"I am undressing," I said, because I had been well brought up and I would never dream of contradicting so venerable a sage as Li Kao. Besides, I had been told to obey him by the abbot, who was praying for my soul.

"I shall scream!" cried Pretty Ping.

"I sincerely hope so. Ah, if I could only be ninety again," Master Li said nostalgically. "Ox, flex a few muscles for the young lady."

Pretty Ping stared at me, as Li Kao turned and trotted back down the stairs. I grinned back at a young lady whose family had fallen into the clutches of a usurer, and whose beauty had condemned her to the embraces of an elderly gentleman who was equipped with a pair of glittering little pig eyes, a bald and mottled skull, a sharp curving nose like a parrot's beak, the loose flabby lips of a camel, and two drooping elephant ears from which sprouted thick tufts of coa.r.s.e gray hair. Her luscious lips parted.

"Help," said Pretty Ping.

The noises downstairs suggested that Miser Shen was acquiring a goat, some castor oil, and a load of garbage, and Pretty Ping and I took the opportunity to get acquainted. In China when young people wish to become acquainted they usually start by playing Fluttering b.u.t.terflies, because there is no better way to get to know somebody than to play Fluttering b.u.t.terflies.

"Eat!" Miser Shen screamed to the goat.

After young people have become acquainted it is customary to warm things up with the Kingfisher Union, because it is impossible to engage in the Kingfisher Union without becoming close friends.

"Gold!" screamed Miser Shen.

A cup of wine is then called for, and a discussion of relative merits that is usually resolved in favor of Hounds by the Ninth Day of Autumn.

"Eat!" screamed Miser Shen.

The young gentleman then plays the lute while the young lady dances in a manner that would cause a riot if performed in public, and they inevitably become entangled in Six Doves Beneath the Eaves on a Rainy Day.

"Gold!" screamed Miser Shen.

Now that friendship has been firmly established it is but a step and a jump to become soulmates, and the fastest way to become soulmates is Phoenix Sporting in the Cinnabar Crevice.

"Eat!" screamed Miser Shen.

This will lead to wine, love poems, and a return to Fluttering b.u.t.terflies, but slowly and drowsily, accompanied by giggles, and so it goes in China until the dawn, when somebody might calm down enough to consider testing the purity of gold coins.

"What is that appalling stench, O most perfect and penetrating of partners?" yawned Pretty Ping.

"I fear that it marks the approach of Miser Shen, O beauty beyond compare," I said sadly, as I climbed out of bed and pulled on my trousers.

"And what is that angry noise, O most tantalizingly tender of tigers?" asked Pretty Ping.

"I fear that Miser Shen is arming his seven half-starved servants with clubs, O rarest of rose petals." I sighed, as I collected my sandals, tunic, jade-embroidered silver girdle, fine ta.s.seled hat, and gold-splattered Szech'uen fan.

"Merciful Buddha! What is the ghastly thing that is oozing obscenely through my doorway?" howled Pretty Ping.

"I fear that it is a mound of goat manure, beneath which you should find Miser Shen. Farewell, O seduction of the universe," I said, and I jumped out the window to the street below.

Li Kao was waiting for me, well rested after a pleasant night with Fat Fu and One-Eyed Wong, and he appeared to approve of the sparkle in my eyes. I bent over and he hopped up upon my back, and then I raced through the streets toward the city walls while behind us Miser Shen screamed, "Bring back my five hundred pieces of gold!"

6. A Winsome Damsel

Our path toward the house of the Ancestress ran through steep mountains, and most of the time Master Li rode upon my back. Sea sounds filled the immense sky as the wind blew through tall trees - pine surfs, as the poets say - and the clouds looked like white sails that were gliding across an endless blue ocean.

One day we climbed down the last mountainside to a green valley, and Li Kao pointed ahead to a low hill.

"The summer estate of the Ancestress should be on the other side," he said. "To tell the truth, I'm rather looking forward to seeing her again."

He smiled at a memory of fifty years ago.

