Глава 6, ч.2

Especially marrying that we-behind-the-ears whose talk is bigger than the sky, who only fit to be our servant, Chou Pidao [‘chou pi’ – smelly fart/arrogant]. Ha! This name Chou Pidao is more apt than Yuwen Huagu [see Chapter 5].” Xu Ziling kept a stout face, but in the next instant he burst into a wild laughter; so wild that tears were streaming out his eyes. Suddenly the door was pushed open. The two boys looked up in shock, and saw the woman-in-white came in with icy-cold countenance like a layer of frost. She closed the door, and then stared fiercely at the two boys. Quite a while later, she walked over to the two boys, knocked the cabin wall they were leaning on, and said, “Don’t forget who stays next door. Unless this wall is made of steel plate, each sentence of stinky words you speak will be transmitted into my ears.” Kou Zhong struggled up and said, “We did not call you ‘po niang’, why did you come to us to vent your anger?

” The woman-in-white dropped down on one knee and ferociously said, “What this woman or that woman [nu ren]?

You two are dead little demons, stinky little demons!” While speaking the last sentence, a fleeting smile escaped from the corners of her mouth. How could the two boys fail to see that she was not really angry?

Xu Ziling was the first to speak up, “But we really don’t know your name!” The woman-in-white lowered her voice, “And did you tell me your names?

” Kou Zhong showed an ‘oh, so that’s what it is’ look on his face. He made the introduction, “Xiaodi’s [little brother, referring to self] name is Kou on the top and Zhong on the bottom, and he is Xu Ziling. We are the Two Dragons of Yangzhou. May I ask Dashi’s honorable surname and great given name?

And what is your nickname?

Which holy place did you come from?

Are you married?

” ‘Pfft!’ the woman-in-white stifled a laughter muttered under her breath, “Dead little demon.” With that kind of unspeakably mesmerizing appearance, the two boys’ eyeballs almost popped out. Just as quickly the woman-in-white’s frosty countenance returned as she frostily said, “Married or not married, it’s none of your business. If you talk about me behnd my back, I will ... I will ...” Showing concern, Kou Zhong asked, “What punishment this time?

It would be best if you don’t slap my mouth or scrape my eyelid; it won’t look too good on me. Little demons should maintain their little demon’s face!” The woman-in-white knew she could not do anything against him; she angrily said, “I will make you regret it. During dinner, you must not babble nonsense. Understand?

” Giggling, Kou Zhong said, “We’d better call Dashi our Niang in the future, then whenever we are using your money, we won’t have to feel embarrassed.” A slight blush crept onto the woman-in-white’s face like red clouds, making her beautiful face even more lovely and alluring, particularly her spirited but tender eyes that can hook any man’s soul. Kou Zhong signaled Xu Ziling with his eyes, the two of them called together, “Niang!” Finally the woman-in-white could not take it anymore; she laughed and sat down. Gasping for breath, she said, “If I really have you, these two absolutely disgraceful, unfilial sons, I guarantee I will suffer headache and bowel disorders.” Seeing she did not flatly refuse, but laughed so hard that her body shook instead, that she looked so charmingly happy, which he had never seen before, Kou Zhong became bolder and decided to strike while the iron was still hot, “My Niang, oh, my Niang, your child thinks that your martial art skill can be considered pretty good, after being injured by Yuwen Huagu, you took only several sichen to recover. You’d better teach us a couple of martial art techniques, let us master some unique family skills with which we can brightened our family’s social status and thus will not cause you to lose any face.” [1] Guigu Zi (literally ’The Sage of Ghost Valley’), or Mr. Guigu, is thought to be the writer/compiler of the 6,000-7,000 Chinese-character book discussing techniques of political lobbying based in Daoist thinking; between the late Warring States period and the end of the Han Dynasty (source: Wikipedia). Chapter 6 Part 2 Scrapper, Anh, HPC, you are welcome. Szfong, I am reading it as I am translating it, and since this is my first attempt at translating Huang Yi’s, I wouldn’t know. But I did save the (English translation) of Step into the Past in MS-Word document, at the exact format as Deer and Cauldron (font, font size, page size and margin). You know, SITP has 2166 pages, while Deer and Cauldron has 1768 pages. So if this novel is twice SITP, then it is probably 2.5 times longer than Deer and Cauldron. Fortunately the chapters are a lot shorter than Jin Yong’s, so I get the feeling that I translate faster. CFT, thanks for the info. My Dad once told us, his kids, that the term China probably came from Qin (dynasty), similar to ’Jews’ coming from ’Judah’. Anok, now, please don’t scare me ... I can’t promise you anything, since I don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. But as I mentioned before, the Lord’s willing, I will try my best to finish it ... probably (according to previous calculations by various readers) in 40 years or more ... Just kidding. But even if I maintain the same speed as when I did Deer and Cauldron, it will still take close to 8 years, probably more. Anyway, enough chit-chat, here’s the end of Chapter 6. I will try to post more the rest of this week. I don’t plan on shopping on Black Friday anyway ... window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "62910880adf4e30027560830", id: "pf-1556-1"}) His laughter was infectious. Once she started laughing, even though she knew that Kou Zhong was teasing her and trying to make her laugh, she still could not stop laughing that she needed to cover her mouth with her hand. Gasping for breath, she scolded him, “Get your big ghost head lost. Little demon Xu is a lot more honest than you. Indeed a dog’s mouth cannot grow ivory.” Kou Zhong pretended to be deeply hurt by this injustice; he said in tiny voice, “Xiao Ling is honest?

My heavens! He is craftier than I am. It’s just that he fell in love with her Niang that he turns into a fool.” Xu Ziling indignantly said, “How can I be crafty?

All those crafty ideas came from you, but I, the fool, have always been the one who has to do it; and now you still come up with fabricated accusation and dump it on my head?

” The woman-in-white struggled hard not to laugh. Looking out the window at the glow of the setting sun, she sighed and said, “I must have committed some sins in my previous life that in this life I have two kids like you to annoy me. Alright, although fully aware that nothing good will come out of it, I’ll still teach you some kind of training method. If you really can master this skill, then I’ll consider teaching you swordsmanship. But you two are not my children; even more, you are not my disciples.” The two boys’ spirit was greatly shaken, they asked in chorus, “What are you to us then?

” The woman-in-white was stunned. After staying silent for half a day, she said with wry smile, “Don’t ask me!” But there was a warm feeling rising up in her heart. Even she herself could not understand why she felt it was hard to part with these two boys; so much so that when they called her ‘Niang’, she could not bring herself to reprimand them. Herself was an orphan born in the chaos of war, which was adopted by a Gaoli martial art master Fu Cailin. Ever since she was a mere child, she was trained to be an assassin, in addition to learning Han people’s language and culture. The reason she came to the south this time was precisely to be a part of a mission. Happy and giggling, Kou Zhong said, “Being our Niang is most fitting. Let’s strike while the iron is still hot. Oh my Niang, quickly teach your consummate skill to your child.” The woman-in-white gave him an angry stare, and then in a low voice she said, “My name is Fu Junchuo. If you like, you can call me Chuo Jie [older sister]. I really have never imagined that in this trip I would be involved with you, two little frivolous and naughty boys.” Kou Zhong noticed that her manner and her words differed greatly; he winked and said, “I still prefer to call you Niang, don’t you?

Xiao Ling?