Chen woke towards midnight, his strength revived.
Under the light of a moonbeam shining down from the
crack in the roof of the cave, he could see Huo
Qingtong and Princess Fragrance leaning against one
another on one of the jade seats, fast asleep. In the
silence, he heard their breathing and smelt the
fragrance, even more beautiful than that of fresh
flowers or musk, emanating from the younger sister.
He wondered again what the wolves outside the mountain
were doing and whether the three of them would ever be
able to escape. And if they did, would his brother the
Emperor hold to his word and throw out the Manchus?
"Which one do I really love?" Over the past few days,
this thought had been gyrating round his brain
continuously. "Well, which one really loves me? If I
were to die, Princess Fragrance would not be able to
go on living, but Huo Qingtong would. But that doesn't
mean Princess Fragrance loves me more."
The moon beam slowly shifted onto Huo Qingtong's face.
"Princess Fragrance and I have declared our love for
each other, but although Huo Qingtong has never said a
word about it, her feelings towards me are clear too,"
he thought. "And why did I come so far to give her a
message if it was not because I loved her? What is
more, restoring the throne to the Chinese people will
involve immense trials and tribulations. She is a
better strategist even than Brother Xu, and her
assistance would be invaluable," He stopped himself,
ashamed of his own thoughts.
"Ah, Chen Jialuo," he whispered under his breath. "Are
you really so narrow-minded?"
Time passed and the moonbeam moved across onto
Princess Fragrance.
"With her, all I would have is happiness, happiness,
happiness," he thought.
His eyes opened wide and he stared up at the crack of
light in the rock high above them for a long, long
time. Slowly, the moonlight faded and a sunbeam began
to slant in, filling the room with daylight. With a
yawn, Princes Fragrance woke. She looked over at him
through half-open eyes and smiled, her face looking
like a newly-opened flower.
Suddenly she jerked upright. "Listen!" she whispered.
Footsteps sounded distantly from the tunnel, gradually
moving closer. In the silence of the old caverns, each
step could be heard clearly, and their skin crawled as
they listened. Chen shook Huo Qingtong's arm to wake
her and the three ran quickly back down the tunnel.
When they reached the main chamber, Chen picked up
three jade swords and gave one each to the two
sisters. "Jade wards off evil," he whispered.
By now, the footsteps were just outside the chamber,
and the three hid in a corner near the entrance, not
daring to move. They saw the flickering light of
torches and four men walked in. The two in front, they
instantly recognised as Zhang and Gu.
There was a series of clanging sounds as the weapons
of the four flew out of their hands to the ground.
Chen knew this was an opportunity not to be missed,
and as they stood staring at the floor in dumb
surprise, he gave a shout and leapt out, and with
knocked the torches to the ground, plunging the
chamber into complete darkness. Zhang and the Three
Devils turned and raced back down the tunnel. They
heard a dull thud followed by a sharp curse as one of
them bumped into the wall.
The footsteps gradually receded again.
Suddenly, Huo Qingtong gave a scream of panic. "Oh no!
Chase them!"
Chen immediately realised what she meant and raced out
of the chamber into the tunnel. But before he reached
its end, he heard a steady creaking sound followed by
a heavy bang, and he knew the stone door was closed.
Huo Qingtong and Princess Fragrance ran up behind him.
He felt around for a piece of wood, found one and lit
it, then looked again at the scarred surface of the
stone door, the relic of the death struggle of the
skeletons around them.
"We're finished!" Huo Qingtong said, despairingly.
Princess Fragrance grabbed her hand. "Sister, don't be
afraid!"
Chen forced a smile. "It would be strange if we three
died here."
For some reason, he felt a sense of relief wash over
him as if a great weight had been taken from his
shoulders. He picked a skull off the ground and said
to it: "Well brother, you have three new companions."
Princess Fragrance gasped, and then laughed out loud.
Huo Qingtong looked at them both. "Let's go back to
the Jade Room," she said after a while. "Once we've
settled down we can start thinking things through."
They walked back the way they had come. Huo Qingtong
pulled out the map once more and pored over it,
desperately searching for a way out. Chen knew that if
they were to escape it was more likely to be because
of outside help or because Zhang returned to look for
them. But how could rescuers find them? And Zhang,
after the fright he had just received, was unlikely to
dare to come in again.
"I want to sing a song," Princess Fragrance announced.
"Please do," replied Chen.
She sang for a while then stopped, concerned about Huo
Qingtong who was still staring hard at the map, her
head resting on her hands.
