Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 2 Chapter 10 part2

Kou Zhong replied, "Every year they come to the Central Earth to select some young men with natural endowments to be brought back with them; needless to say, those men are to be the women's husbands, is that right?”

Yun Yuzhen said, "Tell me everything that happened after you came onboard, don't omit anything.”

Kou Zhong only needed several sentences to explain everything; because the chain of events that day only happened in the time needed to drink half a cup of hot tea.

Listening to him, Yun Yuzhen's pretty eyebrows were knitted; it was quite some time later that she finally said, "This is strange, why did Madame Dong Ming ask you those strange questions?”

Xu Ziling replied, "Do we need to tell you that? Since they are selecting son-in-law, naturally they are looking for some guys with aspiration and ambition. Realizing that we are just two boys who are crazy about riches, they chased us out of the ship in anger.”

"You are not asking us to steal their stuff, are you?” Kou Zhong wondered, "If that's the case, won't it be better for you to make the move yourself? They only need to remove the rope ladder, and we won't be able to climb up.”

Yun Yuzhen was impatient, "If I have a choice, why would I want to rely on you, these two little demons?” she said, "Right now, only you can stroll and swagger into their ‘Floating Fragrance Flagship'.”

The two boys were stunned. "Beautiful Shifu must be mistaken,” Kou Zhong said, "I am afraid you and us are not on Madame Dong Ming's welcomed guest list.”

Yun Yuzhen said, "This time and that time are two different things. Right now you have rendered great merit to Dong Ming Pai, Madame Dong Ming even dispatched her subordinate, the four law protector fairies to go everywhere to look for you; it's just that they have not found you!”

The two boys' spirit was immediately aroused; remembering that pretty young maid, their hearts warmed up instantly.

Yun Yuzhen smiled, "You understand it now?” she asked, "I could arrange that they coincidentally find you, and thus you will have a good chance of going into the ‘Floating Fragrance Flagship'.”

Xu Ziling said, "Actually, you have not even told us what is it that you want us to steal!”

Yun Yuzhen nonchalantly said, "Do you remember I told you that every clan and sect has their own way of earning a fortune? Dong Ming Pai's expertise is in manufacturing high-quality weapons; this fact is extremely well known in Jianghu. Out of ten divine arms and sharp weapons, at least three were forged in their Ryukyu factory.”

Xu Ziling suddenly came to a realization, "So you want us to steal weapons.”

Yun Yuzhen was irritated, "Other than divine arms and sharp weapons like Gan Jiang and Mo Xie[2], there is nothing good to be stolen. What I want you to steal an account book of a great importance.”

The two boys looked at each other in incredulity.

Yun Yuzhen's pretty eyes flickered. "This account book records all Dong Ming Pai's weapon transaction in the last few years; both the seller and the buyer must sign and affix their seals, and it also lists the quantity as well as the type of weapons being sold. Yuwen Huaji ordered Haisha Bang to attack the ‘Floating Fragrance Flagship', it was precisely for the sake of this account book.”

Listening to this, the two boys were totally confused and were at a loss.

Yun Yuzhen continued, "It also involves the power struggle within the imperial court. For instance, certain high-ranking minister secretly purchased a large quantity of weapons from Dong Ming Pai, this account book becomes irrefutable evidence that will allow Yuwen Huaji to submit a memorial to the Emperor and thus drag his opponent down. Do you understand it now?”

Kou Zhong said, "But Beautiful Shifu is not Yuwen Huaji; why do you want to obtain this account book?”

"You don't need to mind my business,” Yun Yuzhen replied, "In short, just get me the book, in turn I will set you free and give you the promised gold. If you are willing to try, while there are still ten days or so time, I will have my people teaching you first-class technique in stealing. Are you clear?”

There was a knock on the door, Yun Zhi came to report, "There is a small boat coming to us from behind; it's probably Li Gongzi.”

Yun Yuzhen's powdered face turned slightly red from annoyance; she said, "That shameful, annoying @$$hole keeps entangling me; let him come aboard.”

After a short pause, she added, "Take these two little demons go see Grandpa Chen.”

Seeing how happy she was at the prospect of seeing that Li Gongzi, the two boys were already upset. Now that she wanted to get rid of them, the two little demons, their ego took a hard beating. With anger and resentment they followed Yun Zhi out.

Following Yun Yuzhen's order, Yun Zhi took them along the hallway of the upper deck and came to a door. Knocking the door, she said, "Grandpa Chen! Two Gongzi are here.”