"Ox, I hear that she's put on a great deal of weight, but the Ancestress was the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen in my life, and the most charming when she felt like it," he said. "Still, there was something about her that rang warning bells in my mind, and I was quite fond of old Wen. I was in high favor after the affair of Procopius and the other barbarians - I was even allowed to approach the throne on an east-west axis, instead of groveling up on my knees from the south - and one day I sidled up to the emperor and said with a sly wink that I had arranged for us to spy upon some newlyweds who were about to consummate the happy union. Wen was something of a voyeur, so we tiptoed to my suite and I opened a small curtain and pointed a pedantic finger.

" 'O Son of Heaven,' I said, 'it would appear that marriage to a certain kind of female can have unfortunate side effects.'

"The newlyweds happened to be praying mantises," said Master Li. "The groom was happily engrossed in copulation, and right on cue his blushing bride craned her pretty neck and casually decapitated him. The groom's hindquarters continued to pump away while the bride devoured his head, which says something about the location of his brains, and for a moment the emperor had second thoughts about wedding bells. But the Ancestress got to him and I was exiled to Serendip, which was quite fortunate because I wasn't around when she poisoned poor Wen and began ma.s.sacring everyone in sight."

We reached the top of the hill and I stared down in horror at an estate that resembled a vast military fort. It covered almost an entire valley, and it was surrounded by high parallel walls. The corridors between them were patrolled by guards and savage dogs, and everywhere I looked I saw soldiers.

"I understand that her winter palace is really something," Master Li said calmly.

"Can we really get into her treasure chambers and steal the Root of Power?" I asked in a tiny frightened voice.

"I have no intention of attempting such a thing," he said. "We'll persuade the dear lady to bring the root to us. Unfortunately that means that we will have to murder somebody, and I have never truly enjoyed slitting the throats of innocent bystanders. We must pray that we will find somebody who thoroughly deserves it."

He started down the hill.

"Of course, if she recognizes me, the funeral will be ours, and for once she will abandon the axe in favor of boiling oil," he said.

In the last town of consequence Li Kao made certain arrangements, such as purchasing an elegant carriage and renting the largest suite in the inn, and then he went to the town square and tacked one of Miser Shen's gold coins to the message board. I a.s.sumed that it would be stolen as soon as we turned our backs, but he drew mysterious symbols around it, and the townspeople who approached the message board turned pale and backed away hurriedly, muttering spells to protect themselves from evil. I had no idea what was going on.

That evening the most alarming bunch of thugs that I had ever seen in my life paused at the message board, studied the coin and the symbols, and began trickling by twos and threes into the inn. Li Kao had set out jars of the strongest wine, which they swilled like hogs, growling and snarling and glaring at me with their hands on the hilts of their daggers. The animal noises stopped abruptly when Li Kao entered and climbed up upon a table.

It was as if hands had been clapped over their filthy mouths. Their eyes bulged, and sweat poured down their greasy faces. The leader of the thugs turned quite gray with terror, and I thought that he was going to faint.

Master Li was wearing a red robe that was covered with cosmological symbols, and a red headband with five loops. His right trouser leg was rolled up, and his left trouser leg was rolled down, and he wore a shoe on his right foot and a sandal on his left. He laid his left hand across his chest with the little and middle fingers extended, and he slid his right hand back inside the sleeve of his robe. The sleeve began to flutter in peculiar patterns as he wriggled the concealed fingers.

Four of the thugs grabbed their leader and forced him forward. Cut-Off-Their-b.a.l.l.s w.a.n.g was shaking so hard that he could barely stand, but he managed to slide his own right hand inside his sleeve, and the sleeve began to flutter in response. Master Li's sleeve moved faster and faster, Cut-Off-Their-b.a.l.l.s w.a.n.g replied in the same silent fashion, and so it went for many minutes. At last Li Kao extracted his hand from the sleeve and gestured dismissal, and to my astonishment the thugs and their leader backed out of the room on their knees, humbly banging their heads against the floor.

