zhou qi was separated from the others in the midst ofthe battle. the manchu troops surged around her, andshe galloped blindly off trying to escape them. in thedarkness, her horse suddenly tripped, and she tumbledto the ground, her head crashing heavily against thehard earth. she passed out, but luckily it was stilldark, and the soldiers did not find her.

she had been unconscious for she did not know how longwhen there was a sudden bright flash before her eyesand a great roar followed by a wave of coolness on herface. she opened her eyes and saw the sky was full ofblack clouds and torrential rain sweeping down.

she jumped up. someone beside her sat up as well, andshe started in fright and frantically grabbed for hersword. then she gasped in surprise: it was'mastermind' xu.

"mistress zhou, what are you doing here?" he calledout above the roar of the rain.

zhou qi had never liked xu and had gone out of her wayto quarrel with him. but he was at least one of herown people, and she burst into tears.

"what about my father?" she asked, biting her lip.

xu motioned her to lie down. "soldiers," he whispered.

zhou qi threw herself to the ground, and they slowlycrawled behind a small mound of earth.

the sky was already light, and through the rain, theysaw several dozen manchu soldiers hastily buryingcorpses, cursing as they worked. "you two, have a lookround for any more bodies," an officer shouted, andtwo soldiers went onto higher ground. looking around,they spotted zhou qi and xu and called out: "there'stwo more over there.""wait for them to come over," xu whispered.

the soldiers walked over carrying shovels, and as theybent over them, zhou qi and xu simultaneously thrusttheir swords into the bellies of the two. they diedwithout a sound.

the officer waited for a while, but with no sign ofthe soldiers returning and the rain getting heavier,he rode over to investigate.

"don't make a sound. i'll steal his horse," xuwhispered. as the officer rode closer, he saw thebodies of the two soldiers, but before he could callout, xu leapt up and slashed at him with his sword.

the officer raised his horse whip to stop the blow,but both his whip and head were sliced off.

"mount up quickly!" xu called, holding the horse'sreins. zhou qi leapt onto the horse and galloped offwith xu running along behind.

the manchu troops began to give chase. after only afew dozen paces, the pain in xu's shoulder where hehad been hit by the golden needles became unbearableand he fell to the ground with a cry. zhou qi reinedthe horse round and galloped back. leaning over, shepulled him across the saddle, then slapped the horse'shaunches and raced off again. the soldiers soondropped far behind.

when they had gone some distance, zhou qi stopped andhad a look at xu. his eyes were tightly closed, hisface white and his breathing shallow. greatlyfrightened, she sat him properly on the horse, thenwith her left arm around his waist to keep him fromfalling, galloped on, keeping to lonely, desertedtracks. after a while, she saw an inky-black sectionof forest ahead and rode in amongst the trees. therain had stopped, and she dismounted and continued onfoot leading the horse with xu on it behind her untilshe came to a clearing in the forest. xu was stillunconscious, and zhou qi lifted him off the horse andlaid him on the grass. then she sat down, letting thehorse wander off to graze. here she was, a young girlnot yet twenty, alone in a strange forest. she beganto sob, her tears falling onto xu's face.

xu slowly recovered consciousness and thought it wasraining again. he opened his eye a little way and sawa beautiful face before him with two big eyes red fromcrying. his left shoulder began hurting again and hecried out in pain.

zhou qi was overjoyed to see he was still alive. "howare you?" she asked.

"my shoulder is extremely painful. please look at itfor me, mistress zhou," he replied. he forced himselfto sit up and used his right hand to cut a hole in theshoulder of his jacket with his knife.

"i was hit by three golden needles here," he said,examining the shoulder out of the corner of his eye."the needles were small, but they had penetrated deepinto the flesh.

"what shall we do?" zhou qi asked. "shall we go to atown and find a doctor?""we can't do that," replied xu. "after last night'sbattle, going to see a doctor would be like walkingstraight into a trap. what we really need is a magnetto draw the needles out, but we don't have one. iwonder if i could ask you to cut away the flesh andpull them out?"during the night battle, zhou qi had killed quite anumber of the manchu troops without losing hercomposure once. but now, faced with the prospect ofcutting away the flesh on xu'sshoulder, she hesitated.

"i can't stand the pain," he pleaded. "do it now...no,wait. do you have a tinder box with you?"zhou qi felt around in her bag. "yes. what do you wantit for?""collect some dried grass and leaves and burn up someash. when you've pulled the needles out, you can coverthe wound with the ash and then bandage it."she did as he said and burnt up a large pile of ash.

