Now, Fourth Master Zhao Hu had drunk a few cups too many. While the others chatted, he could not get a word in, and sat to one side rocking to and fro, until before he knew it he was nodding off. Sleep follows drink, and drink is the demon of sleep: in the end he simply laid his head down and fell sound asleep, snoring like thunder — and it was his snoring that made the others notice the hour. “We’ve been so busy talking that it’s past the third watch already,” said Wang Chao, “and you must be tired, sir. Please, go and rest.” Only then did they all go to bed. But Fourth Master Zhao, his heart set on getting to Kaifeng, was as quick to wake as he had been to drop off. It was no more than halfway through the fourth watch when he rolled over, scrambled up and started bawling, “It’s light! Up, quick, we’ve a road to travel!” Then he shouted to the men to saddle the horses and load the baggage, and woke everyone with his racket. Gongsun Ce, as it happened, had something on his mind and had not yet fallen asleep, so he had no choice but to get up with the rest. The eldest brother, Wang Chao, left one of their men behind, freeing a horse for Gongsun Ce to ride, and told the man to take the medicine chest and the signboard: “When it gets light, carry them to Kaifeng on your back, and don’t fail.” His orders given, he had the inn boy open the gate, and they all mounted and wound their way off by the light of the moon. It was not yet the fifth watch. As they rode along, they passed a stretch of woods, and there before them stood a temple. Suddenly a figure flickered at the corner of the wall. When they looked more closely, it was a woman dressed in red. She reached the temple gate and slipped inside. They had all seen it plainly. “Strange!” they exclaimed. “A woman going into a temple in the dead of night,” said Zhang Long. “That can’t be anything good. It’s still early — why don’t we go into the temple and take a look?” “Bang on a temple gate in the middle of the night for no reason?” said Ma Han. “What would we say to the monks?” “No harm in that,” said Wang Chao. “We’ll just say we’ve been pushing on to make good time and we’re terribly thirsty, and ask for a cup of tea. What’s wrong with that?” “In that case,” said Gongsun Ce, “let’s have the men wait in the woods with the horses and the baggage, so that the monks don’t see our weapons and grow suspicious.” “Quite right, quite right,” they all said. So they dismounted and told the men to keep watch in the woods, and the men said they would. Then the five gentlemen strode off, straight for the temple gate.

When they reached the gate, they could see plainly by the moonlight the large characters on the board above it: Tiexian Temple1. “That woman slipped in,” said Gongsun Ce, “and I didn’t hear her bar the gate behind her. So how can it be shut?” Zhao Hu stepped up, swung his fist and pounded on the gate — thump, thump, thump — shouting, “Open up, Reverend!” Still shouting, he gave it three more for good measure and very nearly smashed the gate in. A voice called from inside: “Who is it? Who is it? What’s all this, in the middle of the night?” There was a clatter, the gate swung open, and there stood a Taoist. Gongsun Ce hurried forward and bowed. “Forgive us for disturbing you, Reverend. We are travellers pressing on to make good time, and our mouths are parched and our tongues dry. We should like to rest a little in your holy temple and beg a cup of tea, and of course we shall leave something for the incense. We hope you will be so kind.” “Let me go and tell the head of the temple,” said the Taoist, “and then I’ll come back and ask you in.” As he was speaking, out came a Taoist priest with heavy brows and big eyes, broad in the shoulder and thick in the waist, his face bunched with ugly flesh. “If you gentlemen want tea,” he said, “by all means come in.” At this Wang Chao and the others crowded in after him and came to the main hall, which was ablaze with lamps and candles. Host and guests made the usual polite fuss over seats and sat down. They could see that the Taoist was exceedingly fierce, and he reeked of wine besides: they knew already that he was a bad lot.

