30 li (0.5 km) away from the manor, I pulled off the beard and changed into a young guy. Those people must have discovered it no sooner than the early morning of the next day. But on the way I already changed my appearance, they certainly wouldn’t be able to find me.’

Qiao Feng applauded and said: ‘Brilliant! Brilliant!’ Suddenly he recalled that at Shaolin Monastery when seeing his own back in the copper mirror in the Bodhi Institute he had been dumbfounded and vaguely felt uneasy about something. At this moment, when he heard her talking about how she had disguised and escaped from danger, not only did this uneasy feeling suddenly emerge again, but it was also more intense than it had been that day at Shaolin Monastery. He considered and said: ‘You turn around for me.’ A’Zhu did not understand what his intention was but she still turned around.

Qiao Feng considered for a long while then took off his coat and wrapped it around her body.

Blushed, A’Zhu turned her head around, looked at him affectionately and said: ‘I’m not cold.’

When Qiao Feng saw her being wrapped in his coat, his mind suddenly became clear. He turned his hand over, grabbed her wrist and said sternly: ‘It turns out to be you! Who incited you? Quickly tell me.’ A’Zhu was frightened and said in a trembling voice: ‘Great master Qiao, what’s the matter?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘You once disguised as me and pretended to be me, right?’

It turned out in this moment he suddenly recalled that day in Wuxi when he had been rushing to rescue his Beggar Society brothers, he had seen the back of a person on the road. At that moment, he had not taken notice of it, but when seeing his own back in the copper mirror in the Bodhi Institute, he had started to vaguely remember that the back of that man and his own back had looked exactly alike. As a result, that uneasy feeling had emerged. But he had been confused and totally had not known the cause of it.

That day when he had rushed to rescue the Beggar Society’s extraordinary people, by the time of his arrival, everyone had already escaped from danger and all of them had said they had met him not long ago. Even though he had denied that, no one had believed him. At that time, he had been baffled and thought there had been no reason for it other than someone imitating him; but if someone had wanted to imitate him to the extent that the people who had met him on a day-to-day basis such as Bai Shijing and Elder Wu had not been able to discover it, would it not be easier said than done? This moment, as soon as he saw the back of A’Zhu who was being wrapped in his coat, everything from beginning to end was confirmed further and he immediately understood. Even though A’Zhu was not having cotton padding on her body, and her small delicate back was very different than his majestic appearance, but if there were to be someone to imitate him and fool the Beggar Society people, aside from her, who else under heaven could?

A’Zhu did not panic at all. She giggled and said: ‘Okay, I have no choice but to confess.’ Then she told him how she disguised as him and saved the Beggar Society people using the antidote.

Qiao Feng let go of her wrist and said sternly: ‘You disguised as me and saved people, what was your intention?’

A’Zhu was very surprised and said: ‘I just wanted to play a joke. You saved me and A’Bi from the hands of the Western Xia people so both of us are very grateful to you. Seeing those beggars treat you badly like that, I thought if I disguised as you and cured them of the poison, making them feel ashamed, it would be a good thing.’ She let out a sigh and continued: ‘But who could have known at Juxian Manor they were still so cruel to you and didn’t remember anything about the kindness and friendship of the past?’

Qiao Feng’s expression became grimmer and grimmer. He gnashed his teeth and asked: ‘Then why did you disguise as me and kill my parents? Why did you sneak in Shaolin Monastery and kill my master?’

A’Zhu jumped out of her skin and called out: ‘There’s no such thing. Who said I killed your parents, and killed your master?’

Qiao Feng said: ‘My master was injured by someone. As he saw me, he immediately said that it was me who had harmed him. Don’t tell me that it still wasn’t you?’ As he said to here, he slightly raised his right palm and his face was covered with a murderous look. If her answer was just a little bit clumsy, this palm would strike down, and then, even 10 A’Zhu’s would die violently in an instant.

Seeing that his face was covered with a murderous look and his eyes were filled with rage, A’Zhu was extremely scared and could not help taking 2 steps backward. If she took another 2 steps backward, she would fall into the bottomless abyss.

Qiao Feng said sternly: ‘Stand there, don’t move!’

A’Zhu was so frightened that tears rolled down her cheeks drop by drop. She quavered: ‘I didn’t… I didn’t kill your parents, and didn’t… didn’t kill your master. Your master had such great… great skills, how could I kill him?’

