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发信人: dantao (涛涛), 信区: Emprise
标 题: 书剑恩仇录8-2
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Thu Jul 30 12:15:56 1998), 转信
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发信人: skyandfly (飞飞☆黄金之翼~~千亿的星辰 千亿的光芒), 信区: Emprise
标 题: part8-2
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Fri Jun 26 01:15:58 1998)
** 2 **
Chen woke towards midnight, his strength revived. Under the light
of a moonbeam shining down from the crack in the roof of the
cave, he could see Huo Qingtong and Princess Fragrance leaning
against one another on one of the jade seats, fast asleep. In the
silence, he heard their breathing and smelt the fragrance, even
more beautiful than that of fresh flowers or musk, emanating from
the younger sister.
He wondered again what the wolves outside the mountain were
doing and whether the three of them would ever be able to
escape. And if they did, would his brother the Emperor hold to his
word and throw out the Manchus?
"Which one do I really love?" Over the past few days, this thought
had been gyrating round his brain continuously. "Well, which one
really loves me? If I were to die, Princess Fragrance would not be
able to go on living, but Huo Qingtong would. But that doesn't
mean Princess Fragrance loves me more."
The moon beam slowly shifted onto Huo Qingtong's face.
"Princess Fragrance and I have declared our love for each other,
but although Huo Qingtong has never said a word about it, her
feelings towards me are clear too," he thought. "And why did I
come so far to give her a message if it was not because I loved
her? What is more, restoring the throne to the Chinese people will
involve immense trials and tribulations. She is a better strategist
even than Brother Xu, and her assistance would be invaluable," He
stopped himself, ashamed of his own thoughts.
"Ah, Chen Jialuo," he whispered under his breath. "Are you really
so narrow-minded?"
Time passed and the moonbeam moved across onto Princess
Fragrance.
"With her, all I would have is happiness, happiness, happiness," he
thought.
His eyes opened wide and he stared up at the crack of light in the
rock high above them for a long, long time. Slowly, the moonlight
faded and a sunbeam began to slant in, filling the room with
daylight. With a yawn, Princes Fragrance woke. She looked over
at him through half-open eyes and smiled, her face looking like a
newly-opened flower.
Suddenly she jerked upright. "Listen!" she whispered.
Footsteps sounded distantly from the tunnel, gradually moving
closer. In the silence of the old caverns, each step could be heard
clearly, and their skin crawled as they listened. Chen shook Huo
Qingtong's arm to wake her and the three ran quickly back down
the tunnel.
When they reached the main chamber, Chen picked up three jade
swords and gave one each to the two sisters. "Jade wards off
evil," he whispered.
By now, the footsteps were just outside the chamber, and the
three hid in a corner near the entrance, not daring to move. They
saw the flickering light of torches and four men walked in. The two
in front, they instantly recognised as Zhang and Gu.
There was a series of clanging sounds as the weapons of the four
flew out of their hands to the ground. Chen knew this was an
opportunity not to be missed, and as they stood staring at the floor
in dumb surprise, he gave a shout and leapt out, and with knocked
the torches to the ground, plunging the chamber into complete
darkness. Zhang and the Three Devils turned and raced back
down the tunnel. They heard a dull thud followed by a sharp curse
as one of them bumped into the wall.
The footsteps gradually receded again.
Suddenly, Huo Qingtong gave a scream of panic. "Oh no! Chase
them!"
Chen immediately realised what she meant and raced out of the
chamber into the tunnel. But before he reached its end, he heard a
steady creaking sound followed by a heavy bang, and he knew the
stone door was closed.
Huo Qingtong and Princess Fragrance ran up behind him. He felt
around for a piece of wood, found one and lit it, then looked again
at the scarred surface of the stone door, the relic of the death
struggle of the skeletons around them.
"We're finished!" Huo Qingtong said, despairingly.
Princess Fragrance grabbed her hand. "Sister, don't be afraid!"
Chen forced a smile. "It would be strange if we three died here."
For some reason, he felt a sense of relief wash over him as if a
great weight had been taken from his shoulders. He picked a skull
off the ground and said to it: "Well brother, you have three new
companions." Princess Fragrance gasped, and then laughed out
loud.
Huo Qingtong looked at them both. "Let's go back to the Jade
Room," she said after a while. "Once we've settled down we can
start thinking things through."
They walked back the way they had come. Huo Qingtong pulled
out the map once more and pored over it, desperately searching
for a way out. Chen knew that if they were to escape it was more
likely to be because of outside help or because Zhang returned to
look for them. But how could rescuers find them? And Zhang,
after the fright he had just received, was unlikely to dare to come
in again.
