Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 14:27:59 -0600 Reply-To: Joshua A Reyer Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Joshua A Reyer Subject: Dragon's Luck, Part Eleven X-cc: Neesan , fandora address Dragon's Luck Part Eleven By Joshua A. Reyer My interperation of the first movie universe rules, with no movie or series characters. Please send comments. ***************************************************************************** Village of Lijing, Shandong Province, China 1610 A.D. Daniel looked around, his eyes seeking out every potential hiding place, every shadow. He saw a figure jump from a house to the ground and dive behind another building, into an alley. "I challenge you!" Daniel cried, giving chase. He heard Wei Taitai calling out to him, but paid it no heed. It had to be Quaice, it *had* to be. He ran into the alley, but saw nothing. It was empty. Then he noticed a small boarded up passage. Unleashing a vicious kick, he shattered the board, then continued to run down toward his prey. It quickly became narrow, and dark, as the buildings blotted out the sun. Daniel could see light at the other end, where the passage opened up. As he neared the exit, he saw a sword swing out, at neck level. Rui Zhuo came up, and encountered the blow. There was a tangle of blades, and then Daniel was shocked to feel Rui Zhuo fly from his hands, and out of the passage. He ducked a beheading blow, and dived for his sword, lying in the small dead-end opening of the passage. When he looked, his opponent was gone. When he returned to Wei's house, he found Wei Taitai's son-in-law lying on the ground, bleeding. The thugs by the house had vanished. Wei Taitai was applying pressure to the wound, trying to make the bleeding less. Ying had told Daniel that this was how the Chinese treated wounds, as well as demonstrating acupuncture and herbal remedies. It all amazed Daniel, who had always been bled by a doctor when he was sick in England. "Where's your son?" he asked Wei Taitai. "He's gone to get the doctor. Please, help me get him into the house." Daniel picked up the wounded man by the shoulders, while Wei Taitai got him by the feet, still holding a cloth against her son-in-law's wound. It was a deep gash in his side. If he lived, it would leave a horrible scar. Wei's son ran up, the doctor in tow. Daniel backed away, leaving the life saving to those who knew about it. He took Wei Taitai aside. "What is your son's name?" he asked her. "Wei Er Zi" she responded. Daniel nodded and took the boy aside. "Xiao Wei," he said, addressing him by a dimunitive, "we have to talk. Come with me." "Your father, I'm sorry for his passing." The boy shrugged in response. "It was his time. He told me not to grieve." They both looked out toward the sea. It was nearing dusk, and the last of the junks were putting in. "Those thugs, do you know who they are? What they want?" Daniel asked the boy. "They are men in the pay of Bu Hao Nan. My father and he knew each other from long ago. I have a half-brother somewhere. Bu Hao Nan is his father. Mother is his mother. He is the eldest of all of us children." "Why is Bu troubling you now?" "My father did a very odd thing before he died. He left all his possessions to my elder sister, rather than to mother, or to me, as the eldest son. My sister's husband has assumed the roll of Head of House of Wei because of it. What is my sister's, is his. He has taken care of his wife's family, and her possessions. Bu Hao Nan wants something my father had, and he's trying to persuade mother to force my sister's husband to give it to him." "That is why I couldn't help him fight the thugs. As a foreigner, I would have made your brother-in-law lose face. By making it look like he needed an outsider to help him defend his family." "Yes, but one should never speak of such things, Guo Xiansheng. It is bad manners." "Oh, of course," Daniel grimaced, chastised by an 11-year old. "Guo Dan-yi," he heard Wei Tai-Tai call to him. He turned to face her, as the last vestiges of daylight sunk beneath the horizon. "It is time to give you, what Wei Xiangsheng wanted you to have!" Daniel looked in amazement at the book. It was not a book like in England, but a collection of scrolls bound together. At the top, Daniel could read "Treatise of Laozi on the Response of the Way". It was Wei's prized possession, his Bible. "It is yours," Wei Tai-tai urged him, "He wished you to have it." He wanted to take it, but to his surprise, Daniel felt the long buried English side of him balking at taking the religious book. Daniel squashed the feelings; this was a *gift*, and he could not refuse such an honorable one. He excepted the book with both hands. "Thank you very much, Wei Tai-tai. I'm honored that Wei Xiansheng thought of me." He paged through it, and found to his delight that he could read a good deal of it. He'd have to ask Ying about some of the characters, but his vocabulary was good enough for most of the book. "Wei Tai-tai, I'm sorry for asking this, but....how did Wei die?" Wei Tai-tai sighed. "He was too old, too old. He would not finish his work. Everyday he was out fishing. Every night he was selling the fish. He never took a rest. In the end, his heart burst." From his bed, Wei Tai-tai's son-in-law snorted. Wei Tai-tai ignored it, but Daniel took note. He continued his talk with Wei Tai-tai well into the night. Finally, she bade him good night and went to her room. Daniel was sleeping on the floor, in a bedroll. But instead of going to bed, he grabbed a stool and sat near Wei's son-in-law. "Ni hao," he greeted, "Ni jue da zenma yang?" Hello, how are you feeling? "What do you want, bai nan?" the son-in-law asked tiredly in English. "Oh, you speak very good English," Daniel continued in rapid Chinese. "I ache, and I wish to sleep. What do you want?" "First I want to know your name. Then I want to know why you don't think Wei died of a heart attack." It was all matter-of-fact. "My name in Gui Xing. I-" he stopped. He tried to make at falling asleep, but in the end he just glared at Daniel. "And?" Daniel prodded. "Look, bai nan, Wei Tai-tai knows what she's talking about. If she says Wei Xiansheng died of a heart attack, then he must have." Daniel grinned. "You were probably a better liar when you were healthy." Gui stared at Daniel, irritation giving way to anger. "Fine, gui lao, here is what I think. Wei Xiansheng was not in poor health. A year and a half before he died he walked from here to Honjing and back. Old Man Wei was in no danger of a heart attack." "As I thought. He kept himself in perfect health. So how did he die?" Gui looked to make sure that Wei Tai-tai was not still up. "Wei Er Zi poisoned him." Daniel nearly fell out of his chair. ***************************************************************************** Please send comments. If you are new to HLFIC-L, the ten previous parts to Dragon's Luck are located on World Wide Web at http://fandora.resnet.cornell.edu/~joshua. =========================================================================