'Scholar' Yu and Yuanzhi understood why Xu had sent

them out together to look for Huo Qingtong. Yu was

greatly moved by Yuanzhi's obvious love for him, and

by the fact that she had saved his life several times.

But the more infatuated she became, the more he shrank

away from her, for what reasons, he didn't himself

understand. As they travelled, she laughed and

chattered with him, but he remained cool to her

advances.

One day towards noon, they spied a small donkey

hobbling towards them across the desert, its rider

nodding from side to side as he snoozed. As they got

closer, they saw it was a Muslim with a large saucepan

slung across his back and a donkey's tail in his right

hand. The donkey, they noticed, was tail-less and was

wearing an Imperial Guard officer's cap. The rider

looked about forty years of age and had a luxuriant

beard covering his face. When he saw them, he smiled

warmly.

Yu knew Huo Qingtong's name was known across the

length and breadth of the desert. "Excuse me," he

said. "Have you seen Mistress Huo Qingtong?"

The man laughed. "Why are you looking for her?" he

asked.

"There are several bad men after her and we want to

warn her. If you see her, could you give her the

message?"

"All right. What sort of bad men?"

"Two are big Chinese, and the third is a Mongol,"

Yuanzhi answered.

The man nodded. "Yes, they are bad. They wanted to eat

my donkey, but I stole this hat from them." Yu and

Yuanzhi glanced at each other.

"There was someone else with them?" Yu asked.

"The man wearing this cap. But who are you?"

"We are friends of Master Muzhuolun," Yu replied. We

must stop the men from finding Mistress Huo Qingtong.

Take us to where you met them and we will give you

some silver."

"I don't need any silver. But I'll have to ask the

donkey if he's willing to go first," the Muslim

replied. He leant over close to the donkey's ear and

mumbled into it for a while, then placed his own ear

near the donkey's mouth, and nodded repeatedly. Yu and

Yuanzhi grinned at his clowning.

The man listened intently for a moment and then

frowned. "This donkey has had a very high opinion of

himself ever since he got the official cap," he said.

"He's rather contemptuous of your horses and doesn't

want to travel with them for fear of losing face."

Yuanzhi looked at the skinny, lame animal, it's body

covered in dirt, and burst out laughing.

"You don't believe me?" the Muslim exclaimed. "Well

then, my donkey shall compete with your horse."

Yu and Yuanzhi were riding two of Muzhuolun's best

horses, as superior to the donkey as clouds are from

mud.

"All right," said Yuanzhi. "When we've won, you must

lead us to find the three bad men."

"It's four, not three. But what happens if you lose?"

"Whatever you say."

"If you lose, you have to wash the donkey clean so

that he can show off."

"All right," Yuanzhi agreed. "What sort of competition

will we have?"

"You can decide."

The Muslim seemed absolutely certain of victory and

Yuanzhi began to feel suspicious. "What's that in your

hand?" she asked.

"It's the donkey's tail," he replied, waving it about.

"After he started wearing the official cap, he thought

it didn't go well with his dirty tail, so he decided

he didn't want it."

"Let me have a look," she said.

He threw the tail across and she caught it, then

pointed with it at a small sand dune some distance

away. "We'll race from here to that sand dune," she

said. "The winner will be the first to get there, your

donkey or my horse." The man nodded. "You go over

there and be the judge," she added to Yu. He slapped

his horse and galloped off across to the dune.

"Go!" Yuanzhi shouted, and with a lash of her whip,

her horse leapt forward. After a few hundred feet, she

glanced back and saw the donkey, limping along far

behind. She laughed and spurred her horse on even

faster. Then all of a sudden a black shape shot past

her. She almost fell off her saddle in shock when she

saw the man had slung the donkey around his shoulders

and was running with long strides, already a good

distance ahead of her. She recovered and tried to

catch him up again, but he ran like the wind and

stayed ahead all the way to the finish. Just before

she reached the dune, Yuanzhi threw the donkey's tail

back the way they had come and shouted: "The horse is

first!"

The Muslim and Yu looked at each other in puzzlement.

"Mistress!" the Muslim protested. "We agreed that

whichever got here first, the donkey or the horse, was

the winner, isn't that right?"

Yuanzhi tidied her hair with her hand. "Yes," she

replied. "But only part of the donkey got here first."

The man pulled on his beard. "I don't understand. What

do you mean, only part of the donkey?"

Yuanzhi pointed to the tail she had thrown far behind

them. "My horse arrived complete, but only a part of

your donkey made it. His tail didn't."

The man laughed heartily. "Yes, you're right!" he

exclaimed. "You win. I'll take you to find those four

bad men." He went over and picked the tail up and

brought it back. "You stupid donkey!" he said to the

animal. "Don't think that just because you're wearing

an official's cap that you don't need your dirty

tail." He leapt onto its back.

Yu had been greatly impressed by the Muslim's immense

strength that allowed him to run faster than a horse

even with the donkey slung over his shoulders. He knew

he must be a martial arts master and bowed before him.

