chen and the heroes returned to the boats and ate anddrank to their hearts' content. they had handed out acrushing defeat to the imperial bodyguard, and were ingood spirits.

"brother ma," xu said to the society's hangzhouhelmsman. "after such a setback, the emperor certainlywon't let matters rest. advise all the brothers inhangzhou to be very careful, especially those in themanchu ranks."ma nodded, finished off his cup of wine and departedwith his son.

chen also drained his wine cup and sighed as hewatched the broken reflection of the moon floating onthe lake between the lotus lily leaves.

"what date is it today?" he asked xu, looking up. "wehave been so busy lately, i have completely lost trackof time.""it's the seventeenth. it was the mid-autumn festivalthe day before yesterday. don't you remember?"chen was silent for a moment, then said: "brothers,please go and rest now, all of you. i will stay herefor a while. tomorrow, i have some private business toattend to, but the day after that we will beginpreparations for rescuing fourth brother.""would you like anyone to accompany you?" xu asked.

"no, there's no need. there is no danger. i just wantto be by myself and think about things quietly."the boats moved over to the shore, and the heroes badefarewell to chen. some of them were already halfdrunk, and they joined arms as they walked through thedeserted streets of hangzhou, singing loudly into thedarkness.

chen watched them go, then jumped into a small sampanand skulled the boat out over the mirror-smoothsurface of the lake. the shore receded, and he stowedthe oar and stared up at the moon. the next day washis mother's birthday. for ten years, he had been awayfrom home, and now that he was back in southern china,his mother was already dead. he thought of her kindly,smiling face and of the common fate that awaits allmen, and tears began to trickle down his face.

the first light of day began to spread across the sky.

chen plucked the red flower off his gown and placed itin his bag, then strolled towards the eastern gate tothe city. the guard on duty stared at him, thensaluted: he was a red flower society man. chen noddedto him.

"since you are leaving the city, do you need a horse,great helmsman?" the guard asked.

"yes, thank you," answred chen. the guard wentjubilantly off and came back a short time later with ahorse. following behind were two minor officials whoboth bowed respectfully before chen. they feltfortunate to have had an opportunity to render aservice to the great helmsman.

chen mounted up and galloped off. the horse was fastand he reached the western gate of haining city bynoon. it had been ten years since he left his hometown, but everything was still as it had been. afraidof meeting someone who would recognise him, he turnedhis horse northwards and rode two or three milesfurther on. he stopped at a farmhouse and ate lunch,then lay down to sleep. having been up the wholeprevious night, he slept very deeply.

noting his gentleman's attire and the fact that hespoke the local dialect, the farmer and his wifetreated chen with great courtesy, and killed a chickenfor dinner. chen questioned them about events of thepast few years and the farmer said: "the emperor hasordered that the whole of haining county be exemptfrom taxes for three years. it's all because of hisrespect for minister chen."chen thought about how many years it had been sincehis father had passed away, and wondered again why theemperor had suddenly begun to bestow such handsomefavours on his family. when he had finished dinner, hegave three taels of silver to the farmer in thanks androde towards his family home in the northwest of thecity.

as he reached the gate of the house, he stopped insurprise. in the old days, it had been named 'secludedgarden', but the old name board had been taken downand replaced with one which read 'peaceful poolgarden'. the characters were rounded and flowing, andhe recognized the calligraphy as being that of theemperor qian long himself. perplexed, he leapt overthe wall into the compound. next to the old house, newstructures had been erected with endless pavilions andplatforms, mansions and chambers.

he passed along a covered walkway towards the jadebracelet hall, but again found a new name board overits door inscribed 'beloved days hall', also writtenin qian long's hand. chen frowned. the words 'beloveddays' referred to the filial affection of children fortheir parents. what was the emperor doing writing sucha thing here?

he emerged from the hall and walked across a zig-zagbridge with red railings into a thick bamboo grovetowards the 'fragrant bamboo lodge', the formerresidence of his mother. this name board had also beenchanged, this time to read 'spring sunshine hall'.

chen sat down on a rock, greatly confused. 'springsunshine' was a poetic allusion used to describe ason's gratitude for his mother's love. it had no othermeaning.

