he shouted. "Go and get Meng quickly!"
As he spoke, Meng ran in.
"Who let the secret out?" Zhou shouted hoarsely. "Tell me! You..."
Meng hesitated, and said: "The Eagle"s Claws found it out for themselves."
"Nonsense!" Zhou roared. "How would that bunch of dog thieves ever find a place as well-hidden as my cellar?"
Meng did not answer, not daring to meet his master"s gaze. Lady Zhou came in hugging her son, but Zhou ignored her.
His gaze swung round to Song"s face. "As soon as you saw the officers, you took fright and talked, didn"t you?" he shouted. Meng was trustworthy but Song was a coward and knew no kung fu.
"No...it wasn"t me who talked," he replied, scared out of his wits. "It was...it was the young...the young master."
Zhou"s heart missed a beat. "Come over here," he said to his son.
The boy walked, cringing, over to his father.
"Was it you who told the officers that the three guests were in the garden cellar?" he asked.
The boy had never dared to lie to his father, but he could not bring himself to confess. Zhou brandished his whip.
"Will you speak?" he shouted.
The boy looked at his mother, so scared he wanted to cry. Lady Zhou walked over and stood close beside him.
Meng saw that the deception would not work. "Master," he said. "The officers were very cunning. They made out that if the young master did not talk, he would be a coward."
"You wanted to be a hero, so you told them, is that correct?" Zhou shouted.
The boy"s face was drained of colour. "Yes, father," he replied quietly.
Zhou could not control his anger. "Is that any way for a brave hero to act?" he shouted. He threw the two iron balls in his right hand at the opposite wall in frustration, but at that very moment, his son threw himself into his arms to beg for mercy, and one of the balls hit the boy square on the head. Zhou had put all of his rage into the throw and its power was extraordinary. Blood sprayed in all directions.
Greatly shocked, Zhou quickly took hold of his son and embraced him.
"Father," the boy said. "I...I won"t do it again...Don"t hit me..." He was dead before he finished speaking. Everyone in the room was stunned into silence.
Lady Zhou grabbed her son, shouting: "Child, child!" When she saw he had stopped breathing, she stared dumbly at him for a moment then, like a crazed tiger, struck out at Zhou.
"Why...why did you kill the child?" she sobbed.
Zhou shook his head and retreated two paces. "I... I didn"t..."
Lady Zhou put down her son"s corpse, and grabbed a sword from the scabbard of one of the attendants. She leapt forward and struck out at her husband, but he made no move to avoid the blow.
"It will be better if we all die," he said, closing his eyes.
Seeing him in such a state, her hand loosened. She dropped the sword to the ground and ran out of the hall, sobbing.
** 2 **
Luo Bing and Yu Yutong kept to the back roads for fear of meeting Yamen officers and rode on until the sky was completely black. The countryside was desolate: there were no inns and they couldn"t even find a farmhouse. They stopped to rest beside a large rock.
Yu releaed the horses to graze, then cut some grass with Luo Bing"s sword and spread it out on the ground.
"Now we have a bed, but no food or water," he said. "All we can do is wait until tomorrow and try to think of something then."
Luo Bing cared about nothing but her husband. She cried continuously. Yu comforted her, saying the Red Flower Society would certainly come in force to help them rescue Fourth Brother. Luo Bing was exhausted, and hearing his words, she relaxed and soon fell into a deep sleep.
In her dream, she seemed to meet her husband, who held her gently in his arms, and lightly kissed her on the mouth. She felt deliciously happy and lazily let her husband embrace her.
"I"ve been so miserable thinking about you," she said. "Are all your wounds healed?"