Chapter 118: Regrets & Apologies
“Spare me!” she shrieked. She had never used those two words together in her life. She was in dire straits, in agony, difficult to speak her mind, but she had no difficulty pleading this now.
Wenchang grabbed her by the lapel and smiled. “Like I said, I even swore it to myself, that you would receive retribution, your family ruined, that you would beg for death, that you would regret it. Miss, do you think all that were just empty threats?”
“I beg you, I… I was… wrong. I already re… regret it.”
Wenchang smiled insidiously. “It’s too late, Miss, the mistakes have been made, so regret will not be able to reverse your lamentable fate.”
There was the sound of rending silk as the girl’s top ripped open smoothly. Another jerk and pull and her breastband tore and a pair of magnificently large and perky breasts came free. Wenchang grabbed a jade breast firmly and gradually tightened his grip. “Cheap bitch, and it looks like you’ve nursed a baby before, yet you dress your hair up like an unmarried woman and parade about like a pure and chaste woman. Hmph!”
She tried hard as she could to push his hand away. She cried hoarsely, “Please… Please let… let go, I… I’ll agree… agree to anything… anything you…”
“Bah! I don’t need a cheap slut like you. Goodness! Do you know what sort of retribution you will receive? Me! Listen carefully. For starters, I’m going to kill your whole family, then set the whole place ablaze. As for you, I’m gonna sell you to the cheapest, dankest, most lowly whorehouse I can find, so you can be ridden by millions of men. Miss, I should think you would be quite pleased with that. A person like you, if you don’t experience an inhuman life like that you will never reflect on your faults. Only vicious revenge like this can make you regain your humanity.
Another rending of silk and she was completely naked. She moaned helplessly, trembling all over. She wailed, “Spare me, spare… spare…” With her throat constricted by his crushing grip, her voice was thin as a mosquito’s.
Wenchang ignored her and ripped off a strip of the quilt and put it between her teeth like a horse with a bridle bit. He pulled it tight so she couldn’t make any more noise. Then he grabbed her hands and pulled her shoulders out of their sockets so she couldn’t move her arms. “One must be thoroughly vicious in these matters…”
There was a bang as the latticed window on the right suddenly broke and fell and a white figure flashed in. White Dragongirl was livid. She had her sword out as she came in. “Cai Wenchang, you… you shameless… You…”
A purple figure flashed in as well as Four Seas Dragon leapt in through the window. “Cai Wenchang, you’re really… you’re really going to rape her to get back at her, isn’t that despicable?”
The two entered and only saw Wenchang fooling around with a stark naked girl. They didn’t hear what he had said earlier, thus the misunderstanding.
Wenchang was in no mood to explain. He grabbed the bedsheet and quickly wrapped Miss Ji in it and hoisted her onto his back. “Stay out of my business, and I’ll stay out of yours…”
“En guarde!” White Dragongirl shouted, cutting him off, and her sword whipped out.
Wenchang would be hit if he kept his back to her, so he dropped Miss Ji and flicked the ripped bedsheet out and not only blocked the sword, but countered with a strike to White Dragongirl’s midsection. The soft cloth shot from his hands was hard as steel wire. If she were snapped by that, how could she her little waist take it? She had to flit to the side to avoid it.
They exchanged two rounds in the bedchamber. They were well-matched; Wenchang knew his coming here tonight was a bust. He inched toward the broken window, fending off three attacks in succession, finally slipping away from her sword and leaping onto the windowsill. “This isn’t over yet. Later.”
And then he was gone. White Dragongirl was about to give chase when Four Seas Dragon stopped her. “Rescuing her was the point, don’t give chase. His concealed weapons are formidable.”
White Dragongirl was crying as she went to help the girl. “Heavens! He really is a shameless pervert.”
“Child, don’t talk nonsense, he was fully-clothed. He didn’t seem like a rapist. But his method of retaliation is really too heinous. Who’s there?” Four Seas Dragon had been talking to his beloved daughter, but he suddenly turned to another latticed window and yelled out.
The window opened gently and a white-haired old man and a young Daoist priest fluttered into the room, silently like amorphous ghosts.
White Dragongirl put Miss Ji on the bed and under the covers and drew her sword and rushed over.