"why has qian long placed this name board on mymother's house?" he wondered. "even if he is morestupid than i think, he would not have been sothoughtless. could it be he knew i would come backhere and wrote out these name boards in an attempt tobefriend me?"he tiptoed up the steps, and looked through a window,into the main room of the lodge. it was arrangedexactly as it had been when his mother was alive, withredwood furniture, a large carved bed, a clothes chestinlaid with gold, all as he remembered them from tenyears before. a red candle flickered on the table.

suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps from anadjoining room and an old woman entered. it was hismother's personal maid, nanny huan. the woman hadreared him, and chen felt closer to her than to any ofthe other servants.

he jumped into the room and hugged the old woman.

greatly frightened, she opened her mouth to scream,but chen covered it with his hand and whispered:

"don't shout, it's me." she stared at him, too shockedto speak. in fact, his appearance and manner hadchanged so much in the ten years since he had leftthat she did not know who he was.

"it's me, jialuo. don't you recognize me?" he asked.

"you....you are jialuo? you've come back?" the womanasked, completely confused.

chen smiled and nodded. she gradually recovered hersenses and vaguely discerned the features of themischievous child she had known. suddenly, she threwher arms round him and began to sob loudly. chenhastily restrained her.

"stop crying! no-one must know that i've returned," hesaid.

"it doesn't matter," she replied. "they've all gone tothe new section. there's no-one else here.""what new section?""of the mansion. it was built earlier this year.

heaven knows what it cost, or what it's for."chen knew she had little understanding of suchmatters. "how did my mother die? what illness?" heasked.

the woman pulled out a handkerchief and wiped hereyes. "mistress was very unhappy, i don't know why.

she hadn't had a good meal for days, and she becomeill. it dragged on for more than a week before shepassed away." she began to cry quietly again. "shekept calling for you. 'where is jialuo? hasn't he comeyet? i want to see jialuo!' she was shouting like thatfor two days before she died."chen began to weep too. "where is her grave?""behind the new sea goddess temple," she replied.

"sea goddess temple?" chen echoed.

"yes, they built that in the spring too. it's huge,right on the sea embankment.""i'm going to have a look. i'll be back in a while,"he said.

"no...no, you can't!" she interrupted hastily, but hehad already leapt out through the window.

he knew the path down to the embankment well and wasthere in a moment. looking west, he saw a hugestructure that had not been there before, and decidedit must be the sea goddess temple. he ran towards themain entrance.

suddenly, he heard the patter of light footsteps andhid behind a willow tree. two men dressed in blackclothes emerged from either side of the temple wall,saluted each other and continued on in oppositedirections around the temple. chen was mystified. justthen, two more men appeared dressed the same as thefirst pair and followed the same path round the templewall. even more curious, chen waited for them todisappear around the corners, then jumped silently uponto the wall. another pair passed him down below. hewaited for a while and counted about forty menconstantly circling the temple, all of them alert andsilent, and obviously kung fu experts. could this be areligious ceremony, he wondered? full of curiosity, hejumped quietly down into the courtyard and crept intothe main temple building to investigate.

incense smoke curled up from in front of the centralaltar as candles flickered and danced. he wonderedwhich god the altar was dedicated to, but when helooked up to see, he gasped out loud involuntarily.

the handsome-faced statue was a likeness of hisfather.

he spotted an open door to the left and crept over.

looking out, he saw a long covered walk-way paved withwhite flag-stones. he knew that if he went along thewhite-stoned path he would easily be spotted, so heleapt onto the roof of the walkway and flittedsilently down to its end. in front was another altarhall outside which was written in huge characters:

'the palace of the empress of heaven.' the doors tothe hall were open and he went inside. as he caughtsight of the statue on the central altar, he startedagain, even more violently. it's face was that of hismother.

it was as if he was in a thick fog of bewilderment. heran back outside, looking for his mother's grave andsaw a long yellow tent behind the hall. he shrunk intoa corner as a sturdy black-clothed man passed by onpatrol.

the things he had seen that evening beggared theimagination, and despite the strict guard being kept,he resolved to get to the heart of the matter. hecrept slowly over to the tent and crawled inside.

