CHAPTER 32

The Robber Rat creeps into the nunnery; Prime Minister Qin reads the robber’s message

WHEN Cloud Dragon heard what Liu Chang said, he did not say anything in return. The three ate dinner that evening and went to Liu Chang’s house outside the Qiantang Gate. When the drum sounded the first watch of the night, Cloud Dragon lay awake until he saw that Wang and Liu Chang were sleeping. Then Cloud Dragon got up and opened a bundle. He took out his black close-fitting thief’s garments, changed, packed his other light-colored clothing into the bag, and using the cords inside the bag fastened it to his back. Then he slipped his broad-sword into its flat leather sheath and tied it to his waist. He left the house and fastened the door. Looking up, he saw a sky full of stars and a great bridge of moonlight. With one leap, he was on the wall and then out of the courtyard. There were no watchmen to be seen.

Arriving at the nunnery, he went up onto the roof. Looking about, he saw a great temple hall, three stories high. Just east of it was a corner gate and a courtyard. Continuing over the roofs he saw that the eastern courtyard had a one-story building of three sections to the north, and similar buildings to the east and west. On the south side there was a wall. In the courtyard there was a pine tree and a few bamboo. There was a flickering light in the north building and the sound of low voices chanting a sutra. He leaped down in front of the northern building.

Making a small hole in the paper window, he looked in and saw a brick platform bed along the opposite wall. On the bed was a small table with a candle. There were four nuns of fourteen or fifteen years old. One was holding a sutra and reading while the rest followed. At the east end of the room was a long table piled high with sutras. In front of it was a smaller square table with an armchair at each side. In one of them sat a nun, about sixty years old with a kind face, listening to the young nuns chant.

Hua Yun Long looked for a while. The young woman who had cut off her hair and brought it to the nunnery was nowhere in sight. He turned and crept to the eastern building. Outside the window there, he again made a hole in the paper and looked within. Again he saw a brick platform bed with a small table, upon which was a candle. There beside it sat the young woman he had seen that day sitting in the sedan chair. She was in the middle of reading a sutra by the light of the candle. When Cloud Dragon saw her, he pushed the door open and entered the room.

As she was reading, Shao Shi was frightened to see a man dressed all in black carrying a sword entering the room. Immediately she asked, “Who are you and why do you enter a quiet Buddhist place at night in this manner? Answer me!”

Cloud Dragon replied, “Young lady, today I saw you passing the City God Hill in your sedan chair. I saw that you were very beautiful. I followed you here. This is why I have come here tonight to find you. If you are willing, for a little while we will just exchange the wine cups of marriage.”

The young woman blushed as she said, “Leave this place at once or I will call out and summon our teacher, who will send you to the yamen. Then it will be too late to simply regret what you have done.”

Hearing her, Cloud Dragon Hua asked angrily, “Will you do what I wish, or not? If you will not, then look at this!” He drew his sword from its scabbard.

At the sight, the young woman who would die to defend her chastity called out, “Help! Murder! Save me!”

When he heard her, Cloud Dragon feared that someone would come. He stepped forward and grasped her shortened hair, raised his sword, and with one slash killed her. It was sad to see the young woman return to the red dust just as she was saying a prayer, but Cloud Dragon was happy. Now that he had killed her, he felt satisfied.

Outside the old nun was saying, “Who is there that comes among us to make trouble?” As she opened the door and entered, Cloud Dragon became anxious. He struck her once with a sword upon her head, and as she turned, again in her face. She said only, “Ah! Ah!” and fell to the ground. Cloud Dragon took advantage of that moment to leap into the courtyard and haul himself up onto the roof. He then returned to Liu Chang’s by his earlier route.

Liu Chang had just awakened. “Where have you been, Second Master Hua?” he asked.

Cloud Dragon did not try to hide the truth, but told all the details of his flower-plucking affair. As soon as he started to speak, Wang Tong awoke, and understanding what had happened, remarked, “Younger Brother has only just arrived and already he has performed this terrible act. I fear that you will not be able to remain here long.”