Her last sentence was very powerful. As soon as Qiao Feng heard it, he slightly shivered and knew that he had wrongly blamed her. He put out his left hand with lightning speed, grabbed her shoulder and pulled her close to the cliff so that she would not slip and fall into the ravine. He said: ‘That’s right. My master wasn’t killed by you.’ His master Xuan Ku dashi was a brother of high-level monks such as Xuan Ci, Xuan Ji and Xuan Nan; his martial arts attainments were first-class nowadays. He passed away not because of being poisoned or being injured by weapons or missiles, but because his inner organs had been crushed by extremely fierce palm force. A’Zhu was very young, how could she have such profound internal energy? Had her internal energy been sufficient to strike dead Xuan Ku dashi, then that Great Diamond Palm attack by Xuan Ci would not have been able to strike her near dead.

A’Zhu smiled through tears, tapped herself on the chest and said: ‘You almost scared me to death. Your words were very unreasonable. If I had the ability to kill your master, then why didn’t I help you massacre those bad eggs at Juxian Manor?’

Seeing that she was slightly angry, Qiao Feng felt regretful and said: ‘Recently, I’ve been in a doubtful mood so I just talked nonsense, please don’t blame me.’

A’Zhu smiled and said: ‘Who blames you? If I blamed you then I wouldn’t talk to you.’ Then she immediately stopped smiling and said softly: ‘Great master Qiao, no matter how you treat me, in this life, I’ll never be angry with you.’

Qiao Feng shook his head and said indifferently: ‘Even though I saved you, you don’t need to keep it in mind.’ He frowned, entranced, then suddenly asked: ‘A’Zhu, who taught you these disguising and making-up skills? Does your master have any other disciple?’ A’Zhu shook her head and said: ‘Nobody taught me. Since childhood I’ve liked to disguise as other people to play. The more I imitated, the better I could disguise. And I don’t have any master. Could it be that I must have a master in order to play a game?’

Qiao Feng let out a sigh and said: ‘Then this really strange. Who could expect that in the world there’s 1 man who looks exactly like me, to such an extent that my master mistook him for me?’ A’Zhu said: ‘Because there is this clue, it’d be easy. We just need to find this man, then torture and force him to answer.’ Qiao Feng said: ‘Correct. But it’s extremely difficult to find 1 man in the boundless sea of people in the world. He probably also has good disguising and making-up skills like you do.’

He came near the cliff and gazed at the marks caused by axes and chisels on the stone wall, wanting to find out what words had been carved on it originally. But after looking at them carefully, he still could not recognize a single word. He said: ‘I must find Zhiguang dashi and ask him what words were written on this stone wall. If I can’t bring this matter to light, I won’t be able to eat and sleep calmly.’

A’Zhu said: ‘I’m afraid he won’t be willing to say.’ Qiao Feng said: ‘He’ll probably be unwilling to say, but I’ll force and beg him. Only after he says will I stop.’ A’Zhu muttered: ‘Zhiguang dashi seems to be very resolute and unafraid of death. Perhaps forcing and begging him wouldn’t work. It’d be better…’ Qiao Feng nodded and said: ‘Correct. It’d be better to ask Zhao Qiansun. Oh, probably this Zhao Qiansun guy would rather die than submit as well. But I already have a way to deal with him.’

As he spoke to here, he turned toward one side, looked at the abyss and said: ‘I wanna go down to have a look.’ A’Zhu jumped in fright. She looked at the mouth of that valley which was covered in clouds and mists and took several steps away from it for fear of carelessly falling down into it. She then said: ‘No, no! You must not go down. What’s good to see down there?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘In the end I’m Han or Hu? This matter has always been whirling around my head. I wanna go down to investigate and clear it up, and to take a look at the corpse of that Khitan man.’ A’Zhu said: ‘It’s been 30 years since that man fell down. There’re only several pieces of white bones left. What else will you be able to see?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘I just wanna have a look at that man’s remains. I think if he’s really my real father then I should collect his bones, bring them up and bury them properly.’

A’Zhu screamed: ‘Impossible, impossible! You’re benevolent, heroic and righteous. How can you be a descendant of the inhuman vicious Khitans?’

Qiao Feng said: ‘You wait for me here for 1 day and 1 night. If by this time tomorrow I haven’t gone up then you won’t need to wait anymore.’

Very worried, A’Zhu burst into tears and called out: ‘Great master Qiao, please don’t go down!’

Qiao Feng’s intention was very firm. In spite of A’Zhu, he did not change his mind a little bit. He said: ‘At Juxian Manor, so many heroes and brave men couldn’t kill me. Don’t tell me that this trifling valley could take my life?’

