that morning, while the red flower society heroes werediscussing the situation in their quarters in twinwillow lane, a servant appeared to announced thearrival of the emeror's chief bodyguard, bai zhen.
chen went out alone to meet him. bai zhen passed onthe emperor's invitation to all the leading members ofthe red flower society to attend a banquet in the lamatemple that evening to be hosted by the emperorhimself. he explained that the banquet was being heldoutside the palace in order to avoid raising thesuspicions of the empress dowager and the manchunobles. chen expressed his thanks. he assumed the newsindicated princess fragrance had already done what hadto be done and had given in to the emperor, and feltan inexpressible mixture of emotions. after havingseen bai zhen out, he returned to discuss matters withthe heroes, who were very excited that the emperor waskeeping his part of the bargain, although they werealso painfully aware of the sacrifice chen had made tomake it possible.
they passed the rest of the morning in kung futraining, and chen showed the others some of what hehad learned inside the white jade peak. just as theywere in the midst of the practice, they heard wailingand mournful singing outside. at first, they did nottake much notice, but the noise gradually increased involume, as if thousands of people were gathering in anstate of extreme grief.
xin yan had lived in the desert for a long time andrecognised the song as a muslim funeral dirge. hiscuriosity aroused, he ran out to find out what wasgoing on, and returned a while later, unsteady on hisfeet and ashen-faced. he walked over to chen.
"master!" he exclaimed, his voice shaking.
the heroes stopped their kung fu training, and chenturned to him. "what is it?" he asked.
"she ... princess fragrance is dead!"the heroes blanched. for chen, everything went blackand he collapsed to the ground. priest wu chen droppedhis sword and helped him up.
"how did she die?" luo bing asked.
"the muslim i talked to said she stabbed herself todeath while praying in the mosque," xin yan replied.
"what else did he say?""that the empress dowager would not let her body backinto the palace and had it handed over to the mosque.
they are just on their way back from burying her now."the heroes all cursed the emperor bitterly for hiscruelty in hounding such a pure, innocent young girlto her death. luo bing broke down and started to cry.
chen was silent for a while, and then suddenly said toprist wu chen: "i haven't finished showing you all themoves yet. let us continue."to their amazement, he walked back out into the middleof the courtyard. wu chen decided it would be a goodidea to help distract chen from his grief, so heraised his sword and resumed the training session. theheroes saw chen's footwork was just as sure as beforeand his hands moved with the same skill as if the newshad had absolutely no effect on him, and they began toquietly discuss it amongst themselves.
"men have no hearts," yuanzhi whispered into 'scholar'
yu's ear. "he thinks only of his great plans for thecountry, and doesn't care at all about the death ofthe woman he loved."yu said nothing. but he silently praised chen for hisself-control. if it were me, he thought, i think iwould immediately go insane.
aware that a great change had come over chen, priestwu chen did not dare press him too hard, and in a fewmoves, chen had easily gained the upper hand. as thepriest retreated, chen's hand suddenly shot out andtouched his hand. the two leapt apart.
"good! excellent!" exclaimed the priest.
"you weren't really trying," chen replied and laughed.
but before the laugh was finished, he vomited amouthful of blood. the heroes rushed forward as one tohelp him, but chen waved them away with a wan smile.
"it's nothing," he said. he walked back into thehouse, supporting himself on xin yan's shoulders.
chen slept for more than two hours. upon waking, hethought of all the important things he had to do,including seeing the emperor that evening, and knew hehad to look after himself. but as soon as he thoughtabout princess fragrance's tragic death the pain wassuch that he wanted to end it all. he wondered why shewould suddenly commit suicide after clearly agreeingto give in to the emperor. could it be that she hadchanged her mind and decided she could not renounceher love for him? but she knew this was a matter of nosmall significance. he was convinced that somethingmust have happened, but what? he meditated on theproblem for a while but could come to no conclusion,so he took out a set of muslim clothes he had broughtfrom the northwest and put them on, then blacked hisface with some diluted ink.
"i'm going out," he said to xin yan. "i'll be back ina while." xin yan quietly followed him. chen, who knewhe was simply acting out of loyalty, did not try tostop him.
the streets were full of people and noise,intermingled with many carriages and horses, but inchen's eyes, all was deserted. he walked into themosque on the avenue of eternal peace, went straightinto the main hall, and threw himself down on theground to pray. "wait for me in heaven," he saidquietly. "i promised you that i would be converted tothe islamic faith, and i will make sure that you donot wait in vain."he raised his head and noticed what looked like aninscription on the floor about five feet in front ofhim. he went forward to investigate and saw it wasseveral muslim words etched into the stone with thepoint of a knife: "don't trust the emperor." there wassome pigment in the grooves of the words, and chenstarted in shock. looking around, he found a part ofthe floor nearby that was slightly darker in colour,and thought: "could this be her blood?" he bent downto smell the patch and caught the tang of fresh blood.