"Sister, you should rest for while," Princess
Fragrance said. She stood up and went over to the jade
bed and said to the skeleton lying on it: "Excuse me,
I wonder if you could move over a bit? My sister needs
to lie down and rest." She carefully pushed the bones
into a pile in the corner of the bed. "Oh!" she said,
picking something up. "What's this?"
Chen and Huo Qingtong walked over and saw she was
holding a goatskin scroll of great antiquity. The
scroll had turned black, but under the sunlight, it
was possible to see it was covered in writing, all in
an ancient Muslim hand. Huo Qingtong glanced through
it, and pointed at the skeleton on the bed.
"It was written by this girl with her own blood just
before she died. Her name was Mami," she said.
"Mami?" asked Chen.
"It means 'beautiful'. I'm sure she was very beautiful
when she was alive." She put down the book and went
back to examining the map.
"Does the map indicate some other exit?" Chen asked.
"There appears to be a secret tunnel somewhere, but I
can't work out where."
Chen sighed. "Would you read out this Miss Mami's last
words to me?" he asked Princess Fragrance. She nodded,
and began to quietly recite:
"Everyone in the city, thousands upon thousands of
people are all dead. The guards of the Mountain and
the warriors of Islam are all dead. My Ali has gone to
meet Allah, and his Mami will be going soon too. I
will write our story out here, so that the children of
Allah will know that, victorious or defeated, our
warriors of Islam fight to the end, and never
surrender!"
"So this lady was not only beautiful, but courageous
too," commented Chen.
Princess Fragrance continued to read:
"Baojunlonga oppressed us for forty years. In those
forty years, he forced thousands of commoners to
construct this secret city and carve out the chambers
and halls within the Sacred Mountain. He killed them
all. After he died, his son Sanglaba proved to be even
more cruel. Of every ten goats raised by the Muslim
people every year, four had to be given to him; of
every five camels, he claimed two. We became poorer
and poorer each year. Any beautiful daughters among
the Muslim families were taken into the city, and once
there, none ever came out alive.
"We are the brave children of Islam. Could we stand
such oppression from these pagans? Of course not! Over
a period of twenty years, our warriors attacked the
city five times. But each time, they lost because they
could not find their way through the maze. On two
occasions, they made it into the Sacred Mountain but
Sanglaba used some devilry to steal their weapons, and
they were all killed by his guards."
"That's the magnet," said Chen. Princess Fragrance
nodded and continued:
"In the year that I turned eighteen, my mother and
father were killed by Sanglaba's men and my elder
brother became the chief of our tribe. That spring, I
met Ali. He was a hero of the tribe. He had killed
three tigers, and wolf packs scattered when they saw
him. He could beat ten ordinary men, no, a hundred.
His eyes were as soft as those of a deer and his body
was as beautiful as a fresh flower, but he had the
strength of a desert hurricane..."
"The lady is exaggerating, I think," Chen said with a
smile.
"Why do you say that?" Princess Fragrance asked
solemly. "Are there not such people in the world?"
"One day, Ali came to our tent to talk to my brother
about another attack on the City. He had obtained a
copy of a book about Chinese kung fu and had studied
it for a year. He said he now understood the basics of
the martial arts, and was convinced that even without
weapons, they could kill Sanglaba's man. He took five
hundred fighters and taught them what he knew, and
they practised for another year. By then, I was
already Ali's. I was his from the moment I first saw
him. He told me that when he saw me, he knew that we
would win this time. But although they had mastered
kung fu, they still did not know the way through the
maze of the City, much less the secrets of the Sacred
Mountain. Ali and my brother talked for ten days and
nights, but could find solution.
"Finally, I said: 'Brother,let me go.' They understood
my meaning. Ali was a brave warrior but he began to
cry. I took a hundred goats and went to graze them
outside the city. On the fourth day, Sanglaba's men
seized me and took me to him. I cried for three days
and three nights before giving in to him. He liked me
very much and gave me everything I wanted.
"At first Sanglaba would not let me take so much as
one step outside, but he liked me more and more. I
thought about our people every day and of singing
while tending goats on the grasslands: that is real
happiness. What I thought of most was Ali. Sanglaba
saw me becoming more thin and haggard each day and
asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to go out and
wander round everywhere. He flew into a great rage and
slapped me, so for seven days and nights I didn't
smile or say a word to him. On the eighth day, he took
me out, and after that on every third day. At first,
we only travelled about the city, but later we even
went to the very entrance of the maze. I memorized
clearly every single street and path until I could
have found my way through the maze even if I was
blind.
