"This is very important," Chiun said, "so you will kindly pay attention."
"Yes, Little Father."
"You know that in the past I have occasionally spoken less than highly of certain Oriental peoples," Chiun offered.
"Occasionally?" Remo said. "If I remember it right, the Chinese are slothful and eat cat meat, the Japanese are grasping and avaricious and the Vietnamese would insert it into a duck if the opening was bigger."
"Please," Chiun said. "Whose story is this?"
"Yours, Little Father. Go on," Remo said.
"It is true the Japanese are grasping and avaricious, and that is why I always tell you to have no dealings with them because one never knows when they will turn on you."
"Right. Got it," Remo said impatiently.
"I had not wanted to tell you this until you were older." Chiun said.
"Chiun, I'm a grown man."
"In the ways of Sinanju, but a child. With much to learn."
"Right. Much to learn."
Remo looked ceilingward. He wondered who had put up the ceiling tile. He could see blue-point nails in the cracks between the crumbly cardboard tiles.
"The Japanese are also given to much exaggeration. For instance, they pretend that their emperors were descended from the sun goddess."
"Right. Sun goddess," Remo said. He wondered about the golf course Pruiss had closed down when he took over the clubhouse. Did it play long or short? Where there many water holes? He'd have to go out and walk it sometime.
"This belief of the Japanese is untrue as are most of their beliefs." Chiun paused. "Remo. I don't really know how to tell you this."
"Right. Don't know how to tell me." Maybe he'd play a round of golf before he left.
"There was a tribe in Korea once called the Koguryo," Chiun said. "They were a fierce and warlike people from the south who overran much of what is now northern Korea. That, of course, is where the village of Sinanju is."
"Right," Remo said. "Sinanju in the north." He stopped and thought a moment. "These kukuru..." he said.
"Koguryo," Chiun corrected.
"Did they conquer Sinanju?" Remo asked.
"Of course not," Chiun said. "It is written in the annals of Sinanju that they attempted to do that but the Master of Sinanju this was not the great Wang because it was before his time mobilized the people of the village and drove them off. In fact, so great were their losses that the Koguryo left North Korea and returned to the southern part of that country."
"So?"
"So their warlike ways had impressed many of the Sinanju village. And many of the youth chose to ride away with them. Among them were the men of a family called Wa."
"I see," said Remo who was beginning to fade again. What did any of this have to do with the assassin? Koguryo? Wa? Who cared?
"Now you may not understand this, Remo," said Chiun, "because all you white people have big heads and big noses and big feet and big hands. But in a land like Korea where people are the correct size, they look different upon such things as size. The people of this Wa family were very small. In fact, Wa means 'little people.' Often, the children of the village made fun of the Wa family because they were tiny. For this reason, they went to the Master of Sinanju and they said, 'Glorious Master, the people mock us because of our small size. What is it that we may do about this because it is unfair.'"
Chiun paused again.
"And the Master did I tell you this was not the great Wang?"
"Right. Not the great Wang," Remo said.
"Good. The Master then said, 'A man's courage or skill is not shown by the size of the body surrounding his heart. The people are wrong. And you must learn to win the villagers' admiration for your acts.' He told them they must become expert at something and this would make the people admire them and stop their insults.
""What kind of thing?' he was asked, because the Wa were a very stupid family, as is often the way with people who are too small," Chiun said.
"And the Master said, 'Learn to use a weapon with great skill. They will admire your skill and then will not make fun of your size. And even those who are too foolish to admire skill will fear the result of yours and so they will no longer mock you either. This way will you prevail.' "
"Right," Remo said. "Prevail."
"So, with the help of the Master, the Wa practiced and through generations they became experts with knives and people no longer laughed at them because of their small size. But, given respectability, they now yearned for power. So when the Koguryo attacked Sinanju, instead of using their skills to help the village, they made a secret agreement with the invaders that they would assassinate the Master and this would leave the village defenseless."
Remo straightened his back and began to listen. He had heard the word knives in there somewhere. Besides Chiun's voice had risen in intensity and pitch, which meant he was about to tell of people trying to commit the most terrible crime of all, trying to zap the Master of Sinanju.
Chiun looked at Remo as if for confirmation that this was a terrible act by the Wa people. Remo tried to look saddened.
"But, of course they failed," Chiun said. "Even though the skill of their blades had been given them by the Master himself, the pupils were no match for the teacher and he turned away their blades when they fell upon him and he did away with the Wa family. Except for one. This one, the third eldest son, fled. The Master took one of the knives from one of the bodies that surrounded him and on the blade, with his fingernail, he etched the outline of a horse because this was the symbol of an outsider in those days and he tossed the knife after the son who fled. And he told him that forever after he would be an outcast from the Village of Sinanju and that he should go with his Koguryo Masters and do their bidding and many such insults did he visit upon the unfortunate Wa." Chiun smiled as he imagined that ancient Master winning the word battle with the third eldest Wa, while bodies were stacked knee deep around him.
"Those Wa were always sneaky," Remo said, hoping the comment was appropriate.
"Correct," said Chiun. "I am pleased that you are listening. The Master also leveled a curse upon the House of the Wa in a special poem he made up for the occasion."
"Please, Chiun," Remo said, "no poems."
"It is a very important poem," said Chiun.
"Let's keep moving right along," Remo said.
"It is a very short poem," Chiun said.
"It can't be short enough," said Remo. "What happened to the remaining Wa?"
Chiun looked hurt.
"The Wa survivor went away with the Koguryo and they returned to the southern part of Korea to Kaya Province from which they emanated. Soon they controlled all of the South but the appetite of the conqueror is never sated and because they knew the Master awaited them if they again went north, instead they went east, across the Sushima Strait and into Japan's Kyushu Island. They built boats to carry their horses because there were no horses in Japan at that time. By now, the crafty Wa had become the chief advisor to the leader of the Koguryo."
Chiun stopped as if that was the end of the story.
"Well?" asked Remo.
"That is it," said Chiun. "Except for the poem."
"No, no. That can't be it," Remo said. "I know there must be more than that."
"If you insist upon my filling in every little blank spot..."
"I do," Remo said.
"The Koguryo quickly conquered all of Japan because the people who were there then had no ability at all to defend themselves and the Koguryo were warlike and fearsome and besides they had the Wa to advise them and that is that."
"A few questions," Remo said.
"Why must you always ask questions when a story is perfectly clear?"