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu slipped quietly out to look for the woman. They went round to the back but found no trace of her. Then they came to a back courtyard where there was nothing but a great bell. As they went up to the bell, they heard someone groaning. “Here she is,” said Zhao Hu. “Brother,” said Zhang Long, “you lift the bell and I’ll pull her out.” Zhao Hu rolled up his sleeves, gripped the iron claw on top of the bell with one hand and heaved upward. “Hold it steady, brother, don’t let go!” said Zhang Long. “Let me get hold of the rim.” He thrust it up, and the person inside came into view. Zhao Hu let go and set the bell down again off to one side. When they looked closely, it was not a woman at all but an old man, trussed up in a heap, with cotton wadding stuffed in his mouth. They hurriedly pulled it out and untied him. The old man doubled up, retching, and only when he had steadied himself could he speak. “Oh, oh! The misery of it — I thought I was going to die!” “Who are you?” asked Zhang Long. “Why did they shut you under the bell?” “My name is Tian Zhong, sir,” said the old man, “and I come from Chenzhou. Pang Yu, the Marquis of Anle2, son of Grand Preceptor Pang, was sent there by imperial command to distribute relief3. But when Pang Yu got there, he gave out no relief at all. Instead he set about building himself a pleasure garden and seizing women from the common people. My master is Tian Qiyuan. When his mother fell ill, my mistress — her name is Jin Yuxian — made a vow at a temple. The old lady got better, and my mistress went to the temple to fulfil her vow, but Pang Yu caught sight of her and carried her off by force. Then he had my master handed over to the county and thrown into jail. When the old lady heard the news, the shock killed her outright. I buried my old mistress myself. A whole family ruined — I knew nothing would do but to go to the capital and lodge a complaint. So I pushed on to make good time and went past the last place to stop for the night, and after the fourth watch I came to this temple, only wanting a rest. But the Taoists saw how heavy my baggage was and meant to do away with me. They were just setting about it when they heard you gentlemen knocking at the gate, so they clapped me under the bell. I very nearly lost my life.”

While he was still speaking, they saw a Taoist over the way, poking his head out and ducking back. Fourth Master Zhao rushed at him and with one swinging kick sent him sprawling. Then he shook his fist in the man’s face: “One squeak out of you and you get this!” Faced with a fist the size of a bushel basket, the crooked Taoist was scared out of his wits, and Fourth Master Zhao pinned him down beside the bell.

Meanwhile the brutal Taoist out front — his name was Xiao Daozhi — had been busy in the hall seeing to the tea. When he found that Zhang and Zhao were missing, he sent the other Taoist to fetch them, and when the man did not come back either, he knew something was wrong. Quietly he slipped out of the hall and went to his own room, flung off his long gown, took up a gleaming long-handled broadsword and made straight for the back courtyard. The moment he came through the back gate, he saw that the old man had been freed and that Zhao Hu was holding his Taoist down. Fury flared in his heart. Raising his broadsword, he sprang at Zhang Long. Zhang Long, quick of hand and eye, lashed out sideways with a kick. The Taoist only just dodged it, then swung a slicing cut straight at Zhang Long’s face. Zhang Long had not so much as an inch of iron in his hands; he had nothing to rely on but his deft footwork and his nimble body. He ducked his head under the blade and, in the same movement, struck out with the flat of his hand. Afraid there might be a hidden weapon in it, the evil Taoist hurried to turn aside — and Zhang Long followed with a low sweeping kick at his legs. But the evil Taoist knew his business! With the move called Gold Thread Round the Wrist4 he slipped the kick and, turning his hand over, cut at him again backhanded. In the end, the man with a weapon has the stouter heart, and the man with nothing in his hands feels his courage fail. Zhang Long held out for a few exchanges, but he was plainly no match for him.

At this perilous moment Wang Chao and Ma Han, seeing Zhang Long hard pressed, came to his aid. Wang Chao rushed in close, feinted with one hand, and his left leg flew up in a kick straight at the Taoist’s ribs. As the evil Taoist dodged, Ma Han struck from behind and caught him in the back with his fist. The evil Taoist lunged backward, spun round and, with a flick of his arm, slashed out with his sword. Luckily Ma Han’s eyes were quick: he twisted aside and only just escaped. Then, with the move called Hanging Upside Down, the evil Taoist went for Wang Chao again. Bare-handed, the three of them could barely hold their own against him — that is, they could do no more than keep clear of his blade. Seeing the evil Taoist coming for him, Wang Chao took up the stance called Pushing the Moon, waited until the blade was almost on him, and drew back. The evil Taoist’s blow met empty air and he lurched aside, and from behind him Zhang Long kicked at his waist. Sensing someone at his back, the evil Taoist did not even turn his head: guided by the shadows the moon threw, he crouched and drove his foot back. Zhang Long’s foot had only just touched the ground when the evil Taoist’s heel caught him full on the shin. So strong and fierce was the blow that Zhang Long could not keep his feet, and down he went. Zhao Hu saw it from where he was. “Third Brother,” he called, “come and hold that Taoist!” Zhang Long scrambled up and held the Taoist. Then Zhao Hu jumped up and made straight for the east side gate, toward the front of the temple. Zhang Long supposed that Fourth Master must have gone to the woods to fetch their weapons.