"I want to sing a song," Princess Fragrance announced.
"Please do," replied Chen.
She sang for a while then stopped, concerned about Huo
Qingtong who was still staring hard at the map, her head resting on
her hands.
"Sister, you should rest for while," Princess Fragrance said. She
stood up and went over to the jade bed and said to the skeleton
lying on it: "Excuse me, I wonder if you could move over a bit?
My sister needs to lie down and rest." She carefully pushed the
bones into a pile in the corner of the bed. "Oh!" she said, picking
something up. "What's this?"
Chen and Huo Qingtong walked over and saw she was holding a
goatskin scroll of great antiquity. The scroll had turned black, but
under the sunlight, it was possible to see it was covered in writing,
all in an ancient Muslim hand. Huo Qingtong glanced through it,
and pointed at the skeleton on the bed.
"It was written by this girl with her own blood just before she died.
Her name was Mami," she said.
"Mami?" asked Chen.
"It means 'beautiful'. I'm sure she was very beautiful when she was
alive." She put down the book and went back to examining the
map.
"Does the map indicate some other exit?" Chen asked.
"There appears to be a secret tunnel somewhere, but I can't work
out where."
Chen sighed. "Would you read out this Miss Mami's last words to
me?" he asked Princess Fragrance. She nodded, and began to
quietly recite:
"Everyone in the city, thousands upon thousands of people are all
dead. The guards of the Mountain and the warriors of Islam are all
dead. My Ali has gone to meet Allah, and his Mami will be going
soon too. I will write our story out here, so that the children of
Allah will know that, victorious or defeated, our warriors of Islam
fight to the end, and never surrender!"
"So this lady was not only beautiful, but courageous too,"
commented Chen.
Princess Fragrance continued to read:
"Baojunlonga oppressed us for forty years. In those forty years, he
forced thousands of commoners to construct this secret city and
carve out the chambers and halls within the Sacred Mountain. He
killed them all. After he died, his son Sanglaba proved to be even
more cruel. Of every ten goats raised by the Muslim people every
year, four had to be given to him; of every five camels, he claimed
two. We became poorer and poorer each year. Any beautiful
daughters among the Muslim families were taken into the city, and
once there, none ever came out alive.
"We are the brave children of Islam. Could we stand such
oppression from these pagans? Of course not! Over a period of
twenty years, our warriors attacked the city five times. But each
time, they lost because they could not find their way through the
maze. On two occasions, they made it into the Sacred Mountain
but Sanglaba used some devilry to steal their weapons, and they
were all killed by his guards."
"That's the magnet," said Chen. Princess Fragrance nodded and
continued:
"In the year that I turned eighteen, my mother and father were
killed by Sanglaba's men and my elder brother became the chief of
our tribe. That spring, I met Ali. He was a hero of the tribe. He
had killed three tigers, and wolf packs scattered when they saw
him. He could beat ten ordinary men, no, a hundred. His eyes
were as soft as those of a deer and his body was as beautiful as a
fresh flower, but he had the strength of a desert hurricane..."
"The lady is exaggerating, I think," Chen said with a smile.
"Why do you say that?" Princess Fragrance asked solemly. "Are
there not such people in the world?"
"One day, Ali came to our tent to talk to my brother about another
attack on the City. He had obtained a copy of a book about
Chinese kung fu and had studied it for a year. He said he now
understood the basics of the martial arts, and was convinced that
even without weapons, they could kill Sanglaba's man. He took
five hundred fighters and taught them what he knew, and they
practised for another year. By then, I was already Ali's. I was his
from the moment I first saw him. He told me that when he saw me,
he knew that we would win this time. But although they had
mastered kung fu, they still did not know the way through the maze
of the City, much less the secrets of the Sacred Mountain. Ali and
my brother talked for ten days and nights, but could find solution.
"Finally, I said: 'Brother,let me go.' They understood my meaning.
Ali was a brave warrior but he began to cry. I took a hundred
goats and went to graze them outside the city. On the fourth day,
Sanglaba's men seized me and took me to him. I cried for three
days and three nights before giving in to him. He liked me very
much and gave me everything I wanted.
"At first Sanglaba would not let me take so much as one step
outside, but he liked me more and more. I thought about our
people every day and of singing while tending goats on the
grasslands: that is real happiness. What I thought of most was Ali.
Sanglaba saw me becoming more thin and haggard each day and
asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to go out and wander
round everywhere. He flew into a great rage and slapped me, so
for seven days and nights I didn't smile or say a word to him. On
the eighth day, he took me out, and after that on every third day.
