Free Return of Condor Heroes by Jin Yong

me.”
    After the old man heard these words of praise, he was pleased and grinned, “How do you know that I’m so skilled?” The young boy heard his tone had become friendly and replied, “You run so fast while upside down. No one on earth can compete with you.” The boy had added the phrase “No one on earth can compete with you” knowing that words of praise would please the old man. The old man laughed loudly, his laugh shaking the trees in the forest and said, “Flip upside down, let me take a look.”
    The boy was bright, and immediately flipped upside down by himself, he couldn’t tell if the man was sincere but he did as he was told and flipped his body upside down so that his head was on the ground. His right hand still had feeling in it and managed to support himself firmly. The strange man glanced at him a few times, his brows lowered and wrinkled. The boy was upside down but still managed to take a clear look at the man; he had a tall nose and deep set eyes, his face covered in a short white beard, his limbs like metal, he talked to himself in strange phrases which was hard on the ear. The young boy was scared that the man wasn’t going to save him and said, “Good Grandpa, please save me.” The man saw he was a strapping boy and was pleased by his flip and replied, “Fine, saving you is not hard, but you got to promise one thing.”
    “Whatever you say, I’ll listen. What do you want me to promise you?”
    The strange man smiled and said, “I only want you to promise me one thing. Whatever I say, you must obey.”
    The boy thought, “I must obey everything you say? I’ve got to listen even when you tell me to be a dog or eat feces?”
    The man saw that he was hesitant and slow to reply said, “Fine, you can die!” As he said this he got onto his hands and leapt away several meters.
    The boy was afraid that the man had gone too far, and wanted to chase him to ask for help but he forgot that he could not walk upside down like the man, so he got back upright and chased a few steps and called out, “Grandpa, I agree. Whatever you say, I will obey.”
    The man turned around and said, “Fine, you’ve to swear it.” The boy’s left hand was becoming increasingly number, and he was becoming increasingly concerned about his life so he could do nothing but swear an oath.
    “If grandpa saves me by ridding my body of the poison, I will listen to whatever he says. If I don’t, then let the poison return to my body.” He thought, “If I never pick up any more silver needles then how will the poison return? I wonder if the strange man will accept this oath?”
    He looked at the old man, and saw his expression had changed and he seemed pleased, and he in turn became pleased as well as he thought, “The old man believes me.”
    The old man nodded and went upright. He grabbed hold of the boy’s arm, and pushed it a few times and said, “Good, good, you are a good boy.” When the boy was pushed in the arm, he felt the numbness had lightened, and shouted out, “Grandpa, push me a few more times!” The strange man frowned and said, “Don’t call me grandpa; call me father!”
    The little boy replied, “My father’s dead, I don’t have a father.”
    The man shouted at him, “The first thing I ask and you don’t even listen, what use have I with a son like you.”
    The boy thought, “Oh, the man wants me to be his son.” He had never seen his father before, and heard from his mother that his father had died before he was born. Whenever he saw other children with their father he would envy them. Now he sees this strange man in front of him, acting weird and crazy. He didn’t want to accept this old man as his stepfather.
    The strange man shouted at him, “You don’t agree to call me father, fine. There are other people who are willing, I won’t agree to my promise.” The boy tried to think of another way to deceive him into saving him. The man suddenly bellowed out a strange noise, and said