The door of the cabin was wide open, and from time to time there was dainty laughter coming out of the cabin.

And then, a beautiful maiden walked out to the deck. She was wearing wide and comfortable scarlet clothes, her beautiful hair was pulled up loosely, revealing a pair of sparkling and translucent, slender jade legs, and bare, delicate and elegant, perfect without any blemish, pair of feet, which gracefully walked across the deck toward his side, and then with her toes she lightly scratched the arch of his foot. On her face appeared a sweet and charming smile, as if a hundred flowers bloomed at the same time in that instant.

He pulled his leg and sighed lightly, "Tian'er [lit. sweetie], can't you ever be quiet for a moment?"

His voice was deep and low, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with inciting attractiveness.

A silver-bell-like tender laughter accompanied her voice, "Finally you guessed wrong," she said.

He turned around lazily, the sun shone on his face.

His pair of eyebrows was thick and long, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with rugged masculine charm, but those clear eyes had some kind of graceful, leisurely feeling. His nose was straight, signaling his strong and resolute, heart of stone. His thin lips, upturned mouth, appeared to be somewhat callous, but as soon as he smiled, the staunchness turned gentle, the callousness also became sympathetic, just like the warm spring breeze blowing through the earth.

Raising his hand to block the glare of the sun, he blinked his eyes and laughed; his eyes were flickering with mischievous, amused radiance, but were also br.i.m.m.i.n.g with wits.

Winking, he said with a laugh, "Miss Li Hongxiu [lit. red sleeve], for Laotian's [lit. old sky, G.o.d, Heavens] sake, could you not become that naughty? We already have Song Tian'er; don't you think I am not suffering enough?"

Li Hongxiu laughed and bent her waist, but then she refrained from laughing as she said, "Chu Liuxiang Shaoye [young master, as in master/servant relations.h.i.+p], except for Song Tian'er, other people cannot be naughty?"

Chu Liuxiang patted the deck by his side and said, "Sit nicely here, accompany me basking in the sun, tell me a story, but it has to be a happy story, something with a happy ending. There are enough miserable things in the world."

Biting her lip, Li Hongxiu said, "I don't want to sit, I don't want to tell story, and I don't want to bask in the sun … this [email protected] sun, basking in it makes people dizzy. I really don't understand why you like the sun so much."

When her mouth said, 'I don't want to sit', she was sitting down; when she said, 'I don't want to bask in the sun', she was already stretching both legs under the sunlight.

Chu Liuxiang said with a laugh, "What's not good about basking in the sun? If one can bask in the sun more, he can't possibly commit despicable, shameless things. No matter who, under such a lovely suns.h.i.+ne, one can't possibly think of bad ideas."

Li Hongxiu rolled her limpid eyes and said, "But right now I am thinking of a bad idea."

Chu Liuxiang said, "Right now you must be thinking of how to make me crawl up and do something for you; am I right?"

Li Hongxiu giggled tenderly and said, "You really are a ghost; nothing can be concealed from you."

Her laughter gradually stopped; she went on, "But you really ought to get up and do something. Since returning from the Capital, you did not even want to move. If this laziness continued, you would become a hoodlum."

Chu Liuxiang sighed dramatically and said, "You are really like my teacher when I was little, only you lack a pair of moustache."

Li Hongxiu glared fiercely at him. Chu Liuxiang broke into a laughter and continued, "In my trip to the Capital this time, I really increased my knowledge by seeing not a few of those so-called famous heroes' faces. Apart from the Bald Eagle, that old man, there were two others. One was the rice bucket [fig. good-for-nothing] the Life and Death Judge; it was said that his martial art skill is not weak, the pair of judge pens in his hands reportedly can seal 218 acupoints in a person's body at once, but I swept pa.s.s him, and he only stood still like he was in a dream."

Li Hongxiu cast him a sidelong glance, pursed her lips, and said, "Chu Da Shaoye's qinggong [lightness skill] is unparalleled under the heavens, who in Jianghu did not know it? But Chu Da Shaoye, are you done tooting your horn?"

"I am done," Chu Liuxiang said, "Miss Li, what instruction do you have for me?"

