CLX Book 5 Chapter 2 – Part 1

Chapter 2 – The Tigress of Shi Family Manor

Actually, not only ‘Shi Jia Zhuang’ was not tiny, its scale was quite majestic, its range was vast, definitely not inferior to the ‘Zhi Bei Shanzhuang’. Although Shi Xiaolian, the master of ‘Shi Jia Zhuang’ was not a Jianghu personage, but Shi Furen [Mrs. Shi], Hua JinGong was an illustrious figure in Jianghu. Her ‘Jin Gong Yin Dan Tie Ying Zhua’ [golden bow, silver bullet/ball, iron eagle claw] could be said to be the pinnacle in Jiangnan. _{Translated by foxs}

The Shi Family Village was also famous for one other thing, which was ‘fear of wife’. Jianghu people might not be too familiar with Shi Jia Zhuang, but when the name ‘Shi Hou Zuang’ [lion roar village/manor; different ‘shi’ character], really nobody did not know.

Zuo Qinghou and Shi Xiaolian were long time family friends, but because he married this wife, the two men became enemies. Once, after drinking, Zuo Er’ye went to the gate of ‘Shi Jia Zhuang’ and hung a sign, ‘There is a vicious dog inside, all friends  and family should stop here.’

After this incident, the two families became like fire and water even more.

Naturally, this incident also spread in Jianghu as a joke, because everybody knew that Shi Lao Zhuangzhu [old village master] indeed had a successor. Like father like son, Shao Zhuangzhu [young village master] Shi Chuanzong feared his wife like a tiger even more.

Actually, this matter could not be blamed on Shi Chuanzong lacking manly spirit, it could only be blamed on the wife he married, whose background was really too big. Although Hua JinGong was brave and forceful, she could not afford to offend her in-laws. _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Almost no one in the Jianghu could provoke her in-laws, because her in-law was precisely the Great Hero [da xia] Xue Yiren, who was known as ‘the number one swordsman under the heaven’.

In his youth, Xue Yiren, using the name ‘Xue Yi Ren’ [lit. The Man in Bloody Garment, different ‘xue’ but the same ‘yi ren’] roamed the Jianghu, spreading kindness and enmity as he wished, killing people like cutting weeds. Although by the time he reached middle age his anger dissipated, he withdrew from the fray and lived in seclusion, but his swordsmanship was trained to reach perfection even more. It was said that for the last forty years, no one has ever been able to walk past his sword for more than ten strokes.

And yet, this Xue Yiren was precisely Zuo Qinghou’s life and death archenemy.

The night was deep, the lights in ‘Shi Jia Zhuang’ were also very dark.

The flowers and trees in the back garden have all withered, the autumn was chilling, the night wind was bleak, even the cluster of yellow chrysanthemums could not dance under the faint moonlight.

Chu Liuxiang’s mood was also very heavy.

Although his qinggong was unrivaled in the world, but here, he still did not dare to be the slightest bit careless, he was hiding on top of a wutong [Chinese parasol] tree, not knowing how he should make his move. _{Translated by foxs}

Suddenly he heard burst after burst of faint weeping sound carried by the autumn wind, immediately his body soared and flew over like a swallow; in the night, it looked like a giant bat.

Inside the bamboo grove, there were several exquisite cottages, a single lantern the size of a bean bathed the window with its dim yellow light. The mournful weeping sound obviously came from this cottage.

There was a bed at the corner of the room, next to the bed was a red sandalwood dressing table with decorative carved pattern on it, next to the dressing table was a flower stand, the evening breeze entered the window, and the smoke from the burning incense on the flower stand spiraled up and dissipated in the night wind.

Lying supine on the bed was a woman, but there was also an old woman with silk-like silver hair kneeling by the bed and weeping in grief, she also seemed to be murmuring, “Yin’er, Yin’er, how could you die? How could you die …”

Chu Liuxiang only took one glance, immediately he shivered in shock.

The eldest daughter of the Shi family was indeed dead, and the furnishings in her boudoir were exactly the same as ‘that girl’ described, moreover, the clothes she was wearing were surprisingly a water-red brocade dress, which was surprisingly also had the embroidery of several vivid and lifelike purple phoenixes. _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

But why hasn’t her body been buried yet? This moment kneeling by her bedside, grieving over her death, who was it? Chu Liuxiang knew that this old woman was definitely not Hua JinGong.