At first, we only travelled about the city, but later we even went to
the very entrance of the maze. I memorized clearly every single
street and path until I could have found my way through the maze
even if I was blind.
"This took almost a year. I knew my brother and Ali would be
getting impatient, but I still did not know the secrets of the Sacred
Mountain. Soon after, I became pregnant with Sanglaba's bastard
child. He was delighted, but I cried every day in loathing. He
asked me what I wanted, and I said: 'You have made me pregnant
but you don't love me at all.'
"'I don't love you?' he replied. 'Do you think there is anything I
would not give you? Do you want red coral from the bottom of the
sea, or sapphires from the south? They are yours."
"'I have heard that you have a jade pool which makes beautiful
people who wash in it even more beautiful and ugly people even
uglier,'" I said.
"His face drained of all colour and in a shaky voice, he asked me
where I had heard this. I told him a fairy had whispered it to me in
a dream, but in fact I had heard about the pool from the servant
girls who said that Sanglaba had never let anyone see it.
"'You can go and wash there, but whoever sees the pool must
have their tongue cut out afterwards to prevent the secret being
revealed. It is a rule decided by the ancestors,'" he said. He
begged me not to go, but I insisted. I said: 'You must think I am
very ugly and do not wish me to become even uglier.' Finally, he
took me there.
"I took a small knife with me, planning to stab him to death by the
pool, which was the only place in the palace where there were no
guards, but the knife was snatched away by some magic under the
floor of the great hall. After I had bathed in the Jade Pool, I don't
know if I really became more beautiful or not, but he loved me
even more. However, he still cut out my tongue, because he feared
that I would reveal the secret. I knew everything, but had no way
of telling my brother and Ali.
"Every day and every night, I prayed to Allah, and Allah finally
heard the cries of his poor daughter. He gave me wisdom.
Sanglaba had a small dagger which he kept on his person at all
times. The dagger had two scabbards, and the inner scabbard was
exactly like the blade of a knife. I asked him for it, then I drew a
map of the city including all the paths and tunnels in it, sealed it
inside a ball of wax and placed it inside the inner scabbard. In the
third month after the birth of the child, he took me out hunting.
When no-one was looking, I threw the dagger into the Tengbo
lake. When we returned to the palace, I released many eagles with
'Tengbo Lake' written on pieces of paper tied to their legs."
Huo Qingtong put down the map and concentrated on listening to
her sister's translation of the ancient scroll.
"Several of the eagles were shot down by Sanglaba's men, but I
knew that at least one or two would be caught by people of our
tribe and that my brother and Ali would go to Tengbo Lake and
make a thorough search. They would then find the knife and know
the way through the city.
"Ah! How could I guess that although they found the dagger, they
did not discover its secret, and did not work out that there was a
scabbard within the scabbard? My brother, and Ali decided that
the dagger must be a call for them to attack. So they attacked.
Most of the warriors lost their way in the maze. My brother,
stronger than two camels, was lost in this way. Ali and some of the
others caught one of Sanglaba's men and forced him to lead them
in their attack on the Sacred Mountain. In the Great Hall,
Sanglaba's men fell on them with their jade weapons. But Ali and
his warriors had learned their lessons well and even empty-handed
they held their own and most died along with their opponents.
Seeing his guards being slaughtered and Ali pressing in closer all
the time, Sanglaba ran into the Jade Room and wanted me to
escape with him via the Jade Pool..."
Huo Qingtong jumped to her feet. "Aha!" she exclaimed. "He
wanted to escape via the Jade Pool!"
"Suddenly Ali ran in, and I flung myself into his arms. We
embraced, and he called me many beautiful things. I had no tongue
and could not answer him, but he understood the cry of my heart.
Then that despicable Sanglaba, ten thousands times more evil than
a thousand devils, struck him with an axe from behind...."
Princess Fragrance screamed and threw the scroll back onto the
bed, an expression of horror on his face. Huo Qingtong gently
patted her shoulder, then picked up the scroll herself and
continued to read it out loud:
"....with an axe from behind and split my Ali's head in two. His
blood spurted out all over my body. Sanglaba picked the child up
off the bed, placed it in my hands and shouted: 'We must leave
quickly!' I raised that bastard baby high about my head and threw
it to the ground with all my strength, and he died in Ali's blood.
Sanglaba was deeply shocked at the sight of me killing his son. He
raised his golden axe, and I bowed my head, offering my neck to
him, but he sighed and rushed back out into the Great Hall.