The white-haired old man waved his hand and said lightly, “Halt, let me explain. The two of us were here long before you…”
“Then sir, why did you not rescue her?” Four Seas Dragon said.
“Haha! You must be Four Seas Dragon of Princess Island at Dongting.”
“Sir, what is your name?”
“It’s not important. I just came to explain what happened so the two of you don’t mistake Cai Wenchang for a rapist bandit. You were there out on the street, so you know how difficult Cai Wenchang’s humiliation there would be to bear. He is a man who has been raised among hatred, so vengeance should be expected of him…”
“But he shouldn’t take revenge like this.”
“He was going to hand her over to that petty thief, Bald Flood Dragon to humiliate her, not to rape her. You two arrived late and did not hear what he said beforehand. You can ask that vile Second Miss Ji over there and you will know I speak the truth. Gossip is a fearful thing. You should listen first before rashly labeling Cai Wenchang a rapist. Until next time.”
Then in the blink of an eye they were out through the window and gone.
The other two stood there blankly. Dumbstruck, Four Seas Dragon said, “Who was that, how come I’ve never heard of those two otherworldly masters among the martial fraternity?”
The next day, the wanted notice for the capture of the attempted robber of the imperial envoy was canceled and deemed a misunderstanding, and so on.
♦♦♦
At night, inside a black-awning boat near Tigerhead Bridge, the cabin was dimly lit. Eight people sat around a table, Wenchang in the seat of honor, accompanied by Bald Flood Dragon, River Rat Guan Jiang, and Barracuda Zhong Hao.
It was near the third watch and everyone was already eight-tenths drunk. Wenchang took out a bundle of hair ornaments he had taken from Second Miss Ji’s room and tossed it on the table. “Brother Ling, I’ve made myself clear, I never take riches I don’t work for. Please exchange these hair ornaments for me for 100 taels of silver. I don’t look down on you, brothers, this is just how I am, don’t hold it against me.”
Bald Flood Dragon shook his head with a wry smile. “Brother Cai, you’re really putting me in a bind. Ai! There’s nothing I can say, everyone has their own way. I won’t force you, but let’s forget about the silver for now. Come! Cheers!” He raised his wine bowl.
Footsteps sounded on the deck. “Reporting to Manager, there’s a guest here seeking an audience.”
“Who?” Bald Flood Dragon said impatiently. “Tell him to wait.”
“It’s Master Eagle Talon Zhou of Hanzhong prefecture. He also wants to see Brother Cai.”
Bald Flood Dragon flinched. He said to Wenchang, “Brother Cai, Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng is requesting an audience, do you…”
“Who is this Zhou fellow?” Wenchang asked.
“Local bigshot in Hanzhong, and a famed martial artist out of Wudang. He’s situated somewhere between the light and dark paths, but he’s a good man.”
“Not an official?”
“No, but he spends money freely and has friends on both sides.”
“Have him come in. Hmph! Let’s hope he didn’t come with a death wish.”
“Invite Master Zhou aboard,” Bald Flood Dragon said.
The small boat rocked gently and Bald Flood Dragon went out of the cabin to exchange conventional courtesies with the guest, then he led inside a big man about forty or so years old.
The man noticed at once that Wenchang’s appearance and dress were different from the rest. He paid his respects to him first, smiling. “If I am not mistaken, this must be Brother Cai Wenchang. My family name is Zhou, given name Cheng.”
Wenchang returned the greeting and smiled faintly. “Master Zhou really doest get around, tell me, sir, how did you know I am Cai Wenchang, the man everyone is after?” He fixed a cold eye on Bald Flood Dragon as he said this. Bald Flood Dragon felt a cold chill run down his spine.
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng sat down in a space made for him and laughed. “Brother Cai mustn’t fault Manager Ling. Manager Ling is a true friend, he never told me anything. White Dragongirl called your name out on the main avenue yesterday, and from the rumors floating around the jianghu I guessed that you were the notorious Cai Wenchang who has shaken the jianghu.”
Wenchang dropped his cold expression and got right to the point. “Master Zhou, can you tell me why you wanted to see me? Don’t say you were attracted by my fame.”
“Straight talk from an honest man, Brother Cai. I will drop the formalities. To tell you the truth, I was asked to make a special trip to ask you a favor.”