Unable to think of any word to dissuade him, A’Zhu had no choice but to say: ‘Maybe there’re very many poisonous snakes, poisonous insects or ferocious monsters down there.’

‘Ha-ha,’ Qiao Feng laughed out loud, patted her shoulder and said: ‘If there were monsters then it couldn’t be better. I’d capture them for you to play.’ He looked all around the mouth of the valley to find a cliff where he could manage to put his feet on to gradually climb down.

At this moment, suddenly he vaguely heard the sounds of horse hooves which were galloping southward in the northeast corner. Judging by the sounds, there were more than 20 horses. Without delay, Qiao Feng quickly walked back to the mountain slope and looked in the direction of the horse hoofbeats. From a height, he saw that these more than 20 cavalrymen wearing yellow clothes and armor. All of them were Great Song’s servicemen. They were arranged in a line and coming quickly along the mountain path on the high slope below.

After seeing clearly those people, he paid no attention to them. But the place where he and A’Zhu were staying at was on the important path to enter the pass from the north of the Great Wall; that year, extraordinary people of the Central Plains had selected this place to ambush the Khitan warriors for this reason. He thought because this place was a strategic point for frontier defense, if Great Song servicemen saw unfamiliar people here, they would likely interrogate and examine; hence it would be better to stay away from them to avoid troubles. He then returned to the original place, pulled A’Zhu to the back of the big rock to hide and said: ‘These are Great Song servicemen!’

Not long after that, those more than 20 cavalrymen went up the ridge. Hiding behind the rock, Qiao Feng already saw that the leading person was an officer. He could not refrain from feeling rather moved: ‘That year, people such as Chief Wang, Zhiguang dashi and Zhao Qiansun prolly also ambushed behind this big rock, and in this way they saw the Khitan warriors going up the ridge. Today, the peak and the rock are still the same, but most of the warriors of both sides Song and Liao that year have turned into white bones.’

While his mind was wandering, suddenly he heard several crying sounds of children. Qiao Feng was astonished and felt as if he was in dreamland: ‘Why are there also children?’ After that he heard the screams of several women.

He stuck his head out and saw clearly that most of those Great Song servicemen were having a kidnapped woman on each of their horses. All of the women and children were wearing Khitan pastoral attire. Quite a few Great Song servicemen stretched out their hands and groped the Khitan women, looking extremely licentious and repulsive. Some women who resisted were immediately shouted abuse at and hit by those servicemen. Qiao Feng found this strange and did not understand the reason for this. He saw that after passing by the big rock, these people galloping straight towards Yanmen Pass.

A’Zhu asked: ‘Great master Qiao, what are they doing?’ Qiao Feng shook his head and thought: ‘Why are defending troops at this frontier pass so obscene?’ A’Zhu continued: ‘This kind of serviceman looks just like bandits.’

After that, more than 30 other servicemen went up the ridge, driving along several hundreds head of cattle and sheep and more than 10 Khitan women. He heard 1 officer say: ‘Gathering crops this time, our harvest isn’t very good, I wonder if commander-in-chief will get angry?’ Another officer said: ‘We couldn’t snatch a lot of cattle and sheep from Liao dogs, but 2 or 3 women among the ones we snatched look not bad. Let commander-in-chief enjoy them, he’ll be in a good mood.’ The 1st officer said: ’30 something women aren’t enough for everyone. Tomorrow we should work hard and snatch some more.’ A soldier laughed and said: ‘Hearing the rumors, all the Liao dogs must’ve already run away. If we wanna gather crops again, we need to wait for 2 or 3 months.’

Hearing to here, Qiao Feng could not refrain from getting extremely furious. He thought that the misdeeds of these servicemen were even worse than those of the most despicable robbers.

Suddenly, a baby who was being carried in the bosom of a Khitan woman started to cry loudly. That Khitan woman held out her hand and pushed away the hand of a Great Song officer then turned her head back to coax the crying baby. That officer was very angry. He grabbed that baby and threw him on the ground. After that he urged the horse forwards; the horse trampled on the body of the baby, immediately breaking his belly and making his intestines stick out. That Khitan woman was so frightened that she was stunned and unable to let out any sound of crying. The servicemen laughed loudly and passed by in large numbers.

In his life, Qiao Feng had seen not just a few ruthless cruel things, but this was the 1st time he had seen someone openly kill a baby for fun like this. He was extremely furious but did not unleash his feelings right away as he wanted to see the whole story.

