Returning to the Imperial kitchens from his duties with Kang Xi in the Upper Library, Trinket did not have long to wait for Butcher Qian's arrival.
This time the butcher had four assistants with him, carrying between them the neatly butchered, immaculately clean carcasses of two large, fat pigs, each, at a rough estimate, representing not less than three hundred catties of pork.
'Laurie Goong-goong, ' he told Trinket, 'to get the most value out of this China-root pork, you want to eat some each day, as soon as you get up in the morning.
It's best if you cut only as much as you need at one time and roast it straight away.
I'll have one of these pigs carried to your quarters now.
You'll be able to cut some off yourself and roast it first thing tomorrow.
What you can't eat yourself you can get the folk in the kitchen here to make salt pork of.'
Realizing that there must be some hidden purpose behind all this, Trinket thanked him for the advice and offered to show him the way, whereupon Butcher Qian, leaving one of the carcasses and its two bearers in the kitchen, accompanied him to his room, followed by the other two assistants carrying the second pig.
The Manager's quarters in the Imperial Catering Department were not very far from the Imperial kitchens.
As soon as they were inside, Trinket ordered a young eunuch to take the two assistants back to the kitchens, with instructions that they were to wait for their master there with the other two, and closed the door after them.
'Master,' said Butcher Qian, speaking in a low voice, 'is there anyone else in this apartment?'
Seeing Trinket shake his head, he crouched down over the pig's carcass and gently turned it on its back again so that its legs were pointing upwards.
It was now possible to see that the slit-open underbelly of the animal had been drawn together and was being held in place by strips of pig-skin sewn across the slit.
It was obvious that something very out of the ordinary must be concealed inside.
Trinket could feel his heart thumping as he reflected that this might well be weapons which the Triads were smuggling in to be used in a killing spree inside the Palace.
He watched as Butcher Qian tore off the strips, opened out the carcass, and very gently lifted a large object out in his cradled arms.
'Coo!' he gasped.
It was a human body.
Butcher Qian laid the body on the floor.
It was small and slight with an abundance of hair.
To his astonishment Trinket found himself looking down at a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl.
She was dressed in the flimsiest of summer garments, her eyes were tightly closed, and her body was completely motionless except for the gentle rise and fall of her breathing.
'Who is this girl?' he asked softly.
'Why have you brought her here?'
'She's the Little Countess,' said Butcher Qian.
The Mu Family's Little Countess.'
Trinket's eyes grew round with astonishment.
'The Mu Family's Little Countess?'
'Young Lord Mu's little sister,' said Butcher Qian.
The Mus have kidnapped our Brother Xu, so we've grabbed her as a hostage, just to make sure they don't do Brother Xu any harm.'
'Brilliant!' said Trinket, his surprise now mixed with pleasure.
'But how did you get hold of her?'
'Yesterday, after we found that Brother Xu had disappeared,' said Butcher Qian, 'while you and the others went back to Willow Lane, I went off on my own to make a few enquiries.
First of all I wanted to find out whether the Mu Family had any other places in the city besides the Willow Lane one where they might be holding him; and secondly I wanted to know how many more of them there are, so that we have some idea what we are up against if it comes to a fight-out.
Well—huh!—I can tell you the answer to the second question straight away.
A lot.
The young Lord Mu himself has come to the Capital and he's brought some of their best fighting-men with him.'
Trinket frowned.
'Tamardy!
How many Triads have we got altogether in the Green Wood Lodge?
Enough to fight them ten to one?'
'No need for you to worry, Master,' said Butcher Qian.
The reason the Mu Family is here now is not because they want to fight us Triads.
It's because the traitor Wu Sangui's son, Wu Yingxiong, is in town.'
Trinket nodded.
'They've come to assassinate the Little Traitor, you mean?'
'Right first time, Master, ' said the butcher.
'I always said you were a smart one.
As long as the Old Traitor and the Little Traitor are in Yunnan, they can't touch them; but as soon as-one of them leaves Yunnan, it gives them an opportunity.
The only thing is, the Little Traitor is taking no chances with his security: he's brought a whole lot of first-rate fighting-men to protect him, so they won't find it an easy job to kill him.
I found out that those Mu folk do have another place in the city, but when I went to have a look there, the menfolk all seemed to have gone out, and there wasn't any sign of Brother Xu there either.
The only people I found there were this girl and a couple of maids looking after her.
It seemed too good a chance to miss, so—'
'So you went to catch a sheep, but while you were about it you thought you might as well take a pig,' said Trinket, slightly reconstructing the proverb.
Butcher Qian laughed.
'That's about it.
Although she's only a young girl, she means all the world to the Mu folk.
As long as their Little Countess is in our hands, Brother Xu will be safe as houses.
There's absolutely no fear of their not looking after him properly.'
'Brother Qian,' said Trinket admiringly, 'this is a major achievement.'
'Oh, I don't know about that,' said Butcher Qian coyly.
'Anyway, thank you, Master.'
'So now we've got this Little Countes,' said Trinket, 'what are we going to do with her?'
While they were talking, he had been stealing glances at the recumbent figure on the floor.
She was very beautiful—though he phrased it to himself mentally in the debased language of the brothel.
'It's a tricky business, this,' said Butcher Qian.
