Wolong Sheng and Jade Hairpin Oath

by Hu Zhengqun

On March 23, 1997 at around 9:00 pm I returned home in the dreary, heavy spring rain. Outside the door I heard the telephone ringing and quickly opened the door and picked it up.

“Uncle Hu… Dad left us at 8 o’clock… I don’t know what to do…”

It was Wolong Sheng’s child calling. The call I’d been dreading for years really arrived.

I told this sad news to Wolong Sheng’s good friend and wuxia author Yu Donglou and “Ox Bro” Li Feimeng. (Mr. Li Feimeng also passed away in 1997, Yu Donglou in 2003).

Ox Bro, Wolong Sheng, and I were friends for almost forty years, as close as brothers. When we talked on the phone I was so sad I could barely get the words out, but Li Feimeng understood, and choking back sobs, urged me not to be too sad.

I hung up the phone and sat despondently under the lamplight. It was pitch-black outside my window and utterly silent.

Lost in thought, I asked myself, “Is Wolong (we used to call him that) really gone?”

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