“A favor? Master Zhou, you’re too polite.”
“No, no, you’re too kind. I was asked by Master Ji…”
“Hmph, you didn’t come to capture me and turn me in to the authorities?”
“Believe me when I say Master Ji wouldn’t dare. He implored me to come ask for a favor, to ask Brother Cai for forgiveness and leniency, to pardon his daughter’s ignorance and give her a chance to turn over a new leaf and let bygones be bygones.”
Wenchang sneered and with a sinister tone said, “I’ll give you face, Master Zhou. For the next half a month I won’t go after them. After half a month, tell him to be careful. He can spend as much gold and silver as he wants to hire bodyguards and government troops to guard his place, but please tell him that he must not slack off for one moment because what an exiled fugitive has is time. I will wait for the right time to strike.”
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng’s forehead beaded with sweat. He held his breath. “Brother Cai is a remarkable man of the jianghu, I’m sure you’re magnanimous. That little girlis willful and ignorant. She has already reaped what she’s sown. She’s now bedridden, scared half to death, and remorseful to no end. The Ji family asks you, Brother Cai, to give them a chance to repent and change their ways. From now on they will close their doors and meditate on their wrongs. Despite how wrong they were, they hope Brother Cai will set a time and place to allow he and his daughter to call on you and offer their humble apologies. Brother Cai, let’s not make a big fuss over this. Since they have acknowledged fault and have repented and wish to call on you to apologize…”
Wenchang drained his wine bowl and interjected, “Fine, I’m not a vicious brute. Master Zhou, please tell him he can dispense with the apologies. From now on, if the Ji family of Hanzhong prefecture does any other misdeeds, don’t be surprised when I am cruel and merciless.”
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng was delighted and stood up, saluting. “Brother Cai, you really are high-minded after all. I am grateful. Allow me to first apologize on their behalf.” He smiled at Bald Flood Dragon. “Since I was entrusted with this task I must be faithful and report back to the Ji family so they can rest at ease. I apologize first on their behalf. In the future I will come back here and invite you gentlemen to my humble abode for a few drinks…”
Chapter 118: Regrets & Apologies
“Spare me!” she shrieked. She had never used those two words together in her life. She was in dire straits, in agony, difficult to speak her mind, but she had no difficulty pleading this now.
Wenchang grabbed her by the lapel and smiled. “Like I said, I even swore it to myself, that you would receive retribution, your family ruined, that you would beg for death, that you would regret it. Miss, do you think all that were just empty threats?”
“I beg you, I… I was… wrong. I already re… regret it.”
Wenchang smiled insidiously. “It’s too late, Miss, the mistakes have been made, so regret will not be able to reverse your lamentable fate.”
There was the sound of rending silk as the girl’s top ripped open smoothly. Another jerk and pull and her breastband tore and a pair of magnificently large and perky breasts came free. Wenchang grabbed a jade breast firmly and gradually tightened his grip. “Cheap bitch, and it looks like you’ve nursed a baby before, yet you dress your hair up like an unmarried woman and parade about like a pure and chaste woman. Hmph!”
She tried hard as she could to push his hand away. She cried hoarsely, “Please… Please let… let go, I… I’ll agree… agree to anything… anything you…”
“Bah! I don’t need a cheap slut like you. Goodness! Do you know what sort of retribution you will receive? Me! Listen carefully. For starters, I’m going to kill your whole family, then set the whole place ablaze. As for you, I’m gonna sell you to the cheapest, dankest, most lowly whorehouse I can find, so you can be ridden by millions of men. Miss, I should think you would be quite pleased with that. A person like you, if you don’t experience an inhuman life like that you will never reflect on your faults. Only vicious revenge like this can make you regain your humanity.
Another rending of silk and she was completely naked. She moaned helplessly, trembling all over. She wailed, “Spare me, spare… spare…” With her throat constricted by his crushing grip, her voice was thin as a mosquito’s.
