he asked. "How have you been since we last met?"
Yuanzhi blushed and laughed. She glanced at Yu, wanting him to explain.
"Great Helmsman, this is Master Lu"s pupil," Yu said.
"I know, we"ve met several times."
Yu smiled. "She is therefore my martial sister."
"What?" Chen exclaimed in surprise.
"She likes wearing boy"s clothes when she travels."
Chen looked closely at Yuanzhi and noticed for the first time how delicate her eyebrows were, and how small her mouth, not at all like a man"s. Because of the relationship with Huo Qingtong, Chen had never looked closely at her before, but now he stared in shock.
"I was completely wrong about Mistress Huo Qingtong," he thought. "She told me to go and ask Master Lu about his pupil and I never did. Could she have left the camp because of me? And then there"s her sister who loves me deeply."
Luo Bing could see how Yuanzhi felt towards Yu and she hoped that with such a beautiful girl in love with him, he could release himself from the self-torture of his adoration of herself. But he looked as desolate and unhappy as ever.
"Where is Sister Huo Qingtong?" Yuanzhi asked. "I have something important to tell her."
"She"s gone. We"re looking for her now," Luo Bing replied.
"She went out by herself?"
Luo Bing nodded.
"Where did she go?" Yuanzhi asked urgently.
"She left the camp heading east, but whether or not she changed direction, we don"t know."
"Oh, no!" Yuanzhi exclaimed, stamping her foot. They asked her what was wrong. "The Three Guandong Devils are looking for Sister Huo Qingtong to get their revenge on her. You know that already. But I met them on the road. They"re behind me. If she is heading east, she might run into them."
"We don"t have a moment to lose," said Chen. "I will go and find her."
"Don"t underestimate the Three Devils," Xu warned. "It would be better if several of us went. Great Helmsman Chen should go first with Princess Fragrance. Mistress Li, you also know her, but it would be too dangerous for you to go alone. Perhaps Brother Yu could go with you. My wife and I can go and search too, while the others remain here at the camp to watch for Zhang Zhaozhong."
"Fine!" said Chen. He borrowed Luo Bing"s white horse and he and Princess Frangrance galloped off with the others not far behind.
At about noon that day, Wen and the other heroes were chatting with Muzhuolun in his tent when a guard rushed in to report that the Manchu general Herda had escaped and the four soldiers guarding him had been killed. They hurried over, and found a dagger stuck in the chest of one of the dead soldiers with a note attached to it which read: "To the heroes of the Red Flower Society from Zhang Zhaozhong".
Wen angrily screwed the piece of paper up into a ball. "Master Muzhuolun," he said. "You maintain the encirclement of the Manchus, and we"ll go and find this traitor Zhang Zhaozhong." Muzhuolun nodded, and Wen led the other heroes off into the desert, following the tracks of the Manchu horses.
** 6 **
Huo Qingtong left the camp feeling lonely and confused. "I"ll go to my teachers" home at Precious Mountain and lose myself in the desert with them," she thought. She was unwell, and even though her kung fu training enabled her to keep going, after ten days travelling across the desert, she was absolutely exhausted and still four or five days from the home of the Tianshan Eagles. Finally, she stopped beside a small sand dune and let her horse graze on the sparse, dry grasses nearby.
She set up her tent and slept for several hours. In the middle of the night she was awakened by the sound of three horses approaching from the east. As they neared the sand dune, they slowed and headed for the same patch of dry grass that had attracted her mount. The horses were unwilling to continue, so the three riders dismounted to rest. They did not see Huo Qingtong"s tent, which was on the other side of the dune. She heard them talking Chinese, but she was still sleepy and did not bother to listen closely. Suddenly, however, she heard one of the men say: "That damned bitch!