Here is the second part of Chapter 2 of The Silver Sword Grudge by Huang Ying. Sorry about the poetry parts. I didn’t really know what it was saying at times and to be honest didn’t want to take the time figuring it out in detail. Trying to get this translation done soon. So that part could be better, sorry!
Liu Zhanqin opened his mouth in sudden realization.
“There’s a saying that skill is born from experience, and this experience is real-world experience, not theory or experience from working in isolation.”
Liu Zhanqin just nodded.
“Experience can’t be passed on to others, one of life’s sad realities, and no one can gain experience through others’ hard work. He must do the work himself.”
“I know.”
“It’s not too late. After all, you’re still young.”
“But now it is too late.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Pretty soon I have to go kill someone, a very skilled someone!”
“Oh?”
“For you I don’t know whether you will be grateful or resentful. If it wasn’t for your self-assurance making things bode ill for me then at least I would have a bit of will to fight left, but now I don’t even have that.”
“Oh…”
“No need to apologize. In any case you made me recognize something, that a person must understand oneself thoroughly. And to understand oneself thoroughly one must personally face up to the test.”
A person who did not understand himself thoroughly will always think he is incredible.
Liu Zhanqin realized that now, but as far as he was concerned it was too late. He looked to the sky and couldn’t help but heave a long sigh. “…This matter…”
“Well, what is it?” all people are curious, Sun Yu was no exception.
Liu Zhanqin stood up straight with some difficulty and put his hands behind his back and slowly began strolling step by step.
Sun Yu unconsciously imitated him.
Blossom shade, the base of the willows.
Blossoms dotted with dew, willows scattered among mist. The mist carried up Liu Zhanqin’s low voice. “Five years, we’ve known each other till now. I don’t know what Brother Sun sees me as, but in my mind I have always considered Brother Sun a friend.”
“…” Sun Yu was silent.
“Therefore there’s nothing I don’t care to let Brother Sun know… Brother Sun!”
“I’m listening.”
“Brother Sun, what do you think of me?”
“Shrewd, decisive.”
“And cruel and ruthless, right?”
Liu Zhanqin sighed faintly. “I don’t deny that I’m cruel and cold, but I absolutely don’t admit to be unfeeling. I know how to hate, and at the same time, I also know how to love. I’m always searching!”
“Did you find it?”
“I did.”
“Congratulations!”
“Thank you!” Liu Zhanqin sighed faintly once more.
“You ought to be happy, what’s with all the sighing?”
“I regret not meeting her before she married!”
Sun Yu was silent. A long while later he said, “You’re in love with a married woman?”
Liu Zhanqin nodded, the muscles on his face twitching in pain.
“That’s unexpected.”
“For me as well. “ Liu Zhanqin smiled bitterly and stopped walking and looked to the sky.
A gust of wind blew and pear blossoms shook and dropped, willow catkins danced and fluttered.
Liu Zhanqin didn’t move, letting the pear blossoms drape over him, letting the catkins land on him, the painful look in his eyes suddenly becoming melancholy as if in a dream. “The hedgeroses have blossomed, the pear blossoms have all fallen. First time I saw her was at the end of spring just like this. Now, adding it up it’s been three years.”
“People don’t have too many three years to live.”
“So I can’t wait any longer
“I know what it’s like to wait.”
“Brother Sun, do you believe in love at first sight?”
“I do, but I’ve always believed you should seem them at least more than once.”
“That makes sense. Her and I really were love at first sight, but in the past three years she and I have only seen each other the one time.”
“How can that be?”
“I’m her older cousin.”
“Really?”
“No!” Liu Zhanqin smiled bitterly.
Sun Yu inwardly did the same.
“I’ve no choice, if I don’t use this slight cousin relationship then I have no pretext for seeing her again.” Liu Zhanqin’s expression was pained. “This is really not a good feeling.”
“Does he know?”
“Him? You mean him? He doesn’t know, doesn’t know at all.”
“In that case, isn’t he even more pitiful than you two? The day he finds out won’t he be even more pained than you two?”