in a second, he was overcome with grief and he threwhimself on the ground, sobbing.
after crying for a while, he felt someone tap himlightly on his shoulder. he leapt to his feet ready tofight, then started in surprise: it was huo qingtong,dressed as a muslim boy.
she had arrived that day with the twin eagles in thehope of rescuing princess frangrance, but had heardalmost immediately that her sister was dead. she hadcome to the mosque to pray for her.
chen noticed two palace guards enter the mosque, andwith a tug on huo qingtong's sleeve, pulled her downto the ground where they prostrated themselves inprayer.
the guards walked over. "get up!" they barked. chenand huo qingtong did as they were told and walked overto a window. behind them, they heard the sound ofhammering as the guards used implements to prise upthe flagstone on which princess fragrance's messagewas engraved. they carried the stone out of the mosqueand rode away.
"what was that?" huo qingtong asked.
"if i had been one step late i would have missed thewarning she wrote in her own blood and sacrifed herlife for.""what warning?""there are too many eyes and ears here," chen replied.
"let's kneel down on the floor again and i'll tellyou." so they prostrated themselves again and chengave her a brief account of all that had happened.
"how could you be stupid as to trust the emperor?" huoqingtong declared angrily.
chen was mortified with shame. "i thought that becausehe is chinese, and also my blood brother...." hebegan.
"and what if he is chinese? do you mean to say chineseare incapable of doing bad? and what use is he goingto have for brotherly love, as emperor?""i am responsible for her death," chen sobbed. "i...ican't bear not to follow her immediately."huo qingtong saw how heartbroken he was and felt shehad been too hard on him. "what you did was for thegood of the common people," she said softly to comforthim. "you can't be blamed." after a moment's silence,she asked: "are you going to go to the banquet in thelama temple this evening?"chen gritted his teeth in rage. "the emperor will bethere, so i'll assassinate him and avenge her death.""yes," huo qingtong agreed. "and also avenge my fatherand brother, and all the people of my tribe.""how did you manage to escape when the manchu troopsattacked?" he asked.
"i was very sick at the time, but luckily i had mytroop of bodyguards with me who managed to get me outand took me to my teacher's home," she replied.
chen sighed. "your sister said that even if it meanttravelling to the ends of the earth, we had to findyou." the tears began to stream down huo qingtong'sface.
they walked out of the mosque and xin yan came up tomeet them. he was astonished to see huo qingtong withchen.
"mistress! how are you?" he exclaimed. "i've beenthinking of you.""well thank you," she replied. "you've grown a lotsince i last saw you."they returned to twin willow lane to find the twineagles of tianshan in the middle of a heated argumentwith the heroes. chen swallowed his tears and toldthem of the blood-stained words he had seen in themosque. bald vulture slapped the table.
"didn't i tell you?" he demanded. "of course thatemperor means us harm. the girl must have obtainedsome definite proof of it in the palace before shewould give her life to let us know." the othersagreed.
"when we go to the banquet this evening, we won't beable to carry swords, so everyone prepare daggers ordarts," said chen. "the food and drink may be poisonedso don't allow anything to touch your lips. we have tokill the emperor tonight for the sake of revenge butwe must also plan our escape route.""none of us will be able to live in central chinaagain," said bald vulture. "we should all go to themuslim regions."the heroes had long lived in the south of china, andthe idea of leaving their home was not easy to accept.
but the emperor was evil and dangerous and bitterlyhated by all of them, and everyone was willing to dowhat was necessary.
chen ordered 'leopard' wei to go to the west gate ofthe city with several of the heroes and to kill theguards at the right moment to allow them all toescape. he then ordered xin yan to arrange for horsesto be waiting outside the lama temple. turning to yu,he told him to immediately inform all the red flowersociety's members in beijing and all other provincesto go to ground to avoid being arrested.
the arrangements complete, chen turned to the twineagles and master lu. "i would like to ask you threeelders for suggestions on how the assassination shouldbe carried out," he said.
"isn't it simple?" replied bald vulture. "i go up andgrab his neck and give it a good twist. that shouldfinish him."lu smiled. "i'm afraid you won't get close enough tograb his neck with all the bodyguards he is bound tohave around him.""it would be better if third brother attacks him withpoisonous darts," suggested priest wu chen. "even ifjust one hits the target, that will be enough."lu turned to luo bing. "you could dip your throwingknives into some poison too, and i could do the samewith my golden needles," he said.
luo bing nodded. "if we all loose our weapons at once,a few at least will hit him no matter how manybodyguards he has," she said.
chen watched the heroes as they dipped their variousweapons into a pot of bubbling poison on the stove,and thought uncomfortably about how the emperor wasborn of the same mother as himself. but then heremembered his cruelty and deviousness and his rageburned up again. he drew his dagger and placed it fora moment in the pot of poison along with the others.