"Let me tell you some things first," Li Hongxiu said. From her s.p.a.cious sleeve she took out a tiny notebook. While flipping over it, she murmured, "Last time you fetched a batch of goods from Jinan [sub provincial city and capital of Shandong], and sold it for three hundred thousand taels. In addition to the ten thousand taels as emergency relief for the 'Long Hu Biao Ju' [dragon and tiger (fig. outstanding people) escort agency] w.a.n.g Biaotou's widow, and opened up your hands for the Zhang and Zhao, two families' wife and children for five thousand taels each, you also paid one thousand taels funeral expenses on behalf of Huang Xiucai [scholar, a person who has pa.s.sed the county level imperial exam], and fifteen hundred taels to pay for wedding feast and betrothal gift on behalf of Zhao Guoming, and on behalf of Zheng …"

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "Do you think I don't know that?"

Glowering at him, Li Hongxiu said, "In short, three hundred thousand taels have been distributed out, you owe the Tian Farm fifty thousand taels, and I already loaned you forty thousand."

Chu Liuxiang smiled ruefully and said, "Miss, are you saying that you cannot be lenient to me some more?"

"Haven't you enjoyed life pleasure enough?" Li Hongxiu said, "There are already a lot of gossips circulating in Jianghu, people were talking whether the money you spent was your own, or you used your official authority for private interests …"

Frowning, Chu Liuxiang said, "Whatever people say, what does it have to do with us? We live in this world, why can't we enjoy it? Why do we have to suffer hards.h.i.+p when we are old? Since when did you become so wordy?"

Smiling sweetly, Li Hongxiu said, "I don't want you to suffer hards.h.i.+p, I just …"

Suddenly there was a call from the cabin, "Are you two still worrying about overturning the plains and the waves? Don't you want to eat?"

It was a southern girl dialect; listening to her brought up another kind of flirtatious expression, another kind of feeling. But Li Hongxiu held her arms high, and said with a laugh, "Laotian, can't she say something that others can understand?"

Chu Liuxiang laughed and said, "You must not blame her. She worked hard to prepare the food, but n.o.body eats it, no wonder she is angry. And if one is angry, her hometown dialect came out."

He did not seem to have moved, but he already pulled Li Hongxiu up.

Li Hongxiu protested coquettishly, "You always sided with Tian'er, that's why she is so …"

She had not finished talking, her countenance changed abruptly, and she blurted out, "Look there, what is that?"

Under the bright suns.h.i.+ne, there was someone floating on the surface of the sea.

A dead body.

In one turn Chu Liuxiang already reached the side of the s.h.i.+p; grabbing a rope, he tied a noose and tossed it lightly. The long rope flew perfectly straight like an arrow.

The rope seemed to have eyes of its own; it accurately wrapped itself around the corpse.

The corpse was wearing expensive brocade clothes, a jadeite snuff bottle was hanging on his waist, his swarthy face already swollen by the seawater.

Chu Liuxiang lay him down on the deck, shook his head and said, "Can't be saved anymore."

But Li Hongxiu was looking at the corpse' hands. The middle and ring fingers of his left hand were wearing three strange-looking black steel and golden rings.

Although his right hand had no ring, there was a trace of ring on the fingers.

Knitting her brows, Li Hongxiu said, "Seven-Star Flying Ring! Could it be that this is 'Tian Xing Bang' [Celestial Star Gang] disciple?"

Chu Liuxiang said, "Not only 'Tian Xing Bang' disciple, this is the 'Tian Xing Bang' Zongpiao Bazi [it's hard to translate, but basically it means the 'big boss'], the 'Seven-Star Soul s.n.a.t.c.hing' Zuo Youzheng. But 'Tian Xing Bang' has always been in southern Anhui; how could he have died in here?"

Li Hongxiu said, "There is no scar on his body; did he die of drowning?"

Chu Liuxiang shook his head, and untied the corpse's clothes. They saw under the fifth rib of his left chest, between the 'ru gen' [breast root] and 'qi men' [stage door] acupoints, surprisingly there was a purplish red palm mark.

Li Hongxiu sighed and said, "s.h.i.+ Sha Men [Corpse Sand School]."

