Chapter 62: Midnight Discourse on Jianghu

This rock cave was like a dungeon. The moment the cover was placed on top, the light below instantly went pitch black.

Just moments ago, I had a strong feeling that if I dared to make the slightest move, that white owl would immediately peck out my eyes.

After the gang led by the Youthful Thief left, only Sister Red and I were left behind, locked up down here.

It took about two hours for Sister Red to recover her normal state of mind. She told me that she still had memories of what had happened earlier; she had wanted to resist, but her body simply refused to obey her commands.

Sister Red and I sat on the ground, leaning back-to-back, and she told me some things about that owl-woman.

She said she had previously been forcibly coerced into swallowing a small packet of something, and that packet contained the so-called "Finger Gold."

My arm ached, and I was freezing and starving, but I endured it and asked, "That owl is white, and what on earth is wrapped inside that Finger Gold? How can it just control a person so easily? Is it even stronger than that old Sea Dog's soul-stealing incense?"

In the darkness, Sister Red said weakly, "Yunfeng, have you ever heard of a man called Partridge Whistle?"

"Partridge Whistle? You mean that grave robber who could imitate the calls of every bird in the world?"

"That's right, that's the man."

"People of this profession belonged to the old skin-acting trade of illusionists. Their identity wasn't just that of grave robbers; the men were called Partridge Whistles, and the women were called Partridge Hens. There were always very few people in this trade, and female Partridge Hens were even rarer, countable on one's fingers. Yunfeng, the person we saw earlier was a true Partridge Hen. I never expected that there would still be such a young Partridge Hen around nowadays."

The skin-acting trade referred to old-time tricksters and magicians. According to Sister Red, many people in the old skin-acting trade possessed genuine, profound skills.

The familiar tricks people encounter nowadays—like the three immortals returning to the cave, swallowing swords and iron balls, or pressing a spear tip against the throat—were considered merely elementary skills in the old skin-acting trade.

Partridge Whistle and the Partridge Hen specialized respectively in imitating birds and driving birds. There were many unwritten, secret techniques within this craft that ordinary people simply could not comprehend.

In the old society of the last century, the skin-acting trade fell apart. Some chose to continue wandering the streets to perform arts, while others, influenced by foreign art troupes, ultimately chose to join circuses to perform abroad. The most famous among them were a man and a woman named Hong Niangzi and Zhu Liankui.

During his time in the skin-acting trade, Zhu Liankui had even entered the imperial palace to perform for Empress Dowager Cixi. Cixi was so delighted that she specially instructed Sun Dianying to reward Zhu Liankui with a small gold bar.

Zhu Liankui possessed four major supreme skills: vomiting a hundred feet of ribbons, fishing from an empty pole, restoring torn paper, and the flying bowl of water. This last skill, the flying bowl of water, was Zhu Liankui's ultimate masterpiece; back then, no one else in the entire underworld skin-acting circle could perform it.

In 1898, Zhu Liankui followed a circus to make his debut performance in the United States, and his Eastern magic trick of the flying bowl of water shocked the entire foreign magic community the moment it appeared. From then on, whenever Zhu Liankui performed, houses were always packed, and all the foreigners watched in mesmerized trance.

At that time, several major foreign theaters fought tooth and nail to secure Zhu Liankui, each wanting to possess this mysterious magician from the East.

The major theaters offered Zhu Liankui astronomical weekly salaries, and in the end, he chose the Boston Grand Theater. The weekly salary the Boston Theater gave Zhu Liankui back then was 1,013 US dollars. You must remember, this was a weekly salary from a hundred and thirty years ago... Given the prices back then, five silver dollars were enough to take a concubine!

In the circuses of the same period, there was another master illusionist named William Ellsworth Robinson, known by his stage name Chung Ling Soo. This man claimed to have completely cracked the secret of the flying bowl of water, and he openly issued a challenge to Zhu Liankui.

That winter, this earth-shattering magic duel from the mysterious East made the front pages of foreign tabloids.

Amidst the snowfall that same year, foreigners eager to watch the duel packed the theater to capacity.

The time arrived as promised. Zhu Liankui and Chung Ling Soo met, exchanged bows, and saluted each other, addressing one another as Brother Zhu and Brother Cheng.

At the very beginning of the duel, to ignite the atmosphere, both sides first displayed their signature skills, known as the grand entrance.

Chung Ling Soo's signature skill was "shooting a living person with a gun." To everyone's utter shock, an accident occurred not long after the performance began.

It was said that somewhere in the hall, a black bird flew in from out of nowhere—eyewitnesses said it was a crow, while others claimed it was some other kind of bird. At first, no one paid any attention to this bird, but who could have expected that it would suddenly fly onto the barrel of the prop gun Chung Ling Soo was using for his act and press the trigger with its claws!

A gunshot rang out!

Chung Ling Soo collapsed to the ground and died!

Because the performance failed, Zhu Liankui naturally won without a fight. His flying bowl of water trick became an unsolved mystery once and for all.

...

