he asked Xun.
"It was some fight," said Xun, gesticulating wildly. "There was a woman with a sword in her left hand and a dagger in her right hand. Four men couldn"t beat her."
"She must be one of "Divine Knife" Luo"s people," replied Qian, surprised. "She used throwing knives, I suppose?"
"Yes, yes, she"s really accurate. It was incredible!" Xun exclaimed.
Qian turned to Yan. "Master Wen of the Red Flower Society is here," he said. They carried Tong back to their room in silence.
Lu had observed the whole incident, but the lead escorts had talked in such low tones, that he only managed to catch Qian"s last two utterances. Yuanzhi walked over and asked: "Teacher, when are you going to teach me Yuedao kung fu? Did you see how fantastic that move was?"
Lu took no notice of her, but said to himself: "If it is one of "Divine Knife" Luo"s people, I can"t just stand by and do nothing."
"Who is "Divine Knife" Luo?" Yuanzhi asked.
"He was a good friend of mine. I hear he"s passed away now. All the moves used by the woman we saw fighting a minute ago were of his school."
Just then, the two lead escorts Qian and Tai helped Tong over to the woman"s room. Xun coughed loudly outside the door and announced in a low voice:
"Lead Escorts Qian, Tai and Tong of the Zhen Yuan Bodyguard Agency have come to pay their respects to Master Wen of the Red Flower Society."
The door creaked open and the woman stood in the doorway staring at them. "What do you want?" she asked.
"We did not know that you and Master Wen were here," Qian said. "We have insulted you and we have come to apologise. Please be forgiving and don"t be offended by what happened." He bowed low and Tai and Xun followed suit.
"Mistress," Qian continued. "We have never met before, but I have heard a great deal about you and your husband. Master Wang, the head of our agency, was always on very good terms with the leader of your honourable society, Master Yu, and also with your father "Divine Knife" Luo. Our brother here is very bad-tempered, and is always talking nonsense..."
The woman cut him off. "Our master has been wounded, and he just went to sleep. When he wakes, I will pass on your message. We are ignorant of etiquette, but his wounds are not light, and he hasn"t slept well for two days." There was an expression of apprehension on her face.
"What sort of wounds does Master Wen have?" Qian asked. "We have some Golden Wound ointment with us." He wanted to put them in their debt so that they would be obliged to help cure Tong.
"Thank you, but we have medicine," the woman replied, understanding his meaning. "Your colleague was not touched on a major Yuedao point. When our master wakes, I will send one of the inn"s servants round."
Seeing that she had agreed to cure Tong, Qian and the others started to retire.
"By the way," said the woman. "How did you know our names?"
"With your swords and throwing knives, who wouldn"t be able to guess?" Qian replied. "What"s more, who apart from Master Wen uses Yuedao kung fu like that? It had to be "Rolling Thunder Hand" Wen Tailai and his wife Luo Bing."
The woman smiled, flattered at having been recognised.
** 5 **
Yuanzhi sat for a long time with her hands on her cheeks, annoyed that Lu would not teach her Yuedao kung fu. After dinner, she went to see her mother, who nagged her for causing trouble on the road, and told her she was not to wear boy"s clothing any more.
"Mother, you"re always talking about how you have no son," she replied with a smile. "Aren"t you happy now that you have one?"