Zhou Qi was separated from the others in the midst of

the battle. The Manchu troops surged around her, and

she galloped blindly off trying to escape them. In the

darkness, her horse suddenly tripped, and she tumbled

to the ground, her head crashing heavily against the

hard earth. She passed out, but luckily it was still

dark, and the soldiers did not find her.

She had been unconscious for she did not know how long

when there was a sudden bright flash before her eyes

and a great roar followed by a wave of coolness on her

face. She opened her eyes and saw the sky was full of

black clouds and torrential rain sweeping down.

She jumped up. Someone beside her sat up as well, and

she started in fright and frantically grabbed for her

sword. Then she gasped in surprise: it was

'Mastermind' Xu.

"Mistress Zhou, what are you doing here?" he called

out above the roar of the rain.

Zhou Qi had never liked Xu and had gone out of her way

to quarrel with him. But he was at least one of her

own 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 slowly

crawled behind a small mound of earth.

The sky was already light, and through the rain, they

saw several dozen Manchu soldiers hastily burying

corpses, cursing as they worked. "You two, have a look

round for any more bodies," an officer shouted, and

two soldiers went onto higher ground. Looking around,

they spotted Zhou Qi and Xu and called out: "There's

two more over there."

"Wait for them to come over," Xu whispered.

The soldiers walked over carrying shovels, and as they

bent over them, Zhou Qi and Xu simultaneously thrust

their swords into the bellies of the two. They died

without a sound.

The officer waited for a while, but with no sign of

the soldiers returning and the rain getting heavier,

he rode over to investigate.

"Don't make a sound. I'll steal his horse," Xu

whispered. As the officer rode closer, he saw the

bodies of the two soldiers, but before he could call

out, 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's

reins. Zhou Qi leapt onto the horse and galloped off

with Xu running along behind.

The Manchu troops began to give chase. After only a

few dozen paces, the pain in Xu's shoulder where he

had been hit by the Golden Needles became unbearable

and he fell to the ground with a cry. Zhou Qi reined

the horse round and galloped back. Leaning over, she

pulled him across the saddle, then slapped the horse's

haunches and raced off again. The soldiers soon

dropped far behind.

When they had gone some distance, Zhou Qi stopped and

had a look at Xu. His eyes were tightly closed, his

face white and his breathing shallow. Greatly

frightened, she sat him properly on the horse, then

with her left arm around his waist to keep him from

falling, galloped on, keeping to lonely, deserted

tracks. After a while, she saw an inky-black section

of forest ahead and rode in amongst the trees. The

rain had stopped, and she dismounted and continued on

foot leading the horse with Xu on it behind her until

she came to a clearing in the forest. Xu was still

unconscious, and Zhou Qi lifted him off the horse and

laid him on the grass. Then she sat down, letting the

horse wander off to graze. Here she was, a young girl

not yet twenty, alone in a strange forest. She began

to sob, her tears falling onto Xu's face.

Xu slowly recovered consciousness and thought it was

raining again. He opened his eye a little way and saw

a beautiful face before him with two big eyes red from

crying. His left shoulder began hurting again and he

cried out in pain.

Zhou Qi was overjoyed to see he was still alive. "How

are you?" she asked.

"My shoulder is extremely painful. Please look at it

for me, Mistress Zhou," he replied. He forced himself

to sit up and used his right hand to cut a hole in the

shoulder 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 deep

into the flesh.

"What shall we do?" Zhou Qi asked. "Shall we go to a

town and find a doctor?"

"We can't do that," replied Xu. "After last night's

battle, going to see a doctor would be like walking

straight into a trap. What we really need is a magnet

to draw the needles out, but we don't have one. I

wonder if I could ask you to cut away the flesh and

pull them out?"

During the night battle, Zhou Qi had killed quite a

number of the Manchu troops without losing her

composure once. But now, faced with the prospect of

cutting away the flesh on Xu's

shoulder, 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 want

it for?"

"Collect some dried grass and leaves and burn up some

ash. When you've pulled the needles out, you can cover

the 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 enough

there 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, she

involuntarily pulled back and her whole face turned

bright red down to the roots of her hair.

Xu noticed her blush, but misinterpreted her reaction

in 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 your

head away and don't look."

Xu did as he was told. Zhou Qi pressed the skin around

the needle holes tightly, then slipped the tip of the

knife into the flesh and slowly began to turn it.

Blood flowed out of the wound. Xu silently gritted his

teeth, his whole face covered in beads of sweat the

size of soyabeans. She cut away the flesh until the

end of a needle appeared, then grasping it tightly

between 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 thread

through, otherwise I'd give it to you to use in

embroidery," he said.

