he asked.
Despite his apparent silliness, Yuanzhi knew that this strange Muslim was very wise, and she decided to ask his advice.
"Uncle Afanti," she replied. "How would you deal with someone who was unreasonable?"
"I would cover his head with my saucepan and skewer him with a sword."
Yuanzhi shook her head. "That won"t do. For instance, what if he was someone very ... dear to you. The nicer you are towards him, the more stubborn he becomes, like your donkey."
Afanti pulled at his beard, fully understanding her meaning. "I ride this donkey every day and I"ve learned a few tricks about how to deal with his bad temper," he replied with a smile.
They entered a village. As they approached the square at its centre, the white horse suddenly gave a long neigh and galloped forward. Yuanzhi pulled desperatelyon the reins, but could not control him and the villagers scattered in front of the apparently crazed animal as it raced up to a group of people and stopped. Yuanzhi dismounted in front of Luo Bing, Wen, "Leopard" Wei, Zhang Jin, Xin Yan and white-bearded Lu Feiqing.
Yu ran over to Lu and knelt down before him. "Uncle," he cried, and began to sob.
Lu helped him up, tears also glistening in his eyes. "I started out as soon as I heard the shocking news about your teacher, Master Ma Zhen," he said. "I met Master Wen and the others on the road. They are also after that traitor, Zhang. Don"t worry. We will avenge the death of your teacher."
The heroes found somewhere to rest briefly while Afanti went off to buy a donkey, Yuanzhi quietly following him. He found and purchased a strong animal, twice as tall as his tail-less donkey which he sold to the donkey merchant for a small sum.
"The official"s cap was the undoing of this stupid donkey," he said, and laughed. He threw the cap on the ground, and trampled it into the dust. Yuanzhi led the new donkey for him as they walked back.
"I once raised a donkey that was appallingly stubborn," Afanti said. "If I wanted him to move, he would stand still. If I wanted him to stand still, he would walk round in circles. One day, I wanted him to pull a cart to a mill a few hundred feet away, but no matter what I said, he wouldn"t budge. The more I pushed him, the more determined he was to stay put. I shouted, I hit him, it made no difference. So you can guess what I did?"
"I"m sure you thought of something."
"The mill was to the east, so I pulled the donkey round to face west and then urged him to moved forward. He retreated one step after another all the way to the mill!"
"You wanted to go east, so it insisted on going west," Yuanzhi said thoughtfully. "So you pushed him westwards."
Afanti stuck up his thumb. "That"s right. That"s the way." Yuanzhi smiled. "Thank you for your advice," she said.
She decided he was right. The more she was nice to Yu, the more he avoided her, so she decided that she would ignore him instead. Luo Bing and Xu were surprised by her sudden change in attitude, but Afanti just stroked his beard and smiled.
With Afanti riding his new donkey, they made much faster progress. The white horse led them to the White Jade Peak, but it was still fearful of the wolves and stopped outside the maze of paths leading to the Secret City, refusing to go any further.
"The wolf pack went in here," said Master Yuan. "We should be able to find our way easily by following the trail of wolf droppings." Their anxiety about Chen"s safety increased.
The path twisted back and forth for a long time. Suddenly, they heard footsteps ahead and four men appeared round a corner, the first of whom was Zhang. His face turned pale at the sight of the heroes, and particularly his martial brother Lu Feiqing. Yu gripped hold of his golden flute and was about to charge forward when Master Yuan lightly touched his shoulder, stopping him dead in his tracks.
Master Yuan pointed at Zhang accusingly. "When we met several days ago, I called you a master of the Wudang School. I did not know then that you were capable of even killing your own martial brother. Why not end it cleanly and quickly yourself?"