Wenchang ignored her and ripped off a strip of the quilt and put it between her teeth like a horse with a bridle bit. He pulled it tight so she couldn’t make any more noise. Then he grabbed her hands and pulled her shoulders out of their sockets so she couldn’t move her arms. “One must be thoroughly vicious in these matters…”
There was a bang as the latticed window on the right suddenly broke and fell and a white figure flashed in. White Dragongirl was livid. She had her sword out as she came in. “Cai Wenchang, you… you shameless… You…”
A purple figure flashed in as well as Four Seas Dragon leapt in through the window. “Cai Wenchang, you’re really… you’re really going to rape her to get back at her, isn’t that despicable?”
The two entered and only saw Wenchang fooling around with a stark naked girl. They didn’t hear what he had said earlier, thus the misunderstanding.
Wenchang was in no mood to explain. He grabbed the bedsheet and quickly wrapped Miss Ji in it and hoisted her onto his back. “Stay out of my business, and I’ll stay out of yours…”
“En guarde!” White Dragongirl shouted, cutting him off, and her sword whipped out.
Wenchang would be hit if he kept his back to her, so he dropped Miss Ji and flicked the ripped bedsheet out and not only blocked the sword, but countered with a strike to White Dragongirl’s midsection. The soft cloth shot from his hands was hard as steel wire. If she were snapped by that, how could she her little waist take it? She had to flit to the side to avoid it.
They exchanged two rounds in the bedchamber. They were well-matched; Wenchang knew his coming here tonight was a bust. He inched toward the broken window, fending off three attacks in succession, finally slipping away from her sword and leaping onto the windowsill. “This isn’t over yet. Later.”
And then he was gone. White Dragongirl was about to give chase when Four Seas Dragon stopped her. “Rescuing her was the point, don’t give chase. His concealed weapons are formidable.”
White Dragongirl was crying as she went to help the girl. “Heavens! He really is a shameless pervert.”
“Child, don’t talk nonsense, he was fully-clothed. He didn’t seem like a rapist. But his method of retaliation is really too heinous. Who’s there?” Four Seas Dragon had been talking to his beloved daughter, but he suddenly turned to another latticed window and yelled out.
The window opened gently and a white-haired old man and a young Daoist priest fluttered into the room, silently like amorphous ghosts.
White Dragongirl put Miss Ji on the bed and under the covers and drew her sword and rushed over.
The white-haired old man waved his hand and said lightly, “Halt, let me explain. The two of us were here long before you…”
“Then sir, why did you not rescue her?” Four Seas Dragon said.
“Haha! You must be Four Seas Dragon of Princess Island at Dongting.”
“Sir, what is your name?”
“It’s not important. I just came to explain what happened so the two of you don’t mistake Cai Wenchang for a rapist bandit. You were there out on the street, so you know how difficult Cai Wenchang’s humiliation there would be to bear. He is a man who has been raised among hatred, so vengeance should be expected of him…”
“But he shouldn’t take revenge like this.”
“He was going to hand her over to that petty thief, Bald Flood Dragon to humiliate her, not to rape her. You two arrived late and did not hear what he said beforehand. You can ask that vile Second Miss Ji over there and you will know I speak the truth. Gossip is a fearful thing. You should listen first before rashly labeling Cai Wenchang a rapist. Until next time.”
Then in the blink of an eye they were out through the window and gone.
The other two stood there blankly. Dumbstruck, Four Seas Dragon said, “Who was that, how come I’ve never heard of those two otherworldly masters among the martial fraternity?”
The next day, the wanted notice for the capture of the attempted robber of the imperial envoy was canceled and deemed a misunderstanding, and so on.
♦♦♦
At night, inside a black-awning boat near Tigerhead Bridge, the cabin was dimly lit. Eight people sat around a table, Wenchang in the seat of honor, accompanied by Bald Flood Dragon, River Rat Guan Jiang, and Barracuda Zhong Hao.
It was near the third watch and everyone was already eight-tenths drunk. Wenchang took out a bundle of hair ornaments he had taken from Second Miss Ji’s room and tossed it on the table. “Brother Ling, I’ve made myself clear, I never take riches I don’t work for. Please exchange these hair ornaments for me for 100 taels of silver. I don’t look down on you, brothers, this is just how I am, don’t hold it against me.”
Bald Flood Dragon shook his head with a wry smile. “Brother Cai, you’re really putting me in a bind. Ai! There’s nothing I can say, everyone has their own way. I won’t force you, but let’s forget about the silver for now. Come! Cheers!” He raised his wine bowl.
