chen held the dagger in his hands and stood watchingdumbly as huo qingtong caught up with the muslimcolumn and gradually faded towards the horizon. he wasabout to go and ask lu feiqing about his pupil when henoticed a horse galloping towards him fast. as it camecloser, he was disappointed to find it was only xinyan returning on the white horse.

"master!" he shouted excitedly. "master zhang jin hasa prisoner.""who is it?" chen asked.

"i went to the old temple and found master zhang jinarguing with a man who wanted to pass. the man saw thehorse i was ridingand began cursing me as a horsethief and struck out at me with his sword. masterzhang jin and i fought with him. his kung fu wasreally good. he fought the two of us single-handeduntil finally i picked up some stones and startedthrowing them at him, and master zhang jin clubbed himon the thigh. it was only then that we managed tocapture him."chen smiled. "what is his name? what was he doing?""we asked him but he wouldn't say. but master zhangjin says he must be a member of the han school ofluoyang because he was using iron pipa hand kung fu."zhang jin galloped up, dismounted and bowed beforechen, then pulled a man off the horse's saddle. he wastied hand and foot, but he stood haughtily, exuding anair of insolence.

"i understand you are a member of the han school ofluoyang," chen said. "what is your honourable name?"the man said nothing.

"xin yan, undo this gentleman's bonds," chen said.

xin yan drew his knife and cut the rope that bound theman's hands and legs then stood behind him, his knifeat the ready.

"my friends have wronged you, but please do not beoffended," chen said. "come into my tent and take aseat."chen and the man sat on the ground while the otherheroes came in and stood behind chen's back.

when he saw luo bing enter, the man's anger flared andhe jumped up. "you stole my horse," he shouted,pointing at her.

"so it's master han," luo bing replied with a smile.

"we exchanged horses and i compensated you with a goldingot. you did very well out of the deal. what are youangry about?"chen asked what had happened, and luo bing recountedhow she had taken the white horse. the others laughedas they listened.

"in that case, we will return the horse to you, masterhan," chen said. "there is also no need to return thegold ingot. consider it a token of our respect and aspayment for the rental of your horse."han was about to reply when luo bing said: "greathelmsman, this won't do. do you know who he is? he's azhen yuan bodyguard agency man." she pulled out wangweiyang's letter and handed it to him.

chen's eyes flashed down the lines. "the great name ofwang weiyang has been known to me for a long time, butregrettably i ave never met him," he said. "you are amember of the han school of luoyang. what relation areyou to fifth madame han?""and what is your honourable surname and esteemedname, sir?" han replied.

chen smiled. "my surname is chen, my given name,jialuo."han stood up. "you...you are the son of chief ministerchen?" he asked in a quavering voice.

"this is the great helmsman of our red flowersociety," one of the twin knights said.

han slowly sat down again and began weighing up thisyoung great helmsman.

"someone in the underworld started the rumour that oursociety was connected with the death of one of yourschool's members," chen said. "in fact, we knownothing of it. i dispatched one of our brothers toluoyang to explain the matter, but something came upand he was forced to postpone the trip. so yourarrival could not have been better timed, master han.

i don't know how this rumour started. can you tellme?""you...you're really the son of chief minister chen ofhaining?" han asked.

"since you know my identity, there is no point intrying to deceive you," chen replied.

"your family announced a large reward for finding youafter you left home," han said. "it was said that youhad joined the red flower society and had gone to themuslim border regions. my late comrade jiao wenqi wasengaged by your family to look for you, but hemysteriously disappeared on the way. that was fiveyears ago. recently, someone found the iron plate andpipa darts that brother jiao used in shanxi province,and we now know for certain that he was murdered.

no-one knows the exact circumstances of his death, butconsider, sir: if it wasn't the red flower society,then who did it?""i killed jiao wenqi," lu feiqing interrupted. "i amnot amember of the red flower society, so this matterhas nothing to do with them."the others were startled. lu stood up and told thestory of how jiao had found him one night, how hefought one against three, and had been injured, buthad still managed to kill them on the desertedhillside. the heroes listened and then cursed jiao,saying he was shameless and deserved to die. han'sface darkened but he said nothing.