he lay absolutely still and listened carefully. therewere no sounds outside, and he concluded that he hadnot been discovered. he looked round and saw the vasttent was completely deserted. the ground had beencarefully flattened and the grass cleanly cut. thetent was joined to a string of others so that theyformed a long tunnel stretching back from the templebuildings. two large lanterns burned brightly in everytent, and looking down the tunnel, the two rows oflights stretching away looked like fiery dragons. hestood up and walked forward, as if in a dream.

suddenly he heard the rustle of clothing in front andquickly hid to one side. after a moment, he continuedforward again and spotted a man seated in front of twograves at the end of the tunnel. the graves were thoseof his mother and father. he was about to run forwardand prostrate himself when the man stood up, gazed atthe graves for a while, then knelt down and bowedseveral times. chen saw the man's back shaking as ifhe was crying.

faced with such a scene, all of chen's suspicionsdisappeared. this man was either a relative or one ofhis father's former subordinates. he walked quietlyover and tapped the man on his shoulder.

"please get up," he said.

the man jumped in fright, but did not turn round.

"who is it?" he shouted harshly.

"i have also come to pay my respects," chen replied.

he knelt before the graves and began to cryuncontrollably.

"mother, father," he sobbed. "i have come too late. iwill never see you again."the man gasped and chen turned to find it was noneother than the emperor, qian long.

"what...what are you doing here in the middle of thenight?" qian long asked in surprise.

"today is the anniversary of my mother's birth," chenreplied. "i have come to pay my respects to her. andyou?"qian long ignored the question. "you...you are the sonof chen shiguan?" he exclaimed incredulously.

"yes. didn't you know?"qian long shook his head.

in the past few years, qian long had been bestowingextraordinary favours on the chen family of haining,and although some of his ministers were aware that thenew leader of the red flower society was a son ofminister chen, none dared to mention it because of theemperor's unpredictable temper.

chen wondered why on earth the emperor would comesecretly to kneel and cry before the grave of a formerminister. it was completely inexplicable.

qian long took chen's hand. "you must think itstrange, seeing me here paying my respects in themiddle of the night," he said. "your father and i hadgreat affection for each other, so i took advantage ofthis visit to the south to offer my thanks to him."chen made a sound, half believing, half not.

"if word of this should get out, it would be extremelyinconvenient," qian long continued. "can you give meyour word that you will not reveal it to anyone?"chen was deeply moved by qian long's reverence for hisown mother and father. "don't worry," he replied. "iwill not mention this evening to anyone."qian long immediately breathed easier. the two menshook hands, one the emperor of china, the other theleader of the country's largest secret society. theywere silent for a while, each with his own thoughts.

far off, they heard a low roar like thunder.

"the tide is coming in," said chen. "let us go to theembankment and watch. it has been ten years since isaw it.""all right," replied qian long, still holding chen'shand. they walked out of the tent.

the guards outside the tent spotted the two as theyemerged and rushed forward to wait on the emperor,wondering how his companion could have entered thetent without them being aware of it. then bodyguardbai zhen and the other officers noticed that it wasthe great helmsman of the red flower society, and theyshook with fear. one of the guards led the emperor'shorse across to him.

"take my horse," qian long said to chen. the guardshurriedly lead over another horse and the two rode outof the temple gate.

the roar of the ocean filled their ears and they gazedout at the pale moonlight reflecting off it in silveryshades.

qian long stared at the waves for a long time, thensaid: "fate seems determined to throw us together.

tomorrow, i will return to hangzhou, and after threemore days there, will continue back to beijing. whydon't you come with me? it would be best if you werealways by my side. seeing you is like seeing yourfather."chen was surprised by the warmth of his words.