"that's fine," said xu with a laugh. "there's enoughthere to stop a hundred wounds bleeding.""i'm just a stupid girl," zhou qi replied crossly.

"come and do it yourself."she pressed on his shoulder beside the needle holes.

as her fingers came into contact with male flesh, sheinvoluntarily pulled back and her whole face turnedbright red down to the roots of her hair.

xu noticed her blush, but misinterpreted her reactionin spite of his nickname.

"are you afraid?" he asked.

"what have i got to be afraid of?" she replied,suddenly angry. "it's you that's afraid! turn yourhead away and don't look."xu did as he was told. zhou qi pressed the skin aroundthe needle holes tightly, then slipped the tip of theknife into the flesh and slowly began to turn it.

blood flowed out of the wound. xu silently gritted histeeth, his whole face covered in beads of sweat thesize of soyabeans. she cut away the flesh until theend of a needle appeared, then grasping it tightlybetween the thumb and forefinger, pulled it out.

xu forced himself to maintain his jocular front.

"it's a pity that needle doesn't have an eye to threadthrough, otherwise i'd give it to you to use inembroidery," he said.

"i can't do embroidery," zhou qi replied. "last year,my mother told me to learn, but i kept snapping theneedle or breaking the thread. she scolded me, and isaid: "mother, i can't do it, you teach me." but shesaid 'i've no time.' afterwards i discovered that shecan't do embroidery either."xu laughed. as they had been talking, another needlehad been removed.

"i didn't really want to learn," zhou qi continuedwith a smile. "but when i found out that mother didn'tknow how, i pushed her to teach me. but i couldn'tcatch her out. she said: 'if you don't know how tosew, i don't know how you'll....'"she stopped in mid-sentence. her mother had said: "idon't know you'll ever find a husband.""don't you know how you'll what?" asked xu.

"i don't feel like telling you."as they talked, her hands never stopped, and the thirdneedle was finally out as well. she covered the woundwith ash, then bandaged it with strips of cloth. shecouldn't help but admire him for the way he continuedto smile and chat to her despite the pain.

"he may be short, but he's a brave man," she thought.

by this time, her hands were covered in blood.

"you lie here and don't move," she said. "i'll go andfind some water to drink."she looked at the lie of the land, then ran out of thetrees. several hundred paces away, she found a smallstream which was flowing swiftly after the heavy rain.

as she bent down to wash her hands, she caught sightof her reflection in the water, the dishevelled hair,her wet and crumpled clothes, and her face, covered inblood and dirt.

"damn!" she thought. "how could i let him see melooking so awful?"she washed her face clean, combed her hair with herfingers. then, scooping water from the stream, shedrank deeply. she knew xu would certainly be thirstytoo, but had nothing in which to carry water. after amoment's thought, she took a piece of clothing fromthe knapsack on her back, dipped it in the stream sothat it was soaking wet than ran back.

zhou qi could see from his face that he was in greatpain, although he was trying to appear unconcerned,and feelings of tenderness stirred within her. shetold him to open his mouth and squeezed water into itfrom the cloth.

"is it very painful?" she asked softly.

xu's whole life has been spent amidst mountains ofknives and forests of spears, or else in the shadyworld of plots and traps; no-one had ever spoken tohim with the warmth and softness he detected now inzhou qi's voice. deeply moved, he steadied himself. "iam a little better now. thank you.""we can't stay here," xu said after he had drunk somewater. "nor can we go to any town. all we can do is tofind a secluded farmhouse and say that we are brotherand sister...""you want me to call you brother?" asked zhou qi,astounded.

"if you feel that i'm too old, you could call meuncle," he suggested.

"pah! do you think you look like my uncle? i'll callyou my brother, but only when there are other peoplearound. when we're on our own, i won't.""all right, you don't have to," he replied with asmile. "we'll say that we met the army on the road andwere attacked by the soldiers who stole all ourpossessions."having agreed on their story, zhou qi helped him tomount the horse. the two made their way out of thetrees, and chose a small track heading straighttowards the sun.

the northwest is a desolate place. hungry and tired,they had to travel for more than two hours beforefinally spotting a mud hut.

xu dismounted and knocked at the door. after a moment,an old woman came out. seeing the strange clothes theywere wearing, she looked at them suspiciously. xu gaveher some of the story they had concocted, and shesighed.

"these government troops, always making trouble," shesaid. "what is your name sir?""my name is zhou," said xu.

zhou qi glanced at him but said nothing. the old womaninvited them inside and brought out some wheat cakes.

they were black and rough, but hungry as they were,tasted delicious.

