Huo Qingtong turned and handed the dagger back to
Chen.
Chen nodded. "All right," he said to Fang. "We will
not harm the Emperor. Give the child to me." As he
spoke, he replaced the dagger in its sheath and
stretched out his hands.
"Huh! Who'd believe you?" Fang replied darkly. "I'll
return the child only after you have left the palace."
Chen was furious. "We of the Red Flower Society hold
to our word," he said. "Why would we bother to cheat
an animal like you?"
"That's why I don't believe you."
"All right," Chen countered. "Then you leave the
palace with us." Fang hesitated.
As soon as Qian Long heard Chen say that his life was
spared, he was ecstatic with happiness and didn't care
less what happened to Fang. "Go with them," he said.
"You have gained great merit today. I will naturally
not forget it."
Fang shivered as he heard the Emperor's tone, and
realised that he was talking about honouring him
posthumously. But all he could say was: "Thank you,
Your Highness, for your benevolence." He turned to
Chen. "If I leave the palace with you, what chance
have I got to live?" He wanted Chen to promise to
spare him.
"You've already done enough evil," Chen replied
angrily. "You should have been consigned to Hell long
ago."
Qian Long, worried that other complications could
arise, and that Chen might change his mind, urged Fang
on: "Quickly, leave with them now."
"But I'm afraid that once I've gone, they will try and
harm Your Highness," Fang added.
"So what do you suggest?" Chen asked in exasperation.
"Allow his Imperial Highness to leave first and then I
will accompany you out of the palace."
Chen could see they would have to let him go. "All
right," he said to Qian Long. "Leave."
Qian Long did not concern himself further with the
bearing an Emperor should maintain, and fled for the
door as fast as his feet could carry him. Suddenly,
Chen stretched out his right hand and grabbed him as
he ran past, and boxed his ears sharply with his left
hand --'bang, bang, bang!' the sound ringing out crisp
and clearly. Qian Long's cheeks immediately began to
swell up. The heroes were taken by surprise, and there
was a brief silence before they roared out their
approval.
"Do you still remember that poisonous oath you swore?"
Chen demanded, but Qian Long did not dare to make any
reply. With a contemptuous wave of his hand, Chen
dismissed him, and Qian Long stumbled out of the room
and down the stairs.
"Get the child!" Chen shouted.
'Buddha' Zhao was holding his poisonous darts and
looking out of the window, waiting for the right
moment. As soon as Chen had hold of the child, and
Qian Long appeared down below, he would fire off
several dozen projectiles at the Emperor's body.
Fang, meanwhile, was frantically looking around,
trying to think of some way out for himself. "I want
to see with my own eyes that His Highness is out of
danger before I'll hand over the child," he said,
shuffling slowly towards the nearest window.
"You Turtle! You're already a dead man," snarled one
of the Twin Knights. They shadowed him, waiting for an
opportunity to strike.
Qian Long emerged from the main door of the pavilion,
and the bodyguards waiting down below surged forward.
"You traitor," 'Buddha' Zhao muttered to himself. "You
traitor."
Fang saw the several dozen bodyguards gathered below,
and decided it was better to take a risk than to
simply wait to die where he was. So in a sudden
movement, he embraced the child and threw himself out
of the window.
Taken completely unawares, a cry of surprise went up
from the heroes. One of the Twin Knights flicked out
his Flying Claw and hooked it round Fang's left leg,
then tugged with all his might. Fang's body flew up,
the baby left his hands and the two began to fall.
'Buddha' Zhao crouched down and launched himself like
an arrow out of the window. As he flew through the
air, his head pointing down and his feet up, he
stretched out his left hand and grabbed hold of one of
the child's tiny legs while at the same time throwing
three of his poisonous darts at Fang, hitting him
squarely on the head and chest.
A shout went up from both the heroes in the pavilion
and the bodyguards down below. Zhao steeled himself,
hugged the baby to his chest and landed firmly on his
two feet. The Twin Knights, Lord Zhou and some of the
other heroes jumped down from the pavilion and
surrounded Zhao and the baby to protect them. Zhao
looked down at the child in his arms and saw it
kicking and waving its arms about, chuckling away in
delight. It obviously thought the leap a moment ago
that had almost ended its life had been great fun and
wanted to do it again.
