CH 2

‘Time easily left people behind while the cherry was red and the Japanese banana (Musa basjoo) was green.

1[Time can leave people behind while cherries become ripe and Chinese bananas mature at the same period. The meaning ; it’s difficult to stop time, in the blink of an eye, it’s already spring and then the summer Solstice; people easily become old and everything is not the same anymore.]

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight years had passed. Mo Fei Chen had grown from a baby who only knew how to cry (in other people’s eyes) to a young boy who gave people…a lot of headaches.

“Mo Shi Di2[Martial Junior Brother or younger male disciple from the same master]!Mo Shi Di! That jujube is not ripe yet! It’s bitter even if you knock them all down!”

“Mo Shi Di ! Mo Shi Di! You can’t eat that pigeon! Those are for Fourth Shi Xiong3[Senior male fellow student or apprentice]and Cheng Shi Jie 4[Senior (female) fellow apprentice] from Xiushui Palace [Xiushui Gong or Palace is the name of the sect, so Xiu(秀) basically meant refined / elegant / beautiful while Shui (水) here is water] to deliver their love letter!”

“Aiyou! Mo Shi Di! I beg you please practice your sword today! Otherwise, if Yu Shi Xiong comes and sees, he’ll blame us for not properly disciplining you!”

Mo Fei Chen hung one of his hands on the jujube tree and swayed around as he looked down at several Shi Xiong who were two years older than him and laughed loudly and naughtily. 

You think about it ah! There is no internet here, no karaoke, and even if I want to go to a small restaurant to have a good meal, it would take half a day (to go down from the mountain) and to find it in the market. Even if I found one, with the little pocket money that I have, I can only buy a pot of tea. Besides from the pure and natural beauty of this place, I, Mo Fei Chen, if I don’t torment you guys, wouldn’t it be hard to bear for me to pass my days? 

Just as he was swaying vigorously, the branch broke. He believed that probably the jujube tree was also bearing grudges at him for knocking down its fruits (because he got nothing to do) and wanted to give the rude and unreasonable monkey 5[猴儿 beside monkey, it could also meant the little devil] a lesson to learn.

He complained in his heart that when he was hanging on the tree, these people were shouting, “Shi Di, Shi Di.” and looking around him as if they really cared about him, but as soon as he fell, they all went, “Ah——” As soon as he landed, all of them immediately retreat, causing him to fall in ‘prostrate oneself on the ground’ position. 

His mouth was full of sand and gravel. Mo Fei Chen spit it out as he tried to stand up, but he couldn’t use his strength to move his left shoulder and left leg, it was also hurt so much that he broke out in cold sweat. 

“Mo Shi Di —— are you okay?” A crowd of people came around again. Mo Fei Chen sent greetings to their family’s mothers and thought in his heart, ‘Why didn’t you guys come after me when I was going to fall?’

“Humph.”

The sound was not loud but all of sudden, the atmosphere had become cold.

Everyone turned back one after another and saluted him, “Yu Shi Xiong!”

Yu Jin walked up to Mo Fei Chen, there was a shadow over his head.

“If you really want to be a lively monkey in the Kun Yun Peak, there is no harm in that, but your Qing Gong 6[also spelled Ching Gung is a qigong / martial arts technique for making the body extremely light in weight, by altering the distribution and flow of Qi]are not even good, so how can you roam around the mountain forests?” Yu Jin bent down and pulled him up, ignoring the fact that his facial features had lost its shape in pain, and carried him back on his shoulder to the bed 7[wide bed that can sleep a number of people] where the young disciples slept.

When Mo Fei Chen was four or five years old, he started to practice martial arts there. It was Yu Jin who led him and taught him the basics of it. At that time, Mo Fei Chen still had the desire to hold his sword and was pleased with Jiang Hu, but after only a few days of practice, he realized that even the gracefulness of a swordsman drawing his sword was the result of more than ten years of effort. He didn’t have that kind of patience, nor the perseverance.

Where is he right now?

Ancient times. Moreover he didn’t know what the dynasty of this ancient time was. 

Since it was the ancient times, wherever he went, it was just a matter of getting up during the day to eat, at best strolling around, and sleeping on a buckwheat pillow at night. What was the difference between a great hero and a nobody on the mountain or outside the mountain?

Even a martial arts master like Zhang Wuji eventually would have to find a place to live in seclusion.

Since the ultimate goal of entering Jiang Hu is to leave it, why should I bother to work so hard to learn so many skills just to get in and out?

But Yu Jin and Mo Fei Chen were different. He doted on Fei Chen because Fei Chen was the baby he carried in his arms up to the mountain. At the same time, he could do nothing about Fei Chen’s lack of motivation.　