“Pained, the three of us…”
“And why, one person in pain is a lot better than three people in pain. It would be better for the two of you to simply tell him. If he’s an understanding person I’m sure he won’t make things difficult…”
“And if he’s not?”
Sun Yu didn’t answer.
“The majority of men are generous, I know that, but even the most generous of men is not so generous as to offer up his wife to another person!”
“Perhaps…”
“Perhaps nothing, you’re not unaware that I never do something unless I am absolutely sure of it.”
Sun Yu didn’t say anything.
“There’s more than one way to relive a person’s suffering, and even if there is only one way, as far as I’m concerned, there’s only this way—“ Liu Zhanqin’s eyes flashed an awn of cold light, and he callously said between his teeth, “Murder!”
Murder! That was indeed the tenet Liu Zhanqin had pursued all his life!
Sun Yu had nothing to say to that.
“Because of her, because of him, for three years I’ve been bearing it every day, preparing every day for three years till now, and I really can’t bear it any longer, and I believe I am prepared enough…” Liu Zhanqin suddenly stopped talking and hung his head, dejected.
“Sorry!”
“I said before there’s no need to apologize, but no matter what,” Liu Zhanqin turned his head sharply, looking at Sun Yu with urgency, “this time you have to help me!”
Sun Yu remained silent and inclined his head, avoiding Liu Zhanqin’s gaze and walked around him. A few more steps and he was at the edge of the Willow Catkin Pond.
On the pond three or four spots of green algae, under the leaves two cries of an oriole.
Sun Yu took a deep breath, eyes fixed on the green algae. His lips moved, wanting to say something, but he stopped. Finally, he said, “This time, it’s the same as before. The money, you already gave me.”
“I truly believe you absolutely will not let me down!”
“So, the deed is done, there was no need for me to come here, until you send a carrier pigeon for me again.”
“That’s right, yet you did come. I wonder why?”
“To tell the truth, I came to tell you goodbye.”
Liu Zhanqin was taken aback, eyes wide, as if he didn’t really believe was he was hearing, but in the end he did believe it and didn’t ask about it. He just asked, “Didn’t you say you wanted to earn 5,000 taels of gold?”
“Now I have already made that amount.”
“So fast?”
Liu Zhanqin looked puzzled. “I counted it up for you before, it seemed you lacked 3,500 taels…”
“I did lack it, but this time I made 2,000 more.”
“2,000 taels.”
“And so I killed Pan Yu and Shu Mei!”
“For Xiang Zulou?”
“If not for Xiang Zulou than who?”
“And Xiang Zulou?”
“I’m alive aren’t I?”
“Then he is for sure dead. What you agree to do you of course will do.”
“The counts for what I say as well.”
Liu Zhanqin bowed his head but said nothing.
“Brother Liu, do you remember when we first met?”
“How could I forget, it was during Mid-Autumn five years ago.”
“You were playing your flute on the riverbank under a tree under the moon.”
“I played Touching Red Lips, Muddled River Dragon, and Sixes.”
“I was broke, masked, I steeled my heart and went to you.”
“In one fight we had an appreciation for each other and I had another friend, and you became a professional killer.”
“I really don’t know if I ought to thank you or hate you.”
“Five years is five years. Water flows east without return, just like the passing of time.”
“Five years of that kind of life, I’m really sick of it, I can’t take it anymore.”
“You mean you are leaving for sure?”
“I’m leaving for sure.”
“Everyone has their own aspirations. If you’re set on leaving then there’s nothing I can do. It’s just, this one last thing, my thing…” Liu Zhanqin paused and looked at Sun Yu in earnest. He wanted to emphasize the words “my thing”.
Sun Yu was silent.
After a long while he slowly turned his head and said deliberately, “Give it to me then.”
Liu Zhanqin’s eyebrows raised and he clasped his hands before him and bowed. “Many thanks for your help!”
Sun Yu watched him from the corner of his eye and sighed faintly. “She must really be important to you.”
“Ever since I was born I’ve only ever loved her.”
“Is she suitable for you?”
“The most suitable.”
“And how about him?”
“A broker, materialistic and fickle, running around away from home all year long, leaving her alone in her quarters.”
