Previously
前情
Last time: after a great battle at Tianlong Temple, Master Kurong made a swift decision and burned the manual of the Six Meridians Sword with his inner strength. Foiled, Jiumozhi simply devised a new plan: the paper manual was gone, but the living manual remained — so he kidnapped Duan Yu and carried him east, down to Jiangnan. The manual was ash; the man was now the manual.
话说上回：天龙寺一场大战，枯荣大师当机立断，以内力焚毁了六脉神剑剑谱。鸠摩智夺谱不成，一计不成又生一计：纸谱没了，活谱还在——他掳了段誉，一路东下江南。剑谱烧了，人就是剑谱。
Chapter 1: Two Clever Maids of Swallow's Dock
第一回 燕子坞双鬟施巧计 参合庄书生脱樊笼
Now, the waterways of Jiangnan crisscross like a maze. Escorting Duan Yu to Gusu, Jiumozhi rode the boat into ever narrower channels, under willows hanging ever lower, until they reached a lakeside estate — Canhe Manor at Yanziwu, Swallow's Dock. The channels twisted this way and that, yet the monk moved through them as if he had walked them a thousand times.
且说江南水路，港汊纵横，船行其间，如入迷阵。鸠摩智押着段誉到了姑苏，水道越走越窄，两岸柳色越垂越低，终于到了一处水乡庄园——燕子坞参合庄。这一路七拐八弯，那番僧却像是走过千百遍，熟门熟路。
Duan Yu looked up at the manor gate and could not help asking:
段誉抬头看那庄门，忍不住问：
"'So this is Canhe Manor at Yanziwu?'"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「此间便是燕子坞参合庄么？」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） It was. This was the home of the famous "Murong of Gusu." You may ask — was the master of the house, Murong Fu, at home? He was not. The master was abroad; only his name was present. The jianghu had a saying that paired the two greatest men of the age.
正是。此处，便是江湖上赫赫有名的"姑苏慕容"的家。你道这慕容家的主人慕容复可在庄上？不在。主人云游在外，只闻其名，不见其人。江湖上有一句口号，把天下两位人物排在一处。
Qiao Feng of the North, Murong of the South — and Qiao Feng's name came first. Duan Yu heard the words and let them pass; they never went in. How could he know that the first of those two names would soon be sitting at the same table drinking with him, and would end the night as his sworn brother?
北乔峰，南慕容。乔峰之名，还排在慕容复的前头。这句话段誉此时听过也就听过了，全没往心里去。他哪里想得到，这六个字里的头一个，过不了多久就会跟他坐在同一张桌上喝酒，喝完酒还要跟他结拜。
The master was away, but two maids appear in his place: A'zhu and A'bi. A'zhu gave her own introduction: she was A'zhu, little maid of the Murong house at Canhe Manor, Yanziwu.
主人不在，庄上倒有两个丫鬟出场，一个叫阿朱，一个叫阿碧。阿朱自报家门，说是燕子坞参合庄慕容家的小婢。
"Little maid" means exactly that. Young as they were, both were sharp as needles. Jiumozhi lodged in the manor, which had a place called Jinse Ju, with Duan Yu kept under guard close by.
小婢，就是小丫鬟。这两个丫鬟年纪不大，人机灵得很。鸠摩智在庄中落脚，庄里有一处所在，名唤"锦瑟居"，段誉就被看管在近旁。
The watch was tight, but no watch is tight enough against two quick-witted maids working from the inside. The monk was domineering, and the two girls, for all their serving smiles, had long taken a dislike to him. Duan Yu found a moment to tell A'bi his story — how he had been carried off by force — and spoke so earnestly that A'bi believed him. The two girls put their heads together: better to let this young gentleman go, and leave the monk empty-handed. And Duan Yu truly did get free.