Footsteps sounded on the deck. “Reporting to Manager, there’s a guest here seeking an audience.”
“Who?” Bald Flood Dragon said impatiently. “Tell him to wait.”
“It’s Master Eagle Talon Zhou of Hanzhong prefecture. He also wants to see Brother Cai.”
Bald Flood Dragon flinched. He said to Wenchang, “Brother Cai, Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng is requesting an audience, do you…”
“Who is this Zhou fellow?” Wenchang asked.
“Local bigshot in Hanzhong, and a famed martial artist out of Wudang. He’s situated somewhere between the light and dark paths, but he’s a good man.”
“Not an official?”
“No, but he spends money freely and has friends on both sides.”
“Have him come in. Hmph! Let’s hope he didn’t come with a death wish.”
“Invite Master Zhou aboard,” Bald Flood Dragon said.
The small boat rocked gently and Bald Flood Dragon went out of the cabin to exchange conventional courtesies with the guest, then he led inside a big man about forty or so years old.
The man noticed at once that Wenchang’s appearance and dress were different from the rest. He paid his respects to him first, smiling. “If I am not mistaken, this must be Brother Cai Wenchang. My family name is Zhou, given name Cheng.”
Wenchang returned the greeting and smiled faintly. “Master Zhou really doest get around, tell me, sir, how did you know I am Cai Wenchang, the man everyone is after?” He fixed a cold eye on Bald Flood Dragon as he said this. Bald Flood Dragon felt a cold chill run down his spine.
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng sat down in a space made for him and laughed. “Brother Cai mustn’t fault Manager Ling. Manager Ling is a true friend, he never told me anything. White Dragongirl called your name out on the main avenue yesterday, and from the rumors floating around the jianghu I guessed that you were the notorious Cai Wenchang who has shaken the jianghu.”
Wenchang dropped his cold expression and got right to the point. “Master Zhou, can you tell me why you wanted to see me? Don’t say you were attracted by my fame.”
“Straight talk from an honest man, Brother Cai. I will drop the formalities. To tell you the truth, I was asked to make a special trip to ask you a favor.”
“A favor? Master Zhou, you’re too polite.”
“No, no, you’re too kind. I was asked by Master Ji…”
“Hmph, you didn’t come to capture me and turn me in to the authorities?”
“Believe me when I say Master Ji wouldn’t dare. He implored me to come ask for a favor, to ask Brother Cai for forgiveness and leniency, to pardon his daughter’s ignorance and give her a chance to turn over a new leaf and let bygones be bygones.”
Wenchang sneered and with a sinister tone said, “I’ll give you face, Master Zhou. For the next half a month I won’t go after them. After half a month, tell him to be careful. He can spend as much gold and silver as he wants to hire bodyguards and government troops to guard his place, but please tell him that he must not slack off for one moment because what an exiled fugitive has is time. I will wait for the right time to strike.”
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng’s forehead beaded with sweat. He held his breath. “Brother Cai is a remarkable man of the jianghu, I’m sure you’re magnanimous. That little girlis willful and ignorant. She has already reaped what she’s sown. She’s now bedridden, scared half to death, and remorseful to no end. The Ji family asks you, Brother Cai, to give them a chance to repent and change their ways. From now on they will close their doors and meditate on their wrongs. Despite how wrong they were, they hope Brother Cai will set a time and place to allow he and his daughter to call on you and offer their humble apologies. Brother Cai, let’s not make a big fuss over this. Since they have acknowledged fault and have repented and wish to call on you to apologize…”
Wenchang drained his wine bowl and interjected, “Fine, I’m not a vicious brute. Master Zhou, please tell him he can dispense with the apologies. From now on, if the Ji family of Hanzhong prefecture does any other misdeeds, don’t be surprised when I am cruel and merciless.”
Eagle Talon Zhou Cheng was delighted and stood up, saluting. “Brother Cai, you really are high-minded after all. I am grateful. Allow me to first apologize on their behalf.” He smiled at Bald Flood Dragon. “Since I was entrusted with this task I must be faithful and report back to the Ji family so they can rest at ease. I apologize first on their behalf. In the future I will come back here and invite you gentlemen to my humble abode for a few drinks…”