"This took almost a year. I knew my brother and Ali
would be getting impatient, but I still did not know
the secrets of the Sacred Mountain. Soon after, I
became pregnant with Sanglaba's bastard child. He was
delighted, but I cried every day in loathing. He asked
me what I wanted, and I said: 'You have made me
pregnant but you don't love me at all.'
"'I don't love you?' he replied. 'Do you think there
is anything I would not give you? Do you want red
coral from the bottom of the sea, or sapphires from
the south? They are yours."
"'I have heard that you have a jade pool which makes
beautiful people who wash in it even more beautiful
and ugly people even uglier,'" I said.
"His face drained of all colour and in a shaky voice,
he asked me where I had heard this. I told him a fairy
had whispered it to me in a dream, but in fact I had
heard about the pool from the servant girls who said
that Sanglaba had never let anyone see it.
"'You can go and wash there, but whoever sees the pool
must have their tongue cut out afterwards to prevent
the secret being revealed. It is a rule decided by the
ancestors,'" he said. He begged me not to go, but I
insisted. I said: 'You must think I am very ugly and
do not wish me to become even uglier.' Finally, he
took me there.
"I took a small knife with me, planning to stab him to
death by the pool, which was the only place in the
palace where there were no guards, but the knife was
snatched away by some magic under the floor of the
great hall. After I had bathed in the Jade Pool, I
don't know if I really became more beautiful or not,
but he loved me even more. However, he still cut out
my tongue, because he feared that I would reveal the
secret. I knew everything, but had no way of telling
my brother and Ali.
"Every day and every night, I prayed to Allah, and
Allah finally heard the cries of his poor daughter. He
gave me wisdom. Sanglaba had a small dagger which he
kept on his person at all times. The dagger had two
scabbards, and the inner scabbard was exactly like the
blade of a knife. I asked him for it, then I drew a
map of the city including all the paths and tunnels in
it, sealed it inside a ball of wax and placed it
inside the inner scabbard. In the third month after
the birth of the child, he took me out hunting. When
no-one was looking, I threw the dagger into the Tengbo
lake. When we returned to the palace, I released many
eagles with 'Tengbo Lake' written on pieces of paper
tied to their legs."
Huo Qingtong put down the map and concentrated on
listening to her sister's translation of the ancient
scroll.
"Several of the eagles were shot down by Sanglaba's
men, but I knew that at least one or two would be
caught by people of our tribe and that my brother and
Ali would go to Tengbo Lake and make a thorough
search. They would then find the knife and know the
way through the city.
"Ah! How could I guess that although they found the
dagger, they did not discover its secret, and did not
work out that there was a scabbard within the
scabbard? My brother, and Ali decided that the dagger
must be a call for them to attack. So they attacked.
Most of the warriors lost their way in the maze. My
brother, stronger than two camels, was lost in this
way. Ali and some of the others caught one of
Sanglaba's men and forced him to lead them in their
attack on the Sacred Mountain. In the Great Hall,
Sanglaba's men fell on them with their jade weapons.
But Ali and his warriors had learned their lessons
well and even empty-handed they held their own and
most died along with their opponents. Seeing his
guards being slaughtered and Ali pressing in closer
all the time, Sanglaba ran into the Jade Room and
wanted me to escape with him via the Jade Pool..."
Huo Qingtong jumped to her feet. "Aha!" she exclaimed.
"He wanted to escape via the Jade Pool!"
"Suddenly Ali ran in, and I flung myself into his
arms. We embraced, and he called me many beautiful
things. I had no tongue and could not answer him, but
he understood the cry of my heart. Then that
despicable Sanglaba, ten thousands times more evil
than a thousand devils, struck him with an axe from
behind...."
Princess Fragrance screamed and threw the scroll back
onto the bed, an expression of horror on his face. Huo
Qingtong gently patted her shoulder, then picked up
the scroll herself and continued to read it out loud:
"....with an axe from behind and split my Ali's head
in two. His blood spurted out all over my body.
Sanglaba picked the child up off the bed, placed it in
my hands and shouted: 'We must leave quickly!' I
raised that bastard baby high about my head and threw
it to the ground with all my strength, and he died in
Ali's blood. Sanglaba was deeply shocked at the sight
of me killing his son. He raised his golden axe, and I
bowed my head, offering my neck to him, but he sighed
and rushed back out into the Great Hall.
"Ali has gone to Allah's side and I will soon follow
him. Our warriors are many, and with all his soldiers
dead, Sanglaba will certainly not survive. He will
never again be able to oppress us followers of Islam.
