Previously
前情
Previously: last time, a hero's banquet spread its tables at Juxian Manor — no banquet at all, but a trap to surround one man: Qiao Feng, a Khitan. To save a gravely wounded girl — A'zhu, maid of the Murong house of Gusu — he walked in knowing it was a death-trap. Bowl by bowl he drank the wine of severed ties, cutting every old tie with the warriors of the realm, and then fought them all alone. That night a man in black pulled him out of the thick of blades; and A'zhu, under the hands of the "Rival of the King of Hell," Divine Doctor Xue, came back from the brink.
话说上一回，聚贤庄上摆开英雄宴，那宴不是好宴，为的是围攻一个契丹人——乔峰。他为了救一个身受重伤的姑娘——姑苏慕容家的丫鬟阿朱——明知满庄群雄设的是死局，还是闯了进去。他一碗一碗喝下绝交酒，与天下英雄把往日交情断个干净，再以一敌众，血战一场。那一夜，是黑衣人把他从刀丛里救走的；阿朱得"阎王敌"薛神医医治，一条命也捡了回来。
After the blood at Juxian Manor he owned the place he came from: his surname was Xiao, and he was a Khitan. And from that day on, he was Xiao Feng.
聚贤庄血战之后，他认下了自己的来处：他本姓萧，是契丹人。从这一天起，他是萧峰。
Chapter 1: No Words Left on the Cliff
第一回 雁门关外，绝壁无字
Now, that night at Juxian Manor, the man in black carried Xiao Feng out and laid him up in a cave to heal. Xiao Feng's wounds were heavy; he lay half-conscious a long while. When he opened his eyes, healed, he was alone in the cave — when the man in black had gone, no word was left behind. He sat a while facing the empty cave, then rose and walked north. He went to see no one; he went first to one place: Yanmen Pass. His father and mother had died beyond that pass — a place he had to go.
且说聚贤庄那一夜，黑衣人把萧峰救了出来，安置在山洞里养伤。萧峰伤重，昏昏沉沉躺了许久；等他伤愈睁眼，洞里只剩他一个人——黑衣人什么时候走的，没有留一句话。他对着空荡荡的山洞坐了一会儿，起身往北走。他没有去找任何人，先去一个地方：雁门关。他爹娘死在关外，这地方，他非去不可。
Reaching Yanmen Pass, he sought out the ridge where it had happened. Decades ago his father had been surrounded and killed here, and his mother had died here too. On the ridge stood a cliff face — years ago, before his father died, he had cut characters into that rock. Xiao Feng remembered it. He had come a thousand li to look once, to read into his heart, character by character, the last words his parents left behind. But when he found the cliff, the rock was bare: the characters had long ago been chipped away, and not a trace remained.
到了雁门关，他寻到当年出事的那道山岭。几十年前，他父亲就在这里被人围杀，母亲也死在这里。山岭上有一面石壁——当年他父亲临死之前，曾在壁上刻下字迹。萧峰记得这件事。他千里迢迢赶来看一眼，要把爹娘留下的最后几句话，一个字一个字读到心里去。可他找到石壁，壁上光光的：字迹早已被人铲去，一点痕迹也没留下。
Not even a cliff was left to him. Who chipped away the words, we leave for now; all Xiao Feng felt at that moment was that the last trace his parents had left in this world had been wiped clean by someone's hand.
连一座石壁都不肯给他留。铲字的是谁，此处先按下不表；萧峰此刻只觉得，这世上连爹娘留下的最后一点痕迹，都被人抹了去。
He stood on the ridge a long time, then came down the mountain. Walking around to the side of the slope, he suddenly saw someone.
他在山岭上站了许久，然后下山。走到山侧，他猛然间看到一个人。
That someone was A'zhu.
那个人，是阿朱。
Why was A'zhu here? After her wounds healed, she had come alone to Yanmen Pass, and there she waited — five days and five nights already. Seeing him, she stepped up with a smile and greeted him by the old name, "Master Qiao." Later Xiao Feng told her his story: his surname was Xiao, and he was a Khitan. And from then on, she changed with it.
阿朱为什么在这里？她伤好之后，只身到了雁门关，就在这里等——已经等了五日五夜。见了他，她上前来，笑着招呼了一声——唤的仍是旧日的称呼，“乔大爷”。后来萧峰把自己的身世讲给她听：他本姓萧，是契丹人。往后，她才跟着改了口。
A Khitan hunted by all the world, and a girl who had come north alone — they met again at the foot of the mountains beyond Yanmen Pass. From then on they traveled together, and never parted again.
