Liu Ruosong sighed, “Since he is not dead, he was bound to seek us out eventually. But I really can’t think of how a poor boy like him suddenly became so grandiose?”
Madam Liu coldly replied, “If you manage to cheat death, you will certainly be lucky in the future. The fact that he was able to escape back then and we couldn’t find him, shows that this brat is lucky. People with good luck will find a yuanbao* while they’re just walking down the street” This was said in the heat of anger.
*(yuánbǎo-a gold or silver ingot used as a form of currency)
When a woman is angry, it’s best to ignore her.
A smart man knows this. Liu Ruosong was a smart man. He kept his mouth shut.
In the end, of course, it is the woman who will speak first, as they are always more impatient.
Madam Liu finally couldn’t help but saying, “Since he wants to settle accounts with us, why not just simply come here? Why would he build that grand home across the way form us? What exactly is he planning?”
Liu Ruosong said, “Peoples hearts are separate from their stomach*. Other people can never guess the plans in a living person’s heart."
*(rén xīn gé dù pí idiom-means ‘there is no way to divine what is in a man’s heart’)
Madam Liu’s eyes lit up again and she immediately asked, “What if this living person suddenly died?”
He smiled, “A dead man has no plans.”
She sighed, “It’s just a pity that it is not easy* for him to die. Since he was able to live this long, it’s not easy for him to die now.”
*(róng yì-easy, likely, liable to. I use ‘easy’ because it’s clear from the next sentence this is what Gu Long was using)
“Although it’s not too easy,” said Liu Ruosong, “neither is it too difficult.”
“Oh?”
He said, “It’s only been four years since that incident. If a person is especially lucky during those four years, he might be able to make a fortune.” He smiled and went on, “But wugong* is different. To perfect one’s wugong requires painstaking daily practice. Unlike a large yuanbao, it can’t just fall from heaven.”
*(wugong-martial arts skill)
“He doesn’t dare darken our doorstep,” she said, “because even if his fortune has improved, his wugong hasn’t.”
He said, “With his wugong, even if he met a great master and trained for a thousand years, he will never be a match for Little Song.”
“Little Song?” She asked, “Are you talking about Song Zhang?”
Liu Ruosong laughed and said, “Family name Song, name Zhong, one sword delivers death*. Who else but him?”
*(a play on his name-yī jiàn-one sword (blow); Song-delivers; Zhōng-death; sòngzhōng-together is also an idiom meaning ‘pay your last respects’. IOW- ‘once he draws his sword, someone dies’, or ‘he kills with one blow’)
Madam Liu took a bowl of lotus seed soup that was sitting on the coffee table beside her, slowly took a few sips and leisurely said, “I know this person.”
Liu Ruosong said, “I know you know him.”
She said, “It seems like you also know him.”
Liu Ruosong said, “My knowing him is useless. You knowing him is useful.”
“Oh!”
“Because he only listens to you.” He said, “If you ask him to go east, he would never dare go west.”
Madam Liu said, “So what you’re saying is that if I ask him to kill someone, he would do that as well?”
Liu Ruosong smiled, “If you ask him to kill one person, he would never dare to kill two. If you want him to kill Zhang San*, he would never dare to kill Li Si*.”
*(Zhang San & Li Si are generic names- like saying ‘any Tom, Dick or Harry’)
She said, “If I ask him to kill Ding Peng, Ding Peng won’t see it coming."
Liu Ruosong clapped his hands and said, “Not bad at all.”
Madam Liu suddenly sighed, "It’s a pity that he has been enjoying the limelight* the past two years. He has become arrogant and wild. Why would he listen to an old woman like me?”
*(Chūfēngtóu-enjoying the limelight; creating a sensation. I used limelight to preserve symmetry with the following sentence)
Liu Ruosong laughed, “I’ve been in the limelight a lot in the past two years. If even I have to listen to an old woman like you, how dare he not listen to you?”
Madam Liu slowly put down the lotus soup, and using two slender* fingers, picked up a piece of candied fruit, put it into a mouth that was smaller than a cherry and sweeter than honey, bit it gently with a row of snow-white teeth, and with a ‘ge’, bit it in half.
*(it actually says spring scallion-like)
Then she glanced at Liu Ruosong from the corner of her eye, and asked softly, “Is he really obedient?” There was another glow in her eyes, a fiery light. Her eyes were glowing again, smoldering with passion.
Her teeth were snow white, her lips cherry red.
Her whole body looked like a ripe cherry waiting to be plucked.
Liu Ruosong sighed inwardly, knowing that he was screwed again…
Liu Ruosong was lying on his special soft couch, drenched in sweat, unable to move.
He had been preserving and nurturing his spirit since the beginning of the tenth month with a regimen of tonics. For the past two days he had consumed two tiger penises and several sets of magic pills prepared according to the Great Lama of Huangjiao’s* secret recipe. All this with the intention of being ready to ‘deal’ with a ‘special flower’ that a friend bought as a present for him for several thousand liang (liang=~50g) of silver from a procurer in a pleasure house (brothel) in Jiangnan^. He had carefully prepared to ‘deal’ with her for a few days to show her he’s not old yet.
*(Huangjiao-Yellow hat or Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism)
(Jiangnan-area south of the Yangtze River)
[Essentially the preceding paragraphs are saying that he had been taking tonics to build up his sexual stamina to have sex with a virgin who just reached puberty, in order to feel like a man, iow an ego boost. He’s upset because he’s going to blow it all on his wife who always makes him feel inadequate. So all that work was for nothing. This whole section before and after is filled with euphemisms; basically it’s all about sex. If I haven’t mentioned, Ruòsōng means ‘likes to relax’, M Liu is Kěqing-very passionate. Basically they like to indulge in in the pleasures of the flesh.]