看守虽紧，可再紧的看守，也架不住两个机灵丫鬟里应外合。这和尚强横霸道，两个丫头面上侍候，心里早存着不满。段誉寻个空子，把自己被强掳的遭遇对阿碧说了，说得恳切——阿碧便信了他。两个丫头一商议：索性放这位公子走，也让那和尚扑个空。段誉竟真的脱身了。
A'bi rowed the little boat. Once it was out on the lake, Jiumozhi could catch up no more. Only then did the scholar draw a long breath: Jiangnan is lovely — especially once the danger has passed.
阿碧摇着小船，行到湖上，鸠摩智再也追不上来了。书生这才长长喘出一口气：江南好，好在有惊无险。
Chapter 2: A Sea of Camellias at Mantuo Manor
第二回 曼陀山庄茶花如海 狠辣夫人恶言如刀
Free of Canhe Manor and having taken his leave of A'bi, Duan Yu took a small boat and drifted on the lake for a long while, losing count of the turns he took; then a blaze of blossoms caught his eye ahead, veiling whitewashed walls and dark tiles, and he rowed over — and that was Mantuo Manor. No pines, no bamboo, no peach or plum anywhere; the whole manor was planted with a single thing: camellias. As Duan Yu walked the grounds, color followed color, cluster topped cluster, enough to dazzle the eye.
脱得参合庄，与阿碧作别，段誉摇着一条小船，在湖上漂了许久，也不知转了多少水路，只见前头一片花光扑眼，掩着粉墙黛瓦，他便把小船靠了过去——那便是曼陀山庄。庄子上上下下，不种松竹，不栽桃李，种的是清一色的山茶花。段誉在庄中行走，只见一色接着一色，一丛胜过一丛，看得人眼花缭乱。
Duan Yu was from Dali, and Dali camellias are famous under heaven; he had grown up in a heap of blossoms and knew the flower better than anyone.
段誉是大理人。大理的山茶，天下闻名，他自小在花堆里长大，最识此花。
Faced with this sea of blooms he could not help passing judgment: this one a prize strain, that one common stock, this bed tended to perfection, that one a criminal waste — every word of it sound, and every word of it forgetting entirely that he was a guest.
见了好花，他忍不住品头论足：这一株是名种，那一株是凡品，这一丛养得到家，那一丛白白糟蹋了——说得头头是道，全然忘了自己是客。
But wait. Fine as the flowers were, the mistress of the manor was not to be trifled with. The lady of the house, Madam Wang, was a terror. In the manor stood a room called the "Flower Fertilizer Room." At first Duan Yu thought nothing of it:
且慢。花虽好，这庄子的主人却不好惹。庄主王夫人，是个狠角色。庄里有一间屋子，名唤"花肥房"。段誉初见这名字，只当平常：
"'What's a Flower Fertilizer Room? Fertilizer for the flowers?'"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, revised edition 「什么“花肥房”？是种花的肥料么？」
——《天龙八部》（修订版） Fertilizer is what feeds a flower. But beneath the two words "flower fertilizer" at Mantuo Manor there lay, not bean cakes and wood ash — but people. Whoever fell into her hands — once a life was lost, the bones went under the camellia roots, to fatten those prize strains; and the manor even kept a woman whose sole work was this trade. Duan Yu took it at the time for nothing more than the name of an ordinary potting room and gave it no deep thought — he did not yet know that in this manor the most elegant name of all had the cruelest thing buried beneath it.
花肥，是养花的肥料。可曼陀山庄的"花肥"二字，底下埋着的不是豆饼草木灰——是人。但凡撞在她手里的，性命一丢，尸骨便埋进茶花根下，肥那一丛丛的名种；庄里还有专管这桩活计的婆子。段誉当时只当这是个寻常的花房名字，没往深处想——他那时还不知道，这庄子里最风雅的名字，底下埋的是最狠的事。
Now as for Duan Yu: while he walked the grounds, word was carried up to the house; before long he was brought before Madam Wang.
