Chapter 71

At noon on the day of the duel, Qi Qian'er came early to the place where she'd practiced spearcraft with Old Xin and Xie Liuhao.

It had been agreed on beforehand: if anything came up, one was to leave a secret mark here, and set a time to meet.

Zhou Wujiu could hardly be spared at the platform, but he quietly came up the mountain anyway.

He'd no sooner arrived than he found the little lady sitting cross-legged on the green stone, waiting for him. She saw him come and smiled at ease. She even had time to tease him: "I took one glance down the mountain just now. There's an awful lot of people." Then Qi Qian'er reached out and tossed something into Zhou Wujiu's hand. "I reckon the month's about right by now. I don't know, is it a fine son you've come by, or a fine daughter?"

Zhou Wujiu took it and looked. It was a finely-worked qilin-lock. The little lady had a kind heart. He felt glad and cupped his hands in thanks: "My thanks to you, madam. It's three months now, a great fat daughter."

Qi Qian'er sprang down off the stone, and was glad for him too: "A new mouth in the house is a good thing. Why didn't Liuhao come today?"

Zhou Wujiu took a red cloth bundle down from his back and squatted to open it. As he worked he said, "He, his brother Xie Wuhao has come. If he'd dared to follow, there'd be a long string of trouble behind him. He didn't dare come, but he had me bring you a word..."

Qi Qian'er was puzzled. "What word?"

Zhou Wujiu lifted his face. He looked grave. "He said Qingfeng city is full now, everywhere: our people, the martial world's people, the court's people. He'd have madam mind herself at every turn and go carefully. The silver-chests collected from the various sects at the mountain-foot run to dozens. There's no small amount of silver in it."

There wasn't much more to say than that.

Qi Qian'er understood well enough what he meant. Ping Shen was a cut above even Old Xin in how he spoke and weighed things. He saw a thing from the silver in it, and that night he'd hinted at it again and again.

But these people didn't know that Qi Qian'er was, in her very bones, the most law-abiding person of all. She would never do a thing against the law.

She heard Zhou Wujiu warn her so and felt grateful past telling. It was another fated tie come round again. Whether it was Eunuch Liao, or Old Xin, or any other, they had all been full of goodwill toward her. And even at an hour like this, they still fretted over her.

Xie Liuhao and Zhou Wujiu held small offices, but their sources of news were no ordinary thing. Whatever secret matter the Jiusi Hall had afoot touching the martial world, Qi Qian'er came to know of it. Xie Liuhao's brother was the North Enforcer of the Jiusi Hall, one of the four pillars under the Master, Meng Dingchen. So within the Jiusi Hall, Xie Liuhao counted as a young-master sort of figure, one no ordinary man would go provoking. And the fact that Zhou Wujiu could go about leading Xie Liuhao meant his superiors trusted him. He was steady, valued, and surely a man with a boundless future.

The fact that he could now speak words like mind yourself, go carefully showed things were tense indeed within Qingfeng city. There was no telling how many pairs of eyes lay hidden.

Qi Qian'er didn't know how large the martial world was, so she didn't find it so very fearsome. She thanked him sincerely. "It's good of you to keep me in mind. My thanks."

Zhou Wujiu let out a heavy breath. "There are things we can't lay out for madam in full. I'll only counsel madam this one word. The dynasty has changed, and the world is not the world it was."

To this much, at least, Qi Qian'er gave her whole assent. A golden age was coming, settled and peaceful days at last.

Ah~ here she went again!

The little lady was fine in every way. It was only that this naggy little flaw of hers slipped out now and again. There was no telling how her own elders had raised her. She wasn't even old yet, and still she fretted the whole day long over such a jumble of things...

Zhou Wujiu, helpless, hurried to undo the red cloth. Inside was a pair of small bronze maces with red-sandalwood handles, four-sided and ridged like tiles, a foot and a half long, mouthed at the hilt with a peony blossom.