Chen pushed their hostage Commander Fu to the window
and shouted: "Do you want him to live?"
Qian Long, once more under the protection of his
bodyguards, caught sight of Fu in the torchlight.
"Stop! Stop everything!" he shouted. The guards turned
and waited for his directions.
Fu was in fact Qian Long's illegitimate son. The
Emperor's first wife was the elder sister of a senior
minister, whose beautiful wife Qian Long had spotted
when she came to the palace one evening to pay her
respects to the Empress and he had had illicit
relations with her which resulted in the birth of Fu.
Qian Long had many sons, but for some perverse reason
he loved this illegitimate one more than all the rest.
The great physical likeness between Fu and Chen was
therefore the result of the fact that they were uncle
and nephew.
Chen knew nothing of this, but was aware that the
Emperor doted on Fu. He and the other heroes escorted
their hostage downstairs. Zhou Qi ran over to Zhao and
took the baby from him, almost crazy with happiness.
On one side, were the Red Flower Society heroes and
the Shaolin monks, on the other, the mass of palace
guards and Imperial bodyguards. Commander Li could see
his forces vastly outnumbered the enemy, but he also
knew how the Emperor felt about Fu.
"Great Helmsman Chen," he shouted. "Let Commander Fu
go and we will allow you to leave the city
peacefully."
"What does the Emperor say?" Chen shouted back.
Qian Long's cheeks were painful and swollen like
over-ripe peaches as a result of Chen's blows, but
seeing his beloved son in the hands of the enemy, he
could only wave his hand and say: "You can go, you can
go."
"Commander Fu will see us out of the city," Chen said,
then looked straight at Qian Long and announced in a
loud voice: "All the common people under Heaven would
be happy to eat your flesh and make a bed out of your
skin. If you live another hundred years, may they be
one hundred years of fear-filled days and tormented,
sleepless nights!" He turned to the heroes. "Let us
go," he said.
The heroes pushed Fu forward and made their way
towards the palace gate, carrying with them the bodies
of the Twin Eagles and Zhang Jin. The Manchu guards
stared at them fixedly as they passed, but did not
dare to stop them.
Soon after the heroes passed out of the palace, they
spotted two horsemen galloping after them, one of whom
was Commander Li.
"Great Helmsman Chen!" he called as they drew near.
"There is something I wish to discuss with you."
The heroes reined in their horses and waited for Li
and his lieutenant, Deng Tunan, to catch up.
"His Highness says that if you allow Commander Fu to
return safely, he will agree to anything," Li said.
Chen's eyebrows shot up. "Huh! Who would believe a
cursed word the Emperor said any more?"
"Please, Master Chen. I ask you to express your wishes
so that I can return to report."
"All right," Chen said. "Firstly, I want the Emperor
to rebuild the Shaolin Monastery with his own funds,
making the golden statues of Buddha even larger than
before. The court and government must never harrass
the monastery again."
"That is easy to arrange," said Li.
"Secondly, the Emperor must not increase the military
burden on the common people in the Muslim areas and
all the Muslims taken prisoner must be released."
"That is not difficult either."
"Thirdly, the Emperor must not bear a grudge against
the Red Flower Society or seize any of its members no
matter where they may be." Commander Li was silent.
"Huh! If you really did try to seize any of us, do you
think we would be afraid? Did not Master Wen here
spend some time as a guest in your own military
headquarters?"
"All right. I will rashly agree," Li said finally.
"Exactly one year from today, if all three demands
have been fully met, Commander Fu will be released."
"All right. We will so arrange things," replied Li and
turned to Fu. "Commander Fu. Great Helmsman Chen's
word is very precious. Please do not worry. His
Highness will certainly issue orders to see that all
three requests are met. I will not allow a moment to
pass without thinking of your safety, and will make
sure everything is done as quickly as possible in the
hope that Master Chen may see fit to release you
early."
Fu said nothing.