"I can't do embroidery," Zhou Qi replied. "Last year,

my mother told me to learn, but I kept snapping the

needle or breaking the thread. She scolded me, and I

said: "Mother, I can't do it, you teach me." But she

said 'I've no time.' Afterwards I discovered that she

can't do embroidery either."

Xu laughed. As they had been talking, another needle

had been removed.

"I didn't really want to learn," Zhou Qi continued

with a smile. "But when I found out that mother didn't

know how, I pushed her to teach me. But I couldn't

catch her out. She said: 'If you don't know how to

sew, I don't know how you'll....'"

She stopped in mid-sentence. Her mother had said: "I

don'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 third

needle was finally out as well. She covered the wound

with ash, then bandaged it with strips of cloth. She

couldn't help but admire him for the way he continued

to 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 and

find some water to drink."

She looked at the lie of the land, then ran out of the

trees. Several hundred paces away, she found a small

stream which was flowing swiftly after the heavy rain.

As she bent down to wash her hands, she caught sight

of her reflection in the water, the dishevelled hair,

her wet and crumpled clothes, and her face, covered in

blood and dirt.

"Damn!" she thought. "How could I let him see me

looking so awful?"

She washed her face clean, combed her hair with her

fingers. Then, scooping water from the stream, she

drank deeply. She knew Xu would certainly be thirsty

too, but had nothing in which to carry water. After a

moment's thought, she took a piece of clothing from

the knapsack on her back, dipped it in the stream so

that it was soaking wet than ran back.

Zhou Qi could see from his face that he was in great

pain, although he was trying to appear unconcerned,

and feelings of tenderness stirred within her. She

told him to open his mouth and squeezed water into it

from the cloth.

"Is it very painful?" she asked softly.

Xu's whole life has been spent amidst mountains of

knives and forests of spears, or else in the shady

world of plots and traps; no-one had ever spoken to

him with the warmth and softness he detected now in

Zhou Qi's voice. Deeply moved, he steadied himself. "I

am a little better now. Thank you."

"We can't stay here," Xu said after he had drunk some

water. "Nor can we go to any town. All we can do is to

find a secluded farmhouse and say that we are brother

and sister..."

"You want me to call you brother?" asked Zhou Qi,

astounded.

"If you feel that I'm too old, you could call me

uncle," he suggested.

"Pah! Do you think you look like my uncle? I'll call

you my brother, but only when there are other people

around. When we're on our own, I won't."

"All right, you don't have to," he replied with a

smile. "We'll say that we met the army on the road and

were attacked by the soldiers who stole all our

possessions."

Having agreed on their story, Zhou Qi helped him to

mount the horse. The two made their way out of the

trees, and chose a small track heading straight

towards the sun.

The northwest is a desolate place. Hungry and tired,

they had to travel for more than two hours before

finally spotting a mud hut.

Xu dismounted and knocked at the door. After a moment,

an old woman came out. Seeing the strange clothes they

were wearing, she looked at them suspiciously. Xu gave

her some of the story they had concocted, and she

sighed.

"These government troops, always making trouble," she

said. "What is your name sir?"

"My name is Zhou," said Xu.

Zhou Qi glanced at him but said nothing. The old woman

invited 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 to

travel. We would like to spend the night here."

"There's no problem about your staying here, but poor

people's homes have little to eat in them, so don't

blame me on that account, sir."

"We are eternallythankful that you are willing to put

us up," Xu replied. "My sister's clothes are all wet.

If you have any old clothes, I would appreciate it if

you would allow her to change into them."

"My daughter-in-law left some clothes behind. If you

don't mind, mistress, you could try them on. They'll

probably fit."

Zhou Qi went to change. When she came out, she saw Xu

was already asleep in the old woman's room.

Towards evening, Xu began babbling incoherently, Zhou

Qi felt his forehead and found it feverish. She

decided his wounds must be festering. She knew such a

condition was extremely dangerous, and turned to the

old woman. "Is there a doctor near here?" she asked.

"Yes, there is, in Wenguang town about twenty li east

of here," the old woman replied. "The most capable one

is Doctor Cao, but he never comes out to country

places like this to see patients."

"I'll go and fetch him," Zhou Qi said. "I'll leave

my...my brother here. Please keep an eye on him."

"Don't you worry about that, miss," the old woman

replied. "But the doctor won't come."

Zhou Qi stowed her sword beside the horse's saddle and

galloped off. Night had already fallen when she

entered Wenguang town.

She asked a passer-by where Doctor Cao lived, then

galloped straight on to his residence. She knocked on

the door for a long time before a man finally opened

it.

"It's already dark. What are you banging on the door

like that for?" the man demanded.
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