“If she’s suitable for you, she must be able to sing. Marrying a businessman really is wronging her.”
“But then isn’t she living a life of suffering?”
“Is that what she told you?”
“No, but I imagine that’s how it is.”
Sun Yu’s eyes seemed to be smiling.
Another gust of wind blew and the calm pond turned to ripples.
“Blowing wrinkles, a pond of spring water…” Sun Yu laughed.
“Is Brother Sun laughing at me thinking I’m pining over unrequited love?”
“Are you?”
“No.” Liu Zhanqin heaved a long sigh. “When two hearts are beating as one, there are many things that cannot be spoken.”
“oh…”
“Even if she doesn’t say it, I can hear it, I can see the loneliness in her heart, the sorrow…”
Of course Liu Zhanqin could hear it and see it. He hadn’t forgotten that night, that night…
Willows supple, blossoms faint, clouds light, moon curved.
Beside the little pond there were moons, there were winds, and there were fragrances.
Flower shadows floated on the water and were cast against the window curtain.
Inside the curtained window, the sound of a zither, the singing voice carrying outside the curtain.
Liu Zhanqin was draped with flower shadows, standing woodenly at the edge of the little pond with his hands behind his back, outside the curtain.
The zither sounded said and pained, the singing full of pent up bitterness…
A chance meeting, like luanbird and phoenix,
Past events like a spring dream
Asking a flying swan goose too deliver a letter,
Hating the lack of painting, unable to describe the heart’s pain,
Up through the clouds in the sky, fearing the red-cheeked beauty’s fate is exhausted,
Windward forcefully plucking the strings…
“Windward forcefully plucking the strings…” Liu Zhanqin smiled sadly. “She was not unfeeling, just unlucky to marry an unfeeling husband…”
“And so you pitied her?”
“Not just pitied!”
“If not, then why wait till now, today?”
“I, I was forced to.”
“He won’t agree to it?”
“I never asked him, I’ve never even seen him…”
“Then how do you know he’s no match for you?”
“I, I…”
“You don’t dare face reality!”
Liu Zhanqin hung his head in pain, then suddenly asked, “Brother Sun, have you ever heard of ‘One Stroke Slays the Dragon’ Zu Jinghong?”
“Assassin Zu?”
“What do you think of his martial arts?”
“His left-handed sword has never met its match.”
“He’s also an expert at the left-handed sword, jianghu legend has it that at age eighteen when he first came out he went looking for Zu Jinghong for a duel and was able to withstand Zu Jinghong’s 36 Thunderclap attacks!”
Sun Yu was masked, the change in his expression indiscernible, but his eyes clearly showed a look of surprise.
“Brother Sun, have you heard of Gold Thread Swallow, Liu Mei’er, Lady Snowclad, Skyful of Stars, and Sword Embracing Young Master?”
“They’re all contemporary masterhands.”
“All defeated one after another by his sword.”
“Just who is this person?”
The surprise in Sun Yu’s eyes was more intense.
“Shen Shengyi!”
Sun Yu immediately felt like he’d been struck by lightning, his whole body shook, and he blurted out, “Shen Shengyi!”
Liu Zhanqin was also taken by surprise and jumped at that and asked, “Brother Sun, you know this person?”
Sun Yu stood there struck dumb, as if he hadn’t heard Liu Zhanqin’s question. He didn’t answer, didn’t say anything.
Liu Zhanqin felt this even more strange, and couldn’t help but ask again, “Brother Sun, you mean to tell me you know him?”
Sun Yu still stood woodenly and didn’t answer.
Liu Zhanqin was anxious and abruptly raised his voice. “Well?”
Sun Yu suddenly snapped out of it as if awakening from a dream. He was shaking from head to toe, eyes flashing, looking at Liu Zhanqin intensely, like an arrow, like a sabre, like a sword, ghastly cold, sharp, glittering.
Liu Zhanqin was startled and unconsciously took two steps back.
Sun Yu’s gaze was relentless, his clothes seeming to ripple despite no wind. He didn’t move, sword in its scabbard, a murderous aura rising.
A murderous aura pressed in close.
