after listening to beautiful jade sing for a while anddrinking a few cups of wine, qian long had begun tofeel a little sleepy.

beautiful jade smiled. "would you like to lie down?"she asked. he nodded in answer, and she helped himtake off his clothes and boots, led him over to thebed and covered him with the bed clothes.

"i'll just go out for a second, then come back toyou," she said. feeling lulled and drowsy from thescented pillow and sheets, qian long heard a faintsound in front of the bed.

"you mischievous girl," he said with a smile. "what'sthe hold up?"the curtain opened and a head appeared. under thecandlelight qian long could see it had a pock-markedface, and thick sideburns, very different frombeautiful jade's fair features. he rubbed his eyes indisbelief and looked again just as the intruder placeda shining dagger by his neck and said quietly incantonese: "damn your ancestors, you bastard emperor,make one sound and i'll use this."qian long's lust dissipated in a flash as if he hadbeen doused with a bucket of iced water. the man saidnothing more, but stuffed a handkerchief into qianlong's mouth, then rolled him up tightly in theeiderdown and carried him off.

unable to move or make a sound, qian long's eyesstared at the blackness and felt himself being carrieddown a flight of steps. his nose caught the mustysmell of mud and dank humidity, then after a moment,he felt himself being carried upwards again. herealized the man must have emerged from a hiddentunnel in the room.

he felt himself being shaken and heard the sound ofwheels starting to move, and knew he was in acarriage. in his terror, he wondered who had kidnappedhim and where they were taking him.

the carriage travelled for a long time. after a whilethe road became uneven, and the carriage shook andbumped about, indicating they had left the city.

finally they stopped, and qian long felt himselflifted out of the carriage and carried upwards, onestep after another endlessly until he thought theymust be ascending a high peak. he was so frightened,his whole body quaked, and surrounded by darknessinside the quilt, he almost began to cry.

finally, he was put down with a bump. he waitedquietly, not daring to speak, but a long while passedwithout anything happening. he slowly pushed aside thequilt in which he was wrapped and looked out to findeverything in total darkness. he fancied he could hearthe sound of waves breaking a long way off, andconcentating he also heard the wind rippling throughfir trees and the clear, steady chime of a brass bell.

the wind became stronger and stronger, gustingangrily, and he thought he felt the structure he wasin rocking slightly. even more afraid, he moved as ifto stand up.

"if you want to live, don't move," a deep voice closeby growled. qian long jumped in fright and stayed asstill as he could.

gradually, the wind subsided and it began to growlight until he could see he was in a small room.

having climbed for so long to reach it, he wondered ifit was a house on the peak of a mountain. he heard aseries of snuffling noises, and listening carefully,realised the guards were eating noodles. from thesound of it there were two of them, chewing greatmouthfuls with relish. having been awake all night, hefelt hungry and his appetite sharpened as the smell ofthe noodles wafted over to him.

the two finished eating. one of the guards walked overand placed a full bowl of prawn and eel noodle soupabout five feet from his head.

"is that for me?" qian long wondered to himself. butthe guards said nothing, and despite his hunger he didnot dare to open his mouth to ask.

"that bowl of noodles is for you," one of the guardsfinally said. "there's no poison in it."qian long was overjoyed. he sat up to get the bowl,but a wave of cold struck his body and he rememberedthat he was naked. he hastily lay down again andwrapped himself in the quilt. how could he stand up infront of strangers without a stitch on?

"damn your ancestors, so you're afraid of poison areyou?" one of the guards said. "all right, i'll eat itto show you." he picked up the bowl and guzzled itscontents down.

qian long looked at his scar-covered face in fright.

"i am not wearing anything," he said. "please get mesome clothing."even though he said please, his words still smacked ofan imperial order. the man grunted. "i don't havetime," he replied. it was 'melancholy ghost' shi.

qian long's anger surged up, but remembering his lifewas in their hands, he swallowed his imperial pride.

"are you red flower society men?" he asked. "i want tosee your leader, chen.""you had our brother wen treated so badly, his body isa mass of wounds. the great helmsman is busy finding adoctor to help heal him. he has no time to see you,"shi replied. "maybe when brother wen has recovered,we'll think about it."qian long wondered how many months or years it mighttake for wen to recover.

"and if brother wen doesn't recover," said the otherguard, 'iron pagoda' yang, "that's it for you. a lifefor a life."qian long pretended he hadn't heard.

the two guards began talking at once, cursing themanchu invaders for seizing the lands of the chinesepeople, and the officials and landlords for the waythey oppressed the common folk. qian long was shockedby the hatred evident in every word. at noon, twoother guards arrived to relieve them, and as the newpair ate, they discussed the sadistic ways in whichmagistrates punished and tortured honest citizens,describing in great detail how slivers of bamboo wereforced under finger nails, buttocks branded withred-hot iron bars and bodies stretched on racks.

