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 Chapter 2 - Eavesdropping Part II (Translated by 高毅） |
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高毅
[博客]
声望: 学员
性别:  年龄: 46
加入时间: 2011/06/21
文章: 6
海归分: 65
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作者：高毅 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
After traveling for about ten days, he had arrived at Jiangxi Province. He got the directions and went straight for Nanchang, knowing in the city was a subdivision of his family’s security escort business. Those people must have some information, or give him with some money, or, at the very least, provide him with a fast horse. After arriving in Nanchang, he asked a man about Safeway Security, the person asked back in surprise: “Safeway Security? Why do you ask about that place? The compound had long been burned into ashes, the fire even got to a dozen of the neighbors, they all went up in flames.”
Penny’s heart sank, he ran towards the location of the subdivision, just as the man described, the entire street was covered with burnt wood and bricks, broken shingles scattered everywhere. Penny stood in the middle of the street for a long while and thought: “Surely those Greenboro gangsters did this. I won’t be a man if I don’t get revenge on this.”
Having no need to linger in Nanchang, he left that day heading west. One day he arrived at Hunan’s capital city – Changsha. He assumed that Greenboro had also burnt down Changesha’s subdivision, after asking several people about what had happened to Safeway Security, no one seemed to know what he was talking about. Overjoyed, Penny asked for the directions and headed towards the subdivision. Arriving at the compound, he saw that even though the subdivision’s building was not as imposing as that of the headquarter in Fuzhou, but it still had a giant red door, its entrance was also flanked by two magnificent stone lions. Stealing a glance, he did not see anybody inside. Hesitant, he thought: “If I go into the place dressed like a beggar, won’t people look down on me?”
Looking up, he saw the plague above the gate with the words “Safeway Security – Subdivision”, etched in gold, except that the whole plaque was somehow hung upside-down. He was puzzled: “How could the subdivision people be so useless, and not even know the sign was hung upside-down?”
He turned to look at the flag poles, he was shocked - on top of the left pole hung a pair of worn-out sandals; on the right was a pair of woman’s underwear. It was shredded into pieces, yet was still flaunting against the wind. Still processing what he had seen, he heard footsteps approaching, a man had come out from inside the compound, he yelled: “Hey, you little twerp, sneaking around like this, are you trying to steal things?”
The man had the same accent as Wisdom Fang and his people, it was how people speak in the province of Szechuan. Penny dared not to make eye contact with the man, and instead turned around and walked away. Suddenly his hip felt a sharp pain – the man had kicked him on the butt. Infuriated, Penny turned around and was about to fight back, but then he quickly thought otherwise: “The subdivision is occupied by the
Greenboro Clan, it’s a perfect opportunity for me find some leads on the whereabouts of mom and dad, how can I be reckless?” Therefore he acted as if knowing any kungfu by falling to the ground facing down, and pretended not be able to get up for a while. The man laughed, again cussed some more “little twerp”!
Penny slowly struggled to his feet, walked into the alleyway and begged a bowl of cold rice. He reminded himself while eating: “The enemy is right next to me, I need to be extra careful.” After eating, he found some charcoal on the street and smeared it all over his face, then he ducked his head and fell asleep in the street corner.
He waited until after midnight. Taking out his sword and hung it on his waist, he circled back to the side door of the security compound. Tilting his ear he could only heard dead silence inside. He jumped on top of the wall, looking over he saw an orchid, he gently jumped down to the inside of the courtyard. Step by step, leaning against the edge of the wall, he started making his way forward. It was pitch black, without a trace light or sound. Penny’s heart thumped, he felt the wall with his hands and walked next to it. He was truly afraid to make a sound by stepping on sticks or branches on the ground. He passed two courtyards, he saw there was light coming from the east bedroom. After taking a few steps towards it he began to hear people’s voices. Advancing extremely slowly while holding his head down, Penny snuck to the spot under the window, holding his breath, inch by inch he crouched down and sat with his back against the wall.
Right after he settled down he heard a man saying: “We get up early next morning, burn this damn building to the ground, save the place from its disgrace.”
The other person said: “No, we can’t do that. Brother Pee and the others torched the Nanchang subdivision, I heard that a dozen neighboring houses also caught on fire, it’s not good to the reputation of the Greenboro Clan. With that whole mess, they’ll probably hear it from the master.”
Penny cussed in silence: “Just as I expected, the Greenboro Clan did that. They actually worry about their ‘reputation’!”