One look at these and Qi Qian'er was glad. She bent, took one up in each hand, and chopped the air a few times. At once a wind-splitting sound coiled up around her, and it made no small stir. The maces suited her hand. She twirled them idly a few strokes, until the pair of little gold maces threw off two rings of golden shadow.

Zhou Wujiu watched, all smiles. However many times over, this strange little lady never failed to astonish him. Old Xin had put it well. She was truly born a prodigy of the martial arts, not one in centuries. Just look: the first time she held the maces, she already knew how to let the force out and draw it back. He didn't even fear the little lady would lose to any man of Yuegong Mountain.

Elder Xin had said before that for a rare person like this little lady, so long as they did their duty, guided her rightly, and kept her from falling into evil ways, she'd not have come into this world for nothing. Heaven had sent down this uncommon person for a reason. Wait and watch, and one day they'd surely know what it was.

And so, of their own hearts, they were willing to be driven by her.

Zhou Wujiu smiled, watched Qi Qian'er wield the little bronze maces, and said, "These maces are called the Hundred-Rain Gold Maces. The pair of them weigh about fifty-nine jin and nine liang. Elder Xin saw that madam had no handy weapon last time, so he went and found the finest bronze-essence for the purpose, and sought out the great weapon-master Liang Ye of Xiuchuan to make them for you with his own hands. And the elder said too, his apologies to madam. Before, he misjudged how deep madam's skill ran, and gave you much offense. He hopes madam won't hold it against him..."

Here Zhou Wujiu grew abashed himself. He cupped his hands and bowed Qi Qian'er another apology.

Qi Qian'er had fought Pang Tu once, so of course she now knew how deep her own waters ran. She understood too why Old Xin had been hiding from her.

She heard Zhou Wujiu out, put away her stance, and eyed him sidelong. "Have that old thing come out and let me beat him for half a month, and the matter's settled."

Zhou Wujiu looked sheepish and smiled coaxingly. "Old Xin's on in years. Never mind half a month, one mace of yours and he'd shatter to bits. You're large and generous of heart, so don't go reckoning with him. Say this instead: if madam's truly pent up over it, then once today's duel is settled, Liuhao and I will come and take whatever punishment madam pleases."

Qi Qian'er stayed pent-up a while, but let it go in the end. She said, helpless, "Never mind it, then."

Zhou Wujiu was let off clean at last, and he breathed a secret sigh of relief. Only then did he lift his face to Qi Qian'er. "Yesterday Liuhao and I turned over the Jiusi Hall's inner papers and dug up some word of Guan Zhuping. Would madam hear it?"

Qi Qian'er nodded to him.

Then Zhou Wujiu said, "Guan Zhuping, courtesy-name Pofeng. He was born of a noble house, of an illustrious line. His grandfather was once Governor of Xianyuan Commandery. As a youth he was bold and fierce. When Xianyuan came under siege, he rode out single-handed to hold off the foe. He was rewarded for the merit and ennobled, and the people round about all sang his praises. But this man was arrogant by nature and couldn't suffer the smallest slight, and his temper was fierce and would brook no rein. The next year he dueled a man, and though he won, his whole family was put to death for it. He fled, and afterward knelt to Cui Fu'an of Yuegong Mountain, to learn the arts and take his revenge..."

Guan Zhuping's life was a splendid and eventful thing, half a chronicle of martial-world legend in itself. Qi Qian'er listened a full incense-stick's while. When Zhou Wujiu had finished, she smiled and shook her head. "And is living like that so very interesting?"

Zhou Wujiu was taken aback. "Does madam not feel that a great man ought to be just so?"

At that Qi Qian'er thought little of him on the spot.

She shook her head, all distaste. "Nothing to show for it, and, and ought to be just so! You mustn't learn from him. What has the man been after? How do other old folk live out their days? And how has he? I must ask him sometime. All this lifelong tossing and turning, and what has he got to show for it? He's lived for nothing, near enough! And that's just why I don't care for that martial world of yours."