"old woman," said xu, "i am wounded and am not able totravel. we would like to spend the night here.""there's no problem about your staying here, but poorpeople's homes have little to eat in them, so don'tblame me on that account, sir.""we are eternally thankful that you are willing to putus up," xu replied. "my sister's clothes are all wet.

if you have any old clothes, i would appreciate it ifyou would allow her to change into them.""my daughter-in-law left some clothes behind. if youdon't mind, mistress, you could try them on. they'llprobably fit."zhou qi went to change. when she came out, she saw xuwas already asleep in the old woman's room.

towards evening, xu began babbling incoherently, zhouqi felt his forehead and found it feverish. shedecided his wounds must be festering. she knew such acondition was extremely dangerous, and turned to theold woman. "is there a doctor near here?" she asked.

"yes, there is, in wenguang town about twenty li eastof here," the old woman replied. "the most capable oneis doctor cao, but he never comes out to countryplaces like this to see patients.""i'll go and fetch him," zhou qi said. "i'll leavemy...my brother here. please keep an eye on him.""don't you worry about that, miss," the old womanreplied. "but the doctor won't come."zhou qi stowed her sword beside the horse's saddle andgalloped off. night had already fallen when sheentered wenguang town.

she asked a passer-by where doctor cao lived, thengalloped straight on to his residence. she knocked onthe door for a long time before a man finally openedit.

"it's already dark. what are you banging on the doorlike that for?" the man demanded.

zhou qi was furious at his manner, but remembered thatshe was appealing for help. "i've come to ask doctorcao to visit a patient," she said, controllingherself.

"he's not in," said the man. without another word, heturned and began to close the door.

panic-striken, zhou qi pulled him out of the doorwayand drew her sword. "where's he gone to? quickly!""he's gone to little rose's," the man replied in aquavering voice.

zhou qi brushed the blade over his face. "what islittle rose's?"the man was frantic with fright. "yourexcellency...miss, little rose is a prostitute," hesaid.

"prostitutes are bad people. what's he gone to herplace for?" zhou qi asked.

the man wanted to laugh at the sight of this girl whowas so ferocious and yet so ignorant of worldlymatters, but he did not dare. "she is a good friend ofour master," he said.

"lead me there quickly."with the sword resting on his neck, he dared notdisobey and led her off down the street.

"this is it," he said, pointing to a small house.

"knock on the door. tell the doctor to come out."the man did as she said, and the door was opened bythe madame of the house.

"this lady wants my master to go to visit a patient,"the man said. "i told her the master was busy, but shewouldn't believe me and forced me to come here."the madame gave him a look of contempt and slammed thedoor.

zhou qi rushed forward to stop her, but was too late.

she beat thunderously on the door for a while, but nota sound came from inside. absolutely furious, shekicked the man to the ground.

"get lost!" she shouted.

the man picked himself up and ran off.

zhou qi waited until he had disappeared then leaptover the wall into the courtyard of the house. she sawlight coming from a room nearby, and stealthily madeher way over towards it. crouching down, she heard twomen talking. she licked the tip of her finger, thenwet a small part of the window paper and made a holein it. putting her eye to the hole, she saw two menlying on a couch, talking. one was stout, and theother thin and tall. a tartishly seductive girl waspummelling the thin man's thighs. the stout man give awave of his hand and the girl stood up.

"i can see you two want to discuss more ways ofcreating mischief," she said with a smile. "you oughtto accumulate some good deeds, otherwise you may givebirth to sons without arseholes.""damned nonsense," the stout man shouted back with alaugh. the girl smiled and walked out, locked thedoor, then turned and went into an inner hall.

"that must be little rose," zhou qi thought. "she'sreally shameless, but there's some truth in what shesaid."she watched as the stout man pulled out four silveringots and placed them on the table.

"brother cao," he said. "there's two hundred taels ofsilver. we are old business partners, and that's theold price.""master tang," the thin man replied: "take these twopackets of medicine, and have a good time. the redpacket you give to the girl, and in less time than ittakes to eat a meal, she will be unconscious to theworld and you can do whatever you like with her. youdon't need me to teach you anything about that, doyou?"the two men laughed together.

"this black packet you give to the man," caocontinued. "tell him it will speed his recovery. soonafter he takes it, his wounds will begin dischargingblood and he will die. it will appear that his woundshave simply re-opened and no-one will suspect you.

what do you think of such a ruse?""excellent, excellent," tang replied.