"when we have seized all these corrupt officials,"said one, "we'll give them a taste of their ownmedicine.""first we have to deal with their leader," replied theother.

to qian long, that day seemed as long as a year.

towards evening, the twin knights took over. first,they drank in dour silence. then, when they wereslightly drunk, they began discussing the cruel andunusual methods used by the fighting community to takevengeance on enemies: how black tiger kao had oncebeen arrested, and later went back and gouged out theeyes of the official responsible; how white horse tanhad avenged his brother's death by burying alive themurderer's family.

hungry and frightened, qian long covered his ears, butevery word still found its way in. the twins displayedgreat staying-power, and talked until morning, cursingthe "turtles" an untold number of times. thecandlelight flickering on the twin knights' featuresmade them look like living ghosts, and qian long wasunable to close his eyes once during the night.

the next morning, 'buddha' zhao and 'leopard' weicame. qian long looked at the kindly face of zhao andthe handsome face of wei, very different from thedemon-like guards they replaced and he relaxedslightly. but his hunger was becoming too much tobear.

"i want to see your leader, chen," he said to zhao.

"please pass on the message for me.""the great helmsman is busy today," zhao replied.

"maybe in a few days time."qian long wondered if he would still be alive after afew more days of such treatment. "well, please get mesomething to eat first to ease my hunger.""all right," replied zhao. "his imperial highnesswants a banquet," he shouted at the top of his voice.

"make preparations quickly!" wei bowed and left.

qian long was overjoyed. "get a set of clothing forme," he said.

"his imperial highness wants some clothes! bring agown for him quickly!" zhao bawled out again.

"you're a good man," said qian long. "what's yourname? i will reward you well later." zhao smiledslightly but did not answer. qian long suddenlyrecogized him. "ah, now i remember," he said. "you'rethe one who is so good at dart kung fu."meng brought a set of clothing in and placed it on thequilt. qian long sat up, then saw it was a suit ofchinese clothes in the style of the ming dynasty whichthe manchus had overthrown. he hesitated.

"that's the only set of clothes we have," zhao said.

"wear them or not, as you like."qian long considered the situation. how could he, asthe emperor of the manchu dynasty, wear a set of mingdynasty chinese clothes? but if he didn't putsomething on, he would not be able to eat, and afterone day and two nights of hunger, he dispensed withhis misgivings and donned the garments.

the clothes felt unfamiliar, but there was somethingdashing and elegant about them. he walked the fewsteps over to the window and looked out, and startedinvoluntarily. forests and fields were spread outbefore him like a chess board, and in the far distancewas a great river spotted with sails. he realised hewas at the top of a tall pagoda, and from its positionand design, recognized it as the famous six harmoniespagoda near hangzhou.

several more hours passed before someone came toannounce: "the banquet is ready. please come down andeat."qian long followed zhao and wei down one floor where alarge round table had been set up in the centre of theroom. all the seats around the table were alreadyoccupied except for three, and as qian long descended,the diners stood up and saluted him. qian long wassecretly ecstatic at this sudden display of respect.

"our great helmsman says your highness and he havebeen close friends ever since you first met," saidpriest wu chen. "as a result, he has invited you hereto stay for a few days to provide an opportunity forthe two of you to have a discussion. however,important matters have suddenly come up which requirethe great helmsman's attention and he has asked me toconvey his sincere apologies."qian long grunted noncommitally. priest wu cheninvited him to take a seat, and qian long took theguest of honour's place.

a servant brought up a flask of wine and the priesttook it from him.

"we brothers are very uncouth, completely incapable ofwaiting on your highness properly. please do not beoffended," he said, pouring wine into qian long's cup.

but as it reached the rim, his face darkened.

"his majesty must have the very best wine," he shoutedangrily at the servant. "how dare you bring us thistepid spirit?" he picked up the cup and threw itscontents into the servant's face.

"this is only wine we have here, sir," replied theservant apologetically. "i will immediately go to thecity and buy some of better quality.""and be quick about it," shouted priest wu chen. "winesuch as this is all right for coarse people likeourselves, but how can you offer it to his highness?"'mastermind' xu took the wine flask from him andpoured out a cup for everyone else, leaving only qianlong's cup empty, apologising effusively as he did so.

a moment later, another servant brought in foursteaming dishes of food, one of lightly-fried shrimps,another piled with salted pork ribs, a third withsteamed fish, and a fourth of fried chicken slices.

qian long breathed in the fragrant aroma of the food,but priest wu chen frowned.

"who cooked this food?" he demanded. a man took twosteps forward. "i did," he said.