"If you just tell us which direction to go, we will go

and find them ourselves," he said respectfully. "We

don't wish to trouble you, sir."

"But I lost," the Muslim replied, smiling. "How can I

back out now?" He turned the donkey round and shouted:

"Follow me!"

They travelled on. Yu asked the man for his name, but

he simply smiled and answered with more crazy jokes.

The lame donkey walked very slowly, and after half a

day they had covered only ten miles. They saw riders

approaching from behind, and 'Mastermind' Xu and Zhou

Qi galloped up. Yu introduced them saying: "This

gentleman is taking us to find the Three Devils." Xu

dismounted and bowed.

The Muslim simply smiled in response. "Your wife

should be resting more," he said to Xu. "What's she

doing, racing about like this?"

Xu stared at him, not understanding. Zhou Qi, however,

blushed red, and galloped on ahead.

The Muslim was very familiar with the roads and paths

of the desert, and towards evening, he led them to a

small village. As they approached, they saw that a

Manchu military unit had also just descended on the

village. The Muslims were fleeing in all directions

dragging their children after them.

"Most of the Manchu forces have already been

exterminated, and the remnants have been surrounded,

so where did these come from?" Xu wondered aloud.

A group of about twenty Muslims dashed towards them

with a dozen soldiers on their heels, shouting and

brandishing their swords. When the Muslims caught

sight of the man on the donkey, they began to call out

his name ecstatically: "Afanti! Afanti! Save us!"

"Everyone flee!" Afanti shouted. He raised his whip

and galloped off into the desert with the Muslims and

Manchu troops following behind.

After a while, several of the Muslim women fell behind

and were captured by the soldiers. Zhou Qi could not

bear to leave them, and she drew her sword and whirled

her horse round. She charged the Manchu troops and

with a swish of her blade, cut off half the head of

one of them. The other soldiers surrounded her, and Xu

and the others galloped up to rescue her. Suddenly,

Zhou Qi felt a wave of nausea and as one of the

soldiers leapt forward to grab her, she vomited all

over his face. He frantically tried to wipe the mess

off, and Zhou Qi killed him with her sword. Her legs

and arms became rubbery and she swayed unsteadily. Xu

rushed over to support her.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

Yu and Yuanzhi had by now killed or chased away the

rest of the soldiers. Xu caught one of the fleeing

troops and interrogated him about where the column had

come from. The soldier threw himself down on the

ground and begged for mercy, gabbling incoherently.

Finally they extracted from him the fact that he was

attached to a relief force coming from the east. Xu

chose two strong young men from amongst the group of

Muslims and sent them off immediately to inform

Muzhuolun, so he would be prepared. He gave the

soldier a kick on the behind and shouted "Go to hell!"

The soldier scampered away.

Xu turned back to his wife. "Are you all right?" he

asked. "What's the matter?"

Zhou Qi blushed and turned her head away.

"The cow is going to calve," Afanti said.

"How do you know?" Xu asked, surprised.

"It's strange. The bull didn't know the cow was going

to calve, but the donkey did."

They all laughed, then countinued on their way. As

evening approached, they stopped and set up tents for

the night.

"How many months gone are you?" Xu quietly asked his

wife. "How is it that I didn't know?"

"How would my stupid bull know?" Zhou Qi replied,

smiling. After a moment she added: "If we have a boy,

then he will be surnamed Zhou. Father and mother will

die of happiness! Just so long as he's not as crafty

as you."

"You must be careful from now on," said Xu. "No more

sword-fighting." She nodded.

The next morning, Afanti said to Xu: "Your wife can

stay at my home while we go and look for those men.

It's another ten miles further on. I have a very

beautiful wife there ..."

"Really?" Yuanzhi interrupted. "I must meet her. Why

would she like a bearded fellow like you?"

"Aha, that's a secret," Afanti laughed.

They arrived in a village and Afanti led them to his

house. Raising his saucepan, he began to bang it

loudly, and a woman in her thirties came out to greet

him. Her features were indeed beautiful and her skin

white and delicate. They could tell she was overjoyed

to see Afanti, but from her mouth issued a stream of

curses: "Where the hell have you been, Whiskers? Do

you still remember who I am after all this time?"

"Enough of your noise," Afanti replied with a smile.

"Haven't I come back? Bring something out for me to

eat. Your Whiskers is starving to death."

"Aren't you satisfied just looking at my lovely face?"

The wife countered, also smiling.

"That's very true, your beautiful face is a great

delicacy, but if I had some bread or something to go

with it, it would be even better."

She reached over and gave his ear a sharp twist. "I

won't allow you to go out again," she said. She went

back inside, and re-appeared soon after with piles of

bread, water-melon, honey and lamb. Yuanzhi didn't

understand a word Afanti and his wife said to each

other, but she could see from their teasing that they

loved each other dearly, and felt desolate.
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