he passed along a covered pathway and into yet anotherhall lit by two massive, flickering candles and filledwith row after row of wooden cabinets, each one markedwith a piece of yellowing paper stuck to the side. hepicked up one of the candles and began his search.
before long, he located the right cabinet. he openedits doors and found inside three parcels wrapped inyellow cloth. the parcel on the left was inscribed invermilion ink with his foster father's name: 'yuwanting'. chen's hands shook slightly and severaldrops of candlewax splattered on the floor. then, witha silent prayer, he opened the parcel.
inside was a thick file of yellowing papers, a man'sembroidered waistcoat, and a woman's whiteundergarment which was badly ripped and speckled withblack spots that appeared to be blood stains. chenopened the file and began reading from the beginning:
"i, yu wanting, a twenty-first generation pupil of theshaolin monastery of putian, fujian province, dohereby respectfully confess in full my misdemeanors.
"i was born into a peasant family and spent my youthin great poverty and hardship. i knew the girl xuchaosheng, who lived next door, from when we were veryyoung. as we grew, we came to love one another...."chen's heart began to thump wildly. "could it be myfoster father's misdemeanor had something to do withmy mother?" he wondered. he continued reading:
"we secretly agreed to remain faithful to each otherfor life, and would marry no-one else. after the deathof my father, there were several years of drought, andwith nothing in the fields to harvest, i went out intothe world to find a life for myself. due to thecompassion of my benevolent master, i was taken in bythe monastery. the embroidered waistcoat enclosed wasgiven to me by the girl xu when i left home.
"before i had been fully initiated into the higherskills of the shaolin martial arts school, i lefttemporarily to return to my home village. because ofthe girl xu's kindness, i was unable to abandonworldly emotions and went back to see her, but wasshocked to find that her father had married her intothe family of the local landlord, surnamed chen. in astate of extreme anguish, i entered the chen mansionone night to visit her. using martial skills i hadlearned from the shaolin school, i trespassed on theproperty of an ordinary citizen for personal reasons.
this was my first breach of discipline.
"the girl xu moved with her husband to beijing, andthree years later, having failed to renounce my lovefor her, i went to visit her again. as it happened,that very night, she gave birth to a son. i wasoutside the window and managed to catch a glimpse ofthe child. four days later, i returned once more andfound the girl xu looking very pale. she told me thather son had been taken away by the princess rong zhangand replaced by a baby girl. before we had a chance totalk further, four assassins entered, obviously sentby the princess to kill the girl xu. in the heat ofthe fight, i received a sword wound on my forehead,but killed all four assassins before passing out. thegirl xu bandaged my wound with the enclosedundergarment. having heard a secret of the imperialpalace and having been seen to use shaolin kung fu, irisked bringing great trouble upon the school. this ismy second breach of discipline.
"for the next ten years, although i was in beijing, idid not dare to go and see the girl xu again, butsubmerged myself in learning kung fu. finally theemperor yong zheng died and qian long succeeded him tothe throne. i worked out the dates and realised thatqian long was the son of the girl xu. knowing howcold-blooded yong zheng was and afraid that he mighthave left orders to have her killed to silence her, ientered the chen mansion again. one night, twoassassins did indeed come. i killed them both andfound yong zheng's written order on one of them. ienclose the document."chen flipped through the rest of the pile and found atthe end a note on which was written: "if, when i die,chen shiguan and his wife are still alive, they mustbe speedily killed." it was unmistakably thecalligraphy of the emperor yong zheng. chen guessedyong zheng must have known his parents would not dareto breathe a word while he was alive, but thought theymight try to make use of the information after hisdeath. he continued reading.
"qian long apparently knew nothing of the matter, forno more assassins were sent. but i could not resteasy, so i dressed as a commoner and obtainedemployment in the chen mansion, chopping firewood andcarrying water. this i did for five years. only when iwas certain there would be no further repurcussionsdid i leave. i acted with great recklessness, and if ihad been discovered, it would have caused greatembarrassment to the shaolin school, and have damagedthe school's honour. this is my third breach ofdiscipline."now chen understood why his mother had wanted him togo with yu, and why yu had died of a broken heartafter the death of his mother. he thought of yuworking for five years as a lowly servant in his ownhousehold to protect his mother, truly an expressionof deep love and an overwhelming sense of duty. hewondered which one of the dozens of servants aroundthe house when he was young was yu.
after a while, he wiped his eyes and read on: "i amguilty of three serious breaches of discipline. fullof fear, i hereby present the full facts to mybenevolent master and plead for leniency."yu's submission ended at that point and was followedby two lines of vermillion characters which said: "yuwanting has committed three misdemeanors. if he istruly willing to reform and follow the teachings ofthe buddha, why should we not forgive him since thebuddha was willing to forgive the ten sins? but if hehankers after worldly passions and refuses to use hisintelligence to break the bonds of emotion, then heshould be immediately expelled. it is up to him."so his foster father was expelled from the shaolinschool because he could not give up my mother, chenthought.
he looked up and saw the stars on the western horizonwere beginning to fade while in the east, day hadalready arrived. he blew out the candles, wrapped thethings up in the yellow cloth and picked up theparcel. he closed the cabinet doors and slowly walkedback out to the courtyard where he found a statue of alaughing buddha gazing down him. he wondered what hisfoster father must have felt, being confronted withthis buddha as he left the courtyard after beingexpelled. he walked back through the five halls, allof them deserted.
as he passed through the last doorway, lord zhou andthe red flower society heroes came forward to greethim. they had waited anxiously for half the night andwere delighted to see him returning safely. but as hecame closer, they saw his weary look, and his red,swollen eyes. chen gave them a brief account of whathad happened, omitting only the relationship betweenhis foster father and his mother.
"our business here is finished," he said. the othersnodded.
lord zhou accompanied chen back inside to bid farewellto the abbot, then the heroes collected theirbelonging and started on the way.
just as they were leaving the monastery, zhou qi wentpale and almost fainted. her father quickly helped herback inside to rest, and the monastery's physicianannounced after examining her that she was in nocondition to travel and would have to rest at themonastery to await the birth. zhou qi could only smilebitterly and nod in agreement.
the others discussed the situation and decided thatlord zhou and xu should stay to look after zhou qi,and join them in beijing after the birth of the child.
zhou rented a number of peasant huts a couple of mileswest of the monastery for them to live in, and chenand the other heroes started off north.