Zhou Wujiu didn't know how to rebut it. He could only nod numbly. He dared not say a word against her.

This little lady's reasoning was not the same reasoning as theirs.

Qi Qian'er wrapped the Hundred-Rain Gold Maces up, shouldered them, and then said, "Once I read a poem. It seems to speak of just such a man as Guan Zhuping."

Zhou Wujiu asked: "And which one?"

Qi Qian'er said, "I don't remember it. There's just one line like that old fellow. Don't learn the wandering knight, who vaunts his fine bay steed... Ha!"

Zhou Wujiu was silent a moment, then looked up and smiled. "Once I heard our own Master say a line too. Mm, it was, Yellow dust fills all the ages, and ever the white bones lie strewn in the tangled weeds... And now we part here. Gifted though madam is, on this errand you must not be careless. You must, must take the greatest care."

Qi Qian'er nodded, all smiles, and said at last, "Have that old fellow come out of his shell. A pity, I'm just a humble little wife of a poor lane, and I've gone and waded into this pool of muddy water, and I can't get myself free of it... Oh, and does he think that so long as he hides, he's safe? Let him dream on! No one's to have any peace of it. From now on let him help me keep good watch over Qingfeng city. Whatever martial-world drifter thinks to go to Yanjing, and thinks to do that, I'll curse their whole eight generations of ancestors!"

Zhou Wujiu held back a laugh. He took a porcelain vial from his breast and tossed it to Qi Qian'er.

Qi Qian'er caught it, pulled the stopper, gave it a sniff, and asked, puzzled, "What medicine is this?"

Zhou Wujiu said, a touch proud, "It's put out by the Jiusi Hall's own pharmacy, and a thing a body must have to walk the martial world. A voice-muffling pill. Take one, and for two hours your voice goes low and hoarse. Whoever it is, however well he knows you, he won't be able to tell it's you."

Ho! Good child, a fine thing!

Qi Qian'er was glad. She put the little vial away at once in her breast, and cupped her hands to Zhou Wujiu in farewell. "Then I'll be off!"

That said, she was struck dumb at herself. There was no telling when it had begun, but she too, it seemed, had taken on the ways of these martial-world folk. Flustered, she stiffly braced a hand on her knee. "Farewell, farewell!"

Qi Qian'er nodded, and said in earnest, "Mm! Dasheng!"

If not for that scoundrel of a thing called Dasheng, this old dame would never have come to such a pass!

In the tenth month, below the old city, crowd upon crowd of martial-world spectators had gathered, and yet in utter silence. Over a thousand martial-world people of Baiquan Mountain had converged in one place, and not a man among them dared lightly make a sound.

It was a grand event of the martial world today: two mountains, two recluses, set to fight, a thing seldom seen. On the strength of Guan Zhuping's fame alone, no few heroes of the martial world had come hurrying up from nearby, to hide themselves among the several sheds and watch the bout in secret.

They'd thought to see a meeting of the mighty, but once they came, they were secretly alarmed. Who could have imagined it, that Guan Zhuping should have readied his own coffin beforehand? Wasn't that, before the fight was even joined, a clear sign of weakness?

Before this, it had only been said that the one on Baiquan Mountain was a remarkable thing, and the heroes of the four quarters had discussed it, but mostly disbelieved it. Guan Zhuping had held his name for how many years! However formidable she might be, could she out-do a wily old hand of the martial world, one seasoned into a very spirit of it?

On the platform, Guan Zhuping knelt in plain clothes on a felt mat, his old spear laid plain and unadorned beside his leg. This man's skill had long since entered the realm of return-to-truth, and he made no show of it as Pang Tu had. Below the platform an old ox-cart bore a coffin. Guan Zhuping's disciple-grandson, Pei Daohai, stood in silence, holding his mourning-hemp, his heart bitter past all bearing.