He then heard the first man say: “You’re right, we can’t burn it down. So should we just leave the place alone?”
The other man said in smile: “Brother Ji, think about it, we hung the plaque of the agency upside down, also put a pair of woman’s underwear on its flag pole, Safeway Security’s reputation was totally ruined. The longer the pair of pants hung up there, the better. Why bother to burn the place down?”
The man Ji said with a smile: “Brother Shen, you’re right. Haha, this pair of pants is bound to bring at least three hundred years of bad luck to Safeway Security.” The two laughed.
Then Ji said: “Tomorrow for Gusto Liu’s party in Hengshan, what should we bring? The darn news came out of nowhere, if our gifts are too light, it might make Greenboro look bad.”
Shen said with a smile: “Don’t worry, I already have a gift that’ll sure make us all look good. Who knows, this time on Liu’s retirement party our stuff might even take center stage.”
Ji said in joy: “What gift? Why don’t I know anything about this?”
Shen laughed, pleased with himself he said: “I am just re-gifting other people’s stuff, no need for us to pay. Check this out! See if it’s got enough ice.”
Rustling sound from opening a package came out of the room.
Ji cried out: “Wow! Brother Shen, from where did you find so many trinkets?”
Penny really wanted peek inside through the window’s silt, to see exactly what trinkets Ji was talking about, but he knew soon as he raised his head, it will make a silhouette on the window. Letting the enemy spot him was the last thing he wanted, so he had to refrain himself. He then heard Shen answering with a smile: “We’ve been squatting here for days, are we only here to take dumps? I had planned to give this pair of jade horses as a present to the master, but now it looks like that geezer Liu will be the lucky one.”
Again fury surged within Penny: “So they stole our agency’s jewelry, and trying to give it as a favor to someone else, only thugs do such things. Where else could the subdivision get the stuff except from our customers? They were put in our hands for safekeeping. This pair of jade horses must cost a fortune, if we lose them, dad would have no choice but to reimburse the asking price to the customer.”
Shen smiled again and said: “These four bags of stuff – One is for the wives of our master; One is for the other brothers; One for you, and one for me. You pick one!”
Ji said: “What are these?” After a moment, he suddenly cried out: “Wow! So much jewelry, we are rich! This Safeway Security, I’m tellingyou, it really had its share of plunders. My dear apprentice brother, where in the world did you find it? I looked all over the place, back an’ forth, inside and out, for at least a dozen times, I almost dug each brick up, but I could only find a few pieces of silver. How come you were so quiet, yet found all the treasure?”
Please with himself, Shen said with a smile: “How could treasures belong to a security escort agency be casually stowed away? These days I see you pulling out drawers, whacking open chests, punching through walls, running around like a roach, I knew it was all busy work. But you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you, so I left you alone. You’ve got plenty of energy to burn anyway.”
Ji said: “Impressive, impressive! Brother Shen, where did you find them?”
Shen said: “Think about it, there is one thing in this place that makes no sense, do you know what it is?”
Ji said: “Makes no sense? I think this security agency is full of things that don’t make sense. For example with its people’s lousy kungfu, it has the nerve to hang on its flag a fierce looking lion.”
Shen smiled and said: “That fierce lion is now replaced with woman’s underwear, now that’s a better match. Think again, anything else strange in this place?”
Clapping his hands, Ji cried out: “These Hunan donkeys are freaky as hell. One would think that Captain Zhang was the boss here, but there was a coffin in the room next to where he sleeps, it’s like he was begging for bad luck! Haha!”
Shen said smilingly: “You have to think. Why did he put a coffin next door? Did his wife or children die, even so why didn’t he bury them far away?
Or, was he trying to hide something important in it, and use the coffin as a distraction …”
Exhilarated, Ji leapt from his chair and cried out: “Yes! These gold, silver and jewelry were all in the coffin! Gosh, these people in the security business are tricky as hell. Brother Ji, these two bags weigh the same, I can’t have the same share as you. You deserve to have more.”
Penny heard clinking sounds, he guessed that Ji had shifted some valuables from one bag to another. Shen did not protest but only chuckled.
Ji said: “Brother Shen, I’ll go get hot water to wash our feet before bed.” With a yawn he exited the room.