"Ali has gone to Allah's side and I will soon follow him. Our
warriors are many, and with all his soldiers dead, Sanglaba will
certainly not survive. He will never again be able to oppress us
followers of Islam. I myself killed his only son, so we will be free
of oppression from his descendants, because he has none. In the
future, our people will be able to live peacefully in the desert and
on the grasslands, young girls will be able to lie in their lovers' arms
and sing. My brother, Ali, myself, we are all dead, but we
conquered the tyrants. Even if their fortress had been stronger than
it is, we would still have broken through eventually. May Allah, the
True God, protect our people."
Huo Qingtong slowly rolled up the ancient scroll. The three of
them sat for a long time without saying a word, deeply moved by
Mami's courage and virtue. Finally Princess Fragrance, her eyes
full of tears, sighed.
"To relieve the oppression of her people, she was willing to leave
her loved ones, to have her tongue cut out and even to kill her own
child," she said.
Chen started in fright, thinking of his own conduct compared to
this lady of old. Faced with the task of recovering China for the
Chinese people, he selfishly thought only of his own romantic
problems.
Princess Fragrance noticed the sudden change in his expression.
She pulled out her handkerchief and went over to wipe the beads
of sweat from his brow, but Chen pushed her away impatiently.
She stepped back, startled at his aggressiveness, and Chen's heart
softened. Taking the handkerchief from her, he made up his mind
that while the great endeavour of the Restoration remained
unfinished he would pay no further attention to his romantic affairs,
and would treat both sisters purely as friends, as his own sisters.
Huo Qingtong, meanwhile, was once more poring over the map
and pondering phrases in the ancient scroll.
"It says here that Sanglaba came to this Jade Room and wanted
her to escape with him to the Jade Pool," she murmured. "But this
room is a dead end ... Afterwards, he returned the way he had
come. He must have been extraordinarily strong. The Islam
warriors failed to stop him and he forced his way through to the
stone door and locked them all inside, condemning them to death.
But the map clearly indicates another tunnel to the pool...."
"Then it must be in this room," Chen replied. He lit another torch
and began to examine the walls closely for cracks, while Huo
Qingtong looked at the jade bed. Chen remembered how Wen
Tailai had been captured at Iron Gall Manor and said: "Could the
tunnel be under the table?" He placed his hands beneath the round
table top and tried to lift it, but it did not budge.
"There's something strange about this table," he said, pleased. Huo
Qingtong brought the torch over to give him more light.
"Oh, look!" Princess Fragrance exclaimed. "There's a design
carved onto the surface." They looked closer and saw that it was a
herd of winged camels. They had not noticed it before because the
carving was extremely shallow. But strangely, the heads and
bodies of the camels were not joined, and were more than a foot
away from each other. On an impulse, Princess Fragrance grasped
the table edge and pulled it from left to right in an attempt to line
up the heads and bodies, and it did indeed move an inch or so.
Chen and Huo Qingtong joined her and slowly moved the rim
round until the camels were whole again. Just as the carving was
complete, a grinding sound began and a panel beside the bed slid
back to reveal a row of steps leading downwards. The three
shouted in triumph.
Chen led the way into the hole, torch in hand. The passage twisted
and turned for a while and then ran straight for more than a
hundred feet. Then, around a corner, they burst out into daylight.
Looking around they saw they were in a small basin surrounded
by high mountains. In the centre was a circular pool, the water in
which was as green as jade. They were immediately enraptured by
the beauty of the scene before them.
"The scroll said that if beautiful people washed in the pool they
would become even more beautiful," Huo Qingtong said to her
sister with a smile. "You should go and wash."
Princess Fragrance blushed. "You are older than I, you go first,"
she replied.
"Ai-ya! But I will become more ugly," Huo Qingtong protested.
"Are you going to wash or not?" Princess Fragrance shook her
head.
Huo Qingtong walked to the edge of the pool and put her hands in
the water: it was intensely cold. She cupped her hands and
scooped up some water and saw it was very clear: the water
appeared green only because of the jade all about. She took a sip
and found it extraordinarily cool and tasty. They all drank their fill.
The white peak towering above them reflected off the surface of
the pool in a picture of loveliness, and Princess Fragrance lazily
moved her hand about in the water, unwilling to leave such an
enchanting place.
"The thing to do now is to think of a way to avoid those four devils
outside," said Huo Qingtong.
"First, let's bring Mami's remains out and bury them beside the
pool," Chen suggested.
Princess Fragrance clapped her hands in delight. "It would be best
if we buried her and Ali together," she said.
"Yes. I expect the skeleton in the corner is Ali's."