In that case, could she be the Liang Ma that ‘that girl’ mentioned?

Only to see the old woman kept crying, her head gradually drooped down, she fell face down on the bed, as if in her excessive grief unconsciously she fell asleep.

The water-red brocade lined her ash grey long hair, wisps of light smoke floated over the window with purple velvet curtain hanging on it …

There were intermittent sound of drum coming from the distance, it was already the fourth watch of the night [1 – 3 am].

Chu Liuxiang could not stop some kind of feeling of desolation from emerging in his heart, he also felt a bit of chill, so much so that even the floating, dispersing-in-all-directions incense seemed to carry some kind of mysterious and terrifying aura of death!

He hid himself in the darkness outside the window and stood woodenly for half a day, looking at the old woman by the bedside. Her breathing gradually turned heavy, as if she had really fallen asleep, only then did he walk quietly through the window into the room. His footsteps were even softer than the autumn wind outside the window, even if the old woman was not asleep, she definitely would not hear.

The girl on the bed’s face was like the color of a wax, her facial expression haggard. She was so thin that she looked like only skin and bones. Presumably she had struggled with illness for a long time before she died. _{Translated by foxs}

Although this girl’s facial features have absolutely no resemblance to Zuo Mingzhu’s, but it could vaguely be seen that she must have been a beauty in her lifetime.

But now, not only death has seized her life, it also snatched away her beauty. Death knows no pity; it would definitely not leave anything for anyone.

Chu Liuxiang stood behind the old woman, he looked at the girl’s body on the bed, he looked at those phoenixes on her clothes. Recalling what ‘that girl’ said, suddenly cold sweat broke out at the hollow of his palms.

He quickly turned around and picked up the standalone case of face powder on the dressing table, only to see at the bottom of the case a row of tiny cinnabar characters printed on it, shockingly, it did say, ‘Jingdu Bao Xiang Zhai’ [see Chapter 1, Jingdu is the capital of a country]. Holding this box of face powder, Chu Liuxiang only felt that the hairs all over his body stood up one by one, the cold sweat on his hands seeped into the paper box.

Suddenly he heard the old woman yelled in hissing voice, “You guys took my Yin’er away, give me back my Yin’er.”

Chu Liuxiang’s hand shook, the box of face powder fell off.

Only to see the old woman’s pair of already wizened hands tightly grasping the red satin clothes that the dead body wore. After half a day, it gradually loosened again.

Beads of cold sweat broke out on her withered, yellow neck, but her head fell on the bed again, her breathing gradually calmed down, and she gradually fell asleep again.

In Chu Liuxiang’s life, God knows how many nerve-racking, frightening things he encountered, but he had never been scared like this before. _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Naturally, he wasn’t afraid of the old woman, nor was he afraid of the dead body on the bed. Strictly speaking, he himself did not know what he was afraid of.

He only felt that the room was brimming with some kind of eerie and mysterious ghostly aura, as if something that could not be resisted, but was also something that no one would be able to imagine – might happen at any time.

‘Borrowing a corpse to return a soul to life’, this kind of thing, he originally would never believe, but now, with all the evidence in front of his eyes, he was already unable not to believe.

A gust of wind blew, rolling up the purple velvet window curtains. It was as if a terrifying ghost wanted to seize the opportunity to fly in through the window and pounce, so that people really wished they could leave the room immediately, and go as far away as possible.

Chu Liuxiang wiped his sweaty palms on his clothes and picked up the face powder on the ground.

He must take this box of powder back and let Zuo Qinghou judge for himself, otherwise, he really did not know how to explain it to Zuo Qinghou. _{Translated by foxs}

There was simply no explanation for this.

But as soon as he bent down, he discovered a pair of embroidered shoes.

In all his life, Chu Liuxiang has seen no one knows how many pairs of embroidered shoes. He has seen all kinds and sorts of embroidered shoes worn on the feet of all kinds and sorts of women. It never occurred to him that a pair of embroidered shoes could startle him.

But now he was really startled.

This pair of embroidered shoes seemed to have suddenly emerged from a ghost prison underground.

Strictly speaking, he did not see a pair of shoes, only a pair of toes, the tip of the shoes was very delicate, the green toes looked like a pair of newly sprouted springtime bamboo shoots.

The rest of the shoes were covered by a pair of water onion-colored trousers, the pair of trousers was embroidered with gold trimming, the embroidery was very delicate.