Penny hid motionlessly under the window, he squinted at the man named Ji, he was short and chubby, most likely the man who kicked him earlier that day. Later, Ji came back carrying a bucket of hot water, he said: “Brother Shen, this time master sent a few dozen of us out, my guess is that we will be the most paid. Being your partner even made me look good. Brother Jiang led a group to destroy the Guangzhou subdivision; Brother Ma led another group to smash the Hangzhou subdivision, but neither thinks clearly, even if they see the coffins, they won’t guess that there are treasures inside.”
Shen said with a smile: “Brothers Fang, Yoo and Cha destroyed the Fuzhou Headquarter, they probably looted more than we did. Only that they got our master’s son killed, when everything is said and done, they probably will be reprimanded more than praised.”
Ji said: “Master directed teh attack on Safeway’s headquarter himself, Brothers Fang and Yoo were only vanguards, hopefully master won’t put Brother Yu’s death on others. We mobilized the entire clan so we could simultaneously attack Safeway’s headquarter and subdivisions, who’d expect the Lin’s kungfu didn’t at all match their reputation, Brother Fang and two others were all that were needed to capture Zenan Lin and his wife. This time even our master had mis-calculated. Haha!”
Penny listened as cold sweat dripped down from his forehead, he thought: “It turns out that the Greenboro Clan had been plotting for a long time to attack our headquarter and subdivisions. So killing Yu had nothing to do with all this. Even if I didn’t kill Yu, they would attack us just the same. Ocean Yu even personally went to Fuzhou, no wonder that “Heart-Breaker” was so powerful. But how did we ever offend the Greenboro Clan, and made them coming at us with such viciousness?”
As his feeling of guilt diminished, it was replaced by a surge of fury. If not due to the fact that those two’s kungfu were better than his, he would have broken the window, jumped inside, and slayed these two beasts right there. He heard splashing sound coming from inside the room - those two people were washing their feet.
Shen spoke again: “Our master hadn’t mis-calculated. Back in the old days Safeway Security used to dominate the southeast, they seemed to have some real skills, after all the Evil Ousting Sword Play didn’t get its reputation by luck. Most likely its descendants were lazy and dumb, and never truly learned the good stuff from their ancestors.”
Feeling extremely ashamed, Penny’s face turned red in the dark.
Shen continued: “Before we left master had taught us this Evil Ousting Sword Art, even though we couldn’t learn all its intricacies within just a few months, I could tell that there is huge potential contained in this sword art, the difficulty lies in finding a way to release this potential. Brother Ji, how much of it did you comprehend?”
Ji said with a smile: “Master said that even Zenan Lin himself couldn’t get the gist of his sword art, after I heard that I was too lazy to care. Brother Shen, master ordered all the apprentices to rally here in Hengshan, which means Brother Fang and the others will escort Zenan Lin and his wife here. I can’t wait to see the pathetic looks on this descendant of the Evil Ousting Sword Art.”
Penny heard that his parents were still alive, but were being escorted to Hengshan, surprised, he was happy and sad at the same time.
Shen smiled and said: “They’ll be here in a couple days, feel free to chat with him your take on the Evil Ousting Sword Art.”
Suddenly “ka!” the window was pushed open. Startled, Penny thought that they had spotted him, as he was about to run away, suddenly a bucket of warm water splashed down on his head. He almost let out a scream, then everything went dark as the light in the room was put out. Still shaken, Penny felt streams of stinky water rolling down his face, he realized that Ji had dumped the water they used to wash their feet. Although it was not intentional, Penny was nevertheless humiliated by this act.
But then he remembered the news about his parents, and all of a sudden the filthy water smelled less foul. He would even let urine and feces be splashed on him in exchange for his parents’ whereabouts.
The night was deadly quiet. If he walked away then, those two men would likely to hear him, so Penny decided to wait for them to fall soundly asleep first. He remained still, leaning against the wall under the window, after some time, he heard snorting coming out of the room. He then slowly stood up.
Turning his head, he suddenly saw an elongated shadow casted on the window, swinging back and forth. Shocked, he ducked in a hurry, and saw the window continued to flap. It turned out that after Ji had dumped the water, he forgot to fasten the latch of window pane.
Penny thought: “Perfect chance for payback!” Pulling out the sword with his right hand, his left hand gently lifted up the window pane. Quietly he hopped into the room and put the window pane back down. With moon light seeping through the window, he saw two men lying in two beds, one on each side. One man faced inside, he was lightly bald; the other man lay facing up, under his chin was full of short stubbles.