"you excel in both scholarship and the martial arts,"qian long continued. "it would be easy to promote youto your father's former post, which would be tenthousand times better than hiding yourself away in theunderworld.""i am extremely grateful to you for your goodwill,"chen said. "but if i coveted great wealth, i would nothave left home in the first place.""why did you leave? why did you insist on mixing inthe underworld instead of doing what a noblemanshould? was it that you couldn't get on with yourfather and brother?""no, it wasn't that. it was the wish of my mother. myfather and elder brother knew nothing of it. they havespent a lot of time and effort looking for me.""your mother told you to leave home? that is trulystrange. why did she do that?"chen hung his head. "it was the result of a tragedyshe suffered. i am not too clear about it either.""the chen family has been distinguished for manygenerations. during the last three hundred yearsalone, more than two hundred members of the familyhave passed the imperial examinations, three haveserved as prime ministers and eleven as other seniorofficials. the number is extraordinary. your fatherwas an honest and hard-working man. he often used toplead before my father on behalf of the common people,crying as he did so. my father used to laugh and say:

'chen shiguan was sobbing again today. i suppose i'llhave to agree to what he says.'"hearing of his father's conduct as an official, chenwas at once saddened and pleased. "he cried before theemperor and i steal military grain," he thought. "ourmethods are different but our aim is the same."they stood and watched the tide thunder in.

"i would like to give you a piece of advice," qianlong said.

"please do.""the actions of the red flower society have come veryclose to rebellion. past behaviour i can ignore, butyou must not disregard the law in such a way again.""all we do is for the country and the common people,"chen replied.

qian long sighed. "what a pity," he said. after amoment, he added: "as a result of our meeting tonight,i promise that when we destroy the red flower society,you will be spared.""in that case, if you should fall into the hands ofthe red flower society, we will not harm you either."qian long laughed. "you refuse to give an inch, evenbefore the emperor. all right, it's been said now. letus join fists and swear that from today onwardsneither shall harm the other."the two men stretched out their arms and touched fiststhree times.

"with such a strong tide, if the sea embankment is notrenovated, the homes and graves of the common peoplewill sooner or later be inundated," qian long said. "imust see that my officials arrange for it to bereconstructed.""that is the act of a ruler who loves his subjects,"chen replied. "the common people will be verygrateful."qian long nodded. "your father performed greatservices for the empire. i could not bear to see hisgrave swallowed by the sea."he took chen's hand and started to walk along theembankment with him. the guards wanted to follow, buthe waved them back.

"i gather from your expression that you are stillunhappy," he said as they strolled along. "apart fromthoughts of your parents, what other problem do youhave? you may be unwilling to become an official, butif you have any requests, i will do my best to complywith them."chen was silent for a moment. "there is onething...but i doubt if you would agree.""any request you make will be granted.""really?""i never joke.""then i ask you to release my sworn brother, wentailai."qian long started in surprise. he had not guessed thatthis would be the request. for a moment, he was at aloss.

"how has master wen offended you?" chen asked.

"i cannot release him, but since i have promised, icannot go back on my word. i tell you what: i won'tkill him.""then we have no choice but to rescue him by force,"replied chen. "i asked you to release him not becausewe are unable to rescue him, but simply to avoidinjuring our friendship."qian long had witnessed the might of the red flowersociety, and he knew this was no empty boast.

"i appreciate your good intentions," he said. "but itell you honestly, i cannot allow this man out of mygrasp. if you insist on trying to rescue him, then iwill kill him three days from now."chen's blood boiled. "if you kill master wen, you willnever eat or sleep easy again," he threatened.

"and if i don't kill him, i will never eat or sleepeasy either.""if that is true, then even being emperor cannotcompare with the carefree life that i lead.""how old are you?" qian long asked.

"twenty five.""i am not jealous of your carefree life, but i amjealous of your youth. but it is of no consequence. nomatter what one's achievements, everyone still returnsto dust when their time is up."the two strolled on for a time.

"how many wives do you have?" qian long asked. withoutwaiting for an answer, he plucked a piece of jade offhis gown and offered it to chen, saying: "this is apriceless treasure. give it to your wife."chen did not take it. "i have not married yet," hesaid.

qian long laughed. "you always set your sights toohigh. give it to the lady of your heart as a weddingpresent, then."chen accepted the stone. the jade shone with a paleglow under the moonlight and he found it slightly warmto the touch. he realized it was a piece ofincalculably valuable "warm jade". he placed the jadein his pocket. "thank you for the present," he said.

"we will meet again." he saluted with his fists,mounted his horse and started off.

qian long waved goodbye to him. "look after yourself!"he shouted.