Chapter - 196 Coming And Going of a Messenger Brings a Laugh (3)

"Have you met her?" the peasant girl asked.

"She is the Emei Pai Zhangmen [Sect Leader], how can she be an ordinary person?" Zhang Wuji replied, "I can't walk yet, you'd better run away quickly."

"Humph," the peasant girl was angry, "How can I abandon you and escape alone? You think my conscience is that bad?" Creasing her eyebrows, she thought hard for a moment. She took several pieces of stiff firewood from the pile and twisted the flexible ones as the ropes to build a snow sled. Carrying Zhang Wuji in her arms, she helped him sit on the sled with his legs stretched out straight; and then she pulled the sled toward the northwest direction.

Zhang Wuji only saw her slender figure sway, just like a lotus leaf blown by the early morning breeze; her back looked graceful, her posture beautiful. She towed the sled just like a breeze of wind flitting across the snowy ground.

She sped along without pausing for about thirty, forty 'li'. Zhang Wuji felt bad for her. "Hey, let's get some rest first!" he called out.

The peasant girl laughed. "Who do you called 'hey'?" she said, "Don't I have a name?"

"You don't want to tell me; what can I do?" Zhang Wuji replied, "You wanted me to call you Miss Chou, but I think you are attractive."

The peasant girl scoffed; she let out a mouthful of breath then halted her steps. Pushing a stray hair, she said, "Very well, there is no harm in telling you. I am called Zhu'er."

"Pei!" the peasant girl spat, "Not 'Zhu' of pearl [zhen zhu], but 'Zhu' of spider [zhi zhu]."

Zhang Wuji was stunned. "Who would have used this 'spider' character as a name?" he mused.

"That's my name," Zhu'er said, "If you are scared, don't call me."

"Did your Papa give you that name?" Zhang Wuji asked.

"Humph," Zhu'er said, "If my Papa gave me that name, do you think I would want it? It was my Ma. She trained me the 'qian zhu wan du shou' [hand of a thousand spiders ten-thousand posion], so she said for me to use that name."

Hearing the five characters 'qian zhu wan du shou', Zhang Wuji shuddered inwardly.

"I have started training since I was a kid, yet I still have far to go," Zhu'er said, "When I have mastered this skill, I will not have to fear this old thief nun Miejue. Do you want to see it?" While saying that, she took a glistening yellow gold case from her bosom. She opened the lid and showed two spiders, about the size of a thumb, squirming inside.

The spiders' back were spotted with bright, multi-colored dots, dazzling the eye. Zhang Wuji immediately remembered that Wang Nan'gu's Poison Manual did mention that the spotted spiders were the most poisonous insects; once a human was bitten, he would be beyond help. Zhang Wuji could not help but feel very scared.

Looking at his serious expression, Zhu'er laughed and said, "You know the benefit of my precious spiders. Just wait a moment." As she said that, she leaped onto a large tree and looked around. Then she leaped back down to the ground and said, "Let us go a little bit farther; we can leisurely talk about spiders later."

Pulling the sled along, she ran about seven, eight 'li' until they arrived at the edge of a canyon. She helped Zhang Wuji out of the sled and she put several large rocks in his place. Pulling the sled, she ran toward the canyon. When she got to the edge of the canyon, she abruptly halted her steps, while the sled continued its journey into the canyon below. The sled, along with the rocks on it, crashed into the canyon with a loud, resounding sound, which continued for a long time.

Zhang Wuji turned his head back and saw the firewood sled had left a pair of tracks, snaking on the snowy ground, as far as his eyes could see. Following the tracks with his eyes, he saw the tracks disappeared at the edge of the canyon. He thought, "This girl's thinking is so thorough. If Miejue Shitai followed us here, she would think that we fell into the snowy canyon below, and died with none of our bones survived."

Zhu'er stooped down and said, "Get on my back!"

"Are you going to carry me? You will be too tired," Zhang Wuji said.

Zhu'er rolled her eyes and said, "Do you think I won't know it if I am tired or not?"

Zhang Wuji did not dare to talk too much, he quietly got on her back and very lightly hugged her neck.

Zhu'er laughed and said, "Are you afraid you will choke me to death? Your hands and feet are very light; you are only tickling me to death."

Seeing she was so innocent and without any apprehension toward him, Zhang Wuji was delighted; he hugged her neck tighter. Zhu'er leaped up suddenly and brought him flying to a tree. The row of trees extended toward the west, so Zhu'er leaped from one tree to another, also heading west. Her stature was small and delicate; Zhang Wuji was big and tall, but her feet were nimble and did not show the least bit of being over-burdened.

After leaping about seventy, eighty trees, she jumped to a mountain wall and then leaped down to the ground. She gently lowered him to the ground, and said with a laugh, "We are going to build a cowshed in here. This is the perfect place."

"Cowshed?" Zhang Wuji wondered, "Why would we build a cowshed?"

"That's not necessary," Zhang Wuji said, "In four, five days, my broken legs will be healed completely. Actually, if I am forced to walk, I think I can manage without problem."

"Humph!" Zhu'er said, "Forced to walk? Right now you are already an ugly freak, if your cow legs are lame, will you look good?" While saying that, she took a strip of branch and swept the snow accumulated beside the mountain rock.

Hearing her say, 'Will you look good if your cow legs are lame?' Zhang Wuji suddenly realized that she had a deep concern toward him; he could not help his heart from being touched. He heard her humming a tune while pulling and breaking branches and twigs to build a canopy in between two boulders, so that the thatched roof and the boulders formed a hut, an attractive little cabin which they could use to take shelter.

As soon as the hut was finished, Zhu'er scooped piles and piles of snow and spread the snow on the roof. Working hard for half a day, she got the hut completely hidden in snow that it was not visible from the outside. Only then did she stop, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her face.

"Wait here," she said, "I am going to find something to eat."

"I am not that hungry," Zhang Wuji said, "You are too tired. Why don't you take a short rest before going again?"

Zhu'er said, "If you want to treat me well, you must treat me really well. If you only sweet-talk me, what good would that bring?" Without waiting for an answer, she entered the woods in quick steps.

Staying on the mountain rock, Zhang Wuji recalled Zhu'er's tender voice and her graceful manners, which was the style of a refined woman. Her face might be ugly, but he remembered how just before her death, his mother had admonished him, 'The more beautiful that woman is, the better of a manipulator she will be. You must take more caution.' Zhu'er was not pretty, yet her treatment to him was fabulous; he had a mind of spending the rest of his life with her. However, her heart had already belonged to another man; she had no regard of him in her heart.