Liu Zhanqin felt it too and instinctively put his hand back and grabbed the jade flute at the small of his back.
In an instant, no more than an instant, the murderous aura suddenly vanished and Sun Yu laughed coldly. “You said Shen Shengyi!”
“Precisely Shen Shengyi!” Liu Zhanqin breathed out and released his grip on his jade flute. “Brother Sun, do you know him?”
“I know him.”
“Do you have a grudge against him?”
“No grudge.”
“A grievance?”
“no grievance.”
“Is that true?”
Sun Yu sneered.
“By the looks of it it’s not true, but if Brother Sun says so, then that’s all there is to it.” Liu Zhanqin laughed and changed the topic. “How confident are you going up against this Shen Shengyi?”
Sun Yu just sneered.
“Do we need to gang up?”
“No need!”
“So then, Brother Sun has a plan!”
Sun Yu didn’t answer.
“Do I need to describe him a bit?”
“How much do you know about him?”
“I’m ashamed to say I only know twenty-four or twenty-five years old, seven spans tall, long hair to his shoulders and liked to wear white, and because he uses a left-handed sword he’s different from others and wears it at a slant on his right side…”
“I said I knew him!”
Sun Yu suddenly cut off Liu Zhanqin.
Liu Zhanqin gave a wry smile. “Anyway that’s all I’m able to tell you.”
“Then you’d best shut up.”
Liu Zhanqin could only shut up.
Sun Yu also said nothing for a long while. Then suddenly asked, “What else?”
“Nothing, it’s just a question of when Brother Sun is going to set out?”
“I’ll go now.”
“When will you be back?”
“I won’t be back.”
“Money?”
“I have enough already!”
“How can I let it stand at that?”
“Right now you need to say such things.”
“Brother Sun, you also never do anything unless you’re confident of success, I have faith in Brother Sun.”
“Thanks.”
“When this is all over, Brother Sun, you have to have to come share a wedding toast with me!”
“Might be a bit early to say that.”
“No way!”
Sun Yu looked at Liu Zhanqin coldly, flung back his head, and suddenly said, “Take care!”
“Wait a minute! These five years Brother Sun has always been masked when meeting me. Today we are parting, we might not see each other again, please…”
“There’s something I’ve always wanted to tell you…”
“By all means…”
“You and I just have an employer relationship. I’ve never regarded you as a friend.”
Liu Zhanqin’s expression was different for a moment, as if he’d been slapped in the face.
“After today, we’re strangers. I will certainly forget about you. It’s best if you forget about me too.”
“I understand what Brother Sun’s meaning,” Liu Zhanqin said sadly. “But I hope Brother Sun will return to the way he was before, and me, once this is all over, I will also wash my hands and reform myself.”
“Brother Liu really loves her deeply.”
“And it’s the same with her.”
Liu Zhanqin’s eyes were smiling, heart was smiling.
“If that’s true than I hope you two can be happy together!”
“Thank you!”
Sun Yu stamped his feet and said again. “Take care!”
“Wait!” Liu Zhanqin called again suddenly.
“Brother Liu, when did you become so sentimental?”
Liu Zhanqin sighed faintly. “Since we’ll be strangers after this, Brother Sun, why don’t you stay a bit and listen to me play what I played on that day?”
Sun Yu said nothing and didn’t move.
Liu Zhanqin took his jade flute and tuned to the key of Touching Red Lips and started playing.
Sun Yu listened quietly. Suddenly he let loose a long cry and sang along to the tune:
Lovable autumn, the rains cleanse the sky,
The west wind blows, sunset clouds return to the cave,
Cool dew soaks through clothes…
The flute, the singing, both soared up to the heavens, sword qi and a murderous aura cut down a thousand pear blossoms, ten thousand willow catkins!
Autumn light of the cosmos, Night sky curtaining the toad in the moon,
Who made the silver screen swallow evening mist,
Set free the jade hare to walk the clear sky,
So many people here amidst piping and plucking, reciting poetry and drinking wine in the countryside!
The flute became more urgent, the singing became louder as they danced among the pear blossoms and willow catkins.
