Edition note: An independent English rewriting of the Chinese argument, shaped for English-language readers.
Before leaving the lodge, the conspirators paralyze Miao Ruolan, remove her outer clothing, and place her behind a bed curtain. The move requires no combat. It only arranges a young woman into an appearance whose meaning will be supplied by whoever enters next.
Hu Fei returns to the peak and hides behind the curtain from imperial guards. He finds Miao unable to move or speak. In the stillness, tenderness briefly appears between them. It is the novel's gentlest scene, and it occurs inside a trap designed by others.
After Hu emerges to rescue Miao Renfeng, the older man sees his daughter in underclothes stepping from the same bed. The facts before his eyes are real. The conclusion—that Hu is a predator—is false. Miao attacks the person who has just saved him.
The scene repeats the novel's founding error. More than a century earlier, three guards saw the Hu ancestor in an enemy camp. No one lied about what was visible; the scene had a history outside the frame. In both cases, people who consider themselves honorable act from direct evidence arranged by someone who understands how they will complete it.
The fight moves to a cliff. Hu finally finds an opening. If he brings down the saber, Miao cannot survive. If he hesitates, Hu may die. He also knows that Miao was his father's kindred spirit, that Miao once accepted the infant Hu without harm, that he is Ruolan's father, and that he does not know his perception has been engineered.
Jin Yong ends before the blow falls. The interruption is not a puzzle with a missing canonical answer. It leaves knowledge and action at their exact point of separation. Hu understands more of the history than the earlier generations did; whether understanding is enough to stop the inherited movement of the blade remains undecided.
The treasure, the ancestral ledger, and the day's storytellers are elsewhere. On the cliff stand two people: one does not know he is mistaken; the other knows, but cannot make the explanation arrive before the body must move. The saber stays in the air, holding open the possibility the previous four generations lost.
Based on the Sanlian Bookstore edition of Jin Yong's Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain; later revisions differ in some details.
版本说明：中文原作；简体与繁体同页切换。
那天中午，胡斐上了玉笔峰。
峰上的人早就听说雪山飞狐要来，各怀心事，躲进了内室。出来接待他的是苗若兰——苗人凤的女儿，那年很年轻。
两个人说了些话。庄主不在，胡斐就下峰去等。
他走之后，屋里那些人才重新出来。他们接着说往事，接着争那只铁盒，最后按刀上指的路，一起到峰后找那批财宝去了。
走之前，宝树点了苗若兰的穴道。田青文把她的外衣脱了，人放在床上，帐子放下。
这件事是这本书里最省力的一手：不用杀人，不用动武，只要把一个姑娘摆成一个样子。
摆成什么样子，取决于谁来看。
胡斐第二次上峰，进了内室，听见庄主约了大内侍卫和一批高手来这里，要围捕自己和苗人凤。他急着躲，掀开帐子钻了进去。
床上是被点了穴、只穿着内衣的苗若兰。
书里写这一段写得很轻。两个人在那个帐子里，谁也动不了，谁也不能出声。他吻了她一下。她又羞又喜。
这本书里唯一一段温柔，发生在一个被人布置好的陷阱里。
苗人凤来了。他中了计，被绑住。
胡斐从帐子里出来，杀退了那批人，把苗人凤救了下来。
救完之后，苗人凤看见了另一样东西：他的女儿只穿着内衣，从这个年轻人刚出来的那张床上下来。
他得出的结论是：这个人是奸恶小人。
他动了手。
这一幕在这本书里出现过第二次。
一百三十多年前，苗、范、田三个人回到营里，看见姓胡的那一个在吴三桂手下当差。他们看见的是真的。他们杀了他。
这一天，苗人凤看见自己的女儿从一个男人躲过的床上出来。他看见的也是真的。
两次都不是有人说谎。两次都是有人先把场面摆好了，然后让看的人自己去看。
第一次摆场面的是吴三桂的军营和一场兵败，第二次摆场面的是一个和尚和一个姑娘的手。
两次的结果都是：那个人被自己救过的人当成了仇敌。
两个人追到了悬崖上。
打到最后，胡斐找到了一个空当。他知道这一刀劈下去，苗人凤挡不住。
他也知道另外几件事：这个人是他父亲的知己；这个人当年接过他，没有害他；这个人是苗若兰的父亲；这个人根本不知道自己看错了。
同时他还知道：这一刀不劈，死的是他自己。
书写到这里就完了。
金庸没有写他劈还是不劈。最后一句话是把这个问题摆出来，然后停笔。
这本书从一场看错开始，到一场看错结束，中间隔着一百三十年和四个家族。每一次看错的人都是好人，每一次都出于亲眼所见，每一次都办了一件不可挽回的事。
到最后一页，第五次看错正在发生，而且正要办成同样的事。
书把刀举在半空，停在那里。
那把刻着奉天倡义的宝刀，那批闯王留下的财宝，那本传了四代的账，那些在屋里说了一整天话的人，这时候都在山下。
崖上是两个人。一个不知道自己弄错了，一个知道，可是说不出来。
注：本文所据为金庸《雪山飞狐》三联书店版。人物、情节与引述均出自该版本；新修版在若干处另有改动，与本文所论不涉之处不另作说明。