They returned to the Jade Room. As they were collecting Ali's
bones, they found amongst them some bamboo slivers used in
China in ancient times for writing. Chen picked them up, and saw
they were thickly covered with Chinese characters written in red
ink on a black background. Glancing through them, he recognized
the writings of the Chinese philospher Zhuangzi. He had thought it
might be some special book and was rather disappointed to find it
was instead something he had read and memorized as a child.
"What is it?" Princess Fragrance asked.
"It's an old Chinese book, but it's not much use except to
archaeologists." He threw the slivers back on the ground, and as
they scattered, he noticed one which looked slightly different from
the rest. Beside every character, were circles and dots and Muslim
writing. Chen picked the sliver up and saw it was a section entitled
'The Butcher Dissects the Cow' from the philosopher Zhuangzi's
lecture, 'The Secret of Caring for Life.' He pointed to the Muslim
characters written alongside.
"What does this say?" he asked Princess Fragrance.
"'The key to smashing the enemy is here'," she replied.
"What can that mean?" he wondered out loud, greatly surprised.
"Mami's last testament said Ali got hold of a Chinese book and
had learned kung fu from it. This could be it," Huo Qingtong
suggested.
"Zhuangzi taught that one should be oblivious of emotion in
adversity and obedient to one's superiors," said Chen. "It has
nothing to do with kung fu." He threw the sliver back down again,
then picked up the pile of bones and walked out. They buried the
remains of Mami and Ali beside the Jade Pool and bowed
respectfully before the graves.
"Let's go now," said Chen. "I wonder if the white horse managed
to escape the wolves?"
"What is the section of that book about?" Huo Qingtong asked.
"It's about a butcher who is very good at his job. The movements
of his hands and legs, the sound of his knife chopping, are all
perfectly coordinated. The sound has the rhythm of music, the
movements are like dancing."
"It would be useful to have such skill when facing an enemy," Huo
Qingtong commented.
Chen stared at her in surprise. Every word of Zhuangzi was
familiar to him, but suddenly he felt as if he had never read it
before. The words of 'The Butcher Dissects The Cow' ran through
his mind: 'When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was
the ox itself. After three years, I no longer saw the whole ox. And
now -- now, I go at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes.
Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit
moves where it wants.'
"If it really is like that," he thought, "I could kill that traitor Zhang
with my eyes closed with just a slight movement of the knife..."
The two sisters stared at him, wondering what he was thinking
about.
"Wait a moment," he said, and ran back inside. A long time passed
and still he did not re-emerge. Feeling worried, the two sisters
went in as well and found him prancing about among the skeletons
in the Great Hall, his face wreathed in smiles. He danced around a
pair of skeletons for a moment and then stood stock-still staring at
another pair. Princess Fragrance glanced to her sister in fright,
afraid that he had lost his mind.
Huo Qingtong took her sister's hand. "Don't be afraid, he's all
right," she said. "Let's go and wait for him outside."
The two returned to the Jade Pool. "What's he doing in there?"
Princess Fragrance asked.
"I think he's worked out some new kung fu moves after having
read those bamboo slivers and he's now practising them by
copying the positions of the skeletons. It would be best if we didn't
disturb him."
Princess Fragrance nodded. After a while, she sighed. "Now I
understand." she said.
"What?"
"All those people in the Great Hall must have been very good
fighters. Even after their weapons had been snatched from them,
they still fought on with Sanglaba's guards."
"Yes, but they weren't necessarily very good at kung fu," Huo
Qingtong replied. "I would guess they just learned a few really
formidable moves which allowed them to take their enemies with
them."
"Ah, they were so brave ... But what is he learning them for? Does
he want to die with his enemies too?"
"No, a martial arts master would not be killed along with his
opponent. He is just studying the finer points of the moves."
Princess Fragrance smiled. "Well I won't worry any more, then."
She looked out over the surface of the pool. "Sister," she said.
"Let's bathe in the water."
"Don't be ridiculous. What if he should come out?"
"I really want to go and bathe," Princess Fragrance replied. She
stared out at the cool water once again. "Wouldn't it be nice if the
three of us could live here together forever!" she said softly.
Huo Qingtong's heart jumped. She blushed, and quickly turned her
head away towards the White Jade Peak.
A long time passed and still Chen did not emerge. Princess
Fragrance took off her leather boots and put her feet in the water.
Resting her head on her sister's lap, she gazed up at the white
clouds in the sky and slowly fell asleep.
--
安 忍 不 动 如 大 地
静 虑 深 思 似 密 藏
※ 来源:·BBS 水木清华站 bbs.net.tsinghua.edu.cn·[FROM: ns.pubnic.buaa.]
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