I myself killed his only son, so we will be free of
oppression from his descendants, because he has none.
In the future, our people will be able to live
peacefully in the desert and on the grasslands, young
girls will be able to lie in their lovers' arms and
sing. My brother, Ali, myself, we are all dead, but we
conquered the tyrants. Even if their fortress had been
stronger than it is, we would still have broken
through eventually. May Allah, the True God, protect
our people."
Huo Qingtong slowly rolled up the ancient scroll. The
three of them sat for a long time without saying a
word, deeply moved by Mami's courage and virtue.
Finally Princess Fragrance, her eyes full of tears,
sighed.
"To relieve the oppression of her people, she was
willing to leave her loved ones, to have her tongue
cut out and even to kill her own child," she said.
Chen started in fright, thinking of his own conduct
compared to this lady of old. Faced with the task of
recovering China for the Chinese people, he selfishly
thought only of his own romantic problems.
Princess Fragrance noticed the sudden change in his
expression. She pulled out her handkerchief and went
over to wipe the beads of sweat from his brow, but
Chen pushed her away impatiently. She stepped back,
startled at his aggressiveness, and Chen's heart
softened. Taking the handkerchief from her, he made up
his mind that while the great endeavour of the
Restoration remained unfinished he would pay no
further attention to his romantic affairs, and would
treat both sisters purely as friends, as his own
sisters.
Huo Qingtong, meanwhile, was once more poring over the
map and pondering phrases in the ancient scroll.
"It says here that Sanglaba came to this Jade Room and
wanted her to escape with him to the Jade Pool," she
murmured. "But this room is a dead end ... Afterwards,
he returned the way he had come. He must have been
extraordinarily strong. The Islam warriors failed to
stop him and he forced his way through to the stone
door and locked them all inside, condemning them to
death. But the map clearly indicates another tunnel to
the pool...."
"Then it must be in this room," Chen replied. He lit
another torch and began to examine the walls closely
for cracks, while Huo Qingtong looked at the jade bed.
Chen remembered how Wen Tailai had been captured at
Iron Gall Manor and said: "Could the tunnel be under
the table?" He placed his hands beneath the round
table top and tried to lift it, but it did not budge.
"There's something strange about this table," he said,
pleased. Huo Qingtong brought the torch over to give
him more light.
"Oh, look!" Princess Fragrance exclaimed. "There's a
design carved onto the surface." They looked closer
and saw that it was a herd of winged camels. They had
not noticed it before because the carving was
extremely shallow. But strangely, the heads and bodies
of the camels were not joined, and were more than a
foot away from each other. On an impulse, Princess
Fragrance grasped the table edge and pulled it from
left to right in an attempt to line up the heads and
bodies, and it did indeed move an inch or so. Chen and
Huo Qingtong joined her and slowly moved the rim round
until the camels were whole again. Just as the carving
was complete, a grinding sound began and a panel
beside the bed slid back to reveal a row of steps
leading downwards. The three shouted in triumph.
Chen led the way into the hole, torch in hand. The
passage twisted and turned for a while and then ran
straight for more than a hundred feet. Then, around a
corner, they burst out into daylight. Looking around
they saw they were in a small basin surrounded by high
mountains. In the centre was a circular pool, the
water in which was as green as jade. They were
immediately enraptured by the beauty of the scene
before them.
"The scroll said that if beautiful people washed in
the pool they would become even more beautiful," Huo
Qingtong said to her sister with a smile. "You should
go and wash."
Princess Fragrance blushed. "You are older than I, you
go first," she replied.
"Ai-ya! But I will become more ugly," Huo Qingtong
protested. "Are you going to wash or not?" Princess
Fragrance shook her head.
Huo Qingtong walked to the edge of the pool and put
her hands in the water: it was intensely cold. She
cupped her hands and scooped up some water and saw it
was very clear: the water appeared green only because
of the jade all about. She took a sip and found it
extraordinarily cool and tasty. They all drank their
fill. The white peak towering above them reflected off
the surface of the pool in a picture of loveliness,
and Princess Fragrance lazily moved her hand about in
the water, unwilling to leave such an enchanting
place.
"The thing to do now is to think of a way to avoid
those four devils outside," said Huo Qingtong.
"First, let's bring Mami's remains out and bury them
beside the pool," Chen suggested.
Princess Fragrance clapped her hands in delight. "It
would be best if we buried her and Ali together," she
said.
"Yes. I expect the skeleton in the corner is Ali's."