一个天下人人追杀的契丹人，和一个孤身北上的姑娘，在雁门关外的山脚下重逢了。从此两人同行，再没有分开过。
On the road, someone said her origins to her face — she was the maid of young Master Murong of Gusu.
路上有人当面点破阿朱的来历——她是姑苏慕容公子的丫鬟。
"A'zhu, you are young Master Murong's maid."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「阿朱，你是慕容公子的丫鬟」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） And here her station mattered: the Murong house kept many old paintings, letters, and relics, and A'zhu had looked at them since childhood, so she could tell a hand, and tell a forgery. An old case is broken by letters and witnesses, and her pair of eyes was of more use than Xiao Feng's blade.
这一层身份，此刻倒是要紧的：慕容家里收着的书画旧物多，阿朱自小看得多了，认得笔迹、辨得出真假。查旧案要靠书信，靠人证，她这一双眼睛，比萧峰的刀有用。
One more thing A'zhu herself had let fall: she walked with Xiao Feng because he had saved her life. The rest she did not say, and he did not ask.
还有一件事，阿朱自己也提过：她跟着萧峰走，是因为他救过她的命。余下的话，她不曾说，他也不曾问。
Chapter 2: The Men Who Knew, Gone One by One
第二回 知情的人，一个接一个去了
The two traveled together for the sake of an old case. Years ago, beyond the pass at Yanmen, a band of Central Plains warriors had lain in ambush and killed his father and mother, wiping out his family; the man who led them was known in the jianghu as the "Lead Brother" — the one who headed them, who stirred them up. That man was whom Xiao Feng meant to find.
二人同行，为的是一桩旧案。当年在雁门关外，领头伏击他爹娘、害了他一家性命的那位中原武人，江湖上称他"带头大哥"——"带头"，就是领头挑头的意思。萧峰要查出来的，是这个人。
This old case had first been torn open in public, there in the apricot grove. One elder of the Beggars' Sect after another had spread the story out before them all, and as he listened he learned he was no man of Song but a Khitan, and that his father's and mother's deaths hung upon that ambush beyond the pass at Yanmen. From that day the hatred had grown in him, and he meant to find the man who led it, and ask him to his face one question: why.
这桩旧案，先前是在杏子林里被当众揭开的。丐帮的旧人一个接一个把话摊在众人面前，他听着听着，才知道自己不是宋人，是契丹人；爹娘的死，牵在雁门关外那一场伏击上。仇恨从那天起长在他身上，他要找到那个领头的人，当面问一句为什么。
Few men alive knew who the "Lead Brother" was: Shan Zheng, the Iron-Faced Judge; Old Tan and his wife; Zhao Qiansun; and the Venerable Monk Zhiguang of Mount Tiantai — all of them had taken part in that ambush beyond Yanmen Pass. Xiao Feng and A'zhu meant to go to them one by one, and ask them one by one.
知道"带头大哥"是谁的，世上没有几个人：铁面判官单正，谭公谭婆夫妇，赵钱孙，还有天台山的智光大师——都是当年在雁门关外跟着动过手的人。萧峰与阿朱打算一个一个找过去，一个一个问过去。
First they went to Shan Zheng's home in Tai'an, Shandong. By the time Xiao Feng and A'zhu arrived, the Shan manor had been burned to bare ground, the whole family dead — not one living soul left.
先到山东泰安，单正的家。萧峰与阿朱赶到时，单家庄已经烧成一片白地，单正满门遇害，一个活口也没留下。
Then they sought Old Tan and his wife — dead. Then Zhao Qiansun — dead too. Each had died a different way, but all at nearly the same hour: just before Xiao Feng's arrival.
再找谭公谭婆，死了；再找赵钱孙，也死了。死法各不相同，死的时候却都差不多——就在萧峰快到之前。
It was as though someone walked always ahead of him: whoever he sought died one step sooner. And that someone meant not only to kill off those who knew — he meant that Xiao Feng should never get his question answered.