Before long, there was Zhao Hu coming back in through the west side gate. “He can’t have fetched the weapons as fast as that,” thought Zhang Long. “He must have gone to relieve himself and come back.” He watched as Zhao Hu rushed straight at the evil Taoist, flung up his left hand (it was only a feint), and with his right let fly full in the man’s face, crying, “Evil Taoist, watch my magic treasure5 get you!” A thick white cloud burst over the evil Taoist’s face. At once he could not open his eyes; his nose and mouth choked up, and he could not even catch his breath. Then Ma Han kicked him in the belly with all his might. The evil Taoist could not stay on his feet. Down he went with a thud, and the sword flew from his hand. Zhao Hu stepped in, dropped on one knee to pin the man’s chest with his kneecap, held his shoulder down with his left hand, and shook out his right sleeve all over the evil Taoist’s face again. Zhao Hu, it turned out, had gone round to the front hall and filled his sleeve with ash from the incense burner. As the saying goes, “Not even a hard man can stand a grain of sand in his eye” — and this was a whole burnerful of incense ash. How could the evil Taoist bear it? The four of them set to together and tied up both Taoists, ready to send them to Xiangfu County. Since this had happened within the bounds of Xiangfu, the case would go from the county up to the prefecture and be judged under the law on robbery and murder. The four searched the place once more, but there was not another soul. Then they searched a side courtyard and found a bodhisattva6 hall of three bays, where the image was draped in a red robe. Only then did they all understand: the woman in red had been the bodhisattva, appearing to them in human form. By now Gongsun Ce had called the attendants in from the woods to take charge of the Taoists, and four of the men were sent to hand the evil Taoists over to the county. Xiangfu County at once reported the matter up to the prefecture. Taking Tian Zhong with them, they all left the temple together. By now it was broad daylight. They made straight for Kaifeng, where for the time being they left the four brothers at lodgings.

Gongsun Ce went in to see Lord Bao and told him everything: his inquiries had not yet turned up anything certain; Wang, Ma, Zhang and Zhao of Tulong Ridge had come to offer their services; and at Tiexian Temple they had rescued Tian Zhong and caught the evil Taoists, who had been handed over to Xiangfu County and would be sent up to the prefecture in a day or two. Then he rose to his feet again. “Your junior must go back and look further into the Widow Zhang’s case,” he said. He took his leave of Lord Bao there and then and went to the tea room. By now the medicine chest and the signboard had both arrived. Mr. Gongsun got himself up in his disguise and went out once again by the side gate.

Now, when Gongsun Ce had gone, Lord Bao quietly had Bao Xing bring Tian Zhong to the study and asked him all about the wrong he had come to set right for his master. Then he had his attendants take Tian Zhong to stay in the tea room. He was not to show his face, for fear that word would leak out and reach the Pang mansion. Lord Bao also told Bao Xing to put the four brave men up in the guardroom for the time being, until there was work for them.

He was in the middle of this chant when, as luck would have it, an old woman over the way called out, “Doctor! Over here, over here!” At this Gongsun Ce went up to her and asked, “Were you calling me, ma’am?” “I certainly was,” said the old woman. “My daughter-in-law’s been poorly, and I’d like you to see to her, Doctor.” “In that case,” said Gongsun Ce, “lead the way, ma’am.”

