Treasured Sword, Golden Hairpin, Chap. 4, Part 2

Treasured Sword, Golden Hairpin, Chapter 4, Part 2.
from Wang Dulu's Baojian Jinchai.

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He felt now just like a failed scholar, with his expression downcast and both legs gone soft beneath him. He was barely out of the alley when he spotted Xi Zhongxiao standing there waiting for him. Upon seeing Li Mubai emerge, Xi Zhongxiao hurried over to ask, "Well? Are you engaged to get married or not?" Li Mubai scoffed coldly at him, saying, "You really know how to trick people, don't you? You got me to make a complete fool of myself!" So saying, he walked away along the main road. Xi Zhongxiao was not just going to take that! When they returned to the counter of Taidehe, Li Mubai took off his sword and laid it on the table. He heaved a long sigh before slumping into a chair with his head lowered, looking like he wanted to die from regret.

Xi Zhongxiao stretched out on the kang with his pipe and said, "Brother, how can you say I tricked you? Was the young lady of the Yu family not beautiful enough? Or did you consider her martial arts poor? Was she not good enough for you?" Hearing this only made Li Mubai feel all the worse. He asked, "How have you not deceived me? When did the old escort Yu ever say anything about choosing a husband for his daughter by martial contest?" Xi Zhongxiao burst out with a chuckle, saying, "If I'd not told you that, you wouldn't have come at all! But no matter if old escort Yu said it or not, the fact is you have had your match with the young lady. Old escort Yu has seen your bearing and your martial arts for himself. How could he possibly refuse you if you plainly proposed the marriage?" Li Mubai scoffed, "Old escort Yu is an old friend of our master. His daughter was long ago betrothed to the old escort Meng of Xuanhua's second son. She's being sent to her husband's family next year."

Upon hearing this, Xi Zhongxiao became a bit crestfallen as well and said, "This Meng fellow sure is lucky. It turns out he'd long since pinned down this priceless treasure. That's fine. I guess we just don't have the fortune! Brother, I think you came out alright. You were able to hold your own with the miss for a while, and you managed to slip that flower-embroidered kerchief off her head and into your hands. Think of Liang Wenjin, who got no advantage at all and came away first with a bloody nose and a bruised face. How dejected he must have been!" So saying, he took a couple puffs from his pipe.

Li Mubai had no desire to waste any more words on Xi Zhongxiao, so he sat in his chair and fell into a long stupor. He thought back to Yu Xiulian's pretty face and graceful bearing, and the deft mastery of her twin blades. He thought to himself, If I could get a wife like that, I would not regret living the rest of my life in poverty. The reason I, Li Mubai, have yet to marry though I have passed twenty years is precisely because I am looking for such a beauty. But it's all over now. The young lady Yu is already the unmarried daughter-in-law of the Meng family. I must never have the slightest improper thoughts toward her. But ever since I set my eyes on her, my own marriage prospects seem bleaker than ever. Where in the world could one find another woman with both Yu's beauty and her martial skill? In the depths of his grief, he could not sit still, and he urged Xi Zhongxiao to hurry back to Nangong that very day. Xi Zhongxiao had not yet satisfied his craving for the pipe and said wearily, "What's the rush? You wouldn't have anything to do back home anyway." Li Mubai sprang to his feet and said, "If you won't go, I'll hire a cart and go by myself. I truly cannot bear to stay here another moment." Xi Zhongxiao laughed unhappily. "You really are a stubborn one. Just because you can't win a wife, does that mean we're not allowed to spend another day in Julu County?"

Just as they spoke, Attendant He entered the room and Li Mubai said, "Attendant He, can you hire a cart for me? I'm returning to Nangong." Attendant He said, "Master Li, what's the hurry? Wouldn't it be better to enjoy yourself here a couple more days?" Li Mubai had no interest in lingering here, saying, "I have matters to take care of when I return. Could I trouble you to check if there are any carts bound for Nangong at the station?" Attendant He glanced over at Xi Zhongxiao. Xi Zhongxiao had other pleasures of his own to pursue here and was not sorry to be rid of so disagreeable a companion, so he nodded and said, "Fine, go and hire Master Li a cart, and make sure it's a familiar one. We don't want Master Li to run off somewhere to become a monk instead of returning to Nangong." So saying, he propped himself up and flashed a grin at Attendant He. "Don't you know? Master Li couldn't win the young lady of the Yu family, and now he's bothered."

Li Mubai said angrily, "You dragooned me into making a spectacle of myself here, and now you laugh at my expense?" Xi Zhongxiao sat on the kang and just laughed. Attendant He dared not laugh and said he would go find a cart. Before long the cart was brought round, and Li Mubai took up his bundle and sword, stepped out the door, and climbed aboard. Even Shopkeeper Xu came out to see him off, saying, "Master Li, do come and visit us again when you have the leisure." Li Mubai raised his hands in salute from the cart, as it rolled away and out through the city gate.