Li Kao smiled and opened a jar of better wine and motioned for me to join him at a table.

"The lower the criminal, the more impressed he is with the childlike mumbo-jumbo of the Secret Societies," he said complacently. "For some reason Cut-Off-Their-b.a.l.l.s w.a.n.g is under the impression that I am a great grand master of the Triads, and that I intend to cut his gang in for a share of the loot when I make my move against the Ancestress. In the latter respect," said Master Li, "he is absolutely right."

Two days later some aristocratic ladies who were returning to the estate of the Ancestress were ambushed by villains whose appearance was so terrifying that the guards fled and left the ladies to their fate. Things were looking very bad for them until two intrepid n.o.blemen rode to the rescue.

"On your knees, dogs, for you face the rage of Lord Li of Kao!" Master Li yelled.

"Cower, knaves, before the fury of Lord Lu of Yu!" I shouted.

Unfortunately, our lead horse slipped in some mud, and our carriage crashed into the ladies' carriage, and we were pitched on top of half-naked females who were screaming their heads off. We gazed groggily at a pretty jade pendant that was dangling between a pair of pretty pink-tipped b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and it took a moment for us to remember what we were doing there. Then we jumped down to engage the ruffians.

Li Kao stabbed right and left with his sword, and I swung away with both hands - he was missing, of course, and I was pulling my punches short - and the thugs remembered that they weren't actually supposed to rob and rape anybody and began to do a very good job of acting. Once, when my foot slipped in the mud, a punch accidentally landed and sent the leader of the bandits sprawling. I forgot about the accident, and soon the bandits fled in terror and we turned to accept the grat.i.tude of the rescued ladies.

Cut-Off-Their-b.a.l.l.s w.a.n.g had already lost his nose and both of his ears in back-alley battles, and he did not appreciate losing several teeth as well. He crept up behind me with a log in his hands.

"A present for Lord Lu of Yu!" he yelled, and he swung with all his might, and I saw a glorious burst of orange and purple stars, and then everything turned black.

I awoke in a very expensive bed surrounded by very expensive women who were battling for the honor of bathing the b.u.mp on my skull.

"He wakes!" they shrieked at the tops of their lungs. "Lord Lu of Yu opens his divine eyes!"

I had been brought up to be courteous, but there are limits.

"If you don't stop that infernal racket, Lord Lu of Yu will strangle you with his divine hands," I groaned.

They paid no attention to me, and the ear-splitting babble continued, and gradually I began to make some sense out of it. Our miraculous intervention had saved them all from rape and ruin, and the esteem in which we were held was not diminished by our fine ta.s.seled hats, green silk tunics, jade-bordered silver girdles, Szech'uen fans, and money belts that bulged with Miser Shen's gold coins. This was all according to plan, but I was rather puzzled by repeated references to "the bridegroom," and I was trying to get up enough strength to ask a few questions when I began to realize that my wounds were far more serious than I had thought.

I was sick enough to imagine that the floor was shaking, and that my bed was starting to bounce up and down. The hallucination was accompanied by a dull, rhythmic, pounding noise that gradually increased in volume, and the ladies suddenly stopped babbling. They turned pale and tiptoed quietly from the room through a side door, and I began to smell a revolting odor of rotting flesh.

The bedroom door crashed open, and the woman who marched inside weighed approximately five hundred pounds. The floor shook as she marched toward my bed. The coldest eyes that I had ever seen, even in nightmares, glittered between puffy rolls of sagging gray flesh, and a ma.s.sive swollen hand shot out and grabbed my chin. The icy eyes moved over my face.

"Satisfactory," she grunted.

She grabbed my right arm and probed the biceps.

"Satisfactory," she grunted.

She jerked the covers down and squeezed my chest.

"Satisfactory," she grunted.

She ripped the covers all the way down and prodded my private parts.

"Satisfactory," she grunted.

Then the creature stepped back and I stared pop-eyed at a leveled finger that resembled a gangrened sausage.

