Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 3 Chapter 10 part1

Book 3 Chapter 10 - The Fire of War on Lake Wei

While helping Xu Ziling massaging the pit of his stomach, Kou Zhong anxiously asked, "Are you really alright? That female [usually refers to female animal] is really ruthless; just because we were not interested in hanging around with her! Unexpectedly she considered it big grudges and animosity.”

"Can you lower your voice a little bit?” Xu Ziling said in low voice, "If she hears it we will be in trouble. Hey! Let me tell you something amazing. When the true qi in my body started to move, just a short while and I feel better already. If I transferred my qi a bit earlier, perhaps I could easily take her palm strike.”

Kou Zhong said, "In that case this palm strike can be considered something of a value, as long as you don't die.” And then he remembered something and giggled, "Don't just look at her as being mean, the fact is that she unconsciously fell in love with you. But because she is already betrothed, and you treated her as a worthless nobody, in her anger she wanted to attack you, hence she made her move and injured you.”

Xu Ziling was not amused, "Go to your Niang! Fall in love with me? This kind of love is not worth mentioning.”

The more Kou Zhong thought, the more he was convinced. He analyzed, "Even if one time you cursed her as a loose woman and had no feeling of shame, hence your offense is more serious than mine, but my treatment to her was not much better. Yet she only looked for you to vent her anger; this kind of girl's mind is the most difficult to fathom. When you went to see her, that guy Shang Ming could not sit or stand still, his expression turned really weird.”

Xu Ziling seized this opportunity to change the subject, "In that case, that Shang Ming ought to be that evil woman Princess' husband, who has not yet passed through a doorway [marry into a family, see Book 3 Chapter 9]. Ay! Even if the entire Dong Ming Pai people kneeled in front of me, I can't possibly join their Sect. Men married into the women's family, why would I want to do that?”

Kou Zhong laughed and giggled, "The biggest reason is that the women would take care of us.”

And then his expression turned serious as he said, "After we get to Weishan Lake tonight, Madame Dong Ming and that evil woman Princess will go see Li Shimin's old dad. That will be the time we make our move to steal that thing. From here we climbed down the window, it will be as easy as lifting our hand.”

Meanwhile the scenery outside the window has changed, no longer steep banks and cliffs, but clear and crystalline river water, clumps of white cloud, the far-side bank continued on to open land as far as the eye can see. They have arrived at Weishan Lake.

The door was pushed open. The ugly maid walked in silently, sized Xu Ziling up a moment, and then with her hoarse voice and crude manner she asked, "Are you still in pain?”

Xu Ziling was touched by her concern; he was about to reply that it was not a big deal when Kou Zhong pinched him. Hastily he said, "I think after two days rest I should be alright. Thank you Jiejie for your concern.”

"Who cares about you?” the ugly maid coldly said, "It's just that tonight Madame wants to eat dinner with you, so she sent me over to check on you! Since you are alright, then that's it.” Finished speaking she turned around and left.

While the two boys were looking at each other in astonishment, there was a knock on the door, the beautiful maid Ruyin came from outside the door, "May I come in?”

Kou Zhong sprang up and pulled the door open. "Good Jiejie, please come in!” he greeted.

‘Pfft!' Ruyin broke into tender laughter; she cast a sidelong glance toward Kou Zhong and gracefully walked in. Seeing Xu Ziling was sitting in a chair by the window, without any visible change in her countenance she said in amazement, "Madame is right, although on the surface you look badly injured, actually it is not serious at all.”

Xu Ziling could not bear lying to her; he nodded and said, "Just a bit painful!”

Ruyin came over and stretched out her gentle and soft hand to feel the temperature on his forehead. Pulling her jade hand back, she said, "Your internal energy is so unusual; void and fluttering, so that it's hard for others to gauge the depth of it.”

Kou Zhong walked over to her, he took that opportunity to lean closer, his nose vigorously sucked in the fragrance of her hair first, before speaking right next to her ear, "This is called ‘unfathomable'.”

Ruyin was displeased, "Can you be more proper? To be honest, my impression on you is not much better than the Princess'. Unexpectedly you hang around with those devoid-of-consciousness Baling Bang people; are you thinking of copying them in doing business in human trafficking?”

Kou Zhong awkwardly said, "We did not know Xiang Yushan was Baling Bang people!”

The more Ruyin spoke, the angrier she was; with arms akimbo she angrily said, "Then why did you go to their casino? Don't you dare to say that you did not know it was not a casino!”

Seeing her almond eyes grew big in anger, Kou Zhong replied in panic, "We did not know it was a casino, we thought it was a brothel.”

"What?” Ruyin's voice broke.

It was too late for Kou Zhong to correct himself, he knew he was in trouble. Heaving a deep sigh, he said, "Ay! Jiejie, how could you know our plight that time? We were in a tight spot, and had no choice but to find a place to hide.”