In under half a year this line of theirs had lost Jiuxiao Peak. The fawning followers had scattered to a man. For the sake of an unworthy grandson like himself, the master-grandfather had been forced into seclusion, and then, by the mountain-master's great decree, out to duel. Yesterday the master-grandfather had had him found, had the master's coffin opened, and looked with his own eyes on the master's corpse. Then he had sat still half a day, and had him ready this coffin.

The master-grandfather had said: he could not win.

Pei Daohai kept watch by the coffin, his heart sore past bearing. Again and again he thought of the Baiquan Mountain men who, a few months back, had blocked the road with their lives. Their mood then, likely, had been much like his was now.

A Jiusi Hall junior struck the last of the platform's three bronze gongs, and all looked toward the sound. The challenge-notice hung on the red pole of the platform, still unanswered. There was only one incense-stick's time left. Would that Elm-Tree Mother come today, in the end, or would she not?

Only the people round Baiquan Mountain called Qi Qian'er the "Elm-Tree Lady". Others called her the "Elm-Tree Mother."

Xie Liuhao struck his gong, carried his hammer slowly down, then trotted over and sat himself a little way from his brother, Xie Wuhao.

For this duel the Jiusi Hall had sent two enforcers today, and three branch-heads. Xie Liuhao's fifth brother was the great North Enforcer, a man of real power, second only to the very top and above everyone else.

Xie Liuhao knew the little lady would come, so he sat steady, unworried in his heart, and even had leisure to fish a few beans from his sleeve and eat them. Before, he'd never have dared do so. But yesterday his brother had come, saying he'd try his skill, and in that bout between the brothers Xie Liuhao had at first been able to hold his brother even. After that, if not for his lack of experience, he'd have lasted longer yet.

Only now did Xie Liuhao know that, guided by Old Xin and crossing hands with the little lady all those days, his skill had grown. Those days had been bitter, bitter past all telling! He'd bent his whole heart to the striving, thinking that even if the toil killed him, he'd help the little lady train herself fit to escape Pang Tu's spear. Facing off day in and day out with so rare a person as the little lady, it would have been a wonder if his skill had not grown.

His brother was astonished and had questioned him without cease. At a loss, he'd stammered out that it was Old Xin's guidance. His fifth brother had been glad, of course. A true lineage-master was no easy thing to find these days.

Only, a pity, his brother's mind was a complicated thing now, and he'd pulled him aside to talk a deal of this-and-that that put Xie Liuhao out of humor. What was all this about the Beggar Sect's losses, and Old Xin having no successor? And telling him to be good and filial, and how proud it would make his father and his ancestors if he might one day be the Beggar Sect's heir? Sheer woolgathering. A fine young lord going and leaning on a city gate to beg his bread? Wasn't that madness!

Xie Wuhao, as an enforcer, had all along been watching his brother in secret. This youngest brother of his, being the last, had been spoiled soft from childhood. The family, loath to have him suffer, had never disciplined him hard, so he'd grown up muddle-headed even at this age, his mind as guileless as a child's. Later, when the brothers had thrown in with the right man and become court officials themselves, their parents had said, let Little Six eat a stable bowl of government rice too. And who could have foreseen it, that on entering government the child would meet with a great opportunity, and that his temper would even settle down? Mm! Very good. He'd come on, sure enough.

On so great a day as this meeting of the mighty, his own heart was restless past bearing. And there was his brother, with the leisure to sit eating beans? This was likely picked up from Old Xin's manner. Good! Really good! This monkey of old, never mind a great scene like this. Even in an ordinary squabble of the brothers at home, he'd be off leaping and scrambling about. Besides making trouble, he'd been a squalling, noisy thing, a hateful little scoundrel no one could bear the sight of. Xie Wuhao found his brother dear all the same, and gave him a kick.

Xie Liuhao looked at his brother, puzzled, and saw him slowly put out a hand to beg some beans. He pursed his lips, took the paper-packet from his breast, and was just about to grab his brother a handful, when he spilled half the beans on the ground. Xie Liuhao reached out, meaning to rap him on the head, but heard his brother say, "She's coming!"