At this Cloud Dragon chuckled. “It’s nothing to worry about. It gives our local headmen something to do. I would like to hear what people are saying.”

After this Wang Tong and Liu Chang arose. The sky was growing light.

“Liu Chang,” Cloud Dragon said, “You go and do your buying and selling. Do not go sightseeing with us. You have your business to do.”

Liu Chang agreed, and Wang Tong went with Cloud Dragon toward the Qiantang Gate. The street was already crowded. They could hear snatches of talk about the murder at the Bird and Bamboo Nunnery. Wang Tong said, “Younger Brother, let us find a quiet and pleasant place to drink a little wine. Let us not do our sightseeing here.”

The two men quickly hastened through the Qiantang Gate into the city. Here also the streets were crowded. On the north side of Phoenix Hill Street there was a place called the Tai Shan Tower. It was a large restaurant selling wine and food. Deciding to eat and drink there, the two quickly went in. Seeing that the place was crowded, they went upstairs. At one table there was a man seated alone. His complexion was like bronze powder. He wore a blue head kerchief and a long blue robe. His eyes and other features had an evil and ugly look. There were four or five servants about. It did not seem like an ordinary place of business.

They sat down for some time, but no one came to wait on them. After a while, they heard the man with the bronze complexion, who seemed to be the manager, ask: “Just now as I was coming upstairs, what was that I heard you waiters talking about?”

One of them replied, “Don’t even mention it! Why don’t you eat your bowl of rice or look out the window at the crowd! Well! You must know that outside the Qiantang Gate there is a Bird and Bamboo Nunnery. Yesterday morning the chaste widow of a young son cut off her hair and took it there. Last night a dirty robber killed her! He also seriously wounded the old nun and in a little while she died. Don’t you think that strange?”

Then they heard the manager with the coppery complexion say, “That robber is truly hateful. It is too bad that a licentious outlaw should kill such a virtuous person. No doubt he was the sort of villain who had something foul done to him and he wanted to do the same thing to someone else.”

Cloud Dragon was so angry that his eyes were sending out sparks. Yet it did not seem to be a good time to speak out. But his anger was rising within him. He stamped loudly on the floor with one foot, saying loudly, “Have you no eyes? When two masters have been waiting for half the day, why do you not come to our table?”

One of the waiters looked over and retorted: “You needn’t shout. If you came here to find fault, ask around to find out who opened this business. Let me tell you. Since this business was opened, there has been more than one who was beaten up here. In fact, scores of people have been beaten up. And after they were beaten, we took one of our cards and sent it with each of them to the local yamen. I tell you this in a nice way. Do not criticize.”

When Hua Yun Long heard this, his eyes flashed as he said, “We two masters do not care who opened this place. If you turn your head away from me, I will burn your place down. Call the owner and I will have a talk with him. Even though he has three heads growing from his neck or six arms sprouting from his shoulders, I will turn up his eyes for good.”

Now the owner of this restaurant, Qin An, originally had been one of Prime Minister Qin’s managers. His nephew, Qin La, a very powerful and feared individual, operated it. The second floor of the restaurant was not intended to serve guests, but it was purposely used as a place in which disagreements would lead to fights. The prime minister’s manager would then handle the case and large sums of money would be extorted from the victims. A number of officials were involved in this profitable scheme.

Today, as Cloud Dragon spoke up, Qin La came from behind the counter and said, “What kind of a person is he that dares to come here to make trouble? Come, fellows, beat him up, and when you have finished, take my card and send him to the district court.”

At this Hua’s anger rose still higher and he drew his broadsword. Qin La, thrusting his head forward as he spoke, asked, “Do you dare to kill someone? What are you doing with that sword? You will be cut to pieces if you depend upon that for power!”

“Killing you would be no more than turning over a bedbug,” said Cloud Dragon. He raised his hand and brought down the heavy sword. Qin La’s head left his body.