好像有人一直走在他前头：他找谁，谁就先死一步。这个人不单要杀光知情人，还要让萧峰永远问不出那句话。
The last was the Venerable Monk Zhiguang of the Zhiguan Temple on Mount Tiantai. Fearing he would be too late, Xiao Feng hurried up the mountain. The monk was still alive. He told Xiao Feng the whole course of that battle beyond Yanmen Pass — how the ambush was laid, how the blows fell, how his father leaped from the cliff holding his mother. When the tale was done, Xiao Feng asked the Lead Brother's name. Monk Zhiguang shook his head: that name he would not speak to the death. Then he sat cross-legged on his rush cushion, and passed into stillness.
最后一位，是天台山止观寺的智光大师。萧峰生怕迟了，赶上山去。大师还活着。他把当年雁门关外那一战的经过，原原本本讲给萧峰听——怎么设的伏，怎么动的手，他父亲怎么抱着他母亲跳下山崖。讲完了，萧峰问带头大哥的名字。智光大师摇了摇头：这名字，他至死不说。说罢，他盘膝坐在蒲团之上，就此圆寂。
One by one those who knew were gone, and one by one the threads in Xiao Feng's hand broke. Only one place was left to go: Xinyang. Ma Dayuan, Vice-Chief of the Beggars' Sect, was dead, but his widow, Madam Ma, still lived in Xinyang. In life Ma Dayuan had been one of the few touched by the old case; something might yet be kept in his house. So Xiao Feng and A'zhu set out for Xinyang.
知情人一个接一个没了，萧峰手里的线，一根一根断掉。只剩最后一处可去：信阳。丐帮副帮主马大元已经死了，他的遗孀马夫人还住在信阳。马大元生前是少数沾过这桩旧案的人，说不定家中还留着什么。萧峰与阿朱便往信阳去。
Chapter 3: A Name Spoken in Xinyang
第三回 信阳城里，一个名字被说了出来
At Xinyang, Xiao Feng meant to knock at the door himself. A'zhu stopped him: who under heaven would not know that face? She had an art of disguise — another face, another voice. She would play one man: Bai Shijing of the Beggars' Sect. Bai Shijing had been Ma Dayuan's sworn brother in life, and one of those touched by the old case; if "Bai Shijing" came asking, Madam Ma would suspect nothing.
到得信阳，萧峰原想自己上门。阿朱拦住了他：他这张脸，天下谁不认得？她有一门易容的本事——换一张脸，换一副嗓音。她要扮一个人：丐帮的白世镜。白世镜是马大元生前的结义兄弟，也是沾过这桩旧案的人；由"白世镜"出面问话，马夫人不会起疑。
So A'zhu, made up as Bai Shijing, walked into the Ma house. At the sight of "Elder Bai," Madam Ma indeed suspected nothing. A'zhu pretended to be checking the old business, and drew the talk toward the Lead Brother. Listening, Madam Ma suddenly lowered her voice and spoke a name — she said the Lead Brother was none other than Duan Zhengchun, the Prince of Zhennan of Dali.
于是阿朱扮成白世镜，进了马家。马夫人一见"白长老"，果然没有起疑。阿朱装作核对旧事，把话头往带头大哥身上引。马夫人听着听着，忽然压低声音，说了一个名字——她说，带头大哥，就是大理镇南王段正淳。
The asker was a false Bai Shijing, but the answerer was a true Madam Ma. That one name, "Duan Zhengchun," was the blade she put into Xiao Feng's hand with her own.
问话的是假白世镜，答话的却是真马夫人。这一句"段正淳"，就是她亲手递到萧峰手里的刀。
Who was Duan Zhengchun? Prince of Zhennan of the kingdom of Dali, father of the young heir Duan Yu, and brother of the reigning Emperor Baoding.
段正淳是谁？大理国的镇南王，世子段誉的父亲，当今保定帝的兄弟。
But that "name" was false. The Lead Brother was someone else; and Madam Ma had a purpose of her own in turning the trail toward Duan Zhengchun.
可这个"名字"是假的。带头大哥另有其人；马夫人把线索引到段正淳身上，另有用意。
It turned out that in her youth Madam Ma had known Duan Zhengchun in love, and then he had left her, and the love had turned to hate. She had hated him all these years, hated him enough to want his life — only she would not strike with her own hand. Now, with Xiao Feng hunting everywhere for the Lead Brother, she handed him the name of Duan Zhengchun: borrowing Xiao Feng's blade to kill the man she wanted dead.