After this group of servicemen passed by, more than 10 other servicemen came while shouting. All of these Great Song servicemen were riding horses and holding high spears in their hands. The head of almost every spear was piercing through 1 gory severed head. There was a long rope fastened to the tail of one of the horses, tying up 5 Khitan men. Qiao Feng saw that those people were wearing clothes of ordinary herdsmen. 2 of them were very old with their heads full of white hairs. The other 3 were 15 or 16 year old youngsters. He immediately understood that these Great Song servicemen had gone out to pillage, all the strong Khitan herdsmen had escaped but they had captured the women, the children, the old and the weak.

He heard 1 officer laugh and say: ‘Cutting off 14 heads and capturing 5 Liao dogs, this contribution is not big and not small, but I’ll certainly be promoted by 1 rank and rewarded with 100 taels of silver.’ Another man said: ‘Hey Gao, there’s a Khitan small town 50 li to the west of here. Do you dare to go there to gather crops?’ The one called Gao said: ‘Why the heck do I not dare? Are you looking down on me for being a rookie? As a rookie, your father needs to make more contributions at the frontier.’ While they were talking, the line of men, who were running fast, already came near the big rock.

When seeing the corpse of the child on the ground, 1 old Khitan man suddenly screamed out, rushed over to hug the corpse, repeatedly kissed it and cried out sorrowfully. Even though Qiao Feng did not understand this old man’s language, seeing his expression, he knew that the baby who had been trampled to death by horses was his relative. The private who was dragging the old man continuously pulled the rope, urging him to go fast. Getting furious like crazy, that old Khitan man fiercely rushed at him. Frightened, that private brandished his saber and quickly slashed at the old man. The old Khitan man exerted his strength and gave him a pull, dragging him down from horseback, then opened his mouth and bit the private’s neck. At this moment, another Great Song officer on horseback ruthlessly chopped at the back of the old man with his saber 1 time then he stooped down, grabbed his neck and pulled him away. Only now was the private who had fallen on the ground able to stand up. He was very angry therefore he brandished his saber and chopped several more times at the old Khitan man. That old man shook a few times but he did not tumble down. The servicemen, either raising spears or lifting long sabers, then surrounded him.

That old man turned towards the north, unfastened the clothes on the upper part of his body, stood upright and suddenly started to cry out loudly in a grieved voice, sounding like the howl of a wolf. Temporarily, the servicemen all had a frightened expression on their faces.

Qiao Feng was scared. He suddenly felt that there seemed to be a spiritual connection between him and this old Khitan man. He himself had also let out these several howls which sounded like those of a dying wolf’s. That had been at Juxian Manor, after successively being hit by saber and spear, seeing Shan Zheng thrusting at him with his saber, he himself had known that he had been about to die, hence he had been unable to hold back his grief and indignation and cried out violently like a wild beast.

At this moment, when he heard those cries, a sense of closeness involuntarily arose in his heart. Not thinking anymore, he leaped out from the behind the big rock, grabbed those Great Song servicemen and threw them off the cliff one by one. The more Qiao Feng fought, the more ardent he became. He even shoved all the horses that they rode down the ravine by giving each horse 1 palm attack. The cries by men and the neighs by horses were heard for a while then soon fell silent.

A’Zhu and those 4 Khitan men were dumbfounded when they saw that he was such miraculously mighty.

After killing all of those more than 10 servicemen, Qiao Feng let out a long howl which shook the valley. Seeing that the old Khitan man was still standing upright after receiving several saber slashes, he respected him for being a brave man. He then went up to the old man and saw that he was facing north with his bare chest being exposed, but he no longer breathed and was already dead. As soon as Qiao Feng looked at the old man’s chest, ‘Ah,’ he uttered an exclamation and took 1 step backwards, his body tottered as if he was about to fall over.

A’Zhu was very scared. She called out: ‘Great master Qiao, you… you… are you alright?’ Only chi-chi-chi sounds were heard, Qiao Feng had ripped open the clothes that covered his own front, showing a hairy chest.

A’Zhu immediately saw that there was a decorative design tattooed on his chest, which was a blue wolf head with its mouth wide opened showing its teeth, looking ferocious. When she looked at the old Khitan man again, she saw that his chest also had a wolf head tattoo whose appearance was exactly the same as that of the wolf head on Qiao Feng’s chest.

Suddenly, those 4 Khitan men started to shout at the same time.

