Chapter 26 That's It?

A little earlier, Xu Buling had come back to the alley on Changle Street.

Zhu Manzhi hugged the long sword to her chest, her eyes full of little stars, and ran up to him for a good look:

"Young Master Xu, you're amazing. Fourth Master Chen is a somebody on this street—famous for his hard-style kung fu..."

"A man like him can't take three punches. Some hard-style kung fu."

Xu Buling took the long sword and hung it at his waist, then led Zhu Manzhi toward Hutai Street.

Zhu Manzhi still led the horse along. After turning it over a moment, she spoke again: "Young Master Xu, I hear you've been poisoned and can't exert yourself..."

"I'm loosening up my joints. That's not exertion."

Zhu Manzhi blinked, feeling they were talking past each other, and gave up on the pleasantries meant to build a little rapport. "Actually... there's something I don't understand. You could have gotten this done just by giving your name, Young Master. Why insist on force?"

Xu Buling raised an eyebrow. "Giving my name buys surface obedience. Knock them flat and they're convinced where it counts."

Zhu Manzhi said "Oh," walked along a stretch, and then asked:

"With martial arts that good, Young Master, you must have suffered plenty as a child? Learning martial arts is the most grueling thing there is—I cried every single day when I was little. My father insisted on teaching me, my mother kept shielding me, and in the end I took no end of punishment and still never learned it properly..."

Xu Buling thought back over his blurry childhood memories and nodded solemnly:

"I did suffer a great deal. Every day I had to be up at the chen hour, eat a huge amount, then run a lap around the prince's estate, come back and eat some more, and in the evening I still had to read all sorts of martial arts manuals. Sometimes I was so tired I fell asleep face-down on the desk."

Zhu Manzhi listened earnestly. After a moment, seeing that he had stopped, she lifted her little face:

"And then?"

Xu Buling thought it over carefully. "Oh, right. Now and then I had to lift stone locks, too. My mother said getting thick-necked and hulking would look ugly, so to train my martial arts properly I always snuck off and lifted them in secret."

Zhu Manzhi stopped dead in her tracks, stared at Xu Buling, her face a tangle of feelings, as though she wanted to curse him out but couldn't bring herself to start. She held it in for a long while before managing:

"That's it?"

Xu Buling nodded. "What else?"

Zhu Manzhi drew a breath, then deflated just as fast. "Heir Xu, don't toy with me. Learning martial arts is the kind of hard work that wears through stone drop by drop; talent and diligence, you can't do without either. The skill you showed outside Fuman Tavern is rare in this world. If the Dragon-Locking Gu poison were cured, who could beat you? You could be a grandmaster who founds his own sect."

Xu Buling gave a light laugh. "Hard to say. Great Yue's ten thousand li of territory produces uncommon people in every generation; there are always a few stronger than me. And to deserve the word 'grandmaster,' skill alone isn't enough—what matters more is going one step further from the top of the hundred-foot pole. At best I'm a successor to what others began, not a founder. I can't claim the word grandmaster."

"That much I'll agree with," Zhu Manzhi said. "Even if you can't claim grandmaster, you're not far off it. It's just that your martial arts came to you too easily—they're not solid enough."

"I'm a prince's son. However good my martial arts, it's never my place to go fight in person. Hitting anyone costs me dignity, and anyone who wouldn't cost me dignity can't be hit hard. All that skill is good for is keeping me fit; it's really of no use."

Zhu Manzhi mulled that over. "True enough. Those above ought to sit behind the scenes and plan; running around with a saber cutting people down, what kind of sight is that... What a pity. If only you were a wandering hero of the jianghu, Young Master Xu, you'd be famous the world over."

Xu Buling smiled modestly. "Never mind, none of that's any use. Zhu Manlong of Hutai Street—how much do you know about him?"

Zhu Manzhi walked on ahead with a hand on her waist saber and thought back briefly:

"Zhu Manlong is the head of the Iron Claw Sect on Hutai Street and has some standing in Chang'an. From what the brothers at the yamen say, he studied under the Eagle Claw Sect of Guanzhong. Our Commander Zhang rates him 'good with his hands, a bit weak in the legs'—that counts as very high praise. Mm... his son Zhu Chenglie is formidable too: gifted, famous while young, the leader of Hutai Street's younger generation... that's about all I know."

"Good with his hands, a bit weak in the legs... heh... a lame eagle."

"Pfft—"

At that appraisal Zhu Manzhi burst out laughing. "Young Master Xu, your assessment is even more vicious—if Zhu Manlong heard it he'd die of rage. He's of the same 'Man' generation as me, after all, and he's no small fry. Our Commander Zhang's own Eight Trigrams Saber beat every hero under heaven a dozen years ago, so naturally he'd look down on a martial academy instructor. Still, don't get careless..."

Xu Buling smiled faintly and made no answer.

They followed the street along and soon reached Hutai Street—crowded, full of prying eyes, with the informants of a good many powers buried in it. Xu Buling found a bamboo hat at the roadside to hide his face, and only then did he and Zhu Manzhi slip into the thinly peopled street. Just as they drew near the Zhu family academy, they saw Gongsun Lu walking out of it.

Zhu Manzhi was muttering earnestly to herself when her arm was seized and she was yanked into an alley. She jumped with fright; before her yelp could get out, a big hand clamped over her small mouth, and she could only stare wide-eyed, at a loss, at Xu Buling so close in front of her.

Because he was so near, a faint clean scent met her—not the sweat smell ordinary men had, but actually rather pleasant.

Zhu Manzhi lifted a small hand, meaning to push Xu Buling away, but she didn't dare, and for a moment stood frozen on the spot.

Clop, clop—

Hoofbeats passed along the street, and Gongsun Lu's figure flashed past the alley mouth and was gone.

At the sight of Gongsun Lu, Zhu Manzhi was briefly baffled. She had staked out Fulai Tavern for three days; the thug who was killed had claimed Zhu Manlong's name, and then there were the Imperial Guard who turned up afterward, and the Gongsun father and son...

Zhu Manzhi suddenly saw it all. No wonder Fuman Tavern was so brazen, no wonder the private-salt case was closed in a few days—the Commandant's Office was backing them!

The hand over her mouth let go. Zhu Manzhi made to speak in a fluster, but Xu Buling had already leapt up onto the wall in three great strides, and in a rise and a fall he was gone beyond it.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Zhu Manzhi, frantic, hurried after him, but the wall was likely twice her height, and without a grappling hook she certainly couldn't climb it. She could only lead the horse over and warn it: "Good horse, don't you move, and don't throw me to my death—your little prince will slaughter you for meat."

Zhuifeng snorted through his nostrils, plainly displeased, but he still stood obediently and quietly at the foot of the wall.

Zhu Manzhi laid a handkerchief over the saddle, carefully climbed up and stood on it, and poked half her head above the wall—just in time to see that Xu Buling was already sitting on the drill platform off in the distance, striking a very heroic pose...