原来马夫人年轻时与段正淳有过一段旧情，后来段正淳离她而去，这份情就翻成了恨。她恨了这许多年，恨到要取段正淳的命——只是她不肯自己动手。如今萧峰到处找带头大哥，她就把段正淳的名字递过去：借萧峰的刀，杀她想杀的人。
Of that old grievance, the tale to come will tell in full. Here remember only this: the death that was coming for Duan Zhengchun was one that someone had deliberately sent to his door.
这段旧怨，后文书还有细表。此处你只须记住一件：段正淳这一趟杀身之祸，是有人存心送到他面前的。
Xiao Feng believed it. Small wonder — the words had come from the widow of Ma Dayuan. He inquired where Duan Zhengchun was, and heard that the Prince was not in Dali just now, but at Little Mirror Lake — a lakeside, keeping company with an old love. So Xiao Feng and A'zhu set out for Little Mirror Lake.
萧峰信了。不信也难——这话是从马大元的遗孀嘴里说出来的。他探听段正淳的下落，听说镇南王此刻不在大理，正在小镜湖——一个湖边，与旧情人相会。萧峰与阿朱便往小镜湖去。
Only one thing escaped Xiao Feng's notice: at the three words "Duan Zhengchun," A'zhu's face changed, just for an instant. She was keeping something hidden, and hiding it deep; Xiao Feng did not see it.
只有一处是萧峰没有留意的：听见"段正淳"三个字，阿朱的脸色微微一变。她心里藏着事，藏得很深，萧峰没有看出来。
Chapter 4: An Empty Promise
第四回 只说塞外长相守 谁料人间此约空
The road from Xinyang to Little Mirror Lake was hard, yet Xiao Feng carried one thought in his heart. One day, as the two rested and spoke of the days to come, he said:
且说两人离了信阳，一路往小镜湖去。这一路走得苦，萧峰心里却存着一个念头。那一日两人歇脚，说起日后，他说了一句：
"We'll go beyond the Wall and hunt, and herd sheep."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, serialized edition 「到塞外打猎放羊去也。」
——《天龙八部》（连载版） "Beyond the Wall" means the grasslands and the great desert north of the Great Wall — wide sky, high heaven, cattle and sheep, hunting hawks, and wind-blown sand. In the Central Plains he was a Khitan whom everyone hunted; beyond the Wall he would be only a man who herded sheep. And he pictured it: galloping over the grass with a hawk on the wing and hounds after hares, and at nightfall back to the tent; the two of them herding cattle and sheep, day after day together, and no one coming between them.
塞外，说的是长城以北的草原大漠——那里天高地阔，有牛羊，有猎鹰，也有风沙。在中原，他是一个人人追杀的契丹人；到了塞外，他只是一个放羊的汉子。他想着这样的日子：草原上驰马放鹰，纵犬逐兔，天黑了就回帐篷；两个人放牛放羊，天天在一处，谁也不来分开。
That thought was the one road out Xiao Feng kept for himself. The Central Plains would not hold him, so he would move his days beyond the pass: no one there would know him, no one would come hunting him for his life — only cattle and sheep, and one person willing to come along.
这个念头，是萧峰替自己留下的一条活路。中原容不下他，他就把往后的日子挪到关外去：那里没有人认得他，没有人追着要他偿命，只有牛羊，和一个肯跟他走的人。
A'zhu listened, and answered him. And she too was keeping something back: the thing pressed down inside her was joined precisely to the name "Duan Zhengchun." She said nothing of it, and it would not rise to the surface until Little Mirror Lake.
阿朱听着，也应着。她也瞒着一件事：她心里压着的那件事，正好与"段正淳"这个名字连着。那件事她不说，要等到小镜湖才翻上来。
Then he put it to A'zhu:
他又问阿朱一句：
"A'zhu, I'll be beyond the Wall — will you come and see me or not?"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「阿朱，我在塞外，你来瞧我不瞧？」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） She said yes. She said it at once, and with all her heart: she would go with him, and stay with him her whole life long.
她答应了。她答应得极快，也极认真：她要跟他去，要陪他一辈子。
When she gave that answer, she meant it from the heart. She truly meant to go beyond the Wall with him, truly meant to herd cattle and sheep for a lifetime; and she knew as well that such days might not be theirs to decide.