The old woman led him in through a wicker gate, lifted a door curtain made of artemisia stalks and showed the doctor in. He saw that it was a thatched cottage of three rooms: a central room with an inner room on either side. The old woman lifted the plain cloth curtain of the west room and asked him to sit on the earthen kang. Gongsun Ce set down his medicine chest and propped up his signboard, and he had only just sat down when the old woman brought over a backless, three-legged chair and sat on it down on the floor to keep him company. “My name is You,” she said. “My husband died long ago. I’ve a son called Gou’er8, ‘Little Dog’, who works as a hired hand for a rich man named Chen Yingjie. It’s my son’s wife who’s ill. It’s been half a month now. She’s got no spirit, she won’t eat, and she runs a bit of a fever in the afternoons. Please, Doctor, feel her pulse and give her something to take.” “Which room is your daughter-in-law in?” asked Gongsun Ce. “In the east room,” said the old woman. “Let me go and tell her.” With that she got up and went into the east room, and he heard her say, “Daughter, I’ve brought a doctor for you. Let him have a look at you, and you’ll be well in no time, I promise you.” Then he heard the young woman say, “Mother, I’d sooner not see him. For one thing, there’s nothing much wrong with me, and for another, there’s no money in the house. Why throw good money away?” “Oh, my dear girl!” said the old woman. “Didn’t you hear what the doctor was calling out? ‘From the poor, no profit.’ And besides, ‘Nurse a sickness and you nurse a tiger.’ There’s a good child, let the doctor have a look at you. The sooner you’re well, the sooner your old mother can stop worrying. You’re the one I lean on — that son of mine, I’ve given up counting on him!” At this the young woman said, “Mother, ask the doctor to come in and see me, then.” “That’s my girl — she always does as she’s told,” said the old woman. “What a good, dutiful daughter-in-law!” Still talking, she came back to the west room and asked Gongsun Ce in. He followed her to the east room and took the young woman’s pulse.

Now, a physician has four methods9: ‘looking’, ‘listening’, ‘asking’ and ‘feeling the pulse’. It is also said, ‘Medicine is change10, and change is shifting.’ Hence the method of shifting the heavy onto the light. Suppose a doctor examines an old man and finds his pulse very bad. He must offer comfort: “It’s nothing serious. I’ll write you a prescription — take it or not, just as you like.” Then, when he comes out, he tells the family, “The old gentleman’s pulse is very bad indeed. You had better make ready for the funeral at once.” “Doctor,” the family asks, “why didn’t you say so just now?” And the doctor says, “If I hadn’t put it gently, an old man who heard how bad things were might have the phlegm surge up — and wouldn’t that finish him off on the spot?” That is the method of shifting the heavy onto the light. But enough idle talk.

So Gongsun Ce examined the young woman. Though he had come on a secret inquiry, he was a man of real learning, and there was nothing in the art of medicine that he did not know. By the time he had finished feeling her pulse, he knew the source of the trouble. He got up, went back to the west room and sat down. “I find,” he said, “that your daughter-in-law has a double pulse11.” “Oh my!” said Mrs. You. “So she has! It must be four or five months now since she last saw her—” “As I see it,” Gongsun Ce went on, “the trouble comes from anger and vexation. She has been brooding and can find no relief, and the anger has wrapped itself round the child in her womb. If it isn’t treated soon, I fear it will turn into consumption. I must know exactly where the trouble started before I can prescribe.” The old woman was astonished. “Doctor, you really are an immortal! It was anger that brought it on, right enough! Let me tell you all about it. My son works as a hired hand at Rich Man Chen’s, and the rich man has always been good about helping us out with a bit of money. Then one day my son came home out of the blue with two silver ingots—” At this the young woman’s voice came from the east room: “There’s no need to tell him that.” “To prescribe, I have to know,” Gongsun Ce said quickly. “Only if I hear it exactly will my medicine do any good.” “Child,” said the old woman, “you just get better. What’s there to be afraid of?” And she went on: “When I saw the ingots, I couldn’t help being suspicious, so I asked where they came from. My son said it was because things weren’t quite proper between the rich man and Zhang Youdao’s wife, over in Qili Village. One day Rich Man Chen went to the Zhangs’ house, and as luck would have it, her husband caught him there. So the rich man wanted to do away with the husband, and he gave my son the two ingots.” At this the young woman in the east room spoke again: “Mother, don’t say any more. How can you talk about such things?” “My child,” said the old woman, “the doctor’s no stranger. Once he knows, he can treat you properly.” “Just so, just so,” said Gongsun Ce. “If I am not told, the medicine is sure to fail.” The old woman went on: “He gave my son the two ingots to go and find something or other for him. My daughter-in-law tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t hear of it — in the end she went down on her knees and pleaded with him. And would you believe it, that good-for-nothing son of mine not only wouldn’t listen, he gave her several kicks besides, stuffed the ingots in his coat and stormed off, and he hasn’t been back since. Then, sure enough, we heard that Zhang Youdao was dead. And we heard that on the night of the third-day rites12 there were three great bangs one after another from inside the coffin, as if the corpse were coming back to life, and even the monks ran away in a fright. That made my daughter-in-law more miserable than ever. And that’s how she came to be ill.”

To learn what happened next, read the next chapter.