Chen suddenly remembered how they had seen Bai Zhen
and Commander Li's forces had mysteriously attacked
the Banner troops guarding the Hall of Tranquillity in
the Lama Temple. He did not understand the
circumstances of the incident but knew it must involve
a very dark secret. He decided to scare Li a little.
"Tell the Emperor that we know everything about the
Hall of Tranquillity affair," he said. "If he is
treacherous again, it would not be beneficial."
Li started in surprise and hastily assented.
"Commander Li, we will take our leave of you," Chen
continued and saluted with his fists. "When you are
promoted and become rich, take care not to oppress the
common people."
Li saluted in reply. "I would not dare," he said.
Yuanzhi and Yu dismounted and walked over to Li and
knelt down in front of him. Li realised sorrowfully
that he would never see his daughter again.
"Look after yourself, child," he said quietly. He
stretched out his hand and stroked her hair, then
turned his horse round and rode back to the palace.
Yuanzhi began to cry as Yu helped her onto her horse.
The heroes galloped to the city gate where 'Pagoda'
Yang and 'Leopard' Wei were waiting for them. Fu
ordered the city gate to be opened. The huge bell in
the bell tower above sounded, ringing out the start of
the fourth watch.
As they passed out of the city, the heroes saw an
expanse of reeds beside the city moat flailing about
in the pale moonlight. A bit further on, they came
upon a graveyard, and noticed a crowd of people there
wailing and singing a Muslim funeral dirge. Chen and
Huo Qinging rode over to investigate.
"Who are you mourning for?" they asked the crowd.
An old Muslim man raised his head, his face coursed
with tears, and said: "Princess Fragrance."
"Princess Fragrance is buried here?" Chen asked.
The old man pointed at a new grave, the yellow mud on
which was not yet dry. "There," he replied.
Huo Qingtong began to cry. "We cannot allow her to
remain buried here," she said.
"You're right," Chen replied. "She loved that Jade
Pool in the heart of the White Jade Peak, and said how
much she would like to live there forever. Let us take
her remains and bury them there."
"Yes, I agree," Huo Qingtong said, swallowing her
tears.
"Who are you?" the old man enquired courteously.
"I am Princess Fragrance's sister," Huo Qingtong
replied.
"Ah!" another of the Muslim suddenly shouted to the
other mourners. "It's Mistress Huo Qingtong!"
"Let us open up her grave," she said, and Chen and the
heroes started work helped by several of the Muslims.
They shifted the earth as fast as they could and in a
moment, had uncovered the stone slab placed over the
grave. They lifted the slab up and a perfumed
fragrance emerged. But when they looked inside, they
found the grave was empty.
Chen took a burning torch from one of the mourners and
held it over the grave opening. On the floor was a
small pool of blood and the piece of jade that he
himself had given her.
"We brought Princess Fragrance's remains here and
buried them ourselves," said the Muslims. "We have not
left this spot since. How could her body have
disappeared?"
"She was so wondrously beautiful. Perhaps she was a
spirit that descended to earth," Luo Bing suggested.
"Now she has returned to Heaven. Don't be distressed."
Chen bent down into the grave and picked up the piece
of jade. Suddenly, he began to cry, the tears running
down his face like rain. She was so beautiful, so
pure. Perhaps she was a spirit.
The people sighed and covered up the grave once more,
and as they finished the work, a large jade-coloured
butterfly appeared and began dancing to and fro above
the pile of earth.
Chen turned to the old man. "I will write a few words.
Please ask a master carver to erect a stone engraved
with the inscription on this spot," he said.
The old man nodded, and Xin Yan gave him ten taels of
silver to cover the cost. Then he took writing
implements from his bag and handed them to Chen.
Chen raised his writing brush and wrote: "Fragrant
Tomb" in large characters. Then after a moment's
thought, he wrote:
"Vast, vast sadness,
Boundless, boundless loss.
The song has ended,
The moon has been snatched away
In the midst of the mournful city
There is a patriot's blood.
Patriotism is sometimes exhausted
Blood sometimes runs dry
But the thread of your fragrant spirit has not been
snapped!
Is it not so?
You have become a butterfly."
The heroes stood for a long time in silence. Only when
the eastern sky was already light did they mount up
and ride off westwards.
THE END |