答应这话的时候，她是真心。她是真想跟他去塞外，真想放牛放羊过一辈子；她也知道，这样的日子未必轮得到他们两个来做主。
And the promise was made so quickly, so earnestly. Only no one could have known: the very next night, under the stone bridge, a single palm came down, and there was no afterward for either of them.
这一约，许得这样快，这样认真。只是谁都想不到：第二天夜里，青石桥下一掌落下，两个人就再没有以后了。
Note: Qiao Feng and Xiao Feng
旁注 · 乔峰与萧峰
Chapter 5: A Birth Known by the Lakeside
第五回 小镜湖畔知身世 方竹林前定死生
The two reached Little Mirror Lake. On its shore grew a grove of square bamboo, and in the grove lived a household of the Ruan family. The one Duan Zhengchun had come to see was none other than Ruan Xingzhu, mistress of the Ruan house — an old love of years ago, warmed again on this visit.
且说两人到了小镜湖。湖畔生着一片方竹，竹林中住着一户阮家。段正淳这趟来会的人，正是阮家的女主人阮星竹——当年一段旧情，此番重温。
At the lakeside the two first met a girl. She looked somewhat like A'zhu, and sounded more like her still. Hearing her speak, Xiao Feng felt something stir in him. She was no stranger — she was A'zhu's own sister, by name A'zi. Of this A'zi there will be much to tell later; for now we leave her.
到了湖边，两人先见到一个姑娘。这姑娘生得与阿朱有几分像，声音更像。萧峰听见她开口，心里一动。她不是旁人，正是阿朱的同胞妹妹，名叫阿紫。这个阿紫往后还有大段的故事，此处先按下不表。
That night Xiao Feng sought out Duan Zhengchun. Enemy met enemy, and they came to blows; Duan Zhengchun was no match for Xiao Feng, and was overpowered. Xiao Feng set Duan Zhengchun gently on the ground and stepped back a few paces —
且说夜里，萧峰找上段正淳。仇人相见，动起手来，段正淳不是萧峰的对手，被萧峰制住。萧峰轻轻将段正淳放在地下，退开几步——
"Xiao Feng set Duan Zhengchun gently on the ground and stepped back a few paces."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「萧峰轻轻将段正淳放在地下，退开几步。」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） A man carrying a blood-feud in him, who before he struck would first set the man down easy and give him room: Xiao Feng's whole code lay in those few motions.
一个身上背着血仇的人，动手之前，先肯把人放稳、退开几步，萧峰的规矩就在这几个动作里。
But hold. The chief matter of this visit to Little Mirror Lake was not Xiao Feng — it was A'zhu. She had come to the lake with Xiao Feng, and the first one she saw was this very A'zi — and at that sight, the thing hidden in her heart could be held down no longer. She owned her own birth: she was no maid born to the Murong house; she was Duan Zhengchun's daughter. And this A'zi by the lake was her own sister.
且慢。这一趟小镜湖，最要紧的不是萧峰，是阿朱。她跟着萧峰到了湖边，先见到的，就是这个阿紫——这一见，她心里藏着的那件事，就再也压不住了。她把自己的身世认了下来：她不是慕容家生养的丫鬟，她是段正淳的女儿；湖边这个阿紫，正是她的同胞妹妹。
And that knowledge laid before her, plain, a choice: her own father, and the man she loved. The very man Xiao Feng was set on killing was her father. Were she to speak, Xiao Feng might not be able to strike — but he would carry the debt for the rest of his life; were she to stay silent, that palm would fall on her father, sooner or later.
这一认，眼前就摆在一个人面前：亲生的父亲，和心上的人。萧峰一心要杀的，正是她父亲。她若说了，萧峰未必下得了手，却要背一辈子的债；她若不说，这一掌迟早要落在父亲身上。
She sat a long while alone by the bamboo grove, turning the two ends of it over and over. And at the end she pressed it down inside her, spoke not one word of it to Xiao Feng, and settled the matter alone — a resolve Xiao Feng would not learn of until the next night, under the stone bridge.
