the heavy rain lasted all night. next morning, havingwashed and combed her hair, yuanzhi looked out of thewindow and saw it was still pouring. her mother'smaidservant came in.

"officer deng says the rain is too heavy and we can'tleave today," she announced.

icy gusts blew in through a tear in yuanzhi's window.

she felt bored, particularly as the inn was in such adesolate area. she walked over to the room occupied bymaster wen of the red flower society hoping to catch aglimpse of him, but the door was firmly shut and nosound came from within. the zhen yuan agency had notleft that morning either, and several of the leadescorts were lounging about in the dining hall,chatting. master zhang was not among them. a gust ofwind blew from the west and yuanzhi began to feelrather cold. she was about to return to her room whenshe heard the sound of bells outside the front gateand a horse galloped in from the rain.

a young scholar dismounted and ran inside. as oneservant led his horse off to be fed, another asked thescholar if he would be staying at the inn.

"i'll have to get back on the road again soon," hereplied, taking off his raincape. the servant invitedhim to take a seat and poured him a cup of tea.

the scholar was tall and slender with a handsome face.

in the border areas, such elegance was a rare sight,and yuanzhi could not help but stare at him. thescholar saw her too and smiled; she flushed andquickly looked away.

there was the sound of horses outside the inn and fourmore men came in. yuanzhi recognised them as the oneswho had attacked the young woman the day before andshe quickly retired to lu's room to ask what theyshould do.

"let us go and have a look first," lu said and the twopeeped into the dining hall through a hole in thewindow.

one of the four, a swordsman, summoned a servant,quietly questioned him for a moment, then said to hiscompanions: "those red flower society bastards haven'tleft yet. we'll deal with them when we've eaten."the scholar's expression changed slightly and he beganto observe the four men out of the corner of his eye.

"shall i help the woman again?" yuanzhi asked.

"don't do anything until i tell you," lu said. he paidno further attention to the four officers, butfocussed his gaze on the scholar.

once he had finished eating, the scholar moved hisbench into the corridor leading to the courtyard. hepulled a flute from the bundle on his back and beganto play a pleasant, lilting melody. strange to say,the flute looked as if it was cast from pure gold. theroad they were on was unsafe, and a golden fluteopenly displayed by a lone scholar was bound toattract thieves.

when the four men had finished eating, the swordsmanjumped onto the table and announced in a loud voice:

"we are yamen officers and we have come to arrestfugitives of the red flower society. peaceful citizensneed not be afraid."he jumped down from and led the others towards thecourtyard. the scholar, still blocking the corridorand playing the flute, ignored them. the swordsmanapproached him. "don't stand in the way of yamenofficers," he growled.

the scholar leisurely put down his flute. "thefugitives you gentlemen wish to arrest: what law havethey broken?" he asked. "confucius said, 'do not dounto others what you would not wish on yourself'. doyou really have to arrest them?"the officer with the staff stepped forward. "you stopyour chatter," he shouted. "get out of the way!""please calm yourself, honourable sir," the scholarreplied. "there's no need to get agitated. let me behost. we'll all have a drink and become friends, whatdo you say?"the officer stretched out his hand to push him away,and the scholar swayed to one side. "ai-ya," heexclaimed. "a gentleman uses words, not force."he fell forward as if over-balancing and put out thegolden flute to steady himself, finding support on ayuedao spot on the left thigh of the officer, whoinvoluntarily knelt down as his leg went limp.

"ai-ya!" the scholar exclaimed again. "there's no needfor such courtesy." he bowed before the officer.

those watching could tell the scholar was highlyskilled in the martial arts and yuanzhi, who hadoriginally been anxious on his behalf, was overjoyedto see him using yuedao kung fu.

"this bastard might be with the red flower society aswell!" cried one of the officers fearfully. theofficer with the paralysed leg collapsed on the floorand the others pulled him to one side.

"are you a member of the red flower society?" theswordsman asked, a slight touch of fear in his voice.

the scholar laughed. "i do indeed. my name is yuyutong. i play but a small role in the society,ranking only 14th in seniority." he waved the flute atthem. "don't you recognise me?""ah, you're 'scholar' yu!""you are too kind," said the scholar. "that is indeedwho i am. you sir, with the flashing sword, face ofcunning and rat-like eyes. you must be the famousofficer from beijing, wu guodong. i'd heard you hadretired. why are you doing getting involved in thiskind of game?"swordsman wu's blade flicked out, steely yet smoothand yu countered with his golden flute, fighting thethree officers simultaneously, working through acomplex series of moves which soon had them completelyflustered. after a moment, yuanzhi turned to lu insurprise.

"that's the soft cloud sword style," she said.

lu nodded. the soft cloud sword technique is a secretstyle known only to our school, he thought. if thisscholar is a member of the red flower society, then hemust be a pupil of elder brother ma.

the school to which lu belonged consisted of threepupils, among whom lu was placed second. the mostsenior was ma zhen and the youngest zhang zhaozhong,the master zhang with whom yuanzhi had tangled thenight before. zhang was highly talented and verydiligent, but he had thrown in his lot with the manchucourt, and, rising swiftly in seniority, had alreadyattained the rank of major in the imperial bodyguard.

lu had long ago severed relations with him.

his guess that yu was a pupil of elder brother ma zhenwas correct. yu came from a respected family insouthern china, and had already passed the firstimperial civil service examination when his fatherbecame involved in a dispute over a burial plot with awealthy family. the ensuing law suit forced him intobankruptcy, and he was imprisoned on a trumped-upcharge and died in jail. yu left home in anger and metma zhen, whom he accepted as his teacher, abandoninghis studies in favour of the martial arts. he returnedand killed the rich landlord and then became anoutlaw, and later a member of the red flower society.