Sword qi like a length of chain, like a violent rainbow! Murderous aura even more intense! Clearly it was the beginning of spring, but seemed like autumn twilight.
Brilliant silver dish embraced, the ice wheel moves,
Ground glass in a vast space, no tracks or traces,
Tonight is the best, how can coming nights compare,
Reluctant to leave Chang’e’s company,
Ruler of Heaven, don’t let the clear bright light go behind the parasol tree…
The flute urgently fell, sword light flew wildly, the pear blossoms and willow catkins covering the ground were whooshed up by the sword’s gust of wind and were smashed to bits!
Sun Yu’s heart’s thousand grudges, ten thousand grievances, seemed to be consumed in singing, in the blurred sword!
Should be pleased at the sight, thinking life is like floating aimlessly,
This evening don’t forsake, a secret tryst is not easy to encounter,
Gladly sing from one’s breast, and drink wildly,
The long river flows without end…
Hear the river tower, play three stanzas on the flute,
An endless carefree song,
Splits rock, the soaring sound loud and clear,
Like the heart of ripples in the night roars a cerulean dragon…
Oh, now I want to follow, Chang’e returns,
Look forward to the blue luanbird flying to the Palace of the Moon
Before the flute notes were finished the singing cut off and the silhouette of a figure stopped, the sword light dispersed and the sword was in the scabbard with a tching and Sun Yu suddenly threw his head back and laughed wildly. “It’s only the beginning of spring, who can wait for autumn twilight. There’s no long river here, no parasol tree, and where is there a night moon, where the west wind blowing, where the cool dew soaking clothes, where is Chang’e accompanying…”
As he laughed wildly, Sun Yu was covered with pear blossoms and willow catkins, everywhere he stepped were catkins and blossoms, and without looking back he strode away!
The morning mist was light but not yet dissipated.
His wild singing and laughing was no where to be found.
The leftover strands of dreary flute notes drifted over to the edge of the little pond, by the pear blossoms, under the willow tree.
Sun Yu finally disappeared into the mist.
Liu Zhanqin slowly put away his jade flute, his eyes fixed on where Sun Yu disappeared.
The morning mist was blurry, his eyes too were blurry.
The morning mist blurred his vision and his heart.
“2,000 taels, 2,000 taels of gold!” The corners of his mouth arched up in a queer smile. “You know how to find your own business and make a lot of money, of course you leave me.”
“If you weren’t really going to give this up after this, then how could you take this risk for me?”
“All my life what I’ve hated most is being cheated. Sun Yu, ah, Sun Yu, if you are cheating me you will certainly regret it.”
“I will certainly make you regret it!”
Liu Zhanqin talked to himself and suddenly turned his back and ran toward the little building on the bank of the pond.
A person’s appearance did not necessarily match his heart.
What a person says and what a person thinks is also not necessarily the same.
The mist gradually dispersed, the wind still gusting and gusting as before.
The wind suddenly carried with it two dog barks!
Two golden-haired hounds came sniffing and scurrying out from deep within the flower shrubs and the shade of the willows.
The dogs wore leather collars. The collars were under Liu Zhanqin’s control.
Two more barks and the hounds ran out.
Liu Zhanqin laughed.
Wasn’t that the direction Sun Yu had gone?
The sky after it rained was cool. Fine sunny day with orioles warbling, blooming branches wet with rain were especially beautiful.
Apricot blossoms, spring orioles chirping on the blooming branches. Passing through the apricot grove, Jiangning prefecture was not far.
In the flowering grove there was a trail strewn with fallen petals as a person walked over them.
Fallen petals were like a melancholy dream, their color not yet faded, still fragrant, but this person stepped on the fallen petals were like they were mud, their fragrance all gone.
Such an unfeeling person.
This person was twenty-four or twenty-five years old, seven spans tall, wearing white, long hair down to the shoulders, and a sword worn at a slant on the right.
Shen Shengyi!
Clothes white, his face even whiter, whiter than snow even, his expression even colder than snow.
His appearance was ordinary, but anyone who looked upon him would not feel he was ordinary at all.
His eyes glittered, sharp, like a sword.
On his brow three parts loneliness, seven parts severity!
