The Vast Desert 大沙漠 Part 2

Source

CLH et al went inside the house and found only one stone statue of Kuan Yin. They went out again when Little Phoa said that Stone Camel was so scared. CLH deduced that the blind Stone Camel realised who killed thos burglars. When Chor tai-gor returned to the crime scene, he realised that the Kuan Yin stone statue was gone. In its place was a pan full of braised beef that was so inviting to the hungry men. Always wary, CLH, Wu and Ki Ping-yan did not eat the beef dish. A dog barked inside and ate the dish without any sign of food poisoning. Still, our friends knew that whoever killed the burglars had not only left the food, he/she had annoyed these wanderers by releasing a dog who immediately ate the food. Disgusted, Wu threw away the beef dish outside. After a while, they heard a scream outside and realised that Little Phoa died eating the poisonous braised beef that Wu threw out of the window.

CLH now realised his enemy was the Stone Kuan Yin, a very skilful swordswoman who was also very good at the art of disguise. She killed the burglars and disguised herself as a stone statue. In the previous story, the Stone Kuan Yin also ordered Chiu Ling-siok to ruin her own face so that the Stone Kuan Yin remained the prettiest woman on earth (or at least in the Central Plains).

The Vast Desert 大沙漠 Part 1

The Gobi Desert (source)

As I’m watching nervously for Hurrican Irma to batter Florida USA (Hannah, stay safe!!!), I’m reading the second Chor Lau-heung novel from Ku Lung titled “The Vast Desert” 大沙漠. It’s over 200 pages of PDF as well, so I will try to finish reading it in 4-5 weeks. I read this novel in the Indonesian version; I suspect the translator is the same with the one who translated “Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea” 血海飄香. The writing style belongs to a slightly older period, perhaps the 80s, which in itself is nice to read, albeit a bit confusing at times. The chapter in PDF started with “Chapter 13”, which is weird. It does not follow the chapters in the last novel, which ended in Chapter 17. “The Vast Desert” has ended in “Chapter 28”, so it has 15 chapters. I’ll just assume Chapter 13 is Chapter 1 then.

Part 1 (Chapters 1-3)

After his adventure in the last novel, Chor Lau-heung returned to the Fragrant Boat in the hope that he’d get a delicious lunch from the girls. However, So Yung-yung, Li Hung-chao and Sung Tim-yi were nowhere to be seen. Upon finding a black pearl on top of a pile of yellow sand, Chor tai-gor’s blood boiled. He deduced that Black Pearl, the son of the Desert King we saw in the “Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea” 血海飄香. Black Pearl left a note: “You took my horse, I take your women.” Capitally disturbed, CLH rode his horse (well, Black Pearl’s) towards the Western Desert (I assume the Gobi Desert).

Update on Barbara Yung's tombstone

Sina's news on initiative for Barbara's tombstone

Apologies for the slow update on Barbara's tombstone. Last night, Rob informed me that the Hong Kong fan-club has persuaded the local newspaper to upload news about relocating Barbara's tombstone. The news was published yesterday (5 September 2017). Some of the HK media that uploaded this news are HKON and Oriental Daily (this is the e-paper of Oriental Daily).

In the Mainland, Sina has also picked the news for their own website, as seen here. The title of the article implies that the tombstone is definitely going to be returned to Hong Kong.

翁美玲心形墓碑欲运回香港

We know this is not a certain case yet - I wish it is... so let's keep praying and trying.

At the moment, we're still hoping that Lam Chak et al in Hong Kong will be able to secure a place for Barbara's tombstone in HK. If by October (which is next month) we have not found a place, we need to ask Andrew Chan if it's okay for him to store the stone in Cambridge first until we find a place in HK. Funds can be raised for that storage as well; some Mainland fans have contacted me, stating that they are willing to donate some funds for the storage. If anyone would like to contact Rob directly, his email is rmmmm1959 at hotmail dot com.

The rest of the Sina article is under the break. It says that Michael Miu and Felix Wong have been contacted, but so far there has been no traction. I hope we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel soon. I have also embedded a YouTube video I found just now about this news. Xinhua also put this news online, see here (Thanks to Rob Radboud for the link).

Update 13 September 2017: Friday last week (8 Sept), Lian He Ban Bao (a Singaporean newspaper) published the news about Barbara's tombstone. Last Saturday, Rob Radboud sent me the scans. The scans are below the break, courtesy of Ann (Singapore).

Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea part 4

This post summarises Chapters 11-16 of the "Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea" (血海飄香) of the Chor Lau-heung series. I have wrapped up the story and provided my short commentaries as well. I like the story, and I hope you like it as well!

The horse reminds me of the desert horse Chor tai-gor used in this story. Source: Xue Daixun

Chapter 11 (CLH tracked Ling-siok)

Chapter 10 ended with Chor Lau-heung evading Kaypang Pek-giok-mo’s poisonous claws by feeding his opponent the painting he carried inside his robe. Yet, Pek knew that the roll of paper was important to CLH, thus he didn’t want to give it so easily.  Despite CLH’s verbal tactics, Pek got nosy and opened the roll to see what was in it. He frowned.

“Why do you keep a painting of the late Leader Jin-lo’s widow?”

CLH couldn’t believe his luck. The beautiful Chiu Ling-siok apparently married the late Kaypang leader!

Yet, she apparently had changed her name into Yap Siok-tin, for Pek didn’t recognize who Chiu Ling-siok was. Pek also said that Mrs Jin had always been an amazing and pious woman, such that the sinful Pek admired her. CLH thus deduced that Chiu Ling-siok had turned a new leaf after marrying the former Kaypang Leader.