Xie Wuhao started. He looked up and saw a figure come leaping toward them from the direction of Baiquan Mountain.

Speak of it and there she was. The woman's form was very swift, like a meteor chasing the moon. Before he'd got out one "How fast!" of praise, she had already stepped across the whole line of colored sheds, flown up onto the challenge-pole, reached out and plucked down the challenge-notice, and slowly descended, a wafting, lovely posture, like a crane come out of auspicious clouds.

Someone cheered low. Then more cheered. It grew into one great, unified shout, and made no small stir.

Once the shout was done, the crowd fell silent on the instant, and everyone lifted their eyes to look closely. She wore a mask, just as in the tales, so even her age couldn't be made out. Except for the red bundle at her back and the guards bound to her two arms, she had not one bit of the martial-world air about her.

How could you put it? If you hunted for a likeness, it was like... a noble lady got up in her finest to go to the temple for the spring incense?

Looking her over, from her clothes to her embroidered shoes, it was all heavy-embroidered silk, gold peonies on a black ground. Even the brocade belt at her waist was set with gorgeous jeweled flowers and costly things. A knowing man reckoned up the cost of it. Mm, this one outfit alone would run to several thousand strings at the least.

She walked in a most elegant way, like a great lady come to a banquet. She held the challenge-notice with her two hands hidden in her sleeves and laid at her waist, and came steadily up to a short distance from Guan Zhuping. All that way her gait was graceful and lovely, as though a lotus sprang up beneath each step.

Xie Liuhao watched, dumbstruck. He heard his brother murmur softly at his ear to a branch-head, "Look at that outfit of hers. She was surely kept, in the old dynasty, by some noble of the fallen house."

The branch-head hesitated, then nodded. "Those ornaments? By the style of them, they're palace-made, sure enough. But Baiquan Mountain's no distance from Yanjing, so why should she... only come out now?"

Xie Liuhao's heart drummed on the instant, and he was just about to make up some far-fetched reason and thrust himself forward to argue it, when he heard his brother say, "Isn't the South Nation-Protecting Temple kept by the imperial house, generation on generation? The old dynasty was brutal, and every man had cause to strike it down! There were no end of those who couldn't stomach it. This lady's origin is a mysterious one, her skill is deep, and she's only lately come out. It's likely as the Master says: she couldn't bear, in the end, to see the ten thousand people cast homeless adrift, and feared this pack of brutes would trouble the new dynasty's livelihood, so she came forth to bar Yuegong Mountain from the capital. That's a thing that works to our good."

The branch-head nodded. "Just so. She lives retired on Baiquan Mountain, and however the storms rage outside, she'll not come out. And that Pang Tu overdid it, when all's said. So many lives fed into it, even a heart of stone couldn't have watched it. Had he been sensible like this Guan Zhuping, he might even have gone on living well. Lucky for us he was so headstrong, or he'd have been a trouble to you and me! And say, the Yuegong Mountain master tossed out such a monster and made himself so great a feud. Fifth Brother, what do you suppose is in his heart just now?"

The words were spoken with a gloating relish, ill-meaning in every syllable.

Xie Wuhao put out a hand, swept up his brother's beans, ate them, and watched the show. "What's in his heart we don't know, but the Master did say that looking at Pang Tu's corpse, this lady won't necessarily lose. Only... this Qingfeng city-head of yours is a hard thing to keep in hand now." Chewing his beans, he chinned to left and right at the martial-world folk hung over the viewing-platforms, and at the great silver-chests stacked high outside the colored sheds.

Xie Liuhao let out a slow breath and quietly wiped away a bead of sweat. He thought, truly, they'd overthought it. Retired, was she? Kept by the imperial house? That lady was simply... Then his heart gave a sudden start, and all at once he saw the whole thing clearly. The little lady, dressed just so, wasn't it precisely to make everyone think of her exactly this way!