"so, master tang, you have gained both the girl andthe money. doesn't two hundred taels seem like rathera small reward for such a service?""we are brothers, and i wouldn't try to deceive you,"the other said. "the girl certainly has a pretty face.

i could hardly restrain myself even when i thought shewas a boy because of the way she was dressed. butthere is nothing much special about the man, exceptthat he's with the girl, so i cannot allow him tolive.""didn't you say he had a flute made out of gold?" caoasked. "that flute must weigh several catties alone.""all right, all right, i'll add another fifty taels,"tang said, and pulled out another ingot.

zhou qi became angrier and angrier as she listened,and ran to the door, kicked it open and chargedstraight inside. tang gave a shout and aimed a flyingkick at zhou qi's sword wrist. zhou qi flipped thesword over and smoothly cut off his right foot thenthrust the blade into his heart.

the thin man stood to one side, struck dumb withfright. his whole body shook and his teeth chattered.

zhou qi pulled her sword out of tang's corpse andwiped the blood off the blade onto his clothes, thengrabbed the thin man.

"are you doctor cao?" she shouted. the man's legsfolded and he fell to his knees.

"please...miss...spare my life...""who wants your life? get up."cao shakily stood up, but his knees were stillrubbery, and he had to kneel down again. zhou qi putthe five silver ingots and two packets of medicine onthe table into her pocket.

"out," she ordered.

she told him to fetch his horse, and the two mountedup and galloped out of the town. in less than twohours, they arrived at the old woman's hut. zhou qiran to xu and found him still unconscious. in thecandlelight, she could see his whole face was brightred and knew he had a terrible fever. she dragged caoover.

"my, er, brother here has been wounded. cure himquickly," she ordered.

hearing that he was expected to give medicaltreatment, cao's fears eased slightly. he looked atxu's complexion and took his pulse, then undid thebandage round his shoulder and looked at the wound. heshook his head.

"the master is deficient in both blood and breath," hesaid. "his body heat is rising...""who wants to hear all that?" zhou qi interrupted him.

"you just cure him quickly. if you don't, you canforget about ever leaving here.""i'll go to the town to get some medicine," cao said.

"without medicine i cannot do anything."xu awoke and he lay listening to the two talking.

"huh, do you think i'm a three-year-old child?" zhouqi demanded. "you make out the prescription and i'llgo and buy the medicine."cao had no alternative. "well, please bring me a penand paper, miss," he said.

but where was pen and paper to be found in such a poorhut in such a desolate place? zhou qi frowned, at aloss for what to do.

"the master's condition will not allow delay," saidcao with an air of complacency. "it would be best ifyou let me return to the town to get the medicine.""sister," xu said, "take a small piece of firewood andburn it to charcoal, then let him write on a piece ofrough paper. if that can't be done, you could write ona piece of wood.""what a good idea!" zhou qi exclaimed happily, andburnt up a piece of firewood as he had said. the oldwoman searched out a piece of yellow paper originallymeant to be burnt in worship of buddha, and cao madeout the prescription. when he had finished, zhou qifound a length of grass rope and tied his hands behindhis back, bound his legs together and put him on thefloor next to xu.

"i'm going to the town to buy medicine," she told theold woman as she placed xu's sword beside his pillow.

if this dog doctor tries to escape, wake up my brotherand he can kill him."zhou qi rode back to the town and found a medicineshop. she shouted for the shop-keeper to open up andgot him to fill the prescription, which was for morethat ten different types of medicine.

the sky was growing light. she saw village militiamenpatrolling the streets and guessed that the murder atlittle rose's had been discovered. she shrank into acorner and waited until they had passed beforegalloping off.

as soon as she had returned to the old woman's hut,she hastily brewed up the medicine then poured it intoa rough bowl and took it over to xu. she shook himawake and told him to drink the medicine.

xu was extremely moved at the sight of her facecovered with sweat and ash and her hair filled withtwigs and grass. he knew she was the daughter of arich family and would never before have had to do thissort of work. he sat up and took the bowl from her andpassed it over to cao.

"you drink two mouthfuls," he said. cao hesitatedslightly and zhou qi realised xu's meaning.

"yes, yes," she said. "he must drink some first. youdon't know how evil this man is," she added to xu.

cao opened his mouth and drank two mouthfuls.

"rest for a while, sister," said xu. "i'll wait awhile before drinking the medicine.""yes," said zhou qi. "let's see if he dies first. ifhe dies, you mustn't drink the medicine."she moved the oil lamp next to cao's face and watchedhim with her big, black, unblinking eyes to seewhether he would die or not.

