Zhu Cong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zhu Cong (朱聰) is a character in the wuxia novel Legend of the Condor Heroes written by Louis Cha.
Zhu Cong was a member of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. He was nicknamed 'Marvellous Hands Scholar' (妙手書生), as he was described to have the appearance of an ordinary scholar. He was said to be highly learned, often seen reciting literary works, as well as being a skilled illusionist. He had powerful thieving skills, which enable him to steal objects from a person without the other party noticing it.
In the novel, he was first introduced to stealing the money bag of the Jin empire's Sixth Prince, Wanyan Honglie. Wanyan Honglie realised that his money bag was gone, and looked up and saw Zhu Cong. Zhu Cong made a face at him and went off. Zhu Cong often astounds his opponents by his illusionary skills, and was a master of blocking acupoints on a person's body. His weapon of choice is a fan which he uses as an extension of his arm to hit acupoints.
He went together with the Seven Freaks to search for the widow and unborn child of Guo Xiaotian, after having an agreement with Qiu Chuji. Qiu Chuji was to track down the widow and unborn child of Yang Tiexin. After both parties have found their respective targets, their tasks were to nurture the child into a fine martial artist. Eighteen years later, they will meet again for a contest between the two young men to determine whose tutor(s) was a better martial artist.
After a long period of searching, the Freaks finally found Guo Jing, the son of Guo Xiaotian, and his mother Li Ping in Mongolia. They were initially overjoyed as they had found the boy, but were disappointed when they found that Guo Jing was quite slow-witted, and might not be able to learn martial arts well. Nevertheless, they managed to impart their martial arts and skills to Guo Jing, training him into a fine young martial artist.
In Mongolia, there was once when the Freaks encountered Ke Zhen'e's mortal enemies, the 'Twin Ghosts in the Black Wind'(Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng). A fight broke out between them which ended with Chen being stabbed to death by a young Guo Jing, and Mei Chaofeng being blinded. However, the Freaks also lost Zhang A'sheng.
When Guo Jing reached eighteen, he travelled with the Freaks back to China, to turn up as agreed eighteen years ago for the contest between him and the son of Yang Tiexin, Yang Kang. The contest did not really took place, as there were complications in between. Qiu Chuji admitted defeat in the end when he realised that Yang Kang had not lived up to his expectations. Guo Jing eventually left the Freaks and went on his own adventure.
Zhu Cong eventually met his end on Peach Blossom Island in the tomb of Feng Heng where he was killed in front of the sacrificial table by Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang, along with Nan Xiren, Quan Jinfa, Han Baoju and Han Xiaoying.