她在竹林边独自坐了很久，把这两头翻来覆去地想。想到末了，她把这件事压在心里，一句也没有对萧峰说破，只一个人拿定了主意——这个主意，萧峰要到第二夜青石桥下才知道。
Chapter 6: The Bridge at the Second Watch
第六回 二更约下青石桥 一掌错杀意中人
Enough of side talk. This meeting to settle accounts was Xiao Feng's to call: the vengeance in him had been pressed down so long that he could wait no more. Word was sent ahead — at the second watch, on a stone bridge outside the city, an end to it. The second watch is somewhere between nine and eleven at night. That night Xiao Feng came early to the bridge, and waited.
闲话少叙。这一场了断，是萧峰约的——他心里的仇压了这么久，等不得了。他把话递过去：二更时分，城外一座青石桥上了断。二更，是夜里九点到十一点。那一夜，萧峰早早到了桥边，等着。
And who would come? He was certain it would be Duan Zhengchun.
来的人会是谁？他认定是段正淳。
A'zhu had told him she had a way to make sure no one could tell true from false. Nor was it an idle word: raised in the Murong house, she had made herself a master of disguise — another face, another voice, and standing before you she might pass for anyone, even to those who knew her well.
阿朱说她有法子，包管让人认不出真假来。这话不假。她自幼在慕容家长大，易容改扮的本事练得精熟——换一张脸，换一副嗓音，站在人前，连熟人也认她不出。
And who was it, at the second watch, that walked up under the bridge as "Duan Zhengchun"? It was A'zhu, wearing her father's face and her father's clothes — and putting her own body under that palm.
你道二更时分，走到桥下的那位"段正淳"是谁？是阿朱扮的。她把父亲的模样、父亲的衣裳，一身上下都扮成了；她把自己，放到了那一掌底下。
This was the moment Xiao Feng had waited for. The palm fell; the figure went down. He stepped nearer, and looked — it was A'zhu.
萧峰等的就是这一刻。一掌下去，那人倒地。他上前一看——是阿朱。
"Xiao Feng cried out: 'Why? Why? Why?'"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「萧峰大叫："你为什么？为什么？为什么？"」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） There was no one else under the bridge. He held A'zhu in his arms, tears standing in his eyes, and bent his head to hear her speak. With one palm, the vengeance he had come to take and the man he had come to find had both turned into a hopeless tangle.
桥下没有第二个人。他把阿朱抱在怀里，眼中含泪，俯下身去听她说话。一掌之下，他要报的仇、他要找的人，全成了一笔糊涂账。
And in that moment one thing woke in him: he had fallen into a villain's poisoned scheme. Words had been laid down for him, link upon link; witnesses had been set out for him, one after another — all to walk him step by step to this bridge. Duan Zhengchun was not the "Lead Brother." Who the true killer was, this instalment does not say; the tale to come will tell.
到这一刻，他也醒觉了一件事：他误中了奸人的毒计。指路的话是一层一层铺好的，人证是一个一个排好的，把他一步一步引到这座桥前。段正淳不是那个"带头大哥"——真凶是谁，这一段里还没有交代，后文书自有分晓。
A'zhu still had a thread of breath. She called him "Elder Brother" in a low voice, her words no longer able to come whole. Two things she could not let go: her younger sister, A'zi, whom she asked Xiao Feng to look after in the days to come; and the wish that he would not go looking for trouble with her father again. That night, she left those two wishes with him.
阿朱还剩一口气。她低声叫他"大哥"，话已经说不成整句了。她最放不下的是两件事：一是妹妹阿紫，往后的日子，请萧峰替她照看；二是不愿他日后再去找她父亲的麻烦。她就在这一夜，把这两句话留给了他。
Note: The Art of Disguise
旁注 · 易容术
Chapter 7: A Grave, and a Sister Entrusted
第七回 新坟三尺埋知己 遗言半句托幼妹
Now, after that night, Xiao Feng dug a pit in the waste ground. He lifted A'zhu's body in his arms, walked to the edge of the pit, laid her in it, and shovel by shovel raised a new grave.
话说那一夜之后，萧峰在荒地上挖了一个土坑。他抱起阿朱的尸身，走到土坑旁，把她放进去，一铲一铲，堆起一座新坟。
"He lifted A'zhu's body in his arms and walked to the edge of the pit."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「他抱起阿朱的尸身，走到土坑旁」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） A stone was raised before the grave, and on it he had cut his own name:
坟前立碑，碑上刻的是他自己的名字：
"'The grave of Xiao Feng, a boorish Khitan.'"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「"契丹莽夫萧峰之墓"」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） The name was his; the body in the earth was hers. And the earth he shovelled in buried not A'zhu alone — it buried him as well. The one who lived on afterward was a body and nothing more. He sat by the grave a long, long while without a blink; since A'zhu's last breath, he was a man alone again.
