Chapter 2 – Ingot (2/2)

“Did you ever stop to think that perhaps this rule of yours is a bit too ruthless?” said the young beggar. “Furthermore, you don’t have the authority to set such a rule!”

“No, I never thought about it.”

“And no one ever told you?”

“No!”

The young beggar sighed. “Well, someone is telling you now. I advise you to change your rule as soon as possible.”

The man in bluish-green turned his head, looking at the young beggar with icy eyes. “Your luck is not bad,” he said suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“Because you’re still a child. Otherwise you would already be dead by my palm.”

His gaze once again shifted to far in the distance. Ignoring the young beggar, he gave a cold order: “Chop off his left hand.”

The young beggar took to his heels immediately, running as fast as possible.

A young man like this would always be prepared to flee. He might not have any other abilities, but he sure could run away quickly.

As he ran, he shouted, “It’s because you’re missing your left hand, isn’t it! So you want to chop off other peoples’ left hands!”

He dared to shout this because he’d already checked to make sure no one was behind him following.

There wasn’t anyone behind him. But there was in front of him.

It was impossible to determine when it had happened, but the man in the bluish-green garment now stood in front of him. Not even looking at him, the man said, “From now on, you might only have one hand, but if you agree to be a good person, you can live on. And you might even have a better life than when you had two hands.”

The young beggar shook his head vigorously.

“No way. I’ll pass. Two hands is always better than one. There’s no way I’ll let you chop my hand off.”

As he shouted urgently, there suddenly could be heard the sound of someone dashing up the hillside. And then from behind him, two shiny, black braids appeared.

She ran quickly, mostly because of her long, strong legs.

As she ran, she shouted, “He’s just a poor little kid, please forgive him!”

The man in bluish-green frowned. “Who is he to you?” he asked her.

“I don’t even know him. I just know that I feel pity for him.”

“You pity him? Why don’t you pity the person whose coin purse he stole? Maybe that coin purse contained all his money in the world. And now his parents, wife and children will have no money to live on. Why don’t you pity them?”

The girl with braids seemed at a loss for words. “Maybe it is like that,” she stuttered. “But you should first try to find out the truth for yourself.”

“I don’t need to find out anything.” His eyes suddenly shone with an indescribable hatred. “I would rather kill a hundred in error, then let one go free.”

“But…”

Before the girl could even finish her sentence, she felt herself pulled to the side. And then she felt a small knife at her neck. It was none other than the young beggar.

Pressing his knife against the girl’s throat, he said, “If you don’t let me go, I’ll kill her. And her death will be because of you. What is the punishment for harming innocents? I bet it’s to cut off all your limbs.”

The man in bluish green didn’t appear to be angry. His expression didn’t change. Without even thinking, he said, “You may go.”

Part 5

And so the young beggar left with the braided-hair girl, his two hands still intact.

They descended the hillside and left Li Village. They walked a long way until they reached a dense forest out in the wilderness, and when the young beggar was sure they weren’t being followed he finally released the girl.

The girl with the braids instantly turned around, her beautiful eyes flashing angrily. “Are you human?” she asked furiously.

“Of course,” replied the young beggar with a chuckle. “From head to feet.”

“If you are, then how could you do such a thing? How could you treat me like that?”

She was clearly very upset, but the young beggar just laughed happily and retorted, “Didn’t you go there to rescue me?”

“Of course.”

“Well, you rescued me. Your wish came true. What did I do wrong?”

She seemed to be stumped by his question, and had to admit that what he said did make a little bit of sense.

He asked her another question: “What are you going to do to express your thanks to me?”

“Express thanks to you?” cried the girl. “You want me to express thanks to you?”

“Of course you should express thanks,” said the young beggar assuredly. “The man in the bluish-green garment and one arm is the type of person who makes decisions quickly, and his martial arts are ridiculously high level. Furthermore, he’s some kind of eccentric freak. If I hadn’t used that method, how exactly were you going to get me away from him?”

The girl with the braids couldn’t think of anything to say.

The more the young beggar talked, the more he made sense. “You wouldn’t have rescued me, and then you would have been very sad. I gave you the chance to be happy, and for such a service, how could you not express thanks?”

The girl laughed, and as she laughed, she looked a lot like the blooming white flower buds that grew at the edge of the forest.

“You little bastard. You really are full of sneaky tricks.”

“If you have problems coming up with any, I’m happy to help you think of some.”

“What sneaky trick are you talking about now?”

“A way for you to express your thanks.”

“What way. Tell me,” she said with a wink. She wanted to hear what tricky plan this little bastard would come up with.