"They call you Lord Lu of Yu," she growled. "I know Yu well, and there is no Lord Lu. They call your antiquated companion Lord Li of Kao, and the province of Kao does not exist. You are frauds and fortune hunters, and your criminal activities do not interest me in the least."

She slapped her hands to her hips and glared at me.

"My granddaughter has taken a fancy to you, and I want great-grandchildren," she snarled. "The wedding will take place as soon as your wounds have healed. You will present me with seven great-grandchildren, and they will be boys. I intend to overthrow the T'ang Dynasty and restore the Sui, and boys are more suitable for the purpose. In the meantime you will not annoy me by showing your silly face any more than is absolutely necessary, and you will not speak unless spoken to. Insolence in my household is punishable by immediate decaptiation."

The monster turned and plodded from the room, and the door slammed viciously behind her. For a moment I lay there paralyzed, and then I jumped from the bed and ran across the floor and started to climb out of the window. The view made me stop. That immense estate boasted no less than seven pleasure gardens, and one of them, in the tradition of great houses, was a pretty artificial peasant village. I gazed at simple thatched roofs, and crude water wheels, and green fields, and pigs and cows and chickens and water buffaloes. I felt tears well in my eyes and trickle down my cheeks.

My village was praying for a ginseng root.

I made my way back to the bed, and I lay there wrapped in misery and terror.

7. A Great House

When I had recovered enough to take stock of my surroundings it gradually dawned on me that the monster had decided upon seven great-grandchildren some time ago, and that her granddaughter would be ordered to see to it that they were twelve years old at birth. I was lying in the dormitory of the boys who were going to aid in overthrowing the T'ang Dynasty, and I will confess that I wept when I considered the life that my poor children were to lead.

Seven small beds were aligned side by side with geometric precision. Seven small desks were placed precisely in front of them, and the writing brushes lay exactly three inches to the right of the inkstones. Nothing in that cold inhuman room was so much as an eyelash out of alignment, and that included the signs on the walls. Some were kung kuo-yo, Tables of Demerits, and I will give an example.

EACH DEMERIT IS TO BE PUNISHED BY STROKES OF THE BIRCH ROD.

Exciting l.u.s.tful thoughts in oneself5 Showing one's nakedness when easing nature at night2 Lewd dreams2 If such dreams occasion lewd actions10 Singing frivolous songs5 Studying frivolous songs10 Not yielding the way to a woman10 If at the same time one looks at the woman20 If one looks longingly at her30 If one conceives lewd thoughts about her40 Insolence to a woman50 Insolence to the Ancestress500 If such insolence is recurrentDecapitation

Other signs were lessons to be memorized, and my frightened eyes jerked from one to another. Now and then in my dreams I find myself in a cla.s.sroom with fragments of lessons plastered all over it.

The effectiveness of the flame throwers known as meng huo yu may be enhanced by the addition of pulped bananas and coconuts to the oil, which will cause the fiery mixture to stick to the flesh...

The Fire Drug will release deadly gas upon explosion with the addition of five ounces of langtu, two and one half ounces of pitch, one ounce of bamboo fibers, three ounces of a.r.s.enic oxide...

An excellent poison can be swiftly produced under field conditions by boiling two baskets of oleander leaves, distilling the essence, and adding three ounces of dried aconite tubers. At sea a simple extraction of the sac of the blowfish...

A more subtle approach was employed by w.a.n.g Shih-chen, who presented his victims with p.o.r.nographic novels after smearing the edge of each page with a.r.s.enic, and when the victim licked his finger to turn the pages...

t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e crushers are easily manufactured by...

Severed heads may be preserved for display by...

I slid down and pulled the covers over my head, and I did not emerge until I heard the door open and a familiar voice said, "What a stroke of luck! Your engagement is a G.o.dsend - incidentally, how did you like the winsome damsel who recently ruled China?"

I jumped up and embraced him. "Master Li," I sobbed, "if my fiancee resembles her grandmother in any way, I can never go through with this!" A happy thought suddenly occurred to me. "But if we're engaged, I won't see her until the wedding."