The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 12 – Great banquet for heroes, Part 4

The only person that Guo Fu is afraid of is her father, when she heard that he was here she felt slightly uneasy. But when she saw Lu Youjiao holding a bamboo stick pointing to the east and stirring to the west, she forgot her fear and quietly said, “That’s the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”?”

Wu Dunru said, “Most likely. Master’s wife was teaching him when Master came over and said he had something to discuss with her, he led her to the side while Elder Lu practiced by himself.”

Guo Fu watched a few stances and felt that it was sluggish and didn’t see anything special about it, she said, “Elder Lu hasn’t learned it yet, and it isn’t nice to watch, let’s go.”

Yang Guo saw that the stances that Elder Lu was using were identical to the ones that Hong Qigong taught him on top of Mount Hua, he chuckled in his heart, “That girl doesn’t know anything.”

The Wu brothers always followed Guo Fu’s orders, they were about to jump down when they heard footsteps below; the Guo couple were walking over.

They heard Guo Jing say, “Of course a decision about Fu’er’s future can’t be decided so lightly and suddenly. But Guo’er is young; it is unavoidable that young people will get into trouble. That business with the Quanzhen sect doesn’t seem to be all his fault.”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t care about him causing trouble at Quanzhen. You are respecting the long friendship between the families of Yang and Guo, as you should. But Yang Guo is very crafty, the more I look at him the more he looks like his father, how can I relax and allow Fu’er to get married to him?”

When Yang Guo, Guo Fu and the Wu brothers heard this, they all were shocked. The four of them knew that the Guo and Yang families had some ties but they didn’t know that the previous generations had such deep ties. They could never have guessed that Guo Jing wanted to betroth his daughter to Yang Guo. That sentence affects all four of them, they all listened carefully, their hearts all racing.

Guo Jing said, “Brother Yang Kang was unfortunate that he ended up in the Jin palace and fell in with the wrong crowd. That’s how he ended up like he did, in the end he died without a full corpse. (a soul?) Had he been in the care of Uncle Yang Tiexin, he would never have ended up like that.”

Huang Rong sighed as she remembered the frightening events of that night at Jiaxing’s Iron Spear Temple, her heart froze and she quietly said, “You could say that.”

Yang Guo does not fully understand his background, he knew that his father died earlier by someone’s hand but his own mother never revealed how he died or who killed him. Now he heard Guo Jing talking about his father and mentioned ‘ended up in the Jin palace and fell in with the wrong crowd’ and ‘died without a full corpse’, his body quivered as if he was struck by lighting, his face turned grey. Guo Fu glanced at him and saw that he was looking like he was in a trance; she was frightened and worried that he would suddenly fall and drop to his death.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong sat down on a rock with their backs to the tree. Guo Jing lightly stroked Huang Rong’s arm and warmly said, “Since you’ve been carrying our second child, your body has not been feeling well; quickly pass on all the responsibilities of the Beggar Clan to Lu Youjiao so you can rest properly.”

Guo Fu was delighted, “So mother’s having a baby, it’ll be great to have a little brother. How come mother never told me about this?”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t worry about the matters of the Beggar Clan that much. What I’m worried about is Fu’er’s future.”

Guo Jing said, “Since the Quanzhen won’t take in Guo’er, I’ll teach him myself. He’s a very clever boy, once he’s learned all my skills in the future, the brotherly vow between his father and I won’t have been in vain.”

Yang Guo now knew that Guo Jing was his father’s sworn brother, the words ‘Uncle Guo’ had a real meaning behind it, when he heard Guo Jing treating him with love in his words he was touched, tears almost rolled from of his eyes.

Huang Rong said, “That’s what I’m afraid of, in case he’s too clever for his own good. That’s why I taught him to study and didn’t teach him any martial arts. I hoped that he would become a deep, understanding and righteous man, even if he didn’t know any martial arts. I would have happily betrothed Fu’er to him in that case.”

Guo Jing said, “You have always planned everything to the last detail. This idea would have been good but with Fu’er’s temper and martial arts, wouldn’t having her to marry a weak scholar be a bit harsh for her? Tell me, how could she respect him? In my opinion such a couple would not get on well with each other.”

Huang Rong laughed and said, “You’re shameless! So the reason why we are such a good couple is because you have better martial arts than me. Hero Guo, come, come, come, let’s have a duel.”

Guo Jing laughed and said, “Fine, Chief Huang, give me your best.” A light sound was heard as Huang Rong lightly patted on Guo Jing’s shoulder.

After a while Huang Rong sighed and said, “Ah… this matter is complicated, even with Guo’er to one side, how can you separate the two Wu brothers? In your opinion, who is better?”

Guo Fu and the Wu brother’s hearts naturally jumped. This wasn’t related to Yang Guo but he wanted to hear Guo Jing’s opinion of the two.

He heard Guo Jing go ‘hmm’ and didn’t say anything for a while, in the end he said, “I can’t give my opinions on them on small matters. Only when a person is faced with an important matter will they show their real character.” His voice became soft and said, “Fu’er is still young, we can still wait a few years. It could be that by then everything will have sorted itself out and we won’t have to worry about it. There’s no need to exert your self too much when teaching Lu Youjiao the stick techniques. In the last few days I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to look well, I’m worried. I’ll go and find Guo’er and talk to him.” After he said this he got up and walked to the road.

Huang Rong sat on the rock and evened her breathing for a while before she instructed Lu Youjiao to come over and perform the techniques. Lu Youjiao displayed all thirty-six strokes of the technique, but Lu Youjiao had yet to understand the formulae. Huang Rong kept her patience and explained everything more clearly to him.