再说段誉，在庄中走动，早有人报了上去；不多时，他便被带到了王夫人面前。
The lady began by asking his origins. Duan Yu made no secret of it: a man of Dali, surnamed Duan. And it was that very birth of his that was the greatest crime of all. The lady hated the people of Dali to the grinding of teeth; every word of hers seemed bent on wiping the men of Dali from the earth. And at once a retort came back:
夫人开口先问他的来历。段誉也不隐瞒：大理人，姓段。偏偏就是这个出身，便是天大的不是。这位夫人恨透了大理人，恨到咬牙切齿，话里话外，竟是要把大理人斩尽杀绝的意思。当场一句反问顶了回去：
"Dali has several hundred thousand people — can you kill them all?"
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「大理国几十万人，你杀得完么？」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） That was a hard retort — a scholar with no strength to truss a chicken, standing in another person's manor, throwing the words right back at a woman who killed as she pleased. As for why she hated Dali to such a degree, a later chapter will tell.
这话顶得硬。一个手无缚鸡之力的书生，在人家的庄子里，对着一个说杀就杀的女人，把话原样顶了回去。至于她为什么恨大理人恨到这步田地，后文自有分晓。
Duan Yu, though, was not afraid of her. More than unafraid, he spoke a fair word for the manor's gardeners. In the world's eyes:
段誉偏不惧她。不但不惧，他还替庄里的花匠说了句公道话。世人眼里：
"A gardener is naturally a lowly sort of person."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「自当花匠是卑微之人。」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） A servant of flowers. Duan Yu did not see it that way: to keep a flower alive, to grow it well, to raise it to fame under heaven — that is skill, that is merit; what is lowly about it? The speech was bold and reasonable, and even the terror was left speechless for a long moment.
花匠是下等人，是伺候花的奴才。段誉不这么看：能把花养活、养好、养出天下闻名的名堂来，是本事，是功德，凭什么卑微？一番话理直气壮，说得那狠人也哑了半晌。
That long silence ended by gathering her anger into something else — not gone, only turned.
哑了这一半晌，她脸上的怒气反倒收了，收成另一种东西——不是消了，是换了方向。
She pointed offhand at a camellia before the porch and asked what it was called. Duan Yu looked once and answered: this was not "Beauty's Scratched Face," it was "Leaning on the Railing." She paused, then pointed at another; Duan Yu said this one was "Glance of Coquetry" — and at that her expression changed, and what showed in it was pleasure. She pointed at one after another, and he named every one without a miss.
她随手一指轩前一株花，问这叫什么。段誉看了一眼就答：这不叫"抓破美人脸"，该叫"倚栏娇"。她怔了一下，又指一株，段誉说这是"眼儿媚"——这回她脸上的神色变了，是高兴。一株一株指过去，他答得一株不差。
Only then did one thing truly reach her: the manor's prize strains might be grown to magnificence, but their names were all wrong. Men who can tend flowers can be hired with money; a man who knows what these flowers are called — her manor had not one. And the pleasure on her face was past hiding.
她这才真听进去了一件事：满庄的名种，养得再盛，名目都是错的。会养花的人，花钱请得到；认得这些花叫什么的人，她这座庄子里一个也没有。她脸上那点高兴，藏都藏不住。
So she did not kill him. He would stay and tend the flowers, and set the names right while he was at it. She would never in this life admit that those few sentences had pleased her.
于是她不杀他了。留下种花，顺带把名目理清。她当然不会承认，是被这几句话说得高兴了。
When Duan Yu thought of it afterwards, the sweat on his back ran cold. His life had never once been in his own hands — it rested in somebody else's sentence. Even the reason he lived was not one he had earned; the few flower names he happened to know had earned it for him. All his life he had read the books of the sages, and what saved him was a handful of camellias.
段誉后来想起这一节，背上出的汗是凉的。他这条命从头到尾不在自己手里，在别人的一句话里；连活下来的理由，也不是他自己挣的，是他认得的那几个花名替他挣的。他一辈子读的是圣贤书，救命的却是几株花。
Chapter 3: The Jade Statue Comes Alive
第三回 玉像今朝忽成活人 剑谱满腹只为表哥
His life was spared, and he stayed on at the manor. And in that manor there lived a young lady.