Leaving Julu County, Li Mubai followed the road by which they had come, but his heart was nothing like it had been on the journey there. He sat in the cart and had no eyes for the bright spring landscape spread across the countryside. It was evening by the time he arrived home in Nangong County. He paid the cart fare, and then he returned to his small, solitary room. His uncle came in and asked whether he had found his friend in Julu, the one who had once been a county magistrate. Li Mubai said only that he had not; he had heard the friend had gone to Beijing to seek a posting. His uncle was quite disappointed.

That evening Li Mubai could not even eat, nor could he bring himself to study. He sat staring at his single lamp, his heart full of a limitless desolation. Before long, he went to lie down, and in his dreams he was fighting Yu Xiulian again. Then, he dreamed that old escort Yu had consented to give her to him. He woke to find the bright moonlight flooding the window and silence all around him, and he could only sigh. The next day he could not even bring himself to practice his sword. The wheat sprouts before the village, the peach blossoms by the house, the misty willows in the distance, the ink-dark mountains: all of it fed his boundless sorrow, and he could not rouse his spirits at all.

After two days had passed, Xi Zhongxiao came by with an invitation to take Li Mubai to visit Liang Wenjin. Li Mubai shook his head and said he had no wish to go. When Xi Zhongxiao tried to bring up the subject of Yu Xiulian, Li Mubai cut him off, not allowing him to speak of it. Xi Zhongxiao, seeing that Li Mubai was taking the whole Yu Xiulian affair so seriously, became rather upset himself, and after sitting for a short while took his leave. As he went out he scoffed to himself, Your desires are all for naught. Do you really think Yu Xiongyuan is going to break off the engagement with the Meng family and give you the girl? Li Mubai had never cared for that type of young wastrel, like Xi Zhongxiao and Liang Wenjin, and from then on, he had even less inclination to see them.

Another two months or so passed. The pomegranate blossoms blazed like fire, and the scholar and willow trees had deepened their shade in what was now early summer. At home Li Mubai grew ever more indolent. Day after day, besides reading Tang poetry he only slept. He had abandoned his eight-legged essays and his sword and fist training altogether. His clothes were disheveled the whole day and his spirits so low, even he himself didn't know the reason.

On this day, his uncle Li Fengqing had gone into the city to visit his aunt, and when he came home he was in good spirits. He pulled out a letter from Beijing and showed it to Li Mubai. Li Mubai's aunt had in fact married into the prominent Qi family in the city. His aunt's brother-in-law, Qi Diancheng, currently held a post at the Ministry of Justice in the capital. Since the previous year Li Fengqing had been sending letters with people, asking this relative to find Li Mubai a position in Beijing, and now at last this letter had arrived. The letter said that Li Mubai should come to Beijing first, so that Qi Diancheng could have a look at him, and then they would see about finding him a post.

Li Fengqing beamed at his nephew and said, "Look at your Uncle Qi, he is quite the man! He must have already found something for you, but he's not sure if you would be up to it, so he's sent for you so that he can meet you first. At any rate once you've arrived in Beijing, he'll surely see to your food and lodging. If you can get a post at the Ministry, that's better than being a county magistrate out here. But mind you apply yourself, and change that attitude of yours, always stubbornly ignoring everyone else's counsel. That will not do." At this point, Li Mubai was quite willing to get away for a while and clear his head. He had long heard that Beijing was a place of splendor with countless famous sights. He thought he ought to go and broaden his horizons, and so he happily agreed. His uncle told him to prepare his luggage, and after consulting the almanac, found that two days hence was an auspicious day, and so he decided that Li Mubai should depart on that day. Thus, Li Mubai set about packing his things, and on the following day he went into the city to bid his aunt farewell. On the third day, his uncle Li Fengqing produced fifty taels that he had saved up and gave them to Li Mubai for travel expenses. Li Mubai hired a cart, and with his bundle and sword on him, he bowed farewell to his uncle and aunt and left Nangong County, riding north.

Li Mubai's departure from home was not chiefly for the sake of finding a posting. His greater wish was to venture upon Jianghu, to see the famous sights in each place, and even more to hope that somewhere on the dusty road he might encounter a woman who resembled Yu Xiulian, and thus fulfill his hope of marriage.