They returned to the Jade Room. As they were
collecting Ali's bones, they found amongst them some
bamboo slivers used in China in ancient times for
writing. Chen picked them up, and saw they were
thickly covered with Chinese characters written in red
ink on a black background. Glancing through them, he
recognized the writings of the Chinese philospher
Zhuangzi. He had thought it might be some special book
and was rather disappointed to find it was instead
something he had read and memorized as a child.
"What is it?" Princess Fragrance asked.
"It's an old Chinese book, but it's not much use
except to archaeologists." He threw the slivers back
on the ground, and as they scattered, he noticed one
which looked slightly different from the rest. Beside
every character, were circles and dots and Muslim
writing. Chen picked the sliver up and saw it was a
section entitled 'The Butcher Dissects the Cow' from
the philosopher Zhuangzi's lecture, 'The Secret of
Caring for Life.' He pointed to the Muslim characters
written alongside.
"What does this say?" he asked Princess Fragrance.
"'The key to smashing the enemy is here'," she
replied.
"What can that mean?" he wondered out loud, greatly
surprised.
"Mami's last testament said Ali got hold of a Chinese
book and had learned kung fu from it. This could be
it," Huo Qingtong suggested.
"Zhuangzi taught that one should be oblivious of
emotion in adversity and obedient to one's superiors,"
said Chen. "It has nothing to do with kung fu." He
threw the sliver back down again, then picked up the
pile of bones and walked out. They buried the remains
of Mami and Ali beside the Jade Pool and bowed
respectfully before the graves.
"Let's go now," said Chen. "I wonder if the white
horse managed to escape the wolves?"
"What is the section of that book about?" Huo Qingtong
asked.
"It's about a butcher who is very good at his job. The
movements of his hands and legs, the sound of his
knife chopping, are all perfectly coordinated. The
sound has the rhythm of music, the movements are like
dancing."
"It would be useful to have such skill when facing an
enemy," Huo Qingtong commented.
Chen stared at her in surprise. Every word of Zhuangzi
was familiar to him, but suddenly he felt as if he had
never read it before. The words of 'The Butcher
Dissects The Cow' ran through his mind: 'When I first
began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox
itself. After three years, I no longer saw the whole
ox. And now -- now, I go at it by spirit and don't
look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have
come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants.'
"If it really is like that," he thought, "I could kill
that traitor Zhang with my eyes closed with just a
slight movement of the knife..." The two sisters
stared at him, wondering what he was thinking about.
"Wait a moment," he said, and ran back inside. A long
time passed and still he did not re-emerge. Feeling
worried, the two sisters went in as well and found him
prancing about among the skeletons in the Great Hall,
his face wreathed in smiles. He danced around a pair
of skeletons for a moment and then stood stock-still
staring at another pair. Princess Fragrance glanced to
her sister in fright, afraid that he had lost his
mind.
Huo Qingtong took her sister's hand. "Don't be afraid,
he's all right," she said. "Let's go and wait for him
outside."
The two returned to the Jade Pool. "What's he doing in
there?" Princess Fragrance asked.
"I think he's worked out some new kung fu moves after
having read those bamboo slivers and he's now
practising them by copying the positions of the
skeletons. It would be best if we didn't disturb him."
Princess Fragrance nodded. After a while, she sighed.
"Now I understand." she said.
"What?"
"All those people in the Great Hall must have been
very good fighters. Even after their weapons had been
snatched from them, they still fought on with
Sanglaba's guards."
"Yes, but they weren't necessarily very good at kung
fu," Huo Qingtong replied. "I would guess they just
learned a few really formidable moves which allowed
them to take their enemies with them."
"Ah, they were so brave ... But what is he learning
them for? Does he want to die with his enemies too?"
"No, a martial arts master would not be killed along
with his opponent. He is just studying the finer
points of the moves."
Princess Fragrance smiled. "Well I won't worry any
more, then." She looked out over the surface of the
pool. "Sister," she said. "Let's bathe in the water."
"Don't be ridiculous. What if he should come out?"
"I really want to go and bathe," Princess Fragrance
replied. She stared out at the cool water once again.
"Wouldn't it be nice if the three of us could live
here together forever!" she said softly.
Huo Qingtong's heart jumped. She blushed, and quickly
turned her head away towards the White Jade Peak.
A long time passed and still Chen did not emerge.
Princess Fragrance took off her leather boots and put
her feet in the water. Resting her head on her
sister's lap, she gazed up at the white clouds in the
sky and slowly fell asleep. |
