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!"