The weather was sweltering. Sitting inside the mule-cart was so stuffy he grew dizzy. Li Mubai counted the fifty taels from his uncle and the twenty-odd taels he already had. It was not quite eighty taels of silver in total, but it was still near enough that he made up his mind to purchase a horse. So when he arrived at Jizhou, he dismissed the cart, went to a horse trader, and bought a white, not exceptionally strong horse for forty taels of silver. He then spent another eight taels on a half-worn saddle and bridle. Once the horse was readied, Li Mubai swung up onto its back, flicked his riding crop, and felt a surge of elation. Li Mubai had loved riding all his life. Back home, Liang Wenjin had kept two horses, and Li Mubai had borrowed them to ride so often that he had become quite an able horseman. He cared not whether he had enough money to make it the rest of the way, nor that this animal was not the finest. Simply riding the horse put new life into him. He thought, With this horse, I can roam Jianghu freely. What need have I for a wife or anxiety about my future? Again because of the excessive heat, he bought a wide-brimmed Malianpo straw hat at the market and set it on his head. Together with his short blue shirt and trousers and the double-edged blade hanging from the saddle, he looked even more like a young xia long familiar with Jianghu.

He spurred his horse out of Jizhou City and followed the main road northward. That day he covered more than seventy li. He crossed the Fuyang River, found lodgings, and at dawn the next morning set out north again. By around ten in the morning, he entered the borders of Wuqiang County. Because the heat was oppressive, Li Mubai had no wish to press too hard, so he proceeded at an easy pace. There were not many other travelers or carts on the road. As he rode along he turned over in his mind what he ought to do once he reached Beijing. He thought too that if Uncle Qi found him a post at the Ministry of Justice, he would be buried in paperwork from morning to night, and that would be the end of him. It would be best if he could find fighting instruction or security work. But Uncle Qi was a capital official. He would never allow Li Mubai to take up such a lowly trade. So thinking, he felt increasingly that there was little point in going to Beijing at all, and thus became still less inclined to push on through the fierce summer heat.

He had ridden for another ten or more li when suddenly he heard the jumbled drumming of hoofbeats behind him. Just as Li Mubai turned his head to look, three horses flew past him like arrows. Li Mubai saw that the three riders were two men and a woman. The men wore short jackets and large straw hats: one was tall, the other somewhat stout. The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, her head covered with a black gauze kerchief, wearing a pale red silk jacket and thin, black silk trousers. Her feet, in red satin shoes, rested in the stirrups with the ease of someone accustomed to riding. What caught his eye most sharply was that every one of the three saddles had a sheathed steel saber strapped to it. Li Mubai was immediately struck with wonder, thinking, Who are these people? If they aren't martial arts performers, then they must be bandits or that ilk. Unable to suppress the impulse of a young man's curiosity, he spurred his horse on after them.

Drawing to within a few dozen paces of the three riders, Li Mubai followed close behind and observed their faces. He saw that the tall man appeared to be around thirty, with a ruddy complexion and short whiskers. The somewhat stouter man was shorter, with a dark purple face and large fierce eyes; he looked to be in his twenties. The woman was no more than twenty-three or twenty-four, with a long face and a slightly swarthy complexion. There was a certain comeliness to her brows and eyes, but a red mole on her left cheek seemed somehow to highlight her fierce and unruly nature. The three of them spoke little as they rode, only pressing their horses forward with urgency, as if there was something ahead awaiting their attention, or as if they were chasing someone down.

After Li Mubai followed them for two or three li, the three of them began glancing back repeatedly and speaking to each other, as if suspicious of him. He kept a composed expression and continued riding at an even pace, neither closing the distance nor falling back. After another li or so, the three suddenly reined in their horses. Li Mubai rode on, utterly at ease. The tall man swung his horse sideways and called out, "Friend, what are you about?" Li Mubai feigned a moment of confusion, raised his head, and looked the three of them over with a blank expression. "I'm traveling the road," he said. "Where are you headed?" the tall man asked. "I'm on my way to Beijing," said Li Mubai. Upon hearing that Li Mubai was going to Beijing, the tall man seemed to scrutinize him even more closely, looking him over from head to toe, as if trying to work out what sort of person he was dealing with.

At this time, the purple-faced man lost his patience. He glared at Li Mubai furiously and demanded, "Never mind where you're going. Why have you been following us?" Li Mubai met his anger with a cool and faint smile. "That's rather unreasonable of you. This is a public highway. Travelers and merchants alike may come and go as they please. You are in front and I am behind, each keeping to his own path. How can you say that I'm following you? I have been making my way through Jianghu for more than ten years, from south of the river to north of the sea. Surely I needn't follow you to find my way?"

Before Li Mubai had even finished, the woman made to pull her saber from the saddle, but the tall man stopped her with a glance. Taken aback by Li Mubai's bluster and not knowing what manner of man he was, he had no desire for a fight. He laughed and said, "That's well enough, friend. We understand! You're quite right, each to his own path." He turned to the other man and the woman and said, "Let's go. We'll see what he can do!" With that, the three gave their horses several angry lashes and galloped off in a massive cloud of dust, heading north at full speed. On his horse behind them, Li Mubai broke into a long, hearty laugh.