Hamish Morty was from Penang. Last year, he met a man there who wanted to open a sword fighting school.
Traditional sword fighting schools have a strict code of conduct. They only accept students who are respectable and sincere. However, this man was willing to take in all sorts of shady characters. Thugs, pirates, bandits, cheats, and so on. As long as they were willing to pay the high fees that he was charging.
This man had already been buying up crates of used swords for his school. But he needed something else before he could launch his business. He needed a proper sword fighting manual. Or else the students would quickly realise he was an imposter.
The man was William Fong. He had joined Harmston’s Circus as an assistant, and was using this as a cover to move freely around the region and smuggle swords into Singapore for his sword fighting school.
Clang, clang, clang.
That was why I found the sound so familiar. I had heard it at William Fong’s house when I was investigating the Case of the Immortal Nightingale.
After Old Master Foo kicked up a fuss about Pa recommending Miss Priya instead of Robert Foo, William Fong somehow heard about it.
He knew that The Sword of Lady Yue would be a great asset to his business. So he acted quickly. He hired Morty as the vice principal of his sword fighting school. He also promised to make Morty very rich. Morty was overjoyed.
But first, Morty had to move to Singapore and work at the Adelphi Hotel as the watchman so that he could spy on Miss Priya and help steal the book from her.
Morty kept a close watch on her room, but he couldn’t find an opportunity to enter and search it.
William Fong got impatient.
The morning the circus came in, he expected that many of the hotel guests would be at the pier. So he sent Morty a small block of explosives. Morty was supposed to blow up the lock on the door so he could get inside and steal The Sword of Lady Yue.
Morty messed up. He didn’t know how to attach the explosives properly. So there was an explosion. But the lock remained in place.
Morty panicked and his mask slipped off his face.
When Miss Priya heard the explosion just outside her door, she guessed that someone was after the book. She peeped out of her keyhole at that very moment, and she recognised Morty.
Morty then ran out of the hotel. He was the man in black that John Chung saw.
Meanwhile, Miss Priya decided to disappear with the book, until it was safe to come out again.
When Ma first entered Miss Priya’s hotel room, she was completely focussed on looking for the book. It didn’t occur to her that Miss Priya might still be somewhere in the room.
But as I read about how the Nameless Lady of the Southern Forest taught herself sword fighting, I was inspired to think creatively and find new ways to make sense of the clues.
So I put myself in Miss Priya’s shoes.
Instead of coming out after the explosion, what if she had decided to hide somewhere in the room with the book, until she was absolutely sure that it was safe to show herself again?
My guess was correct.
None of us noticed this at first, but one of the walls in Miss Priya’s room was built at a slight angle. Because of this, at the far end of the room, there was a gap between the back of the cupboard and the wall.
There was just enough space for Miss Priya to climb up the cupboard, squeeze her way through the gap between the top of the cupboard and the ceiling, and then drop into the small space at the back.
Miss Priya had been standing there quietly for about a day, listening to our conversations. She knew that Constable Flint and his men were watching the hotel, and so, for the time being at least, the book was safe.
Mr James did know about the space behind the cupboard, but he didn’t imagine that anyone could have found a way over the cupboard like that, or squeezed themselves into that gap.
How was Miss Priya able to pull off such a feat?
She had learnt from her father how to be agile and flexible, and after many years of practising yoga, she was able to control her body in all sorts of unbelievable ways.
Through meditation, she slowed down her heartbeat, so that she felt calm and relaxed, even in that stressful situation.
And because she had always practised fasting, she could go without food and water for an extended period of time.
After being inspired by Lady Yue’s story the night before, I decided to decode the taps and scrapes myself, using the copy of the Morse code that Jayathri had made for me.
I discovered that there were actually just eight letters in the message.
In a way, Jayathri wasn’t wrong. If you said it out loud, the message could indeed sound like “nam ho chi tao.”
But this is how it is spelt:
namhctaw
And if you tried reading it backwards:
watchman
The first time Miss Priya heard me enter the room with Ma and Constable Flint, she tried to communicate with me secretly using Morse code. Hence the taps and scrapes.
She didn’t reveal herself then because she thought the watchman might still be spying on the room, ready to snatch the book. So Miss Priya was counting on my help.
She flipped the letters around so that even if anyone else knew Morse code, the message wouldn’t make sense to them.
She actually thought I would be able to decode it, conduct my investigations discretely, inform Constable Flint, and come back for her, all within an hour or two.
But it took me a lot longer. In the meantime, Miss Priya decided not to come out until she knew for sure that the coast was clear.
She just wasn’t expecting my ghostly performance.
From what I had heard about the watchman, I could have guessed that he was an extremely superstitious person.
After Morty’s confession, he led us to his sleeping quarters. We found two crates there, packed with different types of swords.
This was why more and more thugs had been gathering around the hotel. They were there to sign up for William Fong’s sword fighting school. Morty was also selling them William Fong’s used swords, so they could start practising.
Constable Flint and his men went to the circus to look for William Fong. Only to discover that he had pulled off another disappearing act.
As such, Mr James is offering a big reward for any information that would aid William Fong’s arrest.
Old Master Foo was actually full of praise for Miss Priya. He even wanted Miss Priya to accept Robert Foo as her research assistant.
Miss Priya and Robert arranged to talk about it over dinner at the Celestial Reasoning Association’s villa.
Miss Priya invited me to go along and take notes on their behalf. I was excited. I wore my best shirt and I got there early.
But they didn’t talk about The Sword of Lady Yue at all.
Instead, they discussed their favourite books, the places around the world that they wished to visit, and whether Miss Priya would like to stay in the guest house at Foo Mansion while she worked on the translation.
I was bored to tears. I finished my food as quickly as I could. Then I excused myself, so that I could come home and write this report.
Tomorrow, Aisha, Pui and I will be visiting the circus. You might remember that I was keen to see the hypnotist, while Aisha wanted to see the performing animals.
Thanks to Miss Priya, we’re now excited to watch the contortionist as well.
One final thing.
I see that The Sword of Lady Yue is not just a book about fighting. It’s about overcoming your challenges, no matter how great they might be, by doing whatever you can, with whatever you have, wherever you are.
Just as Miss Priya did in that locked room.
I wish you great happiness. And always
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