An old-sounding voice came from inside, "Have them come in!”

Yun Zhi pushed the door open and tell them to come in on their own.

The two boys stepped into the room, and discovered that the room was surprisingly very big. Spread all over the room were all kinds of padlocks, scaled building models, and some tools of unknown purpose. The walls were covered with a lot of architectural drawings. Unexpectedly they were inside the ship's main workshop.

A decrepit, hunchback, old man with long beard was taking apart a padlock and examining it carefully by the window. Without even casting a glance to the boys, he said with his hoarse voice, "Shut the door!”

Xu Ziling pushed the door closed.

The old man put down the lock and went over to them. Because he was shorter by more than half a head than the two boys, he had to look up to them. After seeing clearly the two boys' faces, he let out a hollow laugh and said, "I heard that you two have been stealing and swindling since childhood. Ha! Put out your hands first, let me take a look.”

The old man reached out to the two boys' four hands, grabbing and pinching left and right for a while, he expressed his astonishment, "I have never seen hands better than yours. Apparently very soon we will have two better pairs. Ha! I, the Ol' Chen will have my successors.”

With hands behind his back, he walked away and only stopped at the window. Staring out the window, he said, "Trying to steal things, apart from a pair of dexterous hands, one must be quick witted and able to change according to the situation, plus having excellent understanding of the building, its construction, mechanism, and so on.”

And then he strolled back and beckoned the two boys to come over to a building model on the table. "This building complex is made of ten courtyard houses of different sizes. If I want you to steal a piece of precious jade, how would you find where the jade is?”

Noticing the two boys only return blank stares, he seemed to be immensely proud of himself as he moved to another model and said, "Do you recognize this one?”

Kou Zhong's voice was hoarse, "Isn't this Yangzhou Zongguan's mansion?”

"Precisely Yuchi Sheng's doghouse,” Ol' Chen replied, "Actually, stealing is not too difficult. If I want you to steal a classified dossier, after reading all that stuff you must memorize everything written inside in your brains, and then return the dossier to its original place, the owner will not know that the flies have been seen by others, now that would require not only outstanding skill, you must also have photographic memory. Oh! Do you know how to read?”

Kou Zhong was already suspicious of Yun Yuzhen, naturally he would not tell him the truth. Pretending to be ashamed, he said, "How could we have the opportunity to go to school?”

"I won't blame you,” Ol' Chen spoke sympathetically, "Luckily this time the mission does not require you to read.”

Taking the two boys to a drawing hanging on the wall to their left, he said, "This is the ‘Floating Fragrance Flagship', which you have been to. The blackened parts are places where we are not yet clear.”

The diagram showed ‘Floating Fragrance Flagship' in stereoscopic perspective, but the main cabin section below the deck had been blackened.

Like an unceasing torrent the Ol' Chen explained everything, but the two boys found it fascinating, hence they listened attentively, while asking questions from time to time.

By daybreak, Yun Zhi came to take them to the room at the end of a long hallway toward to bow to rest. The two boys put down their heads and slept peacefully and did not wake up until evening.

Two pretty maids came to wait on them as they took a bath, changed their clothes, shaved their beards and combed their hair into a bun. When Yun Zhi returned to take them into the main cabin, her elegant eyes lit up as soon as she saw them; she said in astonishment, "Turns out two Gongzi are so handsome; indeed I failed to admire that.”

Seeing she was so pretty and pleasant, Kou Zhong leaned over and said, "How old is Jiejie this year? You seem to be almost at the same age as we are?”

Yun Zhi crossly said, "Definitely your senior. Come!” She turned around and walked away.

The two boys realized she was looking down on them; after exchanging frustrated expression and eye contact with each other, they followed her.

Arriving at the main cabin, they saw a dinner table was already prepared with food and wine, but there were only three seats, and one of them was already occupied by a big man in embroidered robe. His face looked ugly, with an approximately two cun long saber scar on his left cheek, giving out the impression that he was a cruel man; but his pair of eyes was flickering lively, so with one look people could tell that this was a martial art master with exquisite inner power.

The man was actually very polite. He stood up to welcome them and said, "Jukun Bang Fu Bangzhu [Deputy Clan Leader] Bu Tianzhi at your service. Yun Bangzhu has a business to attend to and has left for the shore, assigning the Ol' Bu to take up the responsibility to greet the two Xiao Xiongdi.”