命是保住了，人也就留在了庄上。这庄子里还住着一位姑娘。
Madam Wang's daughter, surnamed Wang, named Yuyan. One look at her, and Duan Yu's soul left his body. Why?
她是王夫人的女儿，姓王，名语嫣。段誉初见她那一眼，魂都没了。何以故？
"For her face was wholly the same as the jade statue in the stone cave on Mount Wuliang."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「只因她容貌与无量山石洞中的玉像全然无异。」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） Back then, in that cave, Duan Yu had kowtowed to the statue more times than he could count, calling it "Fairy Sister"; now the statue had stepped down off the stone wall — it could speak, frown, smile. The statue had come alive.
想当年，段誉在无量山石洞中对着玉像磕了不知多少个头，口口声声叫"神仙姊姊"；如今玉像从石壁上走了下来，会说话，会皱眉，会笑。石像，活了。
That first glimpse, he forgot his manners entirely and blurted out the name he had carried in his heart. The girl took him for a madman, gave a small startled cry, and stepped half a pace back. That one outcry set the two of them on the road to everything that came after.
第一眼撞见，他连礼数都忘了，脱口就把心里那个称呼喊了出来。那少女只当他是个疯子，轻轻惊呼了一声，退开半步。这一嗓子，把两个人往后的许多事都起了头。
And one more strange thing: it was not only the daughter—
另有一桩蹊跷事：岂止女儿像——
Even her mother, Madam Wang, resembled the statue. One statue, and mother and daughter both look like it. Who, then, was the statue's original model? We press that down and leave it untold; a later book will give the answer.
连她母亲王夫人，都与那玉像颇为相似。一座玉像，母女二人皆似，这玉像的原型究竟是谁？按下不表，后文书自有分解。
This Miss Wang had another marvel about her: she herself could not perform a single martial move, yet she had read through the martial classics of the whole world. Whatever school, whatever manual of fist or sword, she never forgot a page, could explain its method, could point out its flaws. What does a girl who cannot fight want with so much deadly learning?
这位王姑娘另有一桩奇处：她自家一招武功不会，天下的武学典籍却读了个遍。哪家哪派的拳经剑谱，她过目不忘，说得出门道，指得出破绽。一个不会武的姑娘，读这许多杀人的学问做什么？
It was all for her cousin, Murong Fu. Her cousin meant to contend for the mastery of the world's martial arts, so she read the world's books on his behalf. A mind full of poetry and sword manuals, all for one man's use. Duan Yu's heart had barely warmed before it went half cold: the Fairy Sister had stepped down from the stone wall — but her eyes saw only her cousin.
为的是她的表哥，慕容复。表哥要争天下武学之名，她便替表哥读遍天下的书。满腹诗书剑谱，只供一人取用。段誉的一颗心，刚热起来，就凉了半截：神仙姊姊走下了石壁，眼睛里却只看得到一个表哥。
Chapter 4: A Drinking Match at the Songhe Tower
第四回 松鹤楼上斗酒相逢 杏子林外风云将起
Setting the manor's affairs aside, we turn to the open road. Duan Yu had spent these days tending flowers on the manor; the flowers came to nothing much, but the man had learned a thing or two about how the place was run. Wang Yuyan's mind was on something else: her cousin Murong Fu had been away too long and word of him had grown thin, and she could not rest until she went out to look for him.
按下庄中事，且表江湖路。段誉在庄上种了这些日子的花，花没种出什么名堂，人倒是把这座庄子的底细摸清了几分。王语嫣那边却是另一桩心事：表哥慕容复出门太久，音讯稀薄，她放心不下，非出门去寻不可。
She went, and Duan Yu went after her. Wherever the Fairy Sister walked, the scholar's feet followed — and on that point no one in the manor could stop him.
她走，段誉也就跟了去。神仙姊姊走到哪里，书生的脚就跟到哪里——这一层，庄子里没人拦得住。
North they went, until they were out of Gusu. She was looking for her cousin; he was looking at her. She walked a stretch, and he walked a stretch behind. One day the party reached Wuxi, where in the city stood the Songhe Tower. Duan Yu went upstairs for a drink and saw by the window a great hulking man, broad-shouldered and commanding in every glance, drinking bowl after bowl alone. Something in the man's bearing won three parts of Duan Yu's respect at first sight. And so the two fell into a drinking match.