"if master han wishes to avenge his martial brother'sdeath, there is no reason why he should not do sonow," lu said. heturned to luo bing. "mistress wen,return master han's weapon to him please."luo bing pulled out the iron pipa and handed it to lu.

"since jiao was commissioned by the chen family tofind their son, he should have stuck to his mission,"lu said. as he spoke, he absent-mindedly excercisedhis inner strength kung fu on the body of the hollowiron pipa, slowly flattening it. "what was he doingusing their money to come and give me trouble? even ifwe of the fighting community are not able to sacrificeourselves to save our country from the manchubarbarians, we should still fight for justice andagainst those who oppress the people."his inner strength kung fu was extraordinary. hishands rolled the flattened iron plate round so that itwas transformed into a tube, and then with a fewsqeezes, into an iron club.

"what i detest most are the manchu court's eagles'

claws and the bodyguard agency running dogs who use asmall knowledge of the martial arts to assist thewicked with their evil deeds."his voice suddenly hardened and he twisted the ironclub into an iron ring.

as lu talked, han watched him twist and squeeze hisschool's famous weapon as if he were making noodles,and was both startled and afraid. he knew that jiao'skung fu had been about the same standard as his own,and realised that fighting with this old manmeantcertain death.

han's courage had already evaporated and he did notdare to challenge lu. but although shocked andhumbled, he did not wish to appear too cowardly.

"this affair of jiao wenqi in fact arose because ofme," chen said. "i will write a letter to my elderbrother telling him that master jiao found me, butthat i was not willing to return home; also, that onhis way back, master jiao met with an accident andpassed away. i will then ask my brother to pay thereward and compensation money to master jiao'sfamily."han continued to hesitate, and chen's eyebrows rose.

"but if your heart is set upon revenge, then i willfight you myself."han shuddered. "i will do exactly as you say, sir," hereplied.

"that's a good fellow," chen said. "one has to beflexible."he told xin yan to hand him his writing brush,instone, ink and writing paper, and using a vigorouscalligraphic style, wrote out a letter which hanaccepted.

"master wang asked me to help escort a cargo back tobeijing and then to escort some treasures the emperorhas presented to your honourable family down to thesouth. but faced with the extraordinary talents of youall, i would only make a fool of myself if i madefurther use of my own minor abilities in the martialarts. i will take my leave of you, sir.""did you say items belonging to my family, masterhan?""the bodyguard agency caller who brought me the lettersaid the emperor is extremely generous towards yourfamily. every few months, he bestows an amount ofprecious stones and treasures, and there is now alarge accumulation of these that must be sent south toyour home. your family asked us to escort them, but iwould not dare to continue earning my daily rice insuch a business. after i have made suitablearrangements for brother jiao's dependants, i willreturn home.""it is good that you are willing to follow master lu'sinvaluable words of advice," chen said. "in that case,i might as well make friends with you. xin yan, pleasebring in the other gentlemen from the zhen yuanbodyguard agency."xin yan went out and led in lead escort qian and theothers. han and the escorts stared dumbly at eachother.

"master han, please take these friends with you," saidchen. "but if we ever catch them again doing anythingbut good deeds, do not blame us if our hands are notstayed by mercy."chen did not again mention the return of the whitehorse, and han did not dare to bring it up.

"we will leave first," chen said. "i will ask all ofyou to rest here for a day before making a start."the red flower society heroes mounted their horses anstarted off, leaving the agency men and the yamenofficers standing silently behind.

"master chen," lu feiqing said after they hadtravelled for a while. "my pupil will meet up withthose bodyguard agency fellows before long. they havebeen humiliated and have no way to get their revenge,so they may cause trouble. i would like to stay behindand watch them for a while before following afteryou.""please do as you wish, master lu," chen replied.

lu saluted, then galloped off the way they had come.

chen realised as lu disappeared that he had not askedhim about his pupil.