Five bags and two swords lay on the table in front of the beds. Penny picked up the swords and thought: “One hit, one kill, like shooting fish in a bucket.” As he was about to hack down at the neck of the one sleeping face up, he thought again: “Killing them in such a sneaky fashion is not the right way. Years from now when I finish learning my family’s sword art, I’ll come back and seek revenge on all of these Greenboro scumbags. It’s what real men do.”
At once Penny decided to spare those two’s lives. Slowly, he carried the five bundles of trinkets to the table next to the window, gently pushed open the window pane, and stepped out across the window sill. He inserted the sword back into his waist strap, tied three of the bags to his back, carried one in each hand, he began to walk towards the backyard one step after another, all the while he was afraid to make any sounds, and waken the two.
He opened the backdoor and walked out of the security agency, after orienting himself, he reached the south gate. By that time the city gate was not yet open, so he hid behind a mound next to the city wall, leaning against it for rest, he worried that the two Greenboro gangsters would find out and come after him, his heart could not help but thumped hard. He waited until daybreak when the gate opened, once out of the gate, he immediate dashed out at full speed.
After running five miles nonstop, he fell much more relaxed, since the day he left Fuzhou, only at that moment, when he felt true exhalation and joy. Spotting a small noodle shop on the side of the road, he immediately went into the shop and bought a bowl of noodles. Still too afraid not linger for long, as soon as he finished eating, he reached into the bag for money to pay. He took out a small piece of silver and handed it to the owner. The owner brought out all the copper coins of the shop for change, still he fell short.
Throughout the journey Penny had been bullied and humiliated by others, only at that moment, with a wave of hand, he curtly dismissed the owner with a loud voice: “Keep the change!” finally getting back the feeling he had as a Junior Chief and a noble childe.
Walking a few more miles Penny reached a large town, he checked into a hotel, booked a suite, shut the door and locked the windows. Opening the five bags, he saw that four of them were full of gold, silver and jewelry; inside the fifth bag there was only a silk box, in it was a pair of five-inch tall horses made of creamy jade, he thought: “In just one of our subdivisions there’re so many valuables, it’s no surprise that Greenbroro wanted a piece of us.”
He picked out some silver coins and put them in his pocket. Combining the five packages into a big bundle, he carried it on his back, went to town and bought two fast horses. He alternatingly rode on the two horses both day and night, sleeping only a few of hours each day.
Not long before he reached Hengshan. Once inside the city limits, he saw many Jianghu men walking back and forth on the streets. Afraid to run into Wisdom Fang and his people, Penny kept his head low and looked for a place to stay. After visiting several hotels, he was surprised to find out that they were all full. A bellboy at one of the hotels told him: “In three days will be Master Liu’s “Gold Basin Hand Wash” ceremony, our hotel had long been booked full by Master Liu’s guests. Good luck getting a room in this town!”
Running out of options, Penny tried his luck in the backstreets. After visiting three more hotels he finally found a small room. As he settled in he thought: “Even though I covered my face with charcoal, but Wisdom Fang is no simpleton, he might still be able to recognize me in a crowd.” He went to a drug store and bought three medicinal patches, plastered them on his face, pulled both eyebrows down low, and then pulled the left corner of his mouth upward, revealing half a set of teeth. Seeing his new wretched look in the mirror made him wanted to puke. Then he threw his big bundle to his back, and covered over it with clothes. Slightly bending down, he instantly transformed himself into a grotesque hunchback.
He thought: “With this weird look even mom and dad can’t recognize me. It’ll be a perfect cover.” After eating a big bowl of sparerib noodles, Penny wondered around town. He had hoped to bump into his parents, or at least overhear some information regarding the Greenboro Clan. After walking for half a day it suddenly began to rain. He bought a bamboo hat at a shop on the side of the street and put it on. He saw the sky turning darker - it appeared that the rain would not stop anytime soon. Turning a street corner, he saw a tea house full of people, he went in and had a seat.
The tea doctor brought him a kettle of tea, and then served up a plate of pumpkin seeds.
He drank a cup of tea, and started chewing on the pumpkin seeds to chase out the blues, suddenly he heard a man’s voice: “Hey hunchback, can we sit here?” He did not wait for Penny’s answer but sat down next to him like he owned the place. Two other men followed suit by sitting down across from Penny.