This was actually a pair of beautiful embroidered shoes and a pair of beautiful trousers, but for some reason, Chu Liuxiang unexpectedly could not help thinking, on top of this pair of feet, could there be a head or not? _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

He could not help wanting to look up, but before he looked up, he heard a voice speaking coldly, “Stay squatting as you are, don’t move. Your body, from top to bottom, any part moves half a cun, I will smash your head.”

This was undoubtedly a woman talking, her voice was cold and hard, not at all like a woman: carrying a gentle and soft, pensive beautiful feeling. Just by listening to her voice, one would know that if this kind of woman said she was going to smash a person’s head, she definitely would be able to do it, moreover, she definitely would not smash only half of the head.

Chu Liuxiang did not move.

In front of women, he never took unnecessary risks.

Besides, this might not be a woman [nu ren (lit. female person), but a female ghost [nu gui].

The voice said, “Who are you, coming here sneakily, what do you want? Quickly tell me the truth, but remember, I only want your mouth to move.”

Chu Liuxiang pondered for a long time, he felt that in this situation, telling the truth would be best. ‘Chu Liuxiang’, this name, whether people or ghost, whoever heard it would be shocked.

As long as she was taken by surprise, he would have a chance. _{Translated by foxs}

Thereupon he immediately said, “Zaixia Chu Liuxiang …”

Who would have thought that he had not finished speaking, the woman laughed coldly and said, “Chu Liuxiang, hey hey, if you are Chu Liuxiang, then I am ‘Shui Mu’ [Water Matriarch] Yin Ji.”

Chu Liuxiang could only smile wryly. Every time he said that he was ‘Zhang San’ or ‘Li Si’ [Chinese equivalent of Tom, Dick and Harry], other people always suspected that he was Chu Liuxiang, but every time he spoke his real name, other people did not believe him instead; not only that, they seemed to think it was very ridiculous.

Only to hear the woman laughed coldly and said, “Actually, I already know who you are, don’t even think that you can hide it from me.”

Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang said, “If I am not Chu Liuxiang, then who am I?”

The woman spoke sternly, “I know you are that little beast [lit. domestic animal, bastard], that damned [orig. deserves to die] little beast. But I never thought you would have the guts to come here.”

Her voice was suddenly brimming of anger, she spoke sternly again, “Do you know how Yin’er died? She died at your hands; you harmed her life. Killing her is not enough, what else do you want?”

Chu Liuxiang had no idea what she was talking about, so he just kept his mouth tightly shut.

The woman spoke angrily, “You clearly know that Yin’er was already betrothed to Xue Daxia‘s Er Gongzi [second young master (son)], unexpectedly you still have the guts to seduce her. Do you think I don’t know about these things?” _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

By this time, Chu Liuxiang naturally knew that this woman was not a ghost, but Shi Yin’s mother, Madame JinGong, whose aggressiveness was well known throughout Jianghu.

In all his life, the most troublesome thing was aggressive women.

Suddenly he heard someone said, “Is this kid Ye Shenglan? His guts is indeed not small.”

The voice was more shrill, more formidable than Hua JinGong’s.

Another pair of legs appeared before Chu Liuxiang’s eyes, wearing water-red loose-fitting pants, and crimson satin bow shoes, there were even red fuzzy balls on the tip of the shoes.

If you want to know a woman’s temper, you only have to look at the shoes she wears, then you will know at least half. This pair of shoes looked like two red hot peppers.

Chu Liuxiang sighed inwardly; if there was anything more troublesome than meeting a shrew in the world, it would be meeting two shrews. _{Translated by foxs}

He knew that in front of this kind of woman, even if he had gargantuan reason, he would not be able to explain it clearly; the best way was to quickly slip away and flee for his life.

But he also knew that Hua JinGong’s silver bullet must be aimed at his head, not to mention that there was an eighty-percent chance that this Miss ‘Red Pants’ was Xue Yiren’s eldest daughter, the Shi Family Village’s eldest daughter-in-law. Xue Yiren’s swordsmanship was matchless under the heavens, his daughter could not possibly be an energy-saving oil lantern [this is literal translation, but I think we can imagine what it means.]

He was not afraid of them at all, but he really did not want to fight this kind of women.

Only to hear Hua JinGong said, “Shaonainai [Young Mistress, wife of the young master], you came just in time, how do you think we should deal with this kid?”

