the trees on the hillsides were dense and dark. it wasalready deep autumn and heaven's eye mountain wascovered in fiery-red leaves and yellowing grass.

lookouts sent word of the approach of chen and hiscomrades and zhang jin and the other heroes came downto greet them.

luo bing was not among them, and chen's heart missed abeat, afraid that something had happened to her.

"where's fourth sister?" he asked. "and how arebrother wen and brother yu?""they're fine," zhang jin replied. "fourth sister saidshe was going to get a present for fourth brother.

she's been away two days already. you didn't meet heron the road?"chen shook his head. "what present?"zhang jin smiled. "i don't know. fourth brother'swounds have healed well, but he spends all his time inbed moping. then fourth sister came up with this ideaof going to get him a present. i wonder who will loseout as a result?" the others laughed.

they made their way up the mountain and entered thecourtyard of a large mansion. wen tailai was lyingdejectedly on a rattan couch. they told him brieflyabout what had transpired and then went to the roomnext door to see 'scholar' yu.

as they stepped inside, they heard the sound ofsobbing. chen walked over and pulled aside the bedcurtain to reveal yu lying face-down on the bed, hisback shaking uncontrollably. even girls like luo bingand zhou qi rarely cried, and they were shocked andembarrassed by his behaviour.

"fourteenth brother," chen said quietly. "we've cometo see you. how do you feel? are your wounds verypainful?"yu stopped crying, but did not turn over. "greathelmsman, brothers, thank you all for coming to seeme. forgive me for not getting up to greet youproperly. my health has improved a lot over the pastfew days, but my face has been burnt so badly, it's sougly that i cannot face anyone."zhou qi smiled. "what does it matter if a man has burnmarks on his face?" she said. "don't tell my you'reafraid you won't be able to find a girl willing tomarry you?" some of the heroes laughed at her lack ofrestraint.

"brother yu," said lu feiqing. "your face was burntwhile saving myself and wen tailai. when people hearof this act, do you think there is anyone who wouldnot proclaim you to be a hero? what need is there forsuch distress?""you are right, uncle," said yu, and burst into tearsagain.

the heroes returned to the main hall. chen and xutalked together in low tones, then clapped their handsand the heroes stood up.

"brothers," said chen. "so far, things have gone verywell for us. but in the future, we will face eventougher problems. i will now give you yourassignments. ninth brother, twelfth brother, you twogo to beijing and see what you can find out about theemperor's plans and if he intends to break our pact.

this will be extremely difficult to execute. you mustboth exercise great caution." wei and shi nodded.

"now, the twin knights," chen continued. "please go tothe southwest and make contact with the fighters insichuan, yunnan and guizhou provinces. eighth brother,you go to anhui and jiangsu provinces, priest wu chento hubei and hunan. thirteenth brother and brother main hangzhou will contact people in zhejiang, fujianand jiangxi, while i would like to ask master lu todeal with shandong and henan. i would like lord zhou,master meng, brother xu and mistress zhou qi to handlethe northwest provinces. fourth brother and fourteenthbrother will remain here convalescing with fourthsister and tenth brother to look after them. xin yanwill accompany me to the muslim areas.

"i am not asking you to begin preparations for anuprising, but simply to improve relations with membersof the fighting community in all areas and to providea basis on which we can act later," he added.

"absolute secrecy is essential, so do not revealanything to anyone no matter how close or respectedthey are.""we understand," they replied in unison.

"in exactly one year's time we will all gather inbeijing. by that time, fourth brother and fourteenthbrother will be fully recovered and we can begin thegreat task!"cheers arose from the heroes. they followed chen outof the hall, elated by the prospect of the future.

only zhang jin, assigned by the great helmsman to stayat heaven's eye mountain, was unhappy. wen guessed histhoughts, and went over to speak to chen.

"great helmsman, my wounds are almost healed, andalthough fourteenth brother's burns are serious, he isrecovering quickly," he said. "it is a bit much to askus to stay cooped up here for a year. the four of uswould like to accompany you to the muslim regions. thetrip would also help to take fourteenth brother's mindoff other things.""all right, we'll do it that way," chen agreed. zhangjin ran joyfully in to tell yu the news.

lord zhou took chen aside. "great helmsman," he said.

"the fact that we have discovered through master wenthat you and the emperor are blood relations is amatter worthy of great rejoicing. i would like to addto it one more happy event. what do you think?""you wish to hold a wedding for seventh brother andmistress zhou, is that right?""exactly," zhou replied, smiling.

chen walked over to zhou qi, his face wreathed insmiles, and bowed before her. "mistress,congratulations," he said.

she blushed deeply. "what do you mean?""i should call you seventh sister. seventh sister,congratulations!" he clapped his hands loudly and theheroes immediately fell silent.

"just now, lord zhou told me he wants mistress zhou qiand seventh brother to be married this evening. so wehave something else to celebrate!"the heroes cheered loudly and congratulated lord zhouand xu. zhou qi hastily made for her bedroom inembarrassment.

"tenth brother!" wei called to zhang jin. "stop her.

don't let the bride escape!" zhang made as to grab herand zhou qi chopped out with her left hand to fend himoff.

"help!" he cried in mock surprise, dodging to oneside. "the bride's attacking me!"a laugh escaped from her as she charged out of thehall.

just then, there was the sound of bells outside andluo bing ran in carrying a large box.

"oh good, everyone's here!" she cried. "what'shappened to make you all so happy?" she lookedenquiringly at chen.

"ask seventh brother," said wei.

"what's happened, brother xu?" luo bing asked, but xuwas speechless for a moment. "mm? that's strange. hasthe kung fu mastermind gone silly?"'crocodile' jiang dodged behind xu and held up histhumbs and made them bow to each other. "themastermind is getting married today," he said withglee.