That’s all over now.
Madam Liu looked more delicate, like a flower that had been moistened by rain and dew.
She was looking at him with a bewitching smile (a come hither look).
She must have been counting on the fact that he had been ‘tonicing’ for the past two days.
She smiled gleefully, triumphantly.
Liu Ruosong had no choice but to smile with her, he smiled bitterly, “Now you should know if I’m really obedient."
Madam Liu smiled enchantingly, “There will always be benefits for a man who is obedient.”
She suddenly asked, “Do you want to know where that Ding Peng gongzi has been for the past two days?”
He asked, “Where?”
Madam Liu said, “He’s been touring West Lake these past two days and is staying at the Banxian (half idle, half free) Hall (suite) of Hongmei (Red Plum) Pavilion where Jia Sidao used to live.”
Liu Ruosong said, "This Ding gongzi really knows how to live it up.”
Jia Shidao was a traitor to the Southern Song Dynasty, the richest man in the country with the power to overturn society. At least half the territory of the Great Song was under his control. One could well imagine the grandeur of his Banxian Hall.
He said, “Of course you wouldn’t know where Little Song (Song Zhong) has been these past two days.”
Madam Liu asked, “Do you want to see him?”
Liu Ruosong said, “Very much so.”
She sighed again and said, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier. If I had known you wanted to see him, I would have brought him.”
“What about now?” he asked.
"I’m afraid that it won’t be too easy to find him now,” she said.
“Why?”
Madam Liu said, “Because I’ve asked him to go somewhere far, very far away.”
Liu Ruosong asked, “Where is this far, far away place, anyway?”
“Hangzhou, West Lake, Hongmei Pavilion, Banxian Hall.”
He laughed, “Although I’m a living person, you can guess what I’ll have in mind without waiting for me to tell you.”
Madam Liu gently bit her cherry red lips with a row of snow-white teeth, “You really are a living person." Her eyes were burning with passion again.
Liu Ruosong hurriedly shook his head with a bitter laugh, “I’m already dead. Even if I haven’t completely died yet, at most I only have half my life left.”
================
Song Zhong reclined in the carriage as if he had already fallen asleep.
The movement of the carriage was very stable. The wheels, panels, axles and coach were all meticulously designed and specially manufactured. The horses pulling the carriage were also well trained.
The interior of the carriage was spacious and confortable, because Song Zhong must conserve his strength before every killing.
Only a smooth and comfortable carriage would keep him from exhausting his strength on the road.
So Madam Liu had prepared this carriage for him.
She treated him with more consideration and care than a mother would her son.
Song Zhong’s mother had died when he was very young.
For a long time, he didn’t know who his father was, and never wanted to talk about his mother.
If someone used this to ridicule him, or insult him, the result was usually a sword blow.
Family name Song name Zhong, one sword delivers death.
Song Zhong didn’t like killing at all, but he couldn’t not kill. Whether he wanted reputation, wealth or women, then he must kill.
These were all the things he longed for. This was his only way of getting everything he longed for.
The thing he longed for most was not reputation, nor was it wealth. What he most longed for was a woman, another man’s woman.
He obviously knew she was someone else’s wife, but he was completely obsessed and couldn’t control himself at all.
Her flattering smile, her liquid eyes, her flesh, were like unbreakable shackles that kept him locked up.
If she wanted him to kill two people, he would never dare to kill just one. If she wanted him to kill Zhang San, he would never dare to kill Li Si.
Desire was like a bottomless pit he had fallen deeply into.
He could kill!
Because he had no love in his heart, only hate. Because he had lived this long without ever knowing the meaning of “love”.
He could kill!
Because he had certainly had paid the price, had certainly trained diligently. Those who had seen him in action considered his speed and accuracy as almost not below ‘Jing Wuming’.
[Jing Wuming is a character in Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword. It’s been a while since I read it but I think he was known for killing with an unbelievably quick-draw & strike. Wúmìng means lifeless. I think it’s used in the sense of ‘having no human feelings’ as opposed to the Sentimental swordsman]
Zhong Zhan had also seen him in action. Even Zhong Zhan thought that the way he drew his sword was comparable to Jing Wuming.
Jing Wuming was a swordsman whose name shook the world in the past, as famous a swordsman as ‘A Fei*’. He was the second best expert in the ‘Gold Coin Gang’, second only to ‘Shangguan Jinhong’. [see Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword]
*(A Fei means Hoodlum or hooligan)
Jing Wuming was ruthless (wúqíng) and lifeless (wúmìng). Not only did he despise other people’s lives as low as grass, but also regarded his own life as equally cheap.
Song Zhong was the same.
It was said that every time he struck he disregarded life, not wanting to leave anyone else’s life behind, nor his own life.
The people who become famous the fastest in jianghu are usually the kind of people that disregard their own life.
That’s why he became famous—
Surname Song name Zhong, one sword delivers death.
After he killed Lu Zhenggang, the great hero of Hexi*, there were very few people in Jianghu who didn’t know of this person.
*(**Hexi-**land west of the Yellow (Huang He) River; Shaanxi, Qinghai and Gansu provinces)
Lu Zhenggang had been prominent in Hexi for twenty years. The might of his Golden Saber and Iron Palm shook the world, but he had killed Lu Zhenggang in one move.
Now the person he wanted to kill was Ding Peng.
He didn’t know Ding Peng. He had never seen this person, had never even heard of this name.
But he was going to kill Ding Peng because she wanted Ding Peng killed.
He believed he could kill this man with absolute certainty. He had absolute confidence in his sword.
This sword had already killed many people more famous than Ding Peng, and in his eyes, Ding Peng was already a dead man.