Sunday 27 August 2017

Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea part 3

This post summarises Gu Long's "Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea" Chapters 8-10 (total 16 chapters). I have finished summarising Chapter 10, and I am approaching the end of the story. Should be able to wrap the summary this weekend. 

So far, the mystery here is about a letter... (Source)



Chapter 8 (CLH finally found a clue)

Chor Lau-heung dove into Tay-bing Lake, pursued by the hypnotised Fell Cut. Here we learn again that Chor tai-gor was an excellent swimmer and diver (duh, his house was a boat!), and he was very fast and agile in the water. CLH almost effortlessly immobilised Fell Cut underwater and brought him back to the lake shore. CLH then dove back to the lake and pursued the harpist, who turned out to be a white-robed monk playing the zither on a small boat. The monk didn’t seem to realise that his zither had a lethal effect to Fell Cut. The monk was none other than Biau-ceng Bu-hoa, the monk CLH saw in Chapter 3 (Bu-hoa = flowerless). The monk recognized CLH despite the latter’s disguise. Giving up, CLH unmasked himself.

Chor tai-gor then explained to Bu-hoa how three people had recognized him today. The first one was the monk himself, the second one was Fell Cut, and the third one the killer. Bu-hoa threw away his zither into the lake upon hearing Fell Cut’s name for the latter was a murderer, hence Bu-hoa’s zither has been tainted (for Fell Cut had heard its melody). Bu-hoa later discussed the killer’s Jinsut; that it originated in Arab and was brought to Japan via the Mainland.  CLH returned to the lakeshore, installed Yat Dim-hung safely on the branch of a large tree, and returned to Kilam. He reintroduced himself properly as CLH to Leng Chiu-hun (who just woke up with a prostitute sleeping in his bed – gosh…). Leng reported that he heard of a stranger monk in town (named Thian-ing-cu) who wore a long thin blade as a weapon.


Sunday 20 August 2017

Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea part 2


Since Chor Lau-heung is apparently a controlled drinker, I now feel that
this gorgeous art by Xuedaixun is appropriate here

Continuing on last week's summary of "Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea" (Chapters 1-3), here I post the summary of Ch 4-7. This Chor Lau-heung story from Ku Lung was written in 16 chapters, so I should be able to cover all chapters in four posts. From Chapter 7, each chapter seems to be quite long, hence it does take me a while to read and summarise each chapter.



Chapter 4 (CLH taking a fake ID)

The Sin-cui-kiong swordswoman confirmed that the dead female was not part of her school. Also, a young woman in her school committed suicide after getting pregnant, just after the famous poison disappeared from her school. The woman (who finally revealed that her name was Kiong Lam-yan) gave Chor Lau-heung one month to find the thief and the murderer.

Not one to shy away from misteries, CLH accepted the challenge. However, he still had time to day-dream about Miss Kiong’s pretty face, such that Li Hung-chao commented that he “won’t find her beautiful anymore when she shoves her sword on your throat next month!”

CLH gleefully replied that Miss Kiong used no sword as a weapon, to which Hung-chao riposted as she battered her eyelids, “Ah, so she used a kitchen knife, eh?”

Sunday 13 August 2017

Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea


Sorry for the two weeks' hiatus. Was still immersing myself in the blissful realisation that Candy and Terry were finally reunited, ahahahaha! But I'm back now!

This tai-hap has the Chor Lau-heung vibe to me (Source)

Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea - a Chor Lau Heung original story by Ku Lung

I’m currently reading an original story of Chor Lau Heung by Ku Lung (Gu Long) in Indonesian. It seems the original title is Xue Hai Piao Xiang (血海飄香, Hyut3 Hoi2 Piu1 Heung1), but the Indonesian PDF was only titled as “The Romantic Thief” (“Maling Romantis”). The literal translation of the characters should be “blood, sea, float/flutter, fragrant”, which may be loosely translated to “Fluttering Fragrance on the Bloody Sea”. The PDF is 212 pages, and I’m only on Chapter 3. But it’s actually quite interesting, such that I’m determined to finish it.

It will take some time to finish it, though. One of the reasons is because the names in the story is written in Hakka (Hokkien), hence I have to get used to reading through the names. I can recognize Chor tai-gor’s name immediately though (“Coh Liu-hiang”), as well as So Yung-yung (So Yong-yong), Li Hung-chao (Li Ang-siu) and Sung Tim-yi (Song Thiam-ji). For the benefit of the readers, I’ll try to summarise this story per chapter. I won’t bother with standardizing the names; I will just write the Hokkien names in Hokkien, except for Chor Lau-heung’s and his adopted sisters; I’ll write them in Cantonese. If Wu Tit-fa appears, I will definitely write his name in Cantonese as well.