Lord Zhou began clicking his iron gallstones together. "Are you hungry, Your Majesty?" he asked. Qian Long said nothing.
"What do you mean, hungry?" asked 'Crocodile' Jiang. "I'm full!"
"The well-fed never appreciate the anguish of the hungry," added Xu. "There are countless millions of common people who are starving, but when have those in authority ever spared a thought for them? Having been a little bit hungry today, perhaps Your Highness will in future understand more about how the common people suffer 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 about not eating anything for a day or two?"
Most of the Red Flower Society heroes had been born into poverty. Their anger rose as they thought of the past and they all began talking at once, swapping stories.
Qian Long's face went pale as he listened. He found himself moved by their sincerity. "Could such misery really exist in the world?" he asked himself. The more he heard, the more embarrassed he felt, and finally he rose and went back upstairs. The heroes did not try to stop him.
A few hours later, he smelt the aroma of mutton with onions and green peppers wafting up from below. This was a speciality of the Imperial chef, Zhang Anguan, and just as Qian Long was wondering if it could really be him, Zhang Anguan ran up and kowtowed, saying: "Please come and eat, Your Highness."
"What are you doing here?" Qian Long asked in amazement.
"Your slave was watching an opera performance in a park yesterday when I was kidnapped. Today, I was asked to wait on you, and your slave was delighted to have the opportunity."
Qian Long nodded and went downstairs. The table had been set with a number of dishes including the mutton, all them his personal favorites. As well as the main dishes, there were also a dozen or so plates of small delicacies, and his heart leapt for joy at the sight of the feast. Chef Zhang filled a bowl of rice for him.
"Please eat, Your Highness," said Priest Wu Chen.
Qian Long wondered whether they would allow him to eat this time. He was just about to raise his chopsticks when 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 the table. The animal ate a couple of mouthfuls from the dishes spread before Qian Long, then it suddenly went rigid, dropped onto the table top, dead.
Qian Long's face went white, and Chef Zhang, shaking from fright, knelt down and said: "Your Highness…Your Highness…the food…they've poisoned the food…don't eat it!"
Qian Long laughed out loud. "You have committed rebellion and other heinous crimes. Now you wish to assassinate me," he said. "If you are going to kill me, do it cleanly. Why go to the trouble of poisoning the 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 anger breaking through. "We'll see what sort of an end you all come to!"
Priest Wu Chen slammed his hand down on the table. "For a real man, life and death are decided by Heaven!" 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 one of the dishes the cat had tried, and began chewing noisily. The other heroes sat down again too, all saying: "If we die, we die. What does it matter?" Qian Long was stunned at the sight of these criminals eating poisoned food.
The heroes, who had fed the cat poison in advance, ate all the dishes clean in a trice, and suffered no ill effects. Qian Long, having failed to eat even one mouthful, had lost yet another round.
7
While Qian Long went hungry, the official administration in Hangzhou was turned upside down. News of the Emperor's disappearance had not yet leaked out but the whole city had been searched. All exits from Hangzhou by both land and water were heavily guarded, and several thousand "suspected bandits" had been arrested until every prison was full. The local officials were very worried, but they also took advantage of the situation to seize rich businessmen and merchants and extort large sums of money from them.
Fu Kangan, Commander Li and Bai Zhen jumped about like ants on a hot plate, completely at a loss for what to do.
Early on the morning of the third day, Fu Kangan called a meeting in the provincial governor's residence. Glum-faced and powerless, they argued about whether or not the Empress should be informed. But none of them dared consider the consequences once such a report had been sent.
As they sat gripped by indecision, one of the Imperial Bodyguards, named Rui, ran in, his face deathly pale, and whispered into Bai Zhen's ear.
Bai Zhen went white and stood up. "How could this happen?" he demanded. Fu Kangan hurriedly asked what was wrong.
"The six bodyguards standing guard outside the Emperor's bed chamber have been killed," Rui said. Far from being alarmed, Fu was pleased by this news.
"Let us go and see," he said. "This event must be connected with His Majesty's disappearance. We may even find some clues."
They hurried to the bed chamber that had been set aside in the Governor's residence for Qian Long. Six corpses lay at all angles around the room. Some had had their eyes gouged out, some had gaping holes in their chests: All had died horribly.
"These six brothers were good fighters," said Bai Zhen. "How could they have been finished off without being able to even utter a sound?"
They stared in open-mouthed horror, incapabale of deciphering the scene. Bai Zhen examined the corpse. The assassins had moved so fast, some of the six had not even had time to draw their swords.
He frowned. "This room is not big enough for a large number of people to fight in, so at the very most there cannot have been more than two or three of them," he said. "Their kung fu must be extraordinary."
"Since they already have the Emperor, why should they come and kill these bodyguards?" asked Commander Li. "From the look of it, last night's assassins and the people who kidnapped the Emperor are not the same bunch."
"That's right!" exclaimed Fu Kangan. "The assassins came, planning to kill the Emperor, but found he wasn't there."
"I would guess that you are correct," said Bai Zhen. "If the men who killed the bodyguards were from the Red Flower Society, then the Emperor has fallen into someone else's hands. But apart from the Red Flower Society, who else is there whose kung fu is so good?" The Red Flower Society's fighters were already difficult enough to handle: the sudden appearance of yet another group of powerful enemies froze his heart.
Bending over to look at the corpses again, Bai Zhen noticed that some of the wounds appeared to have been made by the claws and teeth of a dog, and he hurriedly asked Commander Li to send someone to find some hunting hounds.
About two hours later, a soldier appeared with three hunters and six hounds. Bai Zhen ordered the hunters to let their charges sniff around the corpses, and after a second the dogs charged out of the chamber on the trail of a scent. They ran straight to the lake and barked madly across the water. After a moment, they raced off again along the lake shore to where Qian Long had stepped ashore following the courtesan contest, then turned towards the city. The streets were crowded and the scent confused, and the dogs were forced to slow down, but they continued to head towards Beautiful Jade's establishment.
There should have been troops on guard outside the entrance, but none were to be seen, and as they entered the courtyard they found a dozen corpses lying on the ground. The ruthless assassins had not left one bodyguard alive. Some had had their throats ripped out by dogs, which Bai Zhen thought appeared from the wounds to be very large animals, possibly a cross between dogs and wolves such as were bred in the northwest. Could the assassins have come from there?