This Yu Shi Xiong, all he longing for is to make his name known and one day become one of the top ten swordsmen in the martial arts circle. 8(武林 = Wu Lin)

In the mountains, Mo Fei Chen had heard a lot of martial arts legends.

Many people had learned the sword, palm or other weapons but no matter how good you were, it could only be regarded as superficial. The real high level martial artist could use Qi to transform its form, use his Qi as a sword which was even better than Jin Yong’s ‘Liumai Shenjian 9[六脉神剑 literally meant ‘Six Veins of the Divine Sword/Excalibur. It’s a supreme technique from Jin Yong’s ‘Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils’ (天龙八部)]‘ .

There were once two great sword sects in Wu Lin, the World Detention 10[世羈: Shi Ji] and Thousand Clouds11[千雲: Qian Yun].. 

The sword master of the Thousand Clouds Sword was the founding master of the Mu Yun Mountain Manor, Luo Liányún. He was told that she was not a beautiful woman but one set of Thousand Clouds Sword Technique was so varied that you could not guess the shape or the direction, just like the floating clouds in the sky.

It was hard to imagine that the sword owner of the World Detention Sword was the founding master of the Kun Yun Mountain Manor. It was not without reason that both Kun Yun and Mu Yun Mountain Manor were still prominent sects in Jiang Hu with many disciples under its tutelage. Both still held two positions of the ten most famous swordsmen in Wu Lin today. On the other hand, this Kun Yun Mountain Manor, he he, seriously?! Except for the Sect Leader, Wen Qing Yuan who could use his Qi as a sword; none of his disciples could do so. 

But whether it was the World Detention Sword or the Thousand Clouds Sword, after hundred years of struggle, in the end, it was only a name that remained. 

“What I have learnt in this life, as long as it’s enough for me to be able to dig out birds’ eggs and catch vole without starving myself to death, it’s fine for me.” Mo Fei Chen looked at Yu Jin’s slightly knitted dashing eyebrows, still looking like a ruffian.

Yu Jin smiled, with one swift stroke, the echoing ear-piercing sound through the mountains could be heard. 

“Formerly, I thought your perception is quite high and in the future, you will achieve success, but who knows you’re just a piece of rotten wood [hopeless case: good for nothing]!” Yu Jin got up and was about to leave when Fei Chen tugged on his sleeve.

“Shi Xiong, if one day you are able to ‘form the sword’, will you leave the mountain manor?”

“Of course! For now, I only hope that I will be able to turn my qi into a sword as soon as possible, so that I can leave Kun Yun Peak earlier and not worry about you12[眼不见，心不烦: what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over], you little bastard!” Yu Jin slapped Mo Fei Chen on the head and waved his sleeves away.

“Ai, if you leave, is there anyone else in this world that I can torment?” Mo Fei Chen was lying on his bed, cleaning his ears as if he was thinking about something, but he soon fell asleep again.

You need to know that for a young boy, sleep was the same with sport; essential conditions for growing tall. 

Another two years have passed, by the age of ten, in terms of Qing Gong, Nei Gong and sword technique, Mo Fei Chen was at the bottom of Kun Yun Peak 13[come last in the rankings]. He didn’t mind it, Yu Jin also didn’t care about him anymore. As for Shi Fu, Wen Qing Yuan spent his days tasting tea and reading books, as if he really wanted to live the life of a scholar to the end. However, Mo Fei Chen admired his state of mind. In this world, everything was originally just fine so why tie (burden) yourself down for some undeserved reputation?

But Mo Fei Chen was not feeling well these days. Even though Yu Jin no longer cared about his kung fu, yet he didn’t come to talk to him as much as he used to where he would also punish him. No other reason for this, recently, it was said that he resume to eat meat again14[fig. to do sth as a novel experience] , he had been indulging in a bit of sex. Without Yu Jin, Mo Fei Chen was so free and unrestrained. But one couldn’t live too comfortably. If you get too comfortable, you would want to behave badly… 

He secretly went down the mountain but the word ‘sneak’ was open to question. After all, everyone had always turned a blind eye to ‘the ignorant and incompetent’ Mo Shi Di. 

When Mo Fei Chen arrived at the market, there was a festival recently and every stall had a windmill on it, spinning in the wind. Mo Fei Chen was a bit dizzy from watching them so much. He used his ‘lead away a goat in passing’ 15[顺手牵羊 ( 順手牽羊 ) shùn shǒu qiān yáng: lit. to lead away a goat in passing (idiom); to steal sth under cover of an emergency / to take advantage of a crisis for personal gain]superb skills and in a short while he had a meat bun and two steamed buns. His dinner was solved like that. 