[2] Gan Jiang and Mo Xie: the following is from Faerie Queene's work, Legend of the White Haired Maiden (Liang Yusheng). I thought I repeat it here for reference:

This pair of swords was said to be created by a pair of husband and wife sword smiths who lived during the end of the Spring and Autumn era (722BC-481BC) and were said to be apprentices coming out from the same school as the master sword-maker Ou YeZi who crafted the Dragon Springs Sword. Having crafted two of the finest swords of their career, they named these two swords after themselves Gan Jiang (literal translation: Competent General), Mo Xie (literal translation: Do not be/commit evil).

There appears to be various stories and legends surrounding these two sword-makers. It was said that though they worked for the Lord of the state of Wu (He Lu), yet Gan Jiang was also unjustly executed by the Lord of Wu because he did not want Gan Jiang crafting equally superb swords for the other states. Another story posits that it was Gan Jiang who crafted the pair of swords and named them after his wife and himself. He worked for the Lord of Chu and having anticipated that his lord would kill him immediately upon receiving this sword, he voiced these fears to his pregnant wife and left behind one sword buried under a large tree so that his unborn child may one day take revenge for him. Indeed, upon presenting the Gan Jiang sword to the Lord of Chu, Gan Jiang was executed.

When their son Chi Bi (literal translation: Scarlet Nose) grew up, he dug up the sword and swore revenge for his father. But unable to approach the Lord of Chu, he narrated his story to a noble warrior from the Chu state, who having been touched by his story promised to seek revenge for him. According to legend, it was this warrior who by presenting the Lord of Chu with the Mo Xie sword as a decoy, beheaded the Lord of Chu with this very sword and knowing that being surrounded by numerous soldiers he would be unable to escape, this warrior beheaded himself with the very same sword. There was yet another legend which posits that Gan Jiang collected together the essence of the highest grades of gold and metals belonging to the five mountains (probably: SongShan, TaiShan, HuaShan, Northern HengShan, Southern HengShan) and combined them together within a forge. But the heat of the forge was not enough to melt the metals and since the metals were unable to merge together, his sword was unable to be completed.

Gan Jiang knew that his failure to finish the sword according to his deadline would lead to his execution by the Lord of Wu and as a result was filled with despair. Suddenly, during one night, his wife smiled at him, causing Gan Jiang to be greatly worried as he pleaded for her to not commit what he feared she would do. But she only smiled and by the time Gan Jiang woke up, he found that she had already disappeared. He ran to the place where they crafted the swords and saw his wife standing by the forge smiling at him. But before he could reach her, she had already thrown herself into the fire. Her last words to him were that of reassuring her husband that she has not died yet and that they would eventually reunite. The metals finally melted and combined together to finally complete the pair of Gan Jiang, Mo Xie swords. Gan Jiang only presented the Gan Jiang sword to the Lord of Wu and secretly kept the Mo Xie sword by his side. But the Lord of Wu eventually discovered this news and had his men surround Gan Jiang.

At that time, Gan Jiang opened up the box, which contained the Mo Xie sword and asked the Mo Xie sword how he could ever be reunited with his wife. But the sword instantaneously transformed into a great white dragon, which suddenly disappeared along with Gan Jiang himself. Similarly, the Gan Jiang sword, which was by the Lord of Wu's side all this time mysteriously disappeared as well. Meanwhile, in a district called the Pin (destitute/impoverish) Cheng (City) located a thousand miles away appeared a young white dragon that suddenly emerged in their YanPingJin lake.

This majestic dragon was not only beautiful, but also kind-hearted and by calling upon the power of rainfall and the force of wind, it enabled the destitute city to benefit from the weather and prosper in its agriculture. As a result, the city was also renamed as Feng (Prosperity) Cheng. But the inhabitants found that the white dragon seemed always to be very unhappy as it looked towards the shores as if forever waiting for or pining away for someone with eyes filled with tears. After six hundred years, a young man named Lei Huan suddenly discovered a box buried within the ground. Upon opening the box, he discovered that it concealed the legendary Gan Jiang sword.

Pleased with his finding, he hung the sword by his side and one day, when he past by the YanPingJin lake, the sword that hung by his waist suddenly leaped up into the air and dived into the lake. There was a great commotion in the waters when suddenly two dragons leaped out, one white dragon and one black dragon. These two dragons danced together in joyful happiness before returning to the bottom of the lake, only to disappear forever. The next day, a husband and wife moved into the town. They were merely an ordinary couple and although the husband was a very skilled blacksmith, yet he only crafted the ordinary tools used in everyday agricultural life while his wife stood by his side, fanning him with a little fan and wiping away his sweat.

Chapter end