"Shot to death by a bird?" Having learned this historical background, I asked in astonishment, "Sister Red, are you saying that this man named Zhu Liankui from over a hundred years ago was Partridge Whistle?"

In the darkness, I could not see Sister Red's expression, but I heard her say, "Although Zhu Liankui also originated from the skin-acting trade, he himself did not play with birds, nor was he Partridge Whistle. However, I once heard my father, Chen Xiaohei, mention that Zhu Liankui had a concubine whose surname was Ye. Before marrying Zhu Liankui, she had been a Partridge Hen, except that she washed her hands of the business and quit after getting married."

Pondering the various implications of this, I frowned and said, "Sister Red, could it be that Cheng Ling Soo from the circus really was able to crack the secret of the flying bowl of water—meaning Zhu Liankui was afraid his secret would be exposed, and therefore sent his concubine, the Partridge Hen, to kill Cheng Ling Soo using birds and stage an accidental discharge? Put that way, could the owl-raising woman beside the Youthful Thief just now be surnamed Zhu? Is she a descendant of Zhu Liankui and his concubine surnamed Ye?"

Sister Red replied, "Things are not that simple. My father said before he died that Zhu Liankui was a man of extreme underworld honor and righteousness, and he would never do such a despicable thing. However, my father said that after Cheng Ling Soo died from the accidental gunshot, Zhu Liankui wrote a letter of divorce, casting off this Partridge Hen surnamed Ye. Although these events all happened abroad back then and very few people in China knew about them, Yunfeng, you have a quick mind. If you carefully piece it together, you should be able to guess the truth."

I carefully reviewed the ins and outs of that past affair, and an answer formed in my heart.

Perhaps back then, Zhu Liankui truly wanted to have a fair competition with Cheng Ling Soo to see who was the number one in the skin-acting trade!

But his Partridge Hen concubine, perhaps fearing her husband would lose the duel, or perhaps for some other reason, ultimately used her bird-taming skills in secret to eliminate Cheng Ling Soo.

After his only rival died, Zhu Liankui was disheartened, unable to cross that hurdle in his heart, and ultimately divorced the Partridge Hen. It is hard to judge right and wrong between Zhu Liankui and the Partridge Hen; the two skin-acting masters perhaps cherished mutual respect for each other, and Mother Ye the Partridge Hen did what she did to protect her husband. But one thing was certain: Cheng Ling Soo was in the right; that man became a victim.

I asked again, "Sister Red, since you ate the Partridge Hen's secret prescription of Finger Gold earlier, will you still be under that woman's control in the future?"

Sister Red patted my shoulder, sighed, and said, "I will, but not right now. For the Partridge Hen to control me, there must be an interval from the last time. What is wrapped inside the Finger Gold is not real gold, but a kind of medicine. I know a few Black Miao people from southern Guizhou in the underworld who can help me deal with the Finger Gold in my stomach, but that is assuming we can still get out of here."

"We will get out!"

"We will definitely get out, Sister Red! You have to have confidence in yourself!"

Perhaps from sheer exhaustion, Sister Red was in low spirits. She sighed and said, "For so many years, I've drifted among various grave-robbing gangs. Although I'm unwilling to admit it in my heart, I actually know it myself. My father didn't pass my grandfather's skills on to me; he said a young girl shouldn't be waving knives and guns around all day. Father said that life is better now, and those unorthodox ways from the old society are no longer useful; I should find a good family, support a husband, and raise children instead."

At this point, Sister Red's expression suddenly became agitated.

Her teeth ground together, making a clicking sound.

"If Father had passed Grandpa's Coal Saber down to me! He wouldn't have died such a miserable death! That's right! I am just a woman! But if I had Grandpa's skills, if I knew how to use the Coal Saber, I would definitely take my blade and head north! I would storm into the Northeast! I would storm into the Changchun Society! I would slaughter those old immortals! I would slaughter everyone from back then who harmed the Chen family!"

After her outburst of agitation, Sister Red broke down sobbing uncontrollably.

In the year I had known her, I had never seen her cry.

In the darkness, Sister Red buried her face and wept, her upper body trembling slightly, rising and falling unevenly.

At this moment, she was no longer Chen Hong—the notorious, promiscuous "Single Mole" of the underworld. She was simply a wounded woman.

And I was just a teenage boy more than ten years younger than her. I didn't have much skill; having entered the trade at a young age, I had never touched the so-called underworld she spoke of.

In the darkness, I gently embraced Sister Red, hoping to offer her a shred of comfort.

Sister Red's grandfather was "Coal-Eyed Chen," I thought to myself. What on earth did this man look like?

Was he a scholar-official of the Anti-Japanese resistance, wearing round-rimmed spectacles and wielding a great coal saber in his hand?

Calculating by the timeline, if this man were still alive, he should be considerably older than the Youthful Thief. The Youthful Thief himself had said that Coal-Eyed Chen had single-handedly breached a blockhouse, wiping out the commanders of an entire Japanese regiment all by himself.

If this expert were still alive,

I suppose he would never have allowed his descendant to be imprisoned and suffer such a grievance.