On the platform.

Guan Zhuping had kept his eyes closed the whole while, until the little lady took the notice and came slowly up near him. Only then did he slowly open his eyes and look her up and down.

After a good while, Guan Zhuping said, "The one who has come, then, is the Elm-Tree Mother?"

Qi Qian'er nodded without a word, and like Guan Zhuping, sat herself down. She opened the cloth bundle at her back before him. First she took out a pair of small bronze maces and set them to one side, then took out a wrapped set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, and laid them out.

The martial-world spectators on the platforms murmured among themselves. Of the eighteen weapons of the martial world, the gold maces were used by very few, so the Elm-Tree Lady's origin grew the more shrouded and strange.

But what they didn't know was that Qi Qian'er's entry into the art had differed from other men's from the very start, and that later on she'd gone a strange, side path besides. She had given up the martial world's age-old road of self-circling breath-work, and drawn instead on the primal qi of the very earth to feed her flesh. By sheer fortune she'd self-awakened a body of outlandish skill. Old Xin had her use the gold maces only because of her whole body's brute strength. A blunt weapon of that kind suited her. A sharp blade through the flesh is no more than one gash, and if it's not a vital place, there's still life left in a man. But a blunt weapon wounds most deadly of all. One blow of it is a heavy inner injury.

Guan Zhuping was just about to question this woman closely on her origins, when he saw her take the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from her bundle and lay them out. She opened the challenge-notice and earnestly wrote, beneath the signature-line, three great characters, the Elm-Tree Mother, and then the year, the month, the day. At the last she pressed a print of her thumb, square and proper, beneath the name.

Her writing done, she turned the notice round to face him, slowly pushed it before him, and said in a hoarse voice, "An idle man stands in the wind. Only a stupid donkey goes mixing in the martial world. There are good days for the living, and the whole day long it's nothing but killing and cutting. Ai, it's a new dynasty. Can't a body just live his days out steady? Time after time after time, there's no end to the lot of you."

There was a moment's silence, and near every soul there wanted to ask this woman one thing. You? Shouldn't you speak the martial-world cant and announce your house? You may be flamboyant, may be overbearing, may be cold as ice, may be full of scorn, but this, what does this mean? These near two thousand souls, high and low, how are they stupid donkeys of the martial world? And that tone you speak in, how is it so like the nagging of the old woman who sits on our own kang at home?

Poor Guan Zhuping. In half a life in the martial world, no one had ever spoken to him in a tone like this.

He looked at the notice she'd pushed over, mystified past all measure, and asked, "Madam, what does this mean?"

He'd been an old recluse for many years now. Who had ever dared make him set his hand and seal to anything?

Qi Qian'er turned the brush round and handed him the tip. "Aren't you afraid of a lawsuit? The court's law! Mount the platform and sign the life-and-death warrant, and then it won't be pursued. Otherwise, once you've killed me, or I've killed you, and this hasn't been written, the yamen will pursue it. Understand?"

Guan Zhuping's face went all wooden. A good while later he gave an "Oh," took the brush, and very earnestly wrote down his own name.

Qi Qian'er saw him so obedient and nodded, well satisfied.

The truth was, of late she'd had no end of confusions in her heart, and had all along wanted to ask these martial-world drifters about them.

So, by her own method, she asked Guan Zhuping, "And what is the old sir's honored age this year?"

A great drop of ink fell onto the challenge-notice.

Qi Qian'er tsked behind her mask. "Such an age, and your hands and feet not nimble anymore. Unfilial children besides! Still letting you come out and run about?"

Guan Zhuping sighed deeply, lifted his face, and answered, "This old man is four-and-eighty this year?"

Qi Qian'er was greatly startled, and said in wonder, "Ya! As great an age as that? And how many children do you have?"

"Are they all married and settled?"

"Have you grandchildren yet?"

"How much of a monthly wage does that Yuegong Mountain pay you?"

"And how many mouths are there in your house?"