一路往北，出了姑苏地界。她寻表哥，他寻她；她走一段，他跟一段。这一日，一行人到了无锡。城中有一座松鹤楼，段誉上楼吃酒，见靠窗一位大汉，身材魁伟，顾盼生风，独自一人，一碗接一碗地喝。段誉见这人气度不凡，心中先生了三分敬意。两人就此斗起酒来。
The big man drained his bowl in one go, and Duan Yu matched him. He had no head for wine at all; by the third bowl his chest was queasy and he cursed inwardly. The wonder was the strange inheritance he carried in his body. In the stone cave on Mount Wuliang, the very art of draining others' inner power — the one he flatly refused to learn — had taken root in him anyway, piling up along the way until even he could not say how much he held. At Tianlong Temple he had then memorized the Six Meridians Sword from first line to last. The two were never supposed to meet; tonight they served him. Wine entered, and those inner breaths pressed it thread by thread back out of his body. No one else could see through this trick of his. And so, bowl after bowl, he did not lose.
那大汉端碗便干，段誉也跟着干。他本无酒量，喝到第三碗，已觉胸中烦恶，暗暗叫苦。奇就奇在他身上那一身来路古怪的内力——无量山石洞里，那门他死活不肯学的吸功偏是不学自成，一路积攒下来，连他自己也说不清有多少；到天龙寺，他又把六脉神剑的谱子从头记了一遍。两样东西本凑不到一处，这会儿倒帮了他：酒一入肚，便被那些内息一丝丝逼出体外。这层机关，旁人看不出来。就这般，他一碗接一碗干下去，竟没输。
The more the big man drank, the more amazed; the more they talked, the more delighted. Names were exchanged: he was none other than the chief of the Beggars' Sect — Qiao Feng. Qiao Feng of the North, Murong of the South — the man ranked ahead of Murong was sitting across from Duan Yu. Qiao Feng asked after Duan Yu's story, and Duan Yu hid nothing.
那大汉越喝越奇，越谈越喜，通了名姓：他便是丐帮帮主，乔峰。北乔峰，南慕容——排在慕容复前头的那一位，此刻就坐在段誉对面。乔峰问起段誉来历，段誉也不隐瞒。
The greatest hero under heaven and a scholar without the strength to truss a chicken found themselves more and more kindred, and on the spot they swore brotherhood. The oath was the old line handed down in the jianghu for a thousand years:
一个天下第一条好汉，一个手无缚鸡之力的书生，越说越投契，当场结为兄弟。誓词是江湖上传了千百年的老话：
"Born on the same year, the same month, the same day — may we die on the same year, the same month, the same day."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「同年同月同日生，但愿同年同月同日死。」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） "Qiao Feng was eleven years older than Duan Yu, so of course he was the elder brother."
— Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, new revised edition 「乔峰比段誉大了十一岁，自然是兄长了。」
——《天龙八部》（新修版） Qiao Feng the elder, Duan Yu the younger. And this is why they say: a scholar who knows no kung fu made a brother of the greatest hero under heaven.
乔峰为兄，段誉为弟。这正是：不会武功的书生，交了天下第一条好汉。
But the good times did not last. After the oath, Qiao Feng had a grand assembly of the Beggars' Sect to attend — held in an apricot grove. And what waited for him among the apricot trees was not wine, but a storm great enough to overturn his whole life. To know what happened next, hear the next chapter: The Apricot Grove: The Chief Becomes a "Khitan" Overnight.
只是好景不长。结拜之后，乔峰还有一场丐帮大会要赴——大会开在一处杏子林里。杏子林中等着他的不是酒，是一场足以掀翻他一生的风波。欲知后事如何，且听下回《杏子林：帮主一夜成了"契丹人"》。