He stepped into the apricot blossom grove and everywhere around him there seemed to be an increased severe atmosphere.
The apricot blossoms didn’t speak, and even the orioles stopped their singing, such a formidable murderous aura!
The sword was still in its scabbard, so the murderous aura wasn’t coming from the sword, it was just being emitted from his body. His body was itself an unsheathed sword, a sharp sword.
His right hand was back gripping the bundle on his shoulder while his left hand hung down, not even touching the handle of his sword.
He trusted his sword, but he trusted his own hand even more!
It was still damp out and as he walked he left clear footprints behind.
Every footprint was the same depth and width apart.
His pace was perfectly measured and even.
Ahead on the trail was another set of footprints.
These footprints came from the left and crossed to the right over the trail, the distance between them irregular, their depth uneven.
Among them two footprints were especially deep, as if the person they belonged to had stopped and looked around there for a length of time.
Shen Shengyi saw the set of footprints.
His face was still cold and detached, not the least trace of an expression, but his steps stopped.
Suddenly, the left corner of his lips and the corner of his eye twitched into a thread of a cold smile. His gaze like a sword flew toward a copse of flowering trees beside the trail.
There was a rustling in the trees and they shook and a masked man in black emerged like a ghost.
“You knew I was here?”
The man in black’s eyes were also as relentless as a sword as they coldly eyed Shen Shengyi.
Four lines of sight crossed in the air.
Shen Shengyi sneered, murderous intent appeared in his eyes.
The man in black didn’t perceive it and wiped his thumb and middle finger together. “I’ve been following you all day and all night, it was not easy to find such a good opportunity, such a good place.
Shen Shengyi only smiled coldly.
“Of course you know why I’m here!” The man in black gripped the hilt of his sword.
Shen Shengyi still made no sound, the murderous intent in his eyes even more intense.
“Of course you know what you ought to do!”
The man in black finally drew his sword with a schwing.
The lingering sound of the sword pulled from the scabbard was abruptly broken up by a thunderclap!
Shen Shengyi’s shout was like a thunderclap, and at the same time he left the ground and flew up, his sword at some point having appeared in his hand.
Sound of a thunderclap, man like a thunderclap, sword like a thunderclap!
Have you even seen the power and the speed of a thunderclap?
The man in black cried out and his sword hurried to meet it.
Another thunderclap and a sword shot up into the air and vanished into the deep recesses of the apricot blossoms. The man in black’s sword.
Shen Shengyi smiled coldly and he dropped down into the copse of trees, sword already back in its scabbard.
The man in black however staggered out of the copse of flowering trees and pulled down his mask and spewed out a mouthful of blood.
His body wasn’t wounded, it was just that Shen Shengyi’s thunderclap sword stroke had shattered his pulse. Shen Shengyi, ah! Shen Shengyi!
One sword stroke, just one. One stroke was more than enough, so he put away his sword!
He was absolutely not willing to waste a single bit of energy, he couldn’t even be bothered to look at him.
He started up and kept on walking down his unfinished path.
Such an unfeeling person.
The man in black’s second mouthful of blood spewed out, and he finally fell. Revealing a stern, cold, thin and lean face.
Could it be Sun Yu?
The blood was not dried, he had not been dead for very long, Liu Zhanqin could see that.
He grabbed the man in black’s right hand. The crook of the thumb was split, cut nearly through the muscle and bone.
“What an incredible blow!” Liu Zhanqin’s heart ran cold. He set the hand down and turned to look at the man in black’s face.
The man in black suddenly opened his eye. Turns out he wasn’t quite dead.
His eyes were cloudy, his voice feeble, but Liu Zhanqin was finally able to hear him clearly.
The first thing the man in black said was something very strange. “He… He’s got a lot of money!”
Liu Zhanqin was taken aback. “Just who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore who you are!” Liu Zhanqin sneered and suddenly raised a foot and kicked the man in black into the air!
Wasn’t he even more unfeeling than Shen Shengyi?
A man and two dogs once again gave chase.
Who was Liu Zhanqin chasing this time? Shen Shengyi?
(to be continued in Part 6)