"oh, how awful, how awful!" luo bing exclaimed,absolutely delighted.

the others laughed. "what do you mean, awful?" asked'pagoda' yang.

"if i'd known, i could have brought a sheep and somenice things back with me. as it is, i have almostnothing to give them as presents. isn't that awful?""will you let us all see what you've brought forfourth brother?" yang asked.

luo bing smiled and opened up the box. glinting insidewere the two jade vases which the muslims had sent tothe emperor along with their request for a truce.

"where did you get them?" the heroes asked inastonishment.

"i was chatting with fourth brother and mentioned howbeautiful the girl on the vases was, but he didn'tbelieve me...""i'll bet fourth brother said: 'i don't believe she ismore beautiful than you.' am i right?" interrupted xu.

luo bing smiled but did not answer. "did you go tohangzhou and steal them from the emperor?" xu asked.

luo bing nodded, very pleased with herself. "i gotthem so fourth brother could have a look. the greathelmsman will decide what should be done with themafter that, whether we should keep them or return themto sister huo qingtong." wen examined the vases andtutted in admiration.

"i was right, wasn't i?" asked luo bing. wen smiledand shook his head. luo bing started, then realisedher husband meant that the girl on the vase could notbe more beautiful than she was. her cheeks flushed.

"the emperor has many top fighters around him and suchprecious items as these vases must have been very wellguarded," said priest wu chen. "how did you manage tosteal them?"luo bing told them how she had slipped into the yamen,grabbed a eunuch and forced him to tell her where thevases were, slipped poison into the food of some ofthe guards, and made cat noises to distract the rest,then grabbed the vases. the heroes praised herartistry, all except lu feiqing.

"fourth sister," he said. "you are very brave, but wasit wise to take such a risk alone just for the sake ofa remark you made to master wen? as it happened, theimperial bodyguards were fully occupied thatparticular night searching for the emperor. if theyhad been there, things could have turned outdifferently.""yes," luo bing replied, then turned and stuck out hertongue at wen.

the wedding ceremony took place amidst greatmerriment, and the next morning the heroes made theirway down the mountain, wished each other well, andwent their separate ways.

chen and lord zhou were both heading for the northwestand chen suggested they travel together. but zhou saidhe wished to take advantage of their presence in thesouth to visit the shaolin monastery in fujianprovince whose style of kung fu was related to hisown. so taking his wife and his assistant meng withhim, he headed south.

chen, wen, luo bing, xu, zhou qi, zhang jin, 'scholar'

yu and xin yan travelled north through nanking. by thetime they had crossed the yangtse, wen had completelyrecovered and yu was progressing well. as theycontinued north, the weather became cooler, the grassand trees turned yellow as early winter set in. afterpassing through kaifeng, yu was well enough to ride ahorse, and the eight of them galloped together alongthe highway. the north wind blew angrily, throwingdust and sand into their faces.

wen, riding the white horse, galloped ahead of theothers and stopped at an inn in a small village andtold the servants to kill a chicken and prepare ameal, then he sat down near the door to await thearrival of his friends. he ordered a pot of tea andwiped his face with the hot flannel brought out tohim. suddenly, a figure darted out from a room on theeastern side of the inn but immediately withdrew oncatching sight of wen.

about an hour later, chen and the others rode up andwen quietly informed them of what had happened. xulooked round towards the room and saw a section of thewindow paper was wet with a black eyeball in thecentre which immediately disappeared. he smiled.

"it's a novice," he said. "as soon as he starts, hereveals himself.""go over and see him," chen said to xin yan. "if hehas financial problems, lend him some money."xin yan went over to the room and said in a loudvoice: "all streams under heaven have the same source,red flowers and green leaves are all one family."this was the red flower society members' catch-phrasefor identifying themselves to other members of thefighting community. even if the other party was not anassociate of the red flower society, as long as heknew the phrase and asked for help, he would receiveit. but all was quiet in the room. xin yan repeatedhis call, and the door creaked open and a figuredressed in black with a large hat pulled down low cameout and gave him a letter.

"give this to your master yu."xin yan took the letter and the figure rsn out of theinn, jumped onto a horse and galloped away. he gavethe letter to yu who opened it and found the followingwritten inside:

"what do ugliness and beauty have to do with truelove? i will follow you even over a thousand mountainsand ten thousand rivers. and tell your great helmsmanthat the three devils of guandong are on their way tothe muslim regions to get their revenge on huoqingtong for killing their martial brother."recognising the calligraphy as being that of liyuanzhi, he frowned and handed the sheet to chen.

chen studiously ignored the first sentence, whichobviously dealt with private romantic affairs. but heimmediately informed the others of the news about thethree devils of guandong.

"they are tough fighters," said wen. "i wonder if shecan handle them?""we once watched mistress huo fighting with thatguangdong devil, yan shizhang, and she proved herselfto be a little better than him," xu replied. "but ifthe great helmsman hadn't stepped in to save her, i'mafraid she would have fallen victim to his eviltricks.""the eldest of the devils, tang yilei, is very strong,a formidable man," said wen.

"since the three devils are already on their way, itwould be best if someone went on ahead on sister luobing's horse," xu suggested. "from the look of things,the military situation in the muslim regions is tense,and master muzhuolun and his people must be busymaking defensive preparations. we shouldn't letmistress huo be caught unawares by the three devils."chen knew he was right, and he frowned silently.

"great helmsman, i think it would be best if you wenton ahead," said xu. "you speak the muslim language,your kung fu is good, and the three devils have neverseen you before. if general zhao wei has not withdrawnby the time you get there, you can also help themuslims.""all right!" said chen after a moment's hesitation.