Zhou Qi was separated from the others in the midst ofthe battle. The Manchu troops surged around her, andshe galloped blindly off trying to escape them. In thedarkness, her horse suddenly tripped, and she tumbledto the ground, her head crashing heavily against thehard earth. She passed out, but luckily it was stilldark, and the soldiers did not find her.

　　She had been unconscious for she did not know how longwhen there was a sudden bright flash before her eyesand a great roar followed by a wave of coolness on herface. She opened her eyes and saw the sky was full ofblack clouds and torrential rain sweeping down.

　　She jumped up. Someone beside her sat up as well, andshe started in fright and frantically grabbed for hersword. Then she gasped in surprise: it was'Mastermind' Xu.

　　"Mistress Zhou, what are you doing here?" he calledout above the roar of the rain.

　　Zhou Qi had never liked Xu and had gone out of her wayto quarrel with him. But he was at least one of herown people, and she burst into tears.

　　"What about my father?" she asked, biting her lip.

　　Xu motioned her to lie down. "Soldiers," he whispered.

　　Zhou Qi threw herself to the ground, and they slowlycrawled behind a small mound of earth.

　　The sky was already light, and through the rain, theysaw several dozen Manchu soldiers hastily buryingcorpses, cursing as they worked. "You two, have a lookround for any more bodies," an officer shouted, andtwo soldiers went onto higher ground. Looking around,they spotted Zhou Qi and Xu and called out: "There'stwo more over there.""Wait for them to come over," Xu whispered.

　　The soldiers walked over carrying shovels, and as theybent over them, Zhou Qi and Xu simultaneously thrusttheir swords into the bellies of the two. They diedwithout a sound.

　　The officer waited for a while, but with no sign ofthe soldiers returning and the rain getting heavier,he rode over to investigate.

　　"Don't make a sound. I'll steal his horse," Xuwhispered. As the officer rode closer, he saw thebodies of the two soldiers, but before he could callout, Xu leapt up and slashed at him with his sword.

　　The officer raised his horse whip to stop the blow,but both his whip and head were sliced off.

　　"Mount up quickly!" Xu called, holding the horse'sreins. Zhou Qi leapt onto the horse and galloped offwith Xu running along behind.

　　The Manchu troops began to give chase. After only afew dozen paces, the pain in Xu's shoulder where hehad been hit by the Golden Needles became unbearableand he fell to the ground with a cry. Zhou Qi reinedthe horse round and galloped back. Leaning over, shepulled him across the saddle, then slapped the horse'shaunches and raced off again. The soldiers soondropped far behind.

　　When they had gone some distance, Zhou Qi stopped andhad a look at Xu. His eyes were tightly closed, hisface white and his breathing shallow. Greatlyfrightened, she sat him properly on the horse, thenwith her left arm around his waist to keep him fromfalling, galloped on, keeping to lonely, desertedtracks. After a while, she saw an inky-black sectionof forest ahead and rode in amongst the trees. Therain had stopped, and she dismounted and continued onfoot leading the horse with Xu on it behind her untilshe came to a clearing in the forest. Xu was stillunconscious, and Zhou Qi lifted him off the horse andlaid him on the grass. Then she sat down, letting thehorse wander off to graze. Here she was, a young girlnot yet twenty, alone in a strange forest. She beganto sob, her tears falling onto Xu's face.

　　Xu slowly recovered consciousness and thought it wasraining again. He opened his eye a little way and sawa beautiful face before him with two big eyes red fromcrying. His left shoulder began hurting again and hecried out in pain.

　　Zhou Qi was overjoyed to see he was still alive. "Howare you?" she asked.

　　"My shoulder is extremely painful. Please look at itfor me, Mistress Zhou," he replied. He forced himselfto sit up and used his right hand to cut a hole in theshoulder of his jacket with his knife.

　　"I was hit by three Golden Needles here," he said,examining the shoulder out of the corner of his eye."The needles were small, but they had penetrated deepinto the flesh.