he was alert and intelligent, and could speak manydifferent dialects. on this occasion, he wastravelling on society business to the city of luoyangand had been unaware that his fellow society members,wen tailai and his wife, were holed up in the inn.

hearing the fight, the agency men all came in andstood to one side watching. lead escort tong noticed acatapult on the back of one of the officers, andshouted: "if it was me, i'd leave two to take care ofthe bastard while the third used the slingshot onhim."the officer with the catapult realised tong was rightand jumped onto a table, readied his weapon and sent ashower of stones flying towards yu.

yu dodged them one by one while parrying the other twoofficers. but his opponents gained the upper hand, andafter a few more moves, one of the missiles struckyu's cheek and the pain began to slow his movements.

"you might as well give up," tong called to yu. "pulldown your trousers and we'll give you a taste of thecane."but yu did not panic. with a sudden flourish, he drovehis left hand at a yuedao point on swordsman wu'schest. wu quickly retreated two steps and yu thrustthe flute into the stomach of the other officer whogrunted loudly and buckled in agony. yu moved tostrike him again, but wu intercepted him.

fighting back the pain in his stomach, the thirdofficer moved stealthily up behind yu as he fought wuand raised his devil's head knife to smash it down onyu's skull. but before he could do so, a throwingknife plunged into his chest, killing him instantly,and the devil's head knife clattered to the floor.

yu turned and saw a woman standing nearby, supportingherself on the table with her left hand, thje slenderfingers of her right hand clasping another throwingknife as if it was the stem of a fresh flower. she wasindescribably lovely, and as soon as he saw her, yu'sspirits rose.

"kill the eagle's claw with the catapult first!", heshouted. eagles claw was their slang for thugsemployed by the imperial court.

the officer with the catapult turned roundfrantically, just in time to see the flash of theblade as it flew towards him. in desperation, he heldup the catapult to try to stop it, but the knife stillcut into the back of his hand.

"uncle wu!" he screamed, "it's too dangerous. let'sget out of here!"he jumped off the table and fled. wu forced yu backwith two more strokes from his sword, slung theofficer with the paralysed leg over his shoulder, andrushed for the door to the hall. instead of chasingthem, yu raised the flute to his mouth end-on insteadof crosswise, and puffed. a small arrow shot out ofthe end which buried itself in the shoulder of theparalysed officer, who screamed with pain.

yu turned to the woman. "where's brother wen?" heasked.

"come with me," she said. she was wounded in thethigh, and supported herself with a long door bar.

meanwhile, as the officers rushed out of the inn, theycollided head-on with a man coming in, and wu reeledback several paces. when he saw it was master zhang,his initial anger turned to delight.

"master zhang," he cried. "i am useless. one of ourbrothers has been killed by the bastards and this onehas been paralysed."zhang grunted and lifted the officer up with his lefthand, then squeezed his waist and slapped his thigh,freeing the blood flow. "have they escaped?" he asked.

"they're still in the inn."zhang grunted again. "they've got guts," he said,walking into the inn courtyard. "resisting arrest,killing an official, then brazenly staying on here."they led zhang towards wen's room, but just as theyreached the door, yuanzhi slid out of a room nearbyand waved a red knapsack at zhang.

"hey, i've stolen it again," she laughed and rantowards the inn's main gate.

zhang was startled. "these agency men are trulyuseless," he thought. "as soon as i get it back forthem, they lose it again."he shot after her, determined to teach her a goodlesson. it was still raining, and before long, theywere both soaking wet. yuanzhi saw him closing in andran off along the side of a stream, zhang followingsilently. he increased his pace, closing the distancebetween them, then stretched out his hand and caughthold of her jacket. greatly frightened, yuanzhi pulledaway with all her strength, and a piece of cloth toreout of the back. her heart pounding, she hurled thered knapsack into the stream.

"it's yours," she shouted.

zhang knew how vital general zhao wei considered thekoran to be and immediately leapt into the streamwhile yuanzhi laughed and ran off. as he fished theknapsack out of the water, he saw it was alreadysoaked. frantically, he opened it to see if the koranwas wet, and then let fly with a stream of coarselanguage. there was no koran in the knapsack, only tworegisters from the main desk at the inn. he opened oneand read of money collected from rooms for meals, andof servants' wages. he groaned at how he had allowedhimself to be cheated and threw the registers and theknapsack back into the stream. if he took them backand someone asked about them, he would certainly loseface.

he returned quickly to the inn and quickly found leadescort yan with the red knapsack still safely fastenedto his back.

"where did wu and the officers go?" he asked.

"they were here a moment ago," yan replied.

"what damned use is there in the emperor employingpeople like that?" he demanded.

he walked up to wen's door. "you red flower societyfugitives! come out immediately!" he shouted. no soundcame from the room. he kicked at the door and found itslightly ajar.

"they've escaped!" he yelled, and burst into the roomonly to find it empty. he noticed a lump under the bedcovers, and flung them off, revealing two of wu'sofficers lying face to face. he prodded his swordlightly at the back of one of them but there was nomovement. he turned them over and saw they were bothdead. both their skulls had been smashed in. it wasobviously the work of a master of internal strengthkung fu, and his respect for wen tailai increasedappreciably. but where was wu? and in which directionhad wen and his wife escaped? he called for one of theservants and interrogated him without obtaining evenhalf a clue.

but zhang had guessed wrong: the officers were notkilled by wen tailai.