Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 01 Read online

  笑傲江湖

  (Smiling, Proud Wanderer)

  By. Jin Yong

  Vol. 1 of 4

  Ebook Compiler’s note.

  This was originally translated by and posted online by

  Lanny Lin (http://www.lannyland.com, http://blog.lannyland.com) (Chapters 1 to 21)

  Pokit (http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php/17771-Smiling-Proud-Wanderer-Unabridged) (Chapters 22 to 40)

  Bliss (Chapters 30,31)

  Editor: HHaung

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  Chapter 1: Massacre

  The young man smiled and cracked his whip in the air cockily. Answering the command, the white horse neighed happily and dashed along the stone slab road. "Escort Shi," one of the guards yelled out, "how about bringing back a wild boar, so we can all have a feast!"

  Spring was always a relaxing time of the year. As the breeze gently brushed the willow trees and wild flowers, it filled the air of the southland with a pleasant scent of the season.

  The West Gate Boulevard of Fuzhou1 was a stone slab road that extended all the way to the west gate of the town. A huge mansion stood south of the street, in front of which a tall flagpole stood on either side of the entrance. The flagpoles were about twenty feet tall, each with a huge green banner streaming in the wind. The banner on the left was embroidered in yellow silk, bearing the image of a majestic lion. As the banner fluttered back and forth in the wind, the lion seemed as though it had come alive and was about to jump down at any moment. Just above the lion’s head was a pair of bats, embroidered in black silk; they appeared to be flapping their wings in the air. The banner on the right bore four huge characters in black that read “Fortune Prestige Escort House,” all written in a bold, vigorous hand.

  The mansion itself had a large vermilion gate with teacup-sized copper studs which sparkled in the bright sunlight. Above the gate, the same “Fortune Prestige Escort House” characters were inscribed in gold lacquer on a huge sign with the word “Headquarters” engraved in smaller print just below. Beyond the gate were two rows of benches bordering a path, and sitting upon those benches were eight guards in house uniforms, their faces animated with excitement.

  Sounds of hoof beats came from the backyard of the court. All eight guards sprang up and rushed out the gate. Five horses galloped out from the side-door on the west of the mansion and stopped directly in front of the gate. Leading the pack was a beautiful horse, white as snow, with a silver bridle and stirrups. A young man wearing silk clothing, roughly eighteen years of age, sat on the horse with a sword hanging from his belt and a bow strapped onto his back. A hunting falcon perched on his left shoulder as the horse strode along the street. The four horsemen following him were all dressed in tight, black outfits.

  “The Young Master is going hunting!” three guards shouted in unison.

  The young man smiled and cracked his whip in the air cockily. Answering the command, the white horse neighed happily and dashed along the stone slab road.

  “Escort Shi,” one of the guards yelled out, “how about bringing back a wild boar, so we can all have a feast!”

  A forty-year-old horseman, trailing behind, grinned back. “Don’t worry! I will be sure to save the boar’s tail for you. Just don’t get drunk before we get back.”

  Amid the loud laughter, the five horsemen vanished like the wind.

  Just after they exited the town gate, Lin Pingzhi,2 the Young Master of the Escort House, spurred his horse lightly; the steed picked up speed and soon left the rest of the pack far behind. After riding up a small slope, he set the falcon to work. Minutes later, a pair of yellow rabbits was flushed out from the bushes. Lin Pingzhi quickly grabbed the bow from his back. Pulling out an arrow from his saddlebag, he took aim and shot in one smooth action. One rabbit down, one more to go. But by the time he pulled out another arrow and was ready to shoot again, the other rabbit had disappeared behind the bushes.

  Escort Zheng rode by with a smile. “Nice shot, Young Master!” he praised.

  “Young Master, hurry, we’ve found pheasants here!” Henchman Bai shouted in the woods to the left.

  Lin Pingzhi rushed over and saw a pheasant flying out from the bushes, heading directly toward his head. He pulled out an arrow rapidly and fired at the pheasant but missed. Reflexively, he lashed his whip at the pheasant. With a cracking sound, the pheasant fell to the ground, its bright and colorful feathers scattering in all directions. All five men cheered.

  “What a swift lash! Even a large griffon wouldn’t escape that,” Escort Shi exclaimed.

  The party hunted in the woods for over four hours. Intending to let the Young Master have a good time, the two escorts, Shi and Zheng, and the two henchmen, Bai and Chen, always drove the prey toward the young man, even when they themselves had the better shot. By the end of the hunt, Lin Pingzhi had shot two more rabbits and two more pheasants. But Young Master Lin wanted to hunt more. Not finding enough excitement from small prey, he yearned for larger game.

  “Let's go a bit deeper into the woods, and see what we can find,” he exclaimed eagerly.

  Escort Shi thought to himself, “If we go too deep into the woods, as the Young Master wishes, he probably won’t quit until after dark. Surely, the Madam will complain when we get back. That won’t be good.” So he replied, “It is quite late already. There are lots of sharp rocks around that might damage the hooves of your white horse. Why don’t we try our luck again early tomorrow morning?”