Ruyin's pretty face was flushed with anger, "It's just an excuse; the truth was that you wanted to fool around in a place where you wanted to ingratiate yourselves like that. Looking at your fine countenance fine appearance, I could not imagine that you are so corrupt in the inside. Just see if I will pay you any more attention in the future.” Stomping her foot, she turned around and walked away.

Kou Zhong reached out trying to get hold of her. Ruyin dodged; her eyes bulging like fish bowl, she screamed, "You dare to touch me with your stinky hand? Princess is right, not many men on earth are good people.”

The two boys had never imagined that such a gentle and considerate girl could become this emotional; they stared blankly at her in silence and in fear.

Ruyin's silky breasts heaved up and down rapidly for a moment before calming down. Seeing the two boys who looked like a great catastrophe had just befallen them, her expression softened a little as she said grimly, "I rarely get angry like this; it's all your fault! Alright, if you are willing to promise me that from now on you won't go to that kind of place, I will forgive you!”

Xu Ziling was ready to promise, but Kou Zhong beat him by saying, "In that case won't we have to change our training to Tongzi Gong [virgin boy skill]?”

Ruyin was taken aback, and then her pretty face blushed as she stared hatefully at Kou Zhong before storming out in anger.

‘Bang!' as soon as he heard the door slammed, Kou Zhong breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Fortunately I did not let you give your promise in a rush. Otherwise how could we enjoy life and be merry later?”

Xu Ziling let out a bitter laugh and said, "That's one more person we offended. Right now on this ship, other than Madame Dong Ming, it could be said that we look up and see no one familiar.”

Kou Zhong sneered and said, "This ship is full of eccentric people, fortunately we are going to leave very soon. Otherwise, sooner or later we will turn into one of them. It's not a big deal if we don't go to Ryukyu, I am sure they don't have half a place where we can have fun.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, "What do you mean having fun? Every time we wanted to go to a brothel we always came across something shady. Apparently the two of us lack pleasure-house luck.”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, "I don't believe in demonic influence. Come! Let us practice our exceptional divine skill, as long as our ears can hear the eight directions, we can carry out our grand plan.” Finished speaking, he started to walk back and forth in the room.

In the hazy dusk of twilight, the Dong Ming flagship sailed at full speed over the mist covered water of Weishan Lake, heading toward a certain destination.

On the ship, a vegetarian feast has been prepared inside the hall of the main cabin. Madame Dong Ming still had her face covered in veil, her entire being was still shrouded in unfathomable mystery.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were sitting on her left and right, respectively.

All three Law-Protector Fairies were present. Shan Yan and Shan Yudie, who dealt with Du Fuwei the other day, were expressionless [I could have sworn that it was Shan Xiu, not Shan Yan]. Only Shan Qing showed a bit of warmth. But obviously everybody strongly disapproved Madame Dong Ming showing such grand hospitality toward two boys whose names not encountered in the classics.

The other attendees included Shang Ming and a senile-looking old man. This old man, Madame Dong Ming called him Shang Gong [gong means ‘grandpa', ‘father-in-law', or simply a term of respect to address (much) older man]. His stature was originally big and tall, but his back was crooked. However, the eyes under heavily wrinkled eyelids constantly flickered with strange purple light. He appeared spirited, yet appeared dull at the same time; in short, he was extremely intimidating.

The other Dong Ming Sect people were very respectful toward him. Other than the first time when he was introduced to the two boys, he did not even look at them. The rest of the time he was simply holding on to the only wine pot on the table, silently pouring himself a drink. Toward the fine vegetarian dishes on the table, he was not even interested in giving it a single glance.

Very soon the two boys even forgot that he was there.

Apparently Shan Wanjing was still angry, so she did not attend.

However, whether it was related to Shan Wanjing or not, Shang Ming seemed to be brimming with hostility; he was even more unfriendly than before.

Ruyin must be Madame Dong Ming's personal maid; she waited on everyone. But she was still fuming with anger; apparently her resentment toward Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had not subsided.

All in all, this meal was not a pleasant one.

At the start of dinner, Madame Dong Ming spoke a few apologetic words on behalf of her daughter, but afterwards she chatted with Shang Ming and the others, leaving the two boys out on the side.

The two boys were already used to this kind of treatment, so they did not give it a , but going all-out in wiping out the dishes on the table. However, they were used to eating meat, hence no matter how many dishes were delivered into their belly, it did not give them a sense of satisfaction.

Seeing their table manners, other than Madame Dong Ming and Shang Gong, the rest of the people showed contemptuous look on their faces.

Shang Ming was discussing the changes in the militia situation, "The most worrisome is the Tujue [Turkic] people's tendency. Right now Ying Yang Pai's Liang Shidou and Liu Wuzhou already cast their lots with them, and are bestowed the titles Magnanimous Pijia Khan and Dingyang Khan, respectively. These two renegades have received Tujue Khan's order to attack Taiyuan. If Li Yuan cannot defend Taiyuan, Tujue will definitely seize the chance to advance; at that time the Central Plains will be in grave danger.”

Everybody was paying attention.

Chapter end