When Qiao Feng had begun to understand things at the age of 2 or 3, he had already seen this blue wolf head tattoo on his chest. Because he had known it since childhood, he had not in the least thought that it had been unusual. Later, when he had grown up, he had asked his parents about it. Qiao Sanhuai and his wife both had said that the picture had been beautiful and praised it for a while, but they had said nothing about its origin. During the Northern Song Dynasty, it was very common to have a tattoo on the body; some people even had their whole bodies covered with tattoos from the neck to the feet. Great Song received the country from the Chai clan of the Later Zhou Dynasty. The founder of the Later Zhou Dynasty Guo Wei had a sparrow tattoo on his neck, and for this reason he was called ‘Guo Sparrow.’ At that time, having tattoos had become a prevailing fashion and 8 or 9/10th of the Beggar Society brothers had tattoos on their bodies, hence Qiao Feng had never had the least bit of suspicion. But at this moment, when he saw that the blue wolf tattoo on the chest of the dead old Khitan man and his own tattoo were unexpectedly exactly alike, he was extremely shocked.

The 4 Khitan people surrounded him and talked in a language he did not understand. They continuously pointed at the wolf head on his chest. Because Qiao Feng did not understand what they were saying, he had no idea how to reply. Suddenly 1 old man unfastened his clothes and showed his chest, which unexpectedly also had this wolf head tattoo. The other 3 youngsters also unfastened their clothes, and their chests all had the wolf head tattoo as well.

In an instant, Qiao Feng finally knew absolutely that he himself was a Khitan. The wolf head on the chest had to be the symbol of their tribe, perhaps each of them had been tattooed with it since childhood. He had always detested Khitan people, thinking that they were brutal, despicable, faithless and unrighteous, and thinking that they were accustomed to killing Han people and did not stop at any crime. But at this moment he had no choice but to admit that he himself was a Khitan man who was just like an animal, hence he felt extremely distressed.

He stood in a trance for a long time then suddenly he let out a shout and ran like crazy towards the forest.

A’Zhu called out: ‘Great master Qiao, great master Qiao!’ and went after him.

Only after chasing him for more than 10 li (0.5 km) did A’Zhu see him sitting under a big tree and hugging his head. His face was very pale, a thick blue vein stuck out on his forehead. A’Zhu went to his side and sat down next to him.

Qiao Feng shrank his body and said: ‘I’m a Khitan barbarian who is lower than pigs and dogs. From now on, you don’t need to see me again.’

Like all other Han people, A’Zhu of course also detested Khitan people to the marrow, but in her heart, Qiao Feng was like a heavenly god. Needless to say, he was just a Khitan. Even if he was a demon or a ferocious beast, she would not be willing to leave him. She thought: ‘He’s unhappy now. I must nicely advise and console him.’ She then softly said: ‘There’re good ones and bad ones among Han people, so naturally there’re also good ones and bad ones among Khitan people. Great master Qiao, please don’t pay attention to this kind of thing. A’Zhu’s life was saved by you. If you’re Han, that’s fine by me. If you’re Khitan, that’s also fine. Han or Khitan, it makes no difference to me.’

Qiao Feng coldly said: ‘I don’t need you to take pity on me. In your mind, you look down on me. You don’t need to hypocritically say any nice word. I saved your life not because of my true feelings. It’s just that I temporarily wanted to show off my skills and defeat other people. This matter has been written off in 1 stroke. Please go away quickly.’

A’Zhu was anxious and flustered and thought: ‘He already knows that he himself is a Khitan barbarian. Perhaps he’ll return to the northern deserts and from now on never put his foot on the Central Plains again.’ For the moment, not being able to control her feelings, she stood up and said: ‘Great master Qiao, if you cast me aside and leave, I’ll jump into this valley. A’Zhu will definitely do what she has promised. You’re a Khitan hero so you look down on this lowly slave girl. I’d better finish myself.’

Hearing she say very sincerely, Qiao Feng felt touched. He had only thought that if he was a barbarian, all the Han people under heaven would avoid him like avoiding snakes and scorpions. Never could he have expected that A’Zhu still treated him the same as before, hence he could not help holding out his hand to pull her hand and said gently: ‘A’Zhu, you’re Mr Murong’s maid, and not my maid. I… How can I look down on you?’

A’Zhu said: ‘I don’t need you to take pity on me. In your mind, you look down on me. You don’t need to hypocritically say any nice word.’ She imitated these few sentences of Qiao Feng and there was no dissimilarity between her voice and tone to those of his, but her eyes were filled with a mischievous look.