"what sort of object are you? why didn't you arrangefor his majesty's favourite cook, zhang anguan, tocome to prepare some dishes? how can you expect hismajesty to eat such rough hangzhou food?""these dishes look delicious," protested qian long.

"they certainly cannot be called rough." he picked uphis chopsticks and stretched over to pick up somefood. lu feiqing, sitting next to him, stretched outhis own chopsticks and caught qian long's betweenthem.

"these dishes are too coarse for your highness. youwould not wish to have an upset stomach," he said, andapplying a slight amount of pressure, snapped qianlong's chopsticks in two.

qian long's face flushed deep red and he slammed thechopstick ends down onto the table. the otherspretended not to notice and began eating.

"go and get his highness's personal cook to preparesome food quickly," xu shouted. "his highness ishungry, do you hear?"the cook hastily retired. qian long knew they wereplaying with him. hunger burned in his stomach as hewatched the others eating and drinking voraciously. hewas livid with rage, but he could not risk displayinghis feelings. when they had finished, a servant camein with some tea.

"this tea is not too bad," said xu. "your highness maylike to drink a cupful."qian long drank the cup dry in two mouthfuls, but itonly served to aggravate his hunger. 'crocodile' jiangrubbed his belly appreciatively and said: "i'm full!""we are making arrangements for a proper banquet foryou, your highness," 'buddha' zhao said.

priest wu chen stamped his foot and exclaimed that thegreat helmsman would be very displeased to find hishonoured guest had been kept waiting.

lord zhou began clicking his iron gallstones together.

"are you hungry, your majesty?" he asked. qian longsaid nothing.

"what do you mean, hungry?" asked 'crocodile' jiang.

"i'm full!""the well-fed never appreciate the anguish of thehungry," added xu. "there are countless millions ofcommon people who are starving, but when have those inauthority ever spared a thought for them? having beena little bit hungry today, perhaps your highness willin future understand more about how the common peoplesuffer when they starve.""some people are hungry for months and years on end.

some never eat their fill once in a whole lifetime,"said one of the twin knights. "what's so special aboutnot eating anything for a day or two?"most of the red flower society heroes had been borninto poverty. their anger rose as they thought of thepast and they all began talking at once, swappingstories.

qian long's face went pale as he listened. he foundhimself moved by their sincerity. "could such miseryreally exist in the world?" he asked himself. the morehe heard, the more embarrassed he felt, and finally herose and went back upstairs. the heroes did not try tostop him.

a few hours later, he smelt the aroma of mutton withonions and green peppers wafting up from below. thiswas a speciality of the imperial chef, zhang anguan,and just as qian long was wondering if it could reallybe him, zhang anguan ran up and kowtowed, saying:

"please come and eat, your highness.""what are you doing here?" qian long asked inamazement.

"your slave was watching an opera performance in apark yesterday when i was kidnapped. today, i wasasked to wait on you, and your slave was delighted tohave the opportunity."qian long nodded and went downstairs. the table hadbeen set with a number of dishes including the mutton,all them his personal favorites. as well as the maindishes, there were also a dozen or so plates of smalldelicacies, and his heart leapt for joy at the sightof the feast. chef zhang filled a bowl of rice forhim.

"please eat, your highness," said priest wu chen.

qian long wondered whether they would allow him to eatthis time. he was just about to raise his chopstickswhen a young girl came in carrying a cat.

"daddy," she said to lord zhou. "kitty is hungry."the cat struggled to free itself and jumped onto thetable. the animal ate a couple of mouthfuls from thedishes spread before qian long, then it suddenly wentrigid, dropped onto the table top, dead.

qian long's face went white, and chef zhang, shakingfrom fright, knelt down and said: "yourhighness...your highness...the food...they've poisonedthe food...don't eat it!"qian long laughed out loud. "you have committedrebellion and other heinous crimes. now you wish toassassinate me," he said. "if you are going to killme, do it cleanly. why go to the trouble of poisoningthe food?" he pushed his chair back and stood up.

"your highness, are you sure this meal is inedible?"asked priest wu chen.

"you traitorous thieves!" qian long shouted, his angerbreaking through. "we'll see what sort of an end youall come to!"priest wu chen slammed his hand down on the table.

"for a real man, life and death are decided byheaven!" he shouted. "if you won't eat, then i will!

who has the guts to join me?"he picked up his chopsticks, took some food from oneof the dishes the cat had tried, and began chewingnoisily. the other heroes sat down again too, allsaying: "if we die, we die. what does it matter?" qianlong was stunned at the sight of these criminalseating poisoned food.

the heroes, who had fed the cat poison in advance, ateall the dishes clean in a trice, and suffered no illeffects. qian long, having failed to eat even onemouthful, had lost yet another round.