Chu Liuxiang said, "Although in recent years the talent of s.h.i.+ Sha Men is at its peak, and its disciples are known to be more than a hundred and seventy, but those who can put 'Seven-Star Soul s.n.a.t.c.hing' to his death are, at most, only three."

Li Hongxiu said, "Um, Feng, Yang, Ximen … those three men's martial art skill is perhaps a bit stronger than Zuo Youzheng."

Chu Liuxiang said, "What grat.i.tude and grudges could s.h.i.+ Sha Men and Tian Xing Bang have against each other?"

Li Hongxiu thought a moment, and then said, "Thirty-six years ago Tian Xing Bang's Fragrant Master of the Torture Chamber married the second daughter of the s.h.i.+ Sha Men's Zhangmen [Chief] Feng Feng [two different characters]. Two years later this Miss Feng suddenly died. Feng Feng personally led punitive forces to southern Anhui; afterwards, although upon investigation he found out that his daughter really died of serious illness, from then on the two families did not have any dealings with each other anymore."

"And then what happened?" Chu Liuxiang asked.

Li Hongxiu said, "Twenty-six … maybe twenty-five years ago Tian Xing Bang's disciple robbed the goods s.h.i.+pped under protection of s.h.i.+ Sha Men's disciples. At that time Feng Feng happened to have just died of illness, s.h.i.+ Sha was in the process to elect the new Zhangmen, hence this matter was dragging on for one year. Afterwards, although the Tian Xing Bang's disciple robbing the s.h.i.+pment was also defeated by s.h.i.+ Sha Men's disciples, the silver has never been returned."

She was telling the story that happened more than twenty years ago in the Wulin [lit. martial art forest] world as though she was talking about trivial daily life of the people around her.

Chu Liuxiang smiled and said, "Your memory is indeed never disappointing. But these matters are all in the past, the situation has changed; not only that, it cannot be considered deep hatred or big enmity. It may be a.s.sumed that for this kind of thing, s.h.i.+ Sha Men can't possibly follow Zuo Youzheng all the way to here before making their ruthless move. There must be some other reason behind this."

Suddenly a young girl came up from the cabin, and protested coquettishly, "The two of you are really worrying about overturning the plains and the waves?"

She was also wearing wide and comfortable clothes, only the color was goose yellow; she also revealed a pair of hazel, well-proportioned and beautiful, smooth-lined jade legs.

Her pitch-black hair was combed into two long braids. The long braids were swinging around, following the constant movement of her exquisite body. Her oval face was pale brown; it matched very well with her pair of big eyes, where the black and the white of her eyeb.a.l.l.s were distinct. She appeared charming yet playful. Originally she feigned disappointment on her face, but as soon as she saw the corpse, she cried out in alarm, turned around and ran away. She ran away a lot faster than when she came.

Li Hongxiu laughed and said, "No matter how gutsy Tian'er is in doing everything else, but as soon as she saw a dead person, she would be terribly scared. Therefore, I often said that no living person can control her, only dead people can do that."

Chu Liuxiang had his eyes fixed on the abyss of the ocean and the sky; he spoke slowly, "You wait and see. Today, this one will not be the only dead people floating from over yonder."

Li Hongxiu rolled her limpid eyes, but before she could speak, from the cabin appeared a pair of delicate and graceful hands, holding a large tray.

On the tray were two roasted yellow-breasted pigeons, with two pieces of lemon, several slabs of juicy beef, half white chicken breast, a strip of steamed fish, and large bowl of thick zhuqian soup [don't know what it is], a large bowl of dried meat-flavored rice, and a full cup of purplish red grape wine, with condensation of water droplets outside the cup, as if it has been chilled for a long time.

Song Tian'er's sweet laughter came from inside the cabin, as she called out, "Hey! Come in, quick!"

Li Hongxiu laughed and said, "I don't understand, why don't you deliver it yourself?"

Song Tian'er pouted and said, "Little demon [term of endearment for a child], if you don't understand, how did you know that I was calling you?"

She was speaking in pure dialect of the Capital, but she was mumbling with soft, tender voice, yet it sounded so delightful.

Li Hongxiu clapped her hands and laughed tenderly, "Hear, hear! Our Miss Tian finally speaks Mandarin [orig. guanhua, 'officialese', the language of the bureaucrats]."