  He knew that it would be very hard to dissuade the stubborn Young Master, but Lin Pingzhi loved his white horse so much that he wouldn’t risk any chance of injuring his precious pet. The colt had been given to Lin Pingzhi as a present on his seventeenth birthday two years ago. It had come from a foreign country, and had cost his grandmother in Luoyang, a fair amount of gold.

  Just as Shi had expected, his suggestion worked.

  “My Snow Dragon is clever enough to not step on sharp rocks, but I am not so sure about your horses. Alright, let’s head back then. We wouldn’t want Henchman Chen to crack his
bottom somewhere on those sharp rocks, would we?” grinned Lin Pingzhi, patting his horse on the neck.

  Howling with laughter, all five turned around and started to head back home. Lin Pingzhi rode ahead of everyone else, but did not take the same route by which they had come. Instead, he turned north and sprinted forward. Feeling satisfied after some rapid riding, he finally reined in the horse and let it trot slowly.

  The sign of a wine shop emerged from one side of the road, not far ahead.

  “Young Master, how about a drink here? The fresh rabbits and pheasants we’ve got would go perfectly with some good wine,” Escort Zheng suggested.

  “So, you didn’t come out for hunting, but rather for drinking, did you? I suppose if I don’t bribe you with some drinks, you wouldn’t want to come out again tomorrow.” Lin Pingzhi grinned as he dismounted and started walking toward the wine shop.

  Normally, the owner of the wine shop, Old Cai, would have hurried out to take the reins and flattered Lin with some praise. “Well lookee thar, the Young Master’s gotten so much game today! Ain’t he great! There ain’t many who can match his skills,” Old Cai would exclaim. But today, when they came to the door, they were greeted with complete silence. A girl, dressed in green, stood by the wine vat with her hair done up in two buns, and with a wooden hairpin holding each in place; she appeared to be busy fussing with it. Her back was towards them and she seemed to have no intention of turning around.

  “Where is Old Cai? Get out and tether our horses,” Escort Zheng yelled impatiently.

  Henchmen Bai and Chen pulled out a bench, brushed off the dust with their sleeves, and let Lin Pingzhi sit down. The two escorts sat with Lin Pingzhi while the two henchmen sat down at another table. Coughing sounds floated out from the backroom, and moments later, a gray-haired old man walked out.

  “Welcome, sirs. Can I bring you some wine?” the old man greeted the group of five in a distinctly northern accent.

  “Do we look like we are here for tea?” Escort Zheng retorted. “Of course we want wine. Get us three jugs of Bamboo Green.3 Where’s Old Cai? What’s going on? Are you the new owner here?”

  “Yes, sir! Coming right up! Wan’er, bring three jugs of Bamboo Green,” the old man called out at the girl. “To be frank with you misters, my name is Sa. I was born in this town, but I left to be a trader when I was young. Recently, my son and my daughter-in-law both passed away. I figured that no matter how tall a tree is, its leaves will always fall to the roots, so I brought my granddaughter back to my hometown. But since I’ve been gone for over forty some years, my relatives and my friends had either passed away or left town. Luckily, the previous owner of this wine shop, Old Cai, happened to want out, so he sold it to me for thirty taels4 of silver. I am finally back now. I feel happy just listening to the hometown dialect. But it’s so embarrassing that I’ve totally forgotten the dialect myself.”

  The girl in the green robe came back with a wooden tray. She set down the bowls and chopsticks, and then placed three jugs of wine on the table. When she finished, she walked away with her head down, never even sneaked a peek at the customers all the while. Lin Pingzhi watched as the girl walked away. She had a slim figure, but her skin was dark and rough. Pox marks covered her face, which made it appear very ugly. Lin Pingzhi thought that the reason she was so rigid was probably because she had only started waiting on tables not too long ago, so he paid no more attention to her.

  Escort Shi brought out a pheasant and a yellow rabbit, and handed them to old man Sa. “Clean them up and cook them well,” he ordered.

  “Yes, sir! Right away! Would you like some jerky and peanuts to go with the wine, sirs?” old man Sa asked.

  Wan’er placed some beef jerky and peanuts on the table, not waiting for old man Sa’s order.

  “Our Young Mister Lin here is the Young Master of the Fortune Prestige Escort House. He always aids the needy and assists the weak. Money, to him, is like dirt. If you cook the two dishes well and make his stomach happy, you can easily make back that thirty taels investment you spent in a matter of months,” Escort Zheng introduced.

  “Oh, yes, yes! Many thanks!!” old man Sa answered cheerfully as he picked up the pheasant and the rabbit and went into the kitchen.

  Escort Zheng poured the wine into all three cups. Raising his own cup, he poured it all down his throat, then after smacking his lips a few times, he said contentedly, “The owner has changed, but fortunately the wine is still the same.”

  He poured himself another cup and was just about to drink it, when suddenly, the drum of hoof beats rose from a distance and then came to an abrupt stop outside the shop. Two horsemen had ridden in from the north. Traveling at a blazing speed, they had arrived at the small shop in no time at all.

  “Hey, it’s a wine shop. Let’s go in for a couple of drinks,” one of the riders shouted.

