious fires! In the kitchen, there were always very tasty mutton stews, along with some fragrant and soft sesame seed cake. And those were exactly what he needed right now.

This was a lively, busy town, with clean and tidy streets. That inn servant was standing at the entrance, trying to pull business. About to walk into the inn, Ma Rulong suddenly remembered that he didn't have any money, not even for a piece of sesame seed cake, and so he didn't dare to go in. That inn servant didn't try to invite him in either. In a severely cold weather like this, this person didn't even have a piece of fur on his body. He couldn't possibly be a good customer.

Getting a cold shoulder from people left a bad taste in his mouth. This was the first time Ma Rulong had experienced this kind of treatment. He'd finally discovered that people valued money, much more than they did him. And so, despite being cold, hungry, and broke, he straightened himself and kept moving in big strides.

Although he didn't know where he was going, his feet never stopped. Suddenly, he saw a white horse. He recognized the horse, and it seemed like the horse also recognized him.

The horse raised its hoofs and softly neighed. This was his own dragon colt.

The horse was tied up under a restaurant. Suddenly someone stuck her head out of a restaurant window, beckoning to him.

To his surprise, this someone was that strangely ugly girl, who was all merciless, mysterious, and interesting. Obviously, she'd gone east. How come she suddenly appeared in this west side town?

In a loud voice she called out, "Come up. Come up, quick."

Ma Rulong hesitated. She demanded again, "Are you going to join me up here, or do I have to go get you?"

Ma Rulong could only force a smile. He said, "I'm coming up. I'm coming up by myself."

The restaurant was spacious and warm, filled with the smells of mutton stews, fried fish, and sesame seed cake.

By herself, she was occupying a table that could seat eight people, and there were so much food and wine on the table that even eight people couldn't possibly finish them all. She still had on Ma Rulong's fox fur coat.

She looked at him and said, "Sit down. Sit down, quick."

Ma Rulong could only sit down.

Again she ordered, "Eat. Eat, quick."

And so, Ma Rulong ate. He didn't wanted her to drag him, nor did he want her to shove mutton into his mouth. She didn't look like the type that would let other people have their own way.

Seeing that Ma Rulong had swallowed a small piece of stewed mutton, her eyes twinkled with laughter. But she put on a serious expression and said, "Young people must be able to bear hunger, and they must be able to eat. If you don't finish this bowl of mutton stew, no matter what you say, I'm not going to listen."

Ma Rulong did finish that big bowl of mutton stew, and two pieces of sesame seed cake.

The girl poured him a big bowl of wine and handed it to him. She said, "You've eaten. Now you can drink. Drink, quick."

"I don't drink." Ma Rulong actually shook his head.

The girl said, "Do you want me to hold your nose and pour it down?"

Ma Rulong ignored her. He really didn't believe that a girl could pinch his nose in public. But he was wrong. She really squeezed his nose with her fingers.

Although her face was ugly and strange, her hands were beautiful, smooth and delicate.

Soft and supple hands. This was the first time Ma Rulong had discovered that there was a beautiful thing on her body. He ended up drinking that bowl of wine.

He hadn't touched a drop of wine since his three-day drinking spree at the Zhenzhu restaurant. He had decided to quit drinking. Anyhow, no matter how determined one was, after going through a series of unfortunate events and having a girl squeeze his nose in public like this, one's determination was likely to waver.

The girl finally laughed and said, "Now, you look like you are still alive. If a man doesn't dare to drink, he's not a real man."

She poured him another bowl and said, "But don't worry. There's no poison in this wine. I surely don't want to poison you to death."

Now that Ma Rulong resumed drinking after abstinence, he drank jollily, wanting to get drunk. No matter who it was, if they were in his shoes, they would all want to be drunk. After three big bowls, he started to loosen up. He finally asked, "Am I allowed to speak now?"

The girl said coldly, "If it's something good, speak. If it's bullshit, shut up."

"How come you are here?" Ma Rulong asked.

"I felt like coming so I came," The girl replied.

"But you originally went east, didn't you?" Ma Rulong asked.

The girl replied, "I suddenly wanted to come west."

"Were you spying on me?" Ma Rulong continued.

"Do you think you are so handsome that every girl has to spy on you?" The girl retorted.

With a sneer she suddenly said, "I'm not Du Qinglian's mother, nor am I Shen Hongye's. I'm not that stinky monk's ancestor grandma either. Why on earth would I spy on you?"

Ma Rulong's expression changed. He asked, "Do you know about this too?"

The girl made a noise, "Humph."

"How can you possibly know?" Ma Rulong asked.

"Humph," replied the girl.

Ma Rulong asked, "Did you run into Feng Chaofan and the merciless monk? Did they tell you all this?"

The girl no longer made noises. She just slowly poured another bowl of wine for him, a big bowl.

With a sigh Ma Rulong said, "Must you always drink with a big bowl?

"Yes," finally replied the girl.

Ma Rulong asked, "Why always a big bowl?"

The girl said, "Only Xiaowan would drink with a little bowl (xiao wan). I'm not Xiaowan."

Xiaowan? Ma Rulong felt like he'd heard the name before. He had heard it from Qiu Fengcheng, who said his sweetheart was called Xiaowan. And that piece of jade in his pocket was given to him by this Xiaowan.

Ma Rulong couldn't stop himself. He asked again, "Do you know Xiaowan too?"

The girl said coldly, "You ask too many questions."

"But you are not answering any of them," said Ma Rulong.

The girl said, "That's only because you kept asking questions that shouldn't be asked, and you are not asking what you should ask."

"What should I ask then?" Ma Rulong said.

The girl replied, "You've eaten my food. You've drunk my wine. At least you should have asked me my name!"

"What's your name?" Ma Rulong asked.

She said, "Xiaowan drinks with a small bowl (xiao wan). I drink with a big bowl (da wan). What should be my name?"

"Your name is Dawan?" Ma Rulong said.

The girl let out a hearty laugh and said, "Your intelligence has finally improved."