名字是他的，人却躺在地下。这一锹一锹土，埋的不只是阿朱——他把自己也埋了进去。往后活着的那个人，只是一副躯壳。他在坟边坐着，一坐就是许久，眼也不眨；自从阿朱断气之后，他又成了孤零零一个人。
"Xiao Feng sat there woodenly, staring."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, serialized edition 「萧峰是呆呆的坐着」
——《天龙八部》（连载版） That palm Xiao Feng struck with his own hand. Ten thousand men in the jianghu wanted him dead; but this stroke of his own had killed his own life. He turned his whole life over in his mind: he had killed men before and never once repented; this time he would repent to the end of his days.
那一掌，是萧峰自己打下去的。江湖上想要他性命的人成千上万，可这一掌，他打的是自己的命。他把这辈子的事从头想了一遍：他杀过人，从来没有后悔；这一回，他要后悔一辈子。
By rights he should have dashed his own head against the grave and ended it there. But A'zhu, at her death, had left her sister in his keeping — and from that moment his life was no longer his own. He had to live, and see the thing done.
按说，萧峰本该一头撞死在这坟前。可阿朱临死把妹妹托给了他——从这一刻起，他这条命就不再只是他自己的了。他得活着，把这件事办完。
The charge A'zhu had left him, he remembered. Her younger sister A'zi was her own full sister — same face, same voice, near enough one person; A'zi had since taken the door of Ding Chunqiu, head of the Xingxiu Sect — a sect known for ruthlessness and no scruple — for her master, and what she learned there was no upright road. And this sister took Xiao Feng as her own kin — not "Great Hero," not "Master Xiao," but "Elder Sister's Man."
阿朱托付的那件事，他记住了。她的妹妹阿紫，与她是一对同胞姊妹，模样、声音都像一个人；阿紫后来拜在星宿派掌门丁春秋门下——星宿派是个讲狠不讲理的门派，她学到的不是正路。这个妹妹认了萧峰做亲人——她不叫他大侠，不叫他萧大爷，只叫“姊夫”。
She had no proper manner of speaking; the first thing out of her mouth was a tease:
她说话没个正形，一开口就是打趣：
"'Elder Sister's Man, you're being odd again.'"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「姊夫，你又来古怪啦」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） Xiao Feng only shot her a glare, and said nothing.
萧峰听了，只瞪她一眼，没接话。
From the moment of that charge, the days of these two were tangled together: one man who would not leave a grave, and one heedless girl — and the road ahead was a road they would have to walk side by side.
从托付那一刻起，这两个人的日子就缠在一处了：一个抱着坟不肯走的人，一个不懂轻重的小姑娘，往后的路，偏偏还得一起走。
Nor had he any footing left in the Central Plains: every day he stayed, one more day of men hunting him. North was the only road open to him.
中原也再没有他的立脚之地：留下来一天，就多一天的追杀。往北，是他唯一能走的路。
From first to last: the cattle and sheep beyond the Wall were a promise made and never kept; the hair beside the candle was an old vow spoken. The whole of it — the promise and the death — the book folds into a single chapter, and its title runs out in these lines —
从前到后：塞上的牛羊，是许了却没能兑现的约；烛边的鬓发，是许过的旧盟。这一段的前因后果，原著合成一回，题目连排，是这几句——
"Beyond the Wall, cattle and sheep — a promise made to nothing; by the candle, hair like cloud — an old vow; through the vasts, treading the snow."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「塞上牛羊空许约，烛畔鬓云有旧盟。莽苍踏雪行。」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） Here this instalment ends, and one thing remains: a man who has lost everything takes the sister his dead love left in his keeping, and goes north. Out through the pass at Yanmen, into the land of Liao, up beyond the Wall. There are cattle there, and sheep, and hunting hawks — only the one who watches the herds is not the one who was promised.
这一篇到此，剩下的只有一件事：一个失了所有的人，带着亡人托付的妹妹，往北走。出雁门关，进辽国，去塞北。那里有牛羊，有猎鹰——只是看牛羊的人，换了。
To know what happened next, listen to the next instalment.
欲知后事如何，且听下回分解。