  Escort Shi recognized that the speaker had a distinct accent of western Sichuan.5 He turned around and spotted two men in purple robes. They tied the reins of their horses to the big banyan tree outside the shop and walked in. Giving the escorts a casual glance, they made a big display of sitting down. Both had a strip of white cloth wrapped around their foreheads. At first glance, with their purple robes, they seemed to be fairly cultured people, but since both had bare legs showing in the open and bare feet in hemp shoes, they were unlikely to be so.6 Escort Shi knew that most people from Sichuan dressed in this manner. The strips of white cloths on their foreheads were worn in mourning for the death7 of Marquis Zhuge Liang.8 The Marquis did so many great things for the people of Sichuan and was so well respected that even a thousand years after his death, people still wore white mourning cloths on their foreheads in his memory.

  Lin Pingzhi had never seen people dressed like this before. “Their dress looks neither civilian nor martial. It’s very strange indeed,” he thought to himself.

  “Wine, get me some wine! So many damn mountains here. Our horses are really tired out!” the younger of the two yelled out.

  “What can I get for you?” Wan’er walked to their table and asked. She looked down at the floor while asking the question, so that the two could not see her face. Her voice was low, but sounded very clear and pleasant. The younger man was dazed for a second. Unexpectedly, his right hand shot out and raised Wan’er’s chin.

  “What a pity!” He snickered.

  Wan’er gasped and quickly drew herself back.

  The younger man’s companion burst into laughter. “Brother Yu, this chick has a nice body, but as for her face, look how pockmarked it is!! Just like the inside of a pomegranate!” The younger man laughed even louder.

  Lin Pingzhi’s anger flared. He slapped the table hard and shouted, “What kind of creatures are you, you two blind scoundrels? How dare you to come to Fuzhou and behave so ill-manneredly?”

  “Hey, Jia Junior, somebody seems really upset. Who do you think this sissy is referring to?” the younger fellow, Yu, said with a smirk.

  Lin Pingzhi was fair of face, and looked much like his mother. Even under normal circumstances, he would have slapped someone just for staring at him. Hearing the word sissy, his temper flared. He grabbed a tin kettle from the table and hurled it at the two men. Yu shifted back slightly; the kettle missed him and sailed out the door, landing on the meadow outside. Wine from the kettle splashed everywhere. Escorts Shi and Zheng sprang up immediately and rushed up to the two men.

  “This boy should play a little bitch in the opera. I bet you he would seduce quite a few men. But I doubt he’s any good at fighting.” Yu grinned sneeringly.

  “This is the Young Master Lin from the Fortune Prestige Escort House. You’ve really got the nerve to offend him!” Escort Zheng hollered. As he spat out the last word, his left fist was already on its way toward Yu’s face. Yu deflected the punch with his left palm, then grabbed Zheng’s wrist and pulled hard. Escort Zheng lost his balance and fell toward the table. Yu then struck Zheng’s neck with his left elbow. With a crash, the table collapsed to
the ground, along with Zheng.

  Although Zheng was not in the top echelon of fighters at the Escort House, he was not at the bottom either. Seeing that Escort Zheng had been knocked down by Yu within just one move, Escort Shi knew the two would make tough opponents.

  “Friends, who are you?” he asked. “If you are also the members of the Martial World, haven’t you heard of the Fortune Prestige Escort House?”

  “Fortune Prestige Escort House? Never heard of it. What the hell is that?” Yu smirked.

  “We are in the business of teaching manners to lowlifes such as you,” Lin Pingzhi leapt over with a roar. He struck out with his left hand, but before fully extending his arm, his right hand struck out from underneath his left hand. This maneuver was called “Cloud Concealed Glare” and was a move from the Lin Family’s Kung Fu style of Universal Hands.

  “Ho! This sissy boy actually knows a few tricks,” Yu exclaimed mockingly, blocking the blow with his left arm and stretching out his right hand to grab Lin Pingzhi’s shoulder.

  Lin Pingzhi lowered his right shoulder in evasion, and attempted to punch Yu with his left fist. Yu ducked his head from the punch, but to his surprise, Lin Pingzhi’s fist opened and changed from a punch into a palm strike. With the move called “Flowers in the Fog,” he slapped Yu hard across the face.

  Now Yu went berserk. He threw a kick at Lin Pingzhi, who stepped to the right and returned a kick at Yu. While the two fought, Escort Shi had already engaged in a fight with Jia, and Henchman Bai helped Escort Zheng up from the ground. Swearing at the top of his lungs, Zheng leapt forward and joined Lin Pingzhi in the fight against Yu.

  “Go help Escort Shi! I can handle this punk!” Lin Pingzhi shouted.

  Escort Zheng knew that the Young Master always wanted to best others, and did not want extra help, so he picked up a broken table leg and swung it at Jia’s head. In the meantime, the two henchmen had run outside. One took Lin Pingzhi’s sword, which was hanging from the saddle, while the other grabbed a hunting fork, and then both started pouring out all manner of profanity at the top of their lungs. Retainers of the Escort House were not good fighters, but because they were the ones shouting out the escort songs during trips, they all had loud voices. They cursed in the local dialect. The two men from Sichuan had no clue as to what they were saying, but they knew that it must have been something quite uncomplimentary.