　　"What shall we do?" Zhou Qi asked. "Shall we go to atown and find a doctor?""We can't do that," replied Xu. "After last night'sbattle, going to see a doctor would be like walkingstraight into a trap. What we really need is a magnetto draw the needles out, but we don't have one. Iwonder if I could ask you to cut away the flesh andpull them out?"During the night battle, Zhou Qi had killed quite anumber of the Manchu troops without losing hercomposure once. But now, faced with the prospect ofcutting away the flesh on Xu'sshoulder, she hesitated.

　　"I can't stand the pain," he pleaded. "Do it now...no,wait. Do you have a tinder box with you?"Zhou Qi felt around in her bag. "Yes. What do you wantit for?""Collect some dried grass and leaves and burn up someash. When you've pulled the needles out, you can coverthe wound with the ash and then bandage it."She did as he said and burnt up a large pile of ash.

　　"That's fine," said Xu with a laugh. "There's enoughthere to stop a hundred wounds bleeding.""I'm just a stupid girl," Zhou Qi replied crossly.

　　"Come and do it yourself."She pressed on his shoulder beside the needle holes.

　　As her fingers came into contact with male flesh, sheinvoluntarily pulled back and her whole face turnedbright red down to the roots of her hair.

　　Xu noticed her blush, but misinterpreted her reactionin spite of his nickname.

　　"Are you afraid?" he asked.

　　"What have I got to be afraid of?" she replied,suddenly angry. "It's you that's afraid! Turn yourhead away and don't look."Xu did as he was told. Zhou Qi pressed the skin aroundthe needle holes tightly, then slipped the tip of theknife into the flesh and slowly began to turn it.

　　Blood flowed out of the wound. Xu silently gritted histeeth, his whole face covered in beads of sweat thesize of soyabeans. She cut away the flesh until theend of a needle appeared, then grasping it tightlybetween the thumb and forefinger, pulled it out.

　　Xu forced himself to maintain his jocular front.

　　"It's a pity that needle doesn't have an eye to threadthrough, otherwise I'd give it to you to use inembroidery," he said.

　　"I can't do embroidery," Zhou Qi replied. "Last year,my mother told me to learn, but I kept snapping theneedle or breaking the thread. She scolded me, and Isaid: "Mother, I can't do it, you teach me." But shesaid 'I've no time.' Afterwards I discovered that shecan't do embroidery either."Xu laughed. As they had been talking, another needlehad been removed.

　　"I didn't really want to learn," Zhou Qi continuedwith a smile. "But when I found out that mother didn'tknow how, I pushed her to teach me. But I couldn'tcatch her out. She said: 'If you don't know how tosew, I don't know how you'll....'"She stopped in mid-sentence. Her mother had said: "Idon't know you'll ever find a husband.""Don't you know how you'll what?" asked Xu.

　　"I don't feel like telling you."As they talked, her hands never stopped, and the thirdneedle was finally out as well. She covered the woundwith ash, then bandaged it with strips of cloth. Shecouldn't help but admire him for the way he continuedto smile and chat to her despite the pain.

　　"He may be short, but he's a brave man," she thought.

　　By this time, her hands were covered in blood.

　　"You lie here and don't move," she said. "I'll go andfind some water to drink."She looked at the lie of the land, then ran out of thetrees. Several hundred paces away, she found a smallstream which was flowing swiftly after the heavy rain.

　　As she bent down to wash her hands, she caught sightof her reflection in the water, the dishevelled hair,her wet and crumpled clothes, and her face, covered inblood and dirt.

　　"Damn!" she thought. "How could I let him see melooking so awful?"She washed her face clean, combed her hair with herfingers. Then, scooping water from the stream, shedrank deeply. She knew Xu would certainly be thirstytoo, but had nothing in which to carry water. After amoment's thought, she took a piece of clothing fromthe knapsack on her back, dipped it in the stream sothat it was soaking wet than ran back.

　　Zhou Qi could see from his face that he was in greatpain, although he was trying to appear unconcerned,and feelings of tenderness stirred within her. Shetold him to open his mouth and squeezed water into itfrom the cloth.

　　"Is it very painful?" she asked softly.

