The girl was young and tender.
Ding Peng felt as if he could no longer breathe, and his heart pounded three times faster than usual.
He had never come so close to a girl.
That was not to say that there were no young girls in his hometown, or that he had never seen any.
He always tried very hard to be abstinent and had used numerous methods to do so: shoving snow into his pants, soaking his head in the creek, pricking himself in the leg with a needle, running, mountain climbing, doing cartwheels….
Before obtaining his fame, he would not allow such things to distract him. He would not let anything waste his strength.
But now, all of a sudden, he saw a naked woman, a young, beautiful, naked woman.
With snow white skin, firm breasts, slender and sleek legs….
It took him all his strength to turn his head away, but the woman ran to him and held him in her arms, begging while gasping.
“Help me! You must save me!”
She was so close to him. Her breaths were warm and sweet. He could even hear her heartbeats.
His mouth was so dry that he couldn’t even utter a single word.
The girl had realized the change in his body, and her face reddened. Trying her best to cover herself up with her hands, she asked.
“You…eh…can…can you take off your clothes and lend it to me?”
Although the robe was the only clothes he had, he took it off without hesitation. The girl calmed down a bit after draping his robe over herself.
“Thanks!” she said earnestly.
Ding Peng finally calmed down a bit himself and could finally speak out.
“Is there someone chasing you?”
The girl nodded, and tears quickly welled up in her eyes.
“This place is out of the way and hard to find. Even if someone comes for you, you don’t have to be afraid,” said Ding Peng.
He is a man, born with the instinct to protect women, not to mention such a beautiful girl. He held her hands in his.
“As long as me and my sword are here, you don’t have to be afraid.”
“Thank you,” the girl said gently, feeling reassured.
She seemed to have said those words before. Then she looked downward and closed her mouth.
Ding Peng didn’t know what say.
He was going to ask, “Why are you running? Who’s after you? Why are they chasing you?”
But he forgot to ask, and she didn’t say.
Though she draped the robe over herself, such a short robe simply cannot cover up a fully-grown girl entirely.
A girl like her has too many inviting places on her body.
His heart was still thumbing, only too rapidly.
After a long while he finally noticed that her eyes were fixed on his packet of beef stew.
This meal could very well be his last meal, for he only had one copper penny left.
However, he said without a second thought, “These foods are clean. Why don’t you have some?”
“Thanks!” the girl said again.
“Help yourself!” replied Ding Peng.
The girl really helped herself promptly.
Ding Peng could never have imagined how such a beautiful girl could eat like a horse.
She must have been hungry for a long time and suffered deeply.
He could even picture in his mind the kind of tragedy the girl had endured.
A lonely girl, stripped of her clothes by a bunch of villains, locked down in a cellar, without any food. After quite some struggle, she finally managed to escape.
As he imagined the scenes in his mind, she had almost eaten up all his belongings.
She finished off all the beef and bean curds. She even ate all the steamed buns. All that was left were no more than a dozen peanuts.
Even she herself was somewhat embarrassed. “You can have these.” she pushed the peanuts over and said in an almost inaudible voice.
Ding Peng smiled.
He really wanted to cry, but somehow he couldn’t help but smile.
The girl also smiled, her face blushing, as red as a pretty flower in the sunshine.
A smile not only can make people happy, but also can shorten the distance between two persons.
They were both more relaxed by now, and the girl finally told her story.
Ding Peng’s imagination was actually not too far from what she told.
The girl had indeed been kidnapped by a bunch of villains. She had been stripped of her clothes and locked in a cellar. For several days, she didn’t eat anything. Those villains thought she was too hungry to move about, so they became careless, and she took the opportunity and escaped.
“I am so lucky to have run into you!” She found words so pale for her gratitude toward him.
“Where are they? I’ll go with you to find them!” Ding Peng asked as he rubbed the hilt of his sword.
“You cannot go!” the girl gasped.
“Why?” asked Ding Peng.
“There are some things I cannot say, but I promise I’ll tell you later,” the girl said with hesitation.
It seemed that the story was more profound than what had surfaced. If she couldn’t tell, he wouldn’t ask.
“I need to find a person, and then I’ll be alright,” the girl said again.
“Who are you looking for?”
“An elder of mine. He is over seventy years old, but still likes to wear bright red clothes. If you see him, you’ll definitely recognize him.”
“Would you find him for me?” the girl lifted her head and asked gently, her beautiful eyes filled with plea.
Ding Peng of course couldn’t go. He indeed couldn’t go, and he really shouldn’t go.
It was less than two hours from the fight that would decide his fate for his entire life.
He was still hungry, and he hadn’t practiced his sword moves. He must cultivate his mood and retain his strength so he could face Liu Ruosong. How could he just go and find an old man he had never met before for the sake of a stranger girl?
Yet he simply couldn’t let the word “no” out of his mouth. It was really no easy task to say “no” to a face of a beautiful girl. It would really require a great deal of courage and a lot of nerves. A man can only learn how to say “no” after going through many painful experiences.
“Where can I find this old gentleman?” Ding Peng sighed in his heart and finally asked.
“You will help me find him?” The girl’s eyes brightened.
Ding Peng had no choice but to nod. The girl jumped up and hugged him.
“You are such a nice guy! I’ll never forget you!”
Ding Peng knew that in the rest of his life, it would be very difficult to forget this girl as well.
“If you follow the creek and go up, you’ll see an old tree with very strange shapes at the end of the creek. He is always there playing the game of Go when the weather is good.”
Today’s weather was very good indeed.
“Once you see him, it is very important that you mess up his game board first. That’s the only way he would listen to you and then follow you over!”
Aren’t all board game enthusiasts like that? Even if the sky is falling, they’d still finish their present game first.
“I’ll wait here. Whether you find him or not, please hurry back.”
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Picture of the Day:
Four obvious ones? 6-(4/4) is the only one that springs to mind. Is it okay to ignore one of the 4s and turn the 6 upside down for 9-4?
ReplyDeleteYep! You got two of the four obvious ones!
ReplyDeleteyou could cut out the bottom left part of the 6 to make it look like a 5.
ReplyDeleteIt also just so happens to be that if you put 6,4,4 as the arguments of this lambda function it will return 5. f = lambda x,y,z: 5
(4*4-6.) / (6%4.) = 5
6/(6%4.)+6%4. = 5
pow(6,4)/pow(4,4) ≈ 5
Stephen, sorry you can't cut the candle.
ReplyDeleteAlso only math operators are allowed. So your lambda function doesn't count.
And you only have one 6 and two 4s. So the last three functions you provided don't count either!
:) Give it another try!
Hmmm... If it's a Java integer operation, 6/4+4=5, as the 1.5 will be truncated. Not sure if that's allowable, though.
ReplyDelete:) Lots of programmers here!
ReplyDeleteI'd say no floor()/ceiling()/int() kind of functions allowed, because they are not really math operators.
Okay, here are two more solutions:
4.6 + .4 = 5
(6+4) / sqrt(4) = 5
Any other solutions?