DUEL AFTER DUEL, WHEN WILL THIS END?
"White Crane Steps on Snow" in the Essence of Shaolin
When Fong Sai Yuk was brought back to Guangdong Association, his shirt was removed and people around found that the protection shield which protected Fong Sai Yuk was broken, yet Fong Sai Yuk sustained serious injury.
“If not for the protection shield,” Miu Chooi Fa commented, “Sai Yuk would have been killed by the ‘chuin sam thui’ (or through-the-heart kick) of Li Siew Wan. But Sai Yuk is still seriously injured. This can show how powerful was Li Siew Wan’s thrust kick!”
Miu Chooi Fa applied some medicine on Fong Sai Yuk, then asked him to rest. She regarded her son as her “precious heart” (which means “very dearly”). “I must avenge this kick on my son,” she declared. So she wrote a challenge to Li Siew Wan, asking her for a lei-tai match the next day.
“It is honorable for you to challenge Li Siew Wan on a lei-tai,” Chan Yuk Shi commented. “She is actually a pitiful woman. She just lost her husband, killed by Young Master Fong. Although Young Master Fong is seriously injured, he will recover in time. But duel after duel, when will this end?”
The next morning, Miu Chooi Fa led many supporters from Guangdong Association to Pure Ball Gate where the lei-tai was. Li Siew Wan was already waiting for them.
Miu Chooi Fa jumped up the stage and asked, “Are you Li Siew Wan?”
“That’s right. I’m Li Siew Wan. I suppose you are Miu Chooi Fa.”
“Your husband bullied the weak, created trouble for society, men and gods were angry at him. Yet, you hurt my son. Today I specially come to meet you, to experience your through-the-heart kick.”
“There is a saying that failed children come from devoted mothers. I suppose there is truth in the saying. Not only you do not teach your son, you protect his wrong. If I do not kill him, others will.”
“My son is not killed. He is only injured. He will be well soon,” answered Miu Chooi Fa.
Li Siew Wan was surprised. Her through-the-heart kick had always proven to be fatal if she used it. But she maintained her composure and said, “As you have come up the lei-tai to experience my through-the-heart kick, let’s begin.”
She moved forward and executed a thrust punch. This was a feign leading move. Amongst skillful kungfu exponents, the one who moved later had a slight advantage. But a skillful exponent could start with a feign leading move to tempt the opponent to react.
But Miu Chooi Fa was very skillful. Not only she did not ward off the attack, she adroitly moved to the opponent's back, turned around and struck out her right palm, using the pattern “Return Horse Strike Palm”.
Hearing the sound of the palm, Li Siew Wan moved slightly forward to avoid the attack, and immediately turned around and struck out both palms, each aiming at Mui Chooi Fa’s vital points in the pattern “Fierce Tiger Pushes Mountain”.
Without moving her feet, Mui Chooi Fa sank back her body to avoid the attack, then thrust out her two fingers in between the palms to dot the opponent’s “tan zhong” vital point at the solar plexus, using a “dim-mark” (or dotting vital point) technique. (This dim-mark technique was from the Flower Set, a specialty of her father, Miu Hein.)
Li Siew Wan was taken aback. She quickly shifted her body to a side to avoid the dim-mark attack. Then she engaged Mui Chooi Fa’s hands on top while she insidiously swept the opponent’s front leg below. Miu Chooi Fa moved her front leg to become her back leg, but Li Siew Wan moved in and swept the opponent’s leg again, using the pattern “Continuous Leg Sweeps”.
Miu Chooi Fa jumped off and responded with “Return Head Hand Sweep”, sweeping the opponent’s body while in a horse-riding stance. Li Siew Wan jumped away using “Move Body Little Jump”.
Both combatants exchanged numerous encounters, fast and precise, and like fire from grinding stones. Li Siew Wan was known as “Vicious Techniques Marvelous Girl” in kungfu circles, and her art was above that of her husband, Tiger Looi. Miu Chooi Fa was a skillful Shaolin disciple, often practicing with her father, Plucking-Star Lohan Miu Hein.
Li Siew Wan decided to use her ultimate technique, her through-the-heart kick. With a few flowery moves to distract the opponent, she used her right thrust-kick at Mui Chooi Fa’s chest. But Miu Chooi Fa was ready for the kick. She adroitly moved her body to her left side and simultaneously step at Li Siew Wan’s standing left knee using the pattern “White Crane Steps on Snow”.
Li Siew Wan fell on the floor of the lei-tai, and Mui Chooi Fa immediately moved in with a finishing technique, a palm strike on the opponent’s head using the pattern “Tai San Ngat Ting” (or “Tai Mountain on Top”). Just as she was about to execute the palm strike, she remembered Chan Yuk Shi’s words, “duel after duel, when will this end?” She recalled that Li Siew Wan was actually a pitiful woman.
Miu Chooi Fa jumped away using the pattern “Move Body Little Jump”. Then she jumped down the lei-tai and walked away.
Wong Kiew Kit,
9th January 2018, Sungai Petani
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