One frightened waiter screamed, “My mother! My mother!” and ran down the stairs several steps at a time, while gurgling sounds came from the back of his throat.

Soon people were arriving at the local guardhouse and saying, “Two men came upstairs in our restaurant and killed the manager.”

The guards shouted, “Seize them,” but when they went upstairs there was no one there. Cloud Dragon and Wang Tong had escaped by jumping out of the window. They were now standing in the midst of the crowd watching the excitement.

The restaurant was full of men. Some were saying, “The outlaws have run away.” Others were saying, “Never mind—the outlaws will not get far. In our headquarters there are four headmen named Chai Yuanlo, She Jengying, Lei Siyuan, and Ma Anjye. These four are accustomed to catching famous outlaws. For this type of criminal, they only need three or four days to catch them.” Cloud Dragon, standing among the listeners, heard this. He understood and remembered.

He and Wang Tong sought out a quiet place and went into a private room in a wine shop. When they had sat down, Wang Tong remarked, “My dear younger brother, you have been unbelievably unruly. Yesterday you arrived here, last night you killed someone, and today you killed another.”

“Let me tell you, Elder Brother,” replied Cloud Dragon, “that since I am here, I want to do several things that will startle heaven and earth, but the restaurant manager was looking for someone to kill him. Just now I heard people saying that there were several unusually able detectives. I would like to make them feel very disturbed. Tonight I’m going to Prime Minister Qin’s estate to take a head from the neck of a person very much liked by the prime minister of this reign, Qin! I am going to reside in Linan City for six months. I intend to see what kind of a person will come to capture me.”

Wang Tong asked him, “Dear brother, are you really as brave as that?”

“Did you imagine I spoke without thinking?” responded Cloud Dragon.

“Then,” said Wang Tong, “Your brother will go with you. We have had many cups of wine together.”

Stirred even more by Wang Tong’s words, Cloud Dragon’s excitement was raised to a feverish state. After they had finished eating and drinking, the two went quietly to a place opposite the Qin residence. After surveying the road, they found a quiet wine shop where they remained talking intimately until evening. When it was dark enough to offer concealment, they then went to a deserted spot and changed into their close-fitting black thieves’ clothing and packed their clothing into the bags.

At Prime Minister Qin’s residence, they pulled themselves up onto the wall. They dashed over the roofs, leaping from one to the other as if they were simply running over level ground. When they reached the inner apartments of Prime Minister Qin’s estate, they searched about until they saw a light in the north building of a rear courtyard. They thought to themselves, “These are the inner apartments of the estate, and that most probably is the room of the prime minister.”

Looking inside, they saw two serving maids on night duty. They were about fourteen or fifteen years old. There was a candle burning on the table. The two men leaped onto the roof above. They then took out some incense containing a sleeping drug, lit it, and held it so that the smoke would go inside. In a little while the two maids had fallen into a drugged sleep.

Cloud Dragon then entered the central section of the building. He reasoned that this must be where the prime minister actually lived, and felt certain that this was the prime minister’s wife’s bedroom. There in front of him he saw a jade bracelet and nearby a pair of cleverly carved, delicate white-jade pendants. Hanging in midair, half a lifetime’s work, they had been part of the imperial tribute from a foreign country, but the prime minister had kept them for himself. Hua asked, “Wang, do you want these?”

“No,” said Wang Tong, “I do not want them—you take them.”

Turning his head, Cloud Dragon saw a lady’s hatbox. Inside there were precious pendants lying on top of a coronet tipped with pearls. He gathered all these things together and took them with him. Going into the outer room, he saw a writing brush on a table.

He picked it up and wrote two lines of verse on the wall. Then he joined Wang Tong outside and the two left as they had come.

Early in the morning Prime Minister Qin arose. When he came into the building, he saw that the two serving maids were sleeping and found they could not be awakened. Going into the next room, he saw that the contents of the hatbox and the pendants were missing. He immediately called out for people to help his wife’s serving maids. As soon as he noticed the wall, he realized from the words that had been written upon it that this was the work of a robber.