"we doctors have the best interest of our patients atheart. why would i want to harm him?" cao said,smiling bitterly.

"that secret discussion you had with that man tangabout harming some girl and getting hold of someoneelse's golden flute, i heard it all," zhou qi saidangrily. "do you deny it?"xu's ears pricked up at the mention of a golden fluteand he quickly asked her about it. zhou qi related theconversation she had heard, and how she had killed aman at little rose's.

xu asked cao: "who is the person with the goldenflute? and who is the girl who was dressed as a boy?"zhou qi drew her sword and stood by him threateningly.

"if you don't tell us everything you know, i'll runyou through with my sword immediately," she told him.

"i...i'll tell you," said cao, absolutely terrified.

"yesterday master tang came to see me and said thattwo people had asked to take lodgings at his home. hesaid one was very badly wounded and the other was apretty youngster. at first he was unwilling to takethem in, but seeing how extraordinarily beautiful theyoungster was, he let them stay for one night. henoticed the youngster's voice and manner were justlike a girl's. also, the youngster wasn't willing toshare a room with the other, so he concluded it mustbe a girl dressed in boy's clothes.""so you sold him some poison," zhou qi said.

"i deserve to die," replied cao.

"what was the man like?" xu asked.

"master tang asked me to examine him. he was abouttwenty-three or four, dressed as a scholar, and hadsword and club wounds in seven or eight places.""were the wounds serious?" asked xu.

"very serious. but they were all external wounds. hewasn't wounded on any fatal points."xu saw he would not gain much by continuing thequestioning and gingerly raised the bowl of medicine.

but his hands shook and some of the medicine sloppedout. zhou qi took the bowl from him and raised it tohis mouth. he drank the brew down as she held thebowl, then thanked her.

"these two bandits are not brother and sister," caothought as he watched. "whoever heard of a brothersaying thank you to his sister?"after drinking the medicine, xu slept for a while, hiswhole body sweating profusely, and towards evening,the sickness began to recede. the next day, xu wasmore than half recovered and he was able to get up.

after another day, he decided he could just aboutmanage to ride a horse.

"that man with the golden flute is fourteenthbrother," he said to zhou qi. "i wonder why he shouldseek lodgings with such a man? but seeing as you'vealready killed tang, they shouldn't have had too muchtrouble. but i'm still a little worried. let's gotonight and see what the situation is.""fourteenth brother?" zhou qi asked.

"'scholar' yu. he was also at iron gall manor. you'veseen him before.""oh, if i had known it was him i would have broughthim along with me, then the two of you could haveconvalesced together."xu smiled. "but who could this girl dressed in boy'sclothing be?" he wondered, mystified.

that evening, zhou qi gave the old woman two of thesilver ingots and she accepted them with effusiveblessings and thanks. zhou qi then pulled cao up, andwith a swish of her blade, cut off his right ear.

"i'm only sparing your worthless life because youcured my brother," she shouted. "if i ever catch youdoing evil again,i'll stick my sword straight intoyour heart.""we'll visit you again in three months time, to checkup," xu warned.

"you ride his horse and we'll leave," zhou qi said toxu. the two mounted up and galloped off towardswenguang town.

"why did you say we would be coming back in threemonths' time?" zhou qi asked.

"i was just deceiving the doctor so that he wouldn'tgive the old woman any trouble," xu replied.

zhou qi nodded and they continued on for a while.

"why are you always so crafty with people?" shesuddenly asked. "i don't like it.""you don't realise how many evil people there are inthe world," he said after a long silence. "whendealing with friends, love and justice should alwayscome first, of course. but when dealing with badpeople, you must be very careful otherwise you will betricked and will suffer.""my father say it's better to suffer yourself than tocheat other people," zhou qi said.

"that is what makes your father the great man that heis," replied xu.

"well, why don't you imitate my father?""lord zhou is benevolent and generous by nature. i amafraid that such a perverse person as myself wouldnever be able to emulate him.""that's what i dislike most about you: your perversetemper. my father says that if you treat others well,they will also naturally treat you well in return."xu didn't reply.

the two waited until it was dark before entering thetown. they found tang's residence and climbed over thewall toinvestigate. xu caught a watchman and,threatening him with a knife, asked him about'scholar' yu's whereabouts. the watchman said the twolodgers had left during the confusion after doctor caohad killed master tang at little rose's.

"we'll chase after them," zhou qi said.