　　Xu's whole life has been spent amidst mountains ofknives and forests of spears, or else in the shadyworld of plots and traps; no-one had ever spoken tohim with the warmth and softness he detected now inZhou Qi's voice. Deeply moved, he steadied himself. "Iam a little better now. Thank you.""We can't stay here," Xu said after he had drunk somewater. "Nor can we go to any town. All we can do is tofind a secluded farmhouse and say that we are brotherand sister...""You want me to call you brother?" asked Zhou Qi,astounded.

　　"If you feel that I'm too old, you could call meuncle," he suggested.

　　"Pah! Do you think you look like my uncle? I'll callyou my brother, but only when there are other peoplearound. When we're on our own, I won't.""All right, you don't have to," he replied with asmile. "We'll say that we met the army on the road andwere attacked by the soldiers who stole all ourpossessions."Having agreed on their story, Zhou Qi helped him tomount the horse. The two made their way out of thetrees, and chose a small track heading straighttowards the sun.

　　The northwest is a desolate place. Hungry and tired,they had to travel for more than two hours beforefinally spotting a mud hut.

　　Xu dismounted and knocked at the door. After a moment,an old woman came out. Seeing the strange clothes theywere wearing, she looked at them suspiciously. Xu gaveher some of the story they had concocted, and shesighed.

　　"These government troops, always making trouble," shesaid. "What is your name sir?""My name is Zhou," said Xu.

　　Zhou Qi glanced at him but said nothing. The old womaninvited them inside and brought out some wheat cakes.

　　They were black and rough, but hungry as they were,tasted delicious.

　　"Old woman," said Xu, "I am wounded and am not able totravel. We would like to spend the night here.""There's no problem about your staying here, but poorpeople's homes have little to eat in them, so don'tblame me on that account, sir.""We are eternally thankful that you are willing to putus up," Xu replied. "My sister's clothes are all wet.

　　If you have any old clothes, I would appreciate it ifyou would allow her to change into them.""My daughter-in-law left some clothes behind. If youdon't mind, mistress, you could try them on. They'llprobably fit."Zhou Qi went to change. When she came out, she saw Xuwas already asleep in the old woman's room.

　　Towards evening, Xu began babbling incoherently, ZhouQi felt his forehead and found it feverish. Shedecided his wounds must be festering. She knew such acondition was extremely dangerous, and turned to theold woman. "Is there a doctor near here?" she asked.

　　"Yes, there is, in Wenguang town about twenty li eastof here," the old woman replied. "The most capable oneis Doctor Cao, but he never comes out to countryplaces like this to see patients.""I'll go and fetch him," Zhou Qi said. "I'll leavemy...my brother here. Please keep an eye on him.""Don't you worry about that, miss," the old womanreplied. "But the doctor won't come."Zhou Qi stowed her sword beside the horse's saddle andgalloped off. Night had already fallen when sheentered Wenguang town.

　　She asked a passer-by where Doctor Cao lived, thengalloped straight on to his residence. She knocked onthe door for a long time before a man finally openedit.

　　"It's already dark. What are you banging on the doorlike that for?" the man demanded.

　　Zhou Qi was furious at his manner, but remembered thatshe was appealing for help. "I've come to ask DoctorCao to visit a patient," she said, controllingherself.

　　"He's not in," said the man. Without another word, heturned and began to close the door.

　　Panic-striken, Zhou Qi pulled him out of the doorwayand drew her sword. "Where's he gone to? Quickly!""He's gone to Little Rose's," the man replied in aquavering voice.

　　Zhou Qi brushed the blade over his face. "What isLittle Rose's?"The man was frantic with fright. "YourExcellency...Miss, Little Rose is a prostitute," hesaid.

　　"Prostitutes are bad people. What's he gone to herplace for?" Zhou Qi asked.

　　The man wanted to laugh at the sight of this girl whowas so ferocious and yet so ignorant of worldlymatters, but he did not dare. "She is a good friend ofour master," he said.

　　"Lead me there quickly."With the sword resting on his neck, he dared notdisobey and............