In the early evening when lanterns were first lit, the crowd in the marketplace was gradually lessened up, Mo Fei Chen came to a rather ornate courtyard where he was greeted by ‘the warbler sings and the swallow dances16[it meant the joy of spring]‘ that made his heart skip a beat.

It wasn’t the first time he had come to this area, but the thought of Yu Shi Xiong who was always serious, coming to ‘a place of debauchery’ suddenly made him excited. What kind of beautiful woman could make that wooden head move his worldly desires?

Seeing the lady of flower17[female entertainer/ prostitute] greeting at the door where the customers were also coming continuously. Mo Fei Chen knew that with his height, his clothing, in addition to that few coins, he would be driven away before he even got close to the door.

But the dragon has its own door and the mouse has its own way too. 

He went to the backyard and looked around. Oh, there it is!

With a flip of his body, he went under the wine cart and entered the back door in a openly and dignified manner.

Inside, the smell of wine and cosmetic powder mingled together and Mo Fei Chen’s nose tickled as he crawled out from under the cart. He was small. He traveled back and forth his way through the courtyard. There were many rooms here so it was not easy to find Yu Jin. 

Here comes the chance! 

Mo Fei Chen dragged the pimp who was smiling to the point his face folded. The other party was about to ask what this guest needed, but when he saw Mo Fei Chen’s young face that had not yet grown up, “Little bastard …what are you…(doing here)? “

The pimp was dragged into the shade behind the pillar which was protected by a rockery. The rockery was on the other side of the wall as a cover. Mo Fei Chen smiled with his eyebrows raised, “How did I get in? Of course, I came in on the ‘wine cart’.

“You this kid…” The pimp was about to get angry, suddenly a shiny dagger was placed on his fat face, “Aiyou, if you have something to say, say it nicely…”

“Uncle, am I not talking to you nicely?” Mo Fei Chen slapped his face with the back of his sword, “I ask you, a man in a blue upper garment with a long sword on his back. He’s quite good looking but his eyebrows are always wrinkled like this…in which room is he now?”

“You are talking about young master Yu Jin right? He’s in the east where Miss Chang Yu is!”

Mo Fei Chen grinned, so this guy knew Yu Jin’s name. He made me 18[the original one used Lao Zi] talk in such a long paragraph. Mo Fei Chen raised his hand to knock the pimp unconscious, dragged him behind the rockery and went to the room in the east. 

The area around this side room was not as crowded as the hall and it was quieter, except for a few moans of ‘spring is in the air’ that came from time to time. When Mo Fei Chen arrived at the room, he looked up and saw a wooden sign in front of the room with the word ‘Chang Yu’ written on it. What a pity, not only did he not learn the kung fu well, he couldn’t recognize some words either! Whatever!

He went up to the main house’s roof to uncover the tiles and see if it was really his wooden fish19[木鱼 mokugyo (a percussion instrument made of a hollow wooden block, originally used by Buddhist priests to beat time when chanting scriptures)] Shi Xiong or not! 

As a matter of fact, it was still okay if he didn’t take off the roof tile but once it was uncovered, Mo Fei Chen who was behaving stealthily like a thief, even forgot to breathe.

On that cotton padded mattress with silk gauze bed canopy, that moron20[basically 木头 meant woodenhead/ blockhead/ slow-witted person, but in this context since knowing Yu Jin’s characters is not like that, it’s just probably how Mo Fei Chen called him since they were closed and grew up together] Yu Jin was half naked, stabbing between the woman’s white legs, his head tilted up as if he was immeasurably enjoying himself.  When he was in high school, Mo Fei Chen had watched and study a lot of unedited pornographic films with his brothers [not real brothers but close friends] but this was the first time he had ever seen the real one. His hand slipped and one piece of tile fell down and hit Yu Shi Xiong’s face.

Mo Fei Chen’s mind told him to run away immediately, but suddenly his Shi Xiong closed eyes opened, making him unable to move a single step and stay still in the place.

“Mo—— Fei—— Chen——”

“Ai…Yu Shi Xiong ——Shi Fu wants you to go back for dinner!” After saying this, he fled while covering his head with his hands

The door of the room was slammed open. Just now he didn’t know if Yu Jin was already satisfied or not, only at this moment his eyes were flooded with blood, while darting at the same time he straightened his lapel, “Don’t get caught by me or I’ll peel your skin!”

Sure enough, Mo Fei Chen had just reached the court where a group of people were singing merrily and dancing happily, when a figure crashed onto the table, sending dishes and delicacies crashing to the floor.

Mo Fei Chen tried to get up but his hand was pressing on a chicken leg and before he could get up, he slipped down again. 

“Ouch… ouch…”

“Is the pornographic21[ original one used 春宫 ( 春宮 ) chūn gōng : Crown Prince’s chambers / by extension, the Crown Prince / erotic picture] drama good——?