The young beggar coughed a couple times, then, with a completely deadpan expression, said, “If you just let me kiss your pretty lips, it will count as you thanking me, and I’ll call things even.”

The girl’s face turned scarlet. The young beggar seemed completely intent on this method.

“You dare! You dare to try to kiss me, I’ll…”

“What, what’s wrong?”

The only thing she could do was run, quickly, her braids flying back behind her. The two bows looked like two butterflies dancing in the air. [4]

The young beggar laughed heartily, so hard that he bent over laughing.

It was now April, and Spring had come to the world.

Part 6

The mulberry grove was thick and dense, as thick and dense as the falling spring showers and the sorrows that come with them.

The young beggar didn’t chase after those two butterflies. He liked beautiful butterflies, but he had no desire to once again run into any pale, death-like faces.

The forest would be a much safer place.

He turned to head into the woods, hoping to find a lush tree to curl up under and sleep for a while.

Who would have thought that he couldn’t find such a tree, because someone else had already found him.

***

Actually, five people found him, and they surrounded him, making it impossible for him to flee.

Five large, scary-looking men, strong and fierce; they didn’t appear to be ultimate martial arts experts, but for them to kill a few kids like the young beggar obviously wouldn’t be a problem.

One of the men had a huge goiter on his neck and carried an enormous broadsword; he seemed to be the boss of the group. Grinning hideously at the young beggar, he said, “Hey kid, do ya understand the rules of the road? Us bros saw that fat little sheep first, why’d ya steal it away?”

“Fat little sheep? Where is there a fat little sheep?” The young beggar had an extremely strange expression on his face. “I haven’t run into any skinny little sheep, let alone any fat ones to steal.”

“If ya smell the sweet fragrance of money, ya half to split it in half. Do ya understand this rule?”

“Nope,” said the young beggar. “I haven’t bathed in at least fourteen or fifteen days and my body stinks to high heaven. I don’t smell any sweet fragrance.”

He pulled at his clothes and smelled them, then immediately plugged his nose and frowned. “Super stinky. So stinky it might kill you. If you don’t believe then come on over and take a whiff.”

“Look kid!” said Goiter-man angrily, “don’t pretend ta be stupid.”

He rotated his wrist, and his blade glittered. His comrades suddenly called out, “Let’s take care a this bastard, see if he wants ta give us his money or his life.”

The young beggar suddenly seemed to understand what was going on. “Oh, you guys are bandits, and you want my money.” He sighed. “Bandits out to steal money from a beggar. Bandits like this aren’t very common.”

Goiter-man let out a shout and began to swing his blade. The young beggar hastily waved his arms and said, “There’s absolutely no reason to get angry. If you get angry, your goiter is going to swell up. Who’s to say it might not get bigger than your head, and that wouldn’t be any fun.”

He put on a smile, and once again his dimples appeared, “As long as you don’t get angry, I’ll give you anything you want.”

“Us bros don’t want anything except shiny white silver! That’ll keep us from getting angry!”

“I don’t have any silver. But what if I give you an ingot?” [5]

“Ok.” Goiter-man’s anger changed into laughter. “Of course that’s okay.”

“Do you want a big one? Or a small one?”

“A big one, of course. The bigger the better.”

“Well, that’s easy,” said the young beggar with a laugh. “I don’t have any other kind. I just have one ingot, and it’s super big.”

He suddenly dropped to the ground and lay back, resting his head on his hands. “The ingot is right here. Come and get it.”

There was nothing that looked anything like an ingot anywhere to be seen. “Where is it?” they said eagerly.

“I’m the ingot. Because I’m an ingot.” He pointed at his nose. “Don’t you want to have an ingot this big?”

This time Goiter-man was really pissed off, and the goiter on his neck really did start to bulge and get bigger. “Ya little son of a b*tch!” he cursed, “Ya dare to mess with yer elders?”

This time, he really did attack with his sword, and as he raised the enormous blade, it was clear that if it landed on the young beggar, it would cleave his entire body in two.

Goiter-man’s comrades also rushed forward, awls, daggers, hatchets all seeking out the young beggar. Even though their attacks were not nimble, and the weapons they wielded were not the type used by high level experts of the martial world, they could still easily chop the young beggar into pieces in a matter of seconds.

The young beggar seemed scared out of his mind, so much so that his entire body trembled. And yet, deep in his eyes, no fear could be seen.

In that exact moment, what appeared to be four or five flashes of dazzling light shot out from the forest. Some of them, the brightest, shone with what seemed to be a silver light, although it was impossible to see clearly.