Shi Shaonainai laughed coldly and said, “This kind of Dengtu Zi [famous lecherous character/skirt-chaser] seduces women from respectable families all day long, it will be best to bury him alive.”

Chu Liuxiang was angry, but was also amused at the same time; no wonder that Young Village Master Shi was afraid of his wife like a tiger. Turned out without inquiring the rights and wrongs of a matter [idiom], this young mistress wanted to bury people alive.

Hua JinGong said, “Burying him alive is too convenient for him. In my opinion, we should simply light his sky lantern.” [There is an entry in Baike.Baidu on ‘lighting the sky lantern’, but it concerns gambling technique, so I am not sure what it means in this case.] _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Shi Shaonainai said, “Lighting up his sky lantern is also fine, but I want to see him first, in which point he is better than our family’s Lao’er [second child], surprisingly he could make Yin Guniang fall in lovesickness because of him.”

Hua JinGong said, “That’s right, hey, young man, raise your head.”

Chu Liuxiang also wanted to see what they looked like.

Only to see that although this JinGong Furen was over fifty years old, she was still dressed like the lovely scene of blossoming plants swaying in the breeze [idiom: gorgeously dressed], if the face powder on her face was scraped, it would weigh at least a catty. Moreover, her eyes were still limpid, she glanced to the left and rolled to the right, indeed she still carried somewhat melting-the-soul power; presumably Shi Juren must have been hooked by her like this back then.

About the Shaonainai, however, he did not dare to speak highly of her, she had a long horse face and a big mouth like a blood basin, but her nose was twice as big as her mouth.

If she wasn’t Xue Yiren’s daughter, it would be strange indeed if she could marry.

Chu Liuxiang suddenly felt that that Shi Shao Zhuangzhu indeed deserved his sympathy. Marrying a shrew was pitiful enough, but what he married was practically a mare. _{Translated by foxs}

While Chu Liuxiang was sizing them up, naturally they were also sizing Chu Liuxiang up. While admittedly Hua JinGong’s pair of eyes were about to drip water, even the young mistress’s slender and long horse eyes seemed to also become watery. The expression on her face softened a little, she said, “He is indeed a greasy-head, powdered-face, little white face [pretty boy, men who rely on women for financial support], no wonder our Gunainai [respectful form of address for a married woman used by members of her parents’ family] is infatuated by him.”

Hua JinGong said, “He goes so far as to dare to pretend to be Chu Liuxiang, I say even being Chu Liuxiang’s son he is perhaps a bit too young.”

It should be noted that Chu Liuxiang has made his name for nearly ten years, everybody in Jianghu knew that Chu Liuxiang’s palm technique was exceptional, his qinggong was matchless, but very few people have actually seen this Chu Xiang Shuai.

Everyone thought that since Chu Liuxiang had such a great reputation, such a great ability, he could not possibly be too young. Some people even thought that he was an old man.

Chu Liuxiang could only smile wryly.

No one knew when, but the old lady Liang Ma has also come forward, as if she also wanted to see this ‘Dengtu Zi’s’ appearance. Chu Liuxiang felt that she appeared to be very kind.

A thought suddenly came to his mind, but at this moment Hua JinGong spoke loudly, “Whether we want to bury him alive or light his sky lantern, we have to restrain him first and talk later!” _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Only to see a flash of golden light, the golden bow in her hand had already tapped Chu Liuxiang’s ‘qi xue hai’ [qi and blood ocean] acupoint. Turned out not only her golden bow could shoot silver bullets, the bow, which was shaped like the new moon, handle’s both ends could be used to hit acupoints. Her acupoint identification was accurate, her move was even faster. Surprisingly, she was a martial art master in hitting acupoints.

Naturally Chu Liuxiang could no longer pretend to be muddleheaded now, his body shrank, he withdrew a few chi. Unexpectedly his body retreated faster than Hua JinGong’s move.

Hua JinGong move failed, she turned around to strike from behind. The golden bow carried a gust of wind sweeping across Chu Liuxiang’s left waist. The ‘acupoint-striking mattock’ already turned into a stick.

It was only then that Chu Liuxiang realized that this Jin Gong Furen’s [Madame Golden Bow] hands were indeed not weak, unexpectedly a single golden bow could be used as several kinds of weapons. No wonder people in the Jianghu said that she was the number one female martial master in Jiangnan’s Wulin.

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