While they ate lunch, two people walked into the

house, one a young boy and the other a labourer.

"Master Hu says that you should return the saucepan

that you borrowed from him," the boy said.

Afanti glanced at Zhou Qi and smiled. "You tell Master

Hu that the saucepan is pregnant and will soon give

birth to a baby saucepan, and cannot be moved at the

moment."

The boy looked puzzled, but he turned and left.

"What are you here for?" Afanti asked the labourer.

"Last year, I went to an inn in the village and ate a

chicken. Before I left I asked the innkeeper for the

bill, but he said: 'We'll settle it next time, there's

no rush.' I thought at the time that he was being nice

so I thanked him and left. Two months later, I went

back to pay, and he started counting his fingers and

mumbling away as if he was trying to calculate a very

complicated account. I said: 'How much was that

chicken? All you have to do is tell me!' The innkeeper

waved his hand and told me to be quiet."

"A chicken, even if it was the biggest fat chicken,

would not be more than a hundred copper pieces," said

Afanti's wife.

"That's what I thought too," said the labourer. "But

after he had been figuring for a long time, he said

twelve taels of silver!"

"Ai-ya!" exclaimed Afanti's wife. "How could a chicken

be so expensive? You could buy several hundred

chickens with twelve taels of silver."

"Yes, that's what I said. But the innkeeper said:

'There's no mistake. If you had not eaten my chicken,

how many eggs would that chicken have laid? And how

many of those eggs would have become little chicks?

And when those little chicks grew, how many eggs would

they have laid...?" The longer he calculated, the

higher the price became and finally he said: "Twelve

taels of silver is actually very cheap!" Naturally, I

refused to give him the money so he dragged me over to

see Master Hu for him to settle the dispute. Master Hu

listened to the innkeeper and told me to pay up. He

said that if I didn't settle the account quickly, the

eggs would become even more chickens and I wouldn't

have a hope. Afanti, tell me who is right."

Just then, the boy returned.

"Master Hu says how could a saucepan be pregnant? He

doesn't believe you and says you must return the

saucepan to him immediately."

Afanti went into the kitchen and brought out a small

saucepan which he gave to the boy. "This is clearly

the son of a saucepan," he said. "You give it to

Master Hu."

Uncertain whether to believe him or not, the boy took

the small saucepan and left.

Afanti turned to the labourer and said: "You tell

Master Hu you want to hold a meeting to settle the

matter."

"But if I lose, I'll have to give him twenty-four

taels of silver, won't I?"

"Don't worry," said Afanti, "You can't lose."

After an hour or so, the labourer returned and said:

"Uncle Afanti, Master Hu had already called the

meeting, and the deliberation has begun. Please come."

"I'm busy at the moment," Afanti replied. "Come back

in a little while." He sat laughing and chatting with

his wife and the others. The labourer was extremely

anxious and pleaded with him and finally Afanti got up

and accompanied him to the meeting.

Xu and the others went along too to see the fun, and

they found seven or eight hundred people gathered in

the centre of the village. A fat man wearing an

embroidered fur-lined gown sat in the middle, and they

decided he must be Master Hu. The crowd had become

very restless waiting for Afanti.

"Afanti," called Master Hu. "This labourer says you're

going to speak for him. Why are you so late?"

Afanti bowed before him. "I'm sorry, but I had some

important business to attend to," he said.

"How could it be more important than settling this

dispute?" Master Hu replied.

"It was much more important," said Afanti. "Tomorrow,

I am going to plant some wheat, but I had not yet

fried the seeds or eaten them. I fried them three

times and it took me a long time to finish them up."

"Nonsense!" roared Master Hu. "How can you plant seeds

that you have eaten?"

The crowd laughed heartily, but Afanti just stroked

his large beard and smiled. After a while, the hubbub

died down, and he said: "You say that wheat seeds that

have been eaten cannot be planted. Well, how can the

chicken that the labourer ate lay any eggs?"

The crowd thought for a second, and then cried out:

"Yes, that's right, how can a chicken that's been

eaten lay eggs?" Everyone began shouting and laughing

and lifted Afanti up onto their shoulders.

Seeing the crowd's reaction, Master Hu had no

alternative but to announce: "The labourer should pay

one hundred copper pieces to the innkeeper in return

for the chicken he ate."

The labourer happily handed over the string of copper

coins to the innkeeper. "I wouldn't dare to eat on of

your chickens again," he said.

The innkeeper took the money and walked silently away.

The crowd of Muslims laughed at him and some small

children threw stones at his back.

Master Hu walked up to Afanti. "The saucepan I lent to

you gave birth to a son. That's very good. When will

it be giving birth again?"

An expression of deep sadness appeared on Afanti's

face. "Master Hu," he said. "Your saucepan is dead."

"How can a saucepan die?" Master Hu replied angrily.

"If a saucepan can give birth to a son, of course it

can die."

"You charlatan," cried Master Hu. "You just don't want

to return my saucepan."

"All right," Afanti shouted back. "We'll let everyone

decide."

But Master Hu remembered how he had accepted the small

saucepan, and decided he had lost enough face. He

waved his hand to indicate he had had enough and

walked off through the crowd.

Afanti was extremely pleased with himself for having

managed to cheat Master Hu, himself a master at

cheating the poor, and he threw back his head and

roared with laughter. Suddenly, a voice behind him

said: "Well Whiskers, what ridiculousness are you up

to now?"

Afanti turned and saw it was the Strange Knight of the

Heavenly Pool, Master Yuan. He jumped up happily and

grabbed Yuan's arm.

"Aha! So you're here. Come and see my wife," he said.

"What's so special about your wife that you keep

showing her off like a monkey would a jewel ..."

Before Yuan could finish, Xu and Yu came forward and

kowtowed before him.

"Enough, enough, there's no need to kowtow. I'm not

your teacher," Yuan protested. "Where is your Master

Chen?"

"The Great Helmsman came on ahead of us..." Xu began.

Suddenly, he noticed the Twin Eagles of Tianshan, Bald

Vulture and Madame Guan, behind Yuan and bowed to

them. He was surprised to see Madame Guan was riding

Chen's white horse.

"Where did you find that horse?" he asked.

"We found him running free in the desert. It took the

three of us quite a while to catch him," she said.

Xu was shocked. "Could the Great Helmsman be in

danger? We had better go and find him," he said.

They finished lunch quickly and bade farewell to Zhou

Qi. Afanti's wife, was furious that he was leaving

again after only a few hours at home, and grabbed his

beard, wailing and screaming as she did so. Afanti

laughed and tried to comfort her.

"I`ve found a young lady to keep you company," he

said. "In fact, there's a baby inside her, which means

two people to keep you company, much better than me by

myself." But his wife wailed even louder.

Yuanzhi rode the white horse and let it lead the way

to back to Chen. Afanti again rode his donkey, but the

animal was much too slow. By nightfall, they had gone

only ten miles, and everyone was getting anxious.

"We will go on ahead," Xu finally said to Afanti. "We

are afraid that our Great Helmsman may be in trouble."

"All right, all rightm" Afanti replied. "When we get

to the next village, I'll buy a better donkey. This

stupid donkey thinks he's something special, but

really he's useless." He urged the animal on and

caught up with Yuanzhi.

"Mistress, why are you so unhappy all the time?" 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.
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