That was because they were just too fast, impossible for human eyes to track clearly.

The dazzling light shone, and then disappeared. Five strapping men fell to the ground.

They fell to the ground in an instant, never again to get up, never again to stand.

A flashing, dazzling light; a deadly concealed weapon.

Five men as strong as oxen, killed so quickly they had no chance to call out in pain or terror.

This type of concealed weapon is too fast, too accurate, too fearsome.

Whoever used such a weapon surely must be a top expert of the martial world. Only ten or so such experts existed in the world, and just now had appeared at least two.

This was evident because the dazzling light had actually shot out from two different directions, and the color they emitted had been different.

Why would two peak-level experts appear here, together?

Could it be that they came just to save the young beggar?

The dazzling light had disappeared; so had any trace of the two experts.

The young beggar hadn’t seen the flashes of light, nor had he seen anyone standing in the woods.

He had no idea who had saved him, but in any case, his life was back in his hands. Surely he should express thanks.

Wind blew through the leaves in the silent forest.

He suddenly stood up, seemingly without the slightest bit of thankfulness. In fact, he appeared to be extremely angry, his face flushed red.

“Who are you, you bastards?” he cursed. “Who asked you to save me? You think I can’t handle some eighth-rate bandits?!”

He gets saved, and then he curses his saviors.

If you had to pick a baffling bastard who doesn’t know what’s good and bad, you would be hard pressed to find a better candidate than this kid, don’t you agree?

Thankfully, his saviors were gone, otherwise they would most likely be furious.

***

Talking, singing or even cursing without an audience is really tiring and boring.

The more the young beggar cursed, the more pointless it seemed. He just wanted to find a tree and get some sleep, then think of a way to take care of the five bodies.

—Even though they were eighth-rate bandits, he couldn’t let them died without coffins.

This time, he found an appropriate tree, and prepared to lay down. Because he had turned around, he had no idea what had happened behind him, and would never have imagined that one of the five dead men had come back to life.

Part 7

Dead people can’t come back to life. There weren’t five dead people, there were four.

Goiter-man wasn’t dead, and as soon as the young beggar turned around, his “corpse” started to move.

For some unknown reason, even though he had been injured, his movements were very dextrous, even more so that just a moment ago.

The young beggar had already reached the tree.

Goiter-man stared at him with bloodshot eyes. The goiter suddenly began to turn red, and then it changed from red to purple, and then it started glowing, glowing like a chunk of transparent amethyst.

And then, his body flew forward like a leopard, straight toward the young beggar.

His moves now were those that an eighth-rate bandit could only dream of doing. In fact even seventh-, sixth-, fifth-, fourth-, third-, and second-rate bandits couldn’t do them. His moves had suddenly become first-rate.

Despite being injured, but as he charged forward into attack, his speed, momentum, stances and power were all first-rate.

He’d dropped his huge broadsword upon being injured, but now it seemed his two fists were even more fearsome than the sword.

Blue veins pulsed on the backs of his hands, and then turned purple, and then started to glow.

Even someone with the poorest eyesight could see that this fist technique had been trained to the pinnacle of perfection.

Unfortunately, the young beggar couldn’t see, because his eyes were focused in the opposite direction.

The fortunate thing was that he had very sensitive ears, and he could hear the sound of the attacking fist as it sped through the air.

Then a cracking noise sounded out as Goiter-man’s fist collided into the thick tree trunk.

***

The young beggar stood there, scared half to death. He wasn’t hurt, not in the slightest. But his whole body dripped with cold sweat.

As of now, he knew that this man was not eighth-rate, but definitely first-rate. Before, he had been putting up an act.

A first-rate expert would never become close friends with eighth-rate men, so Goiter-man’s comrades must also have been first-rate.

To mistake first-rate martial arts for eighth-rate was a very dangerous thing; if someone hadn’t saved him just now, would he still be alive?

He now understood that he shouldn’t have cursed them.

But what he didn’t understand was why first-rate martial world experts would pretend to be clumsy fools in an effort to kill a young beggar. And why did they want his life in the first place?

**

[1] Liu is the character for Willow

[2] A loach is a type of fish

[3] In case you’re not familiar with the Beggar Sect, I’ll explain the bags briefly. Ranking in the Beggar Sect is usually indicated by how many bags the beggar carries. The highest rank, held by Elders, is usually eight or nine.

[4] This simile sounds better in Chinese because the word for “bow” literally means “butterfly knot.”

[5] An ingot is a large, crescent-shaped gold piece.