At first Penny did not know that they were speaking to him, momentarily stunned, he suddenly realized that he was the “hunchback”. So he gave an obsequiously smile and replied in a hurry: “Of course, of course! Please sit down!” He saw that these three men were all dressed in black, weapons hung on their waists.
The three men drank tea and chatted amongst themselves, never paid any more attention to Penny. A young man said: “Liu retires by way of ‘Golden Basin, Clean Hands’, it’ll be huge! The actual event is still three days out, yet the city of Hengshan is packed with guests.”
The other man wearing an eye-patched responded: “That’s for sure! On its own the Hengshan Clan is already respected enough, joining the Penti-Sierra Alliance could only give them more power and influence, who wouldn’t want to be their friends? Besides, Sanye “Gusto” Liu’s kungfu was world-renowned, with his thirty-six sets of ‘Pheasant-downing Whirlwind’ sword art, he’s long been regarded as the deputy chair within the Hengshan Clan, bettered only slightly by its helmsman - Mr. Moda. Average people are dying to get to know him, only that he neither celebrates birthdays nor hosts big weddings for any of his children, leaving people little chance to befriend him. Lucky for everyone that he chose to have a ‘Golden Basin, Clean Hands’ ceremony, of course people wouldn’t miss the opportunity to come. In the next two days, I bet we’ll see even bigger
crowds here in Hengshan.”
The man with grey beard chimed in: “Not everyone was here to suck up to Gusto Liu, the three of us certainly didn’t come for that, no? ‘Golden Basin, Clean Hands’ is a ritual, it symbolizes a person’s withdrawal from all the affairs and conflicts of Jianghu . After the ‘Golden Basin, Clean Hands’, he’ll be considered retired completely from Jianghu. So what if his thirty-six sets of ‘Pheasant-downing Whirlwind’ sword art are world-class, what can they do if he no longer can use them? After washing his hands in a gold basin a martial artist is no different than a regular folk; an elite fighter downgraded to a farmer. For those people buttering him up, what could they expect in return?”
The young man said: “Even if Sanye Liu stops fighting, he’s still be the deputy chair of the Hengshan Clan. Making friends with Liu equals making friends with Hengshan, which equals making friends with the entire Penti-Sierra Alliance!”
The grey bearded man named Peng sneered: “Making friends with Penti-Sierra Alliance? You think you are good enough?”
The one-eyed blind man protested: “You can’t say that, Brother Peng. One can never have too many friends in Jianghu. Even that the Penti-Sierra Alliance’s kungfu is world-class, their powers far-reaching, they never looked down on any of their Jianghu friends. If they are arrogant, and think that they are too good for others, how come you see so many of their guests inside the city of Hengshan?”
The grey bearded man scoffed but stopped talking, after a long while he said quietly: “Maybe they’re all a bunch of stuck-ups, they make me sick!”
Penny wished the three men could continue their conversation, and hopefully they would mention something about the Greenboro Clan, but it seemed that their discussion had hit a wall. The three men only drank tea and did not speak another word.
All of a sudden he heard a whisper behind him: “Uncle Wang, I heard that Sanye Liu of the Hengshan Clan is only in his fifties, an age during which
his skills are peaking, why did he all of a sudden decide to have this so-called ‘Golden Basin, Clean Hands’? Why waste his superb martial arts?”
An old voice replied: “People retire from Jianghu for good reasons. For a criminal who had had a wicked life, cleansing his hands means that he’ll never go back to his old life of robbery and theft, murder and arson. On one hand he gets to repent for what he had done over the years, and leave behind a good name for his children; on the other hand should a local crime take place, he wouldn’t be a suspect in it. Sanye Liu came from money, his family had been wealthy for generations, so this couldn’t be his reason for retirement.” The other man concurred: “Yes, of course not.”
“Uncle Wang” continued: “A wulinist’s life revolves around fighting and killing, his hands are inevitably stained with blood, with enemies everywhere. As he gets old, knowing that he has more foes in Jianghu to ever feel truly comfortable, he’d do what Sanye Liu is doing - notify the world and tell people that from this point on he’ll no longer fight. It lets his enemies know that they need not to worry him going after them, and hopefully they will not cause him any more troubles either.”
The young man said: “Uncle Wang, I think that’s getting the worse end of the deal!”
Uncle Wang asked: “Why is that?”
作者：高毅 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 Chapter 2 - Eavesdropping Part II (Translated by 高毅） -- 高毅 - (25272 Byte) 2011-7-01 周五, 15:18 (1659 reads)
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