Qiao Feng ha-ha laughed out loud. He was on the edge of despair and disappointment, therefore when he was joked with and consoled by this smart young girl he could not help feeling that his worries had largely disappeared.

A’Zhu suddenly adopted a stern expression and said: ‘Great master Qiao, I serve Mr Murong but I do not sell myself to him. It was only because I have been without parents since childhood and was wandering about outside, one day I was bullied and humiliated by other people, seeing that, Old Master Murong saved me and took me to his home. I was alone and homeless so I became a maid in his home. Actually Mr Murong doesn’t regard me as his maid at all. He even bought a few maids to serve me. A’Bi meizi (younger sister) is also like me. It’s just that her father sent her to Old Master Murong’s home in Yanzi hamlet (Yanzi = Swallow – bird) to take refuge. In those days, Old Master Murong and Madam Murong once said that the day I and A’Bi wanted to leave Yanzi hamlet, his Murong family would happily see us off…’ Saying to here, she slightly blushed. It turned out during that time Madam Murong had said: ‘The days that the 2 little girls A’Zhu and A’Bi have homes to return to, the whole Murong family will see them off with dowries, decorated sedan chairs and musical performances. There’ll be no difference to when our daughter gets married.’ She paused for a short while then continued talking to Qiao Feng: ‘From now on, I’m gonna serve you and become your maid. Mr Murong definitely won’t take offense.’

Shaking his hands continuously, Qiao Feng said: ‘No, no! I’m a barbaric Hu man, how can I have any maid? You’re used to living in a rich and honorable family in Jiangnan, what’s so good about following me to wander about and suffer hardships? You see, I’m such an insolent sort of fellow, do I deserve to be served by you?’

A’Zhu gave a charming smile and said: ‘If so, let’s consider that I’m a servant who has been captured by you, when you’re happy you’ll smile at me, when you’re sad you’ll beat me and scold me, is that okay?’ Qiao Feng smiled and said: ‘If I gave you a punch, I’m afraid you’d die instantly.’ A’Zhu said: ‘Of course you only beat me gently and must not hit too hard.’ Qiao Feng laughed ha-ha and said: ‘If beating gently then it’d be better not to beat. I don’t wanna have any servant either.’ A’Zhu said: ‘You’re a great Khitan hero, what’s wrong with you capturing some Han women and making them your servants? You see, didn’t those Great Song servicemen also kidnap many Khitan people?’

Qiao Feng was speechless. Seeing that he was knitting his brows tightly and the look in his eyes was very gloomy, A’Zhu was afraid that she had said something wrong making him unhappy.

After a while, Qiao Feng slowly said: ‘I’ve always thought that Khitan people are ferocious and ruthless, and savagely harm Han people. But today I’ve seen with my own eyes how Great Song servicemen killed Khitan people regardless of age and sex. I… I… A’Zhu, I’m a Khitan. From now on, I’m no longer ashamed to be a Khitan, and I don’t feel honored to be a Great Song man either.’

Hearing him say so, A’Zhu knew that he had untied this knot of depression in his mind. She was very happy and said: ‘I already said there’re good ones and bad ones among Hu people, and there’re also the good and the bad among Han people. Hu people don’t have the craftiness of Han people’s so maybe they even have a bit fewer baddies.’

When Qiao Feng looked at the ravine on the left-hand side, he remembered what had happened that year and said: ‘A’Zhu, my father and mother were murdered without any reason by these Han people. I’m not allowed not to settle this score.’

A’Zhu nodded and secretly felt scared. She knew that the words ‘I’m not allowed not to settle this score’ that he had just mentioned lightly were bound to involve countless fierce battles, blood and lives.

Qiao Feng pointed at the ravine and said: ‘That year, after my mother was killed by them, my father was so sad that he didn’t wanna live, so he jumped into the ravine from beside the rock over there. While he was in mid air, unwilling to make me die with him, he tossed me up. Only thanks to that can Qiao Feng be here today. A’Zhu, my father loved me very much, didn’t he?’ With her eyes moistened with tears, A’Zhu said: ‘Yes.’

Qiao Feng said: ‘My parents’ intense and deep-seated score, how can I not settle it? In the past I didn’t know about it so I went as far as considering the enemies my friends. It was very unfilial of me to do so. Today, if I don’t find and kill the main murderer that harmed my parents, how could I, Qiao, still have the face to live in the world? In the end, who is the ‘leading bi