'I was thinking it was one for the Master himself to decide.'
'What do you think we ought to do?'
Trinket asked presently, as if he had been mulling the matter over in his mind.
He hadn't been with the Triads very long, but long enough by now to know the drill.
It was all 'Master this' and 'Master that' and respectfully waiting to be told by the Master what they should do; but invariably they had already decided what they wanted to do and only wanted the Master's approval for doing it, so that if there was any question about it later, the Master would have sole responsibility for what they had done.
And so his invariable response to the invariable question was to turn it back on them: 'What do you think we ought to do?'
'Well, for the present,' said Butcher Qian, 'we've got to hide her somewhere safe and somewhere where the Mu people can't find her.
There are a lot of them around in the Capital right now, and though it's to assassinate the Little Traitor that they're here, now that we've killed one of their people and they've kidnapped Brother Xu, you can be sure they're keeping a close watch on anywhere in the city where there are Triads.
From now on we shan't be able to take a piss or a shit without their knowing about it.'
Trinket laughed.
Here at last was someone who spoke his language.
'Sit down, Brother Qian,' he said.
'Let's take our time over this.'
'Thank you, Master,' said Butcher Qian, seating himself in one of the chairs and continuing.
'There were really two reasons why I hid the Little Countessinside this pig's carcass.
One was to get her past the Palace Guard: they always search everyone at the gate.
But it was also to get her past any of the Mu Family spies who might be out watching for us.
There are some really dangerous people among that Mu lot, you can't afford to take any chances.
If she's hidden anywhere other than in the Palace, there's no guaranteeing they wouldn't try to get her back.'
'So you're proposing to hide her in the Palace?' said Trinket.
'Well, that's not really for me to say,' said the butcher.
'It's entirely up to you, Master.
Mind you, look anywhere you like, you'll never find a safer place than this.
However many of their ace fighters the Mu Family may have got in the city, they're not going to take on the Palace Guard.
Not that they'd ever guess she was in the Palace, anyway.
But even suppose—it's very unlikely, but just suppose—they did find out she was here, they'd never try getting in here to rescue her.
If they could get in to do that, they could just as well get in to carry off the Tartar Emperor, and they've never tried to do that yet because they know it's out of the question.
Of course, it was rather a nerve, taking it on myself to bring the Little Countess in here without consulting you.
It means a lot of danger for you, Master.
And trouble.
I deserve to be hung.'
'You say yourself that you deserve to be hung,' thought Trinket, 'but you know damn well that you won't be.
Still, it does seem the best plan to hide her in here.
As he says, it's the one place they will never think of looking; and they'd never be able to get her out of here, even if they did.
Well, Mister Butcher Qian, if you had the nerve to kidnap her and smuggle her into the Palace, I suppose I ought to have the nerve to keep her here.'
He gave the man a smile.
'It's a very good idea,' he said.
'We'll hide her here then.'
'If you think it's all right, I'm sure it will be,' said Butcher Qian.
'There's this to be said too, for hiding her here.
When this business is over and the Little Countess is back with her own people again, it won't be any disgrace to her if they know that she's been kept all the time in the Palace; whereas if I were to keep her in the basement of my slaughterhouse—well, what with the stink of blood and offal round her all the time, it wouldn't be very nice for a person of her quality.'
'Unless you fed her on China-root and gave her Shaoxing wine to drink,' said Trinket mischievously.
Butcher Qian laughed at the interruption before continuing: 'Besides, although the Little Countess is only a girl, being a member of the fair sex it wouldn't do much for her good name if she was kept with a lot of rough men; whereas being kept with you, Master, it won't matter.'
'Why's that?' said Trinket in some surprise.
'Well,' said Butcher Qian, 'you're young too, and besides . . . besides . . . you work in the Palace, so of course ...
I mean . . . it's all right.'
The butcher was clearly embarrassed, and Trinket had to think for some moments before he saw why.
'Oh, I see.
You mean because I'm a eunuch.
If I'm the one guarding her, it won't do any harm to her reputation.
But I'm only a pretend eunuch, you know.'
It was because he wasn't a real eunuch that he hadn't grasped sooner what the embarrassed butcher was getting at.
'Is your bedroom in there, Master?' asked the butcher.
Trinket nodded.
Butcher Qian took up the Little Countess in his arms, carried her into the bedroom, and laid her down on the bed.
There was just the one large bed there.
Previously there had been a smaller one as well in which Trinket used to sleep, but after the death of Old Hai, he had had it moved out.
He had too many secrets to want a young eunuch attendant living with him in his apartment.
'Before I brought her in, I closed the Holy Hall and Yang Cord points on her back and the Pillar of Heaven one on her neck so that she couldn't move or speak,' said the butcher.
'If you want her to eat anything, you'll have to open them up again; but before you do that, I'd advise you to first close the Ring Jump points on her legs so that she can't run away.
The Mu people are all very skilled in the Martial Arts, and though a young girl like this isn't likely to know much about that sort of thing, it isn't worth taking any chances.'
Trinket wanted to ask him where the Holy Hall and Ring Jump vital points were and how you closed and opened them; but then he remembered that, as Master of the Green Wood Lodge and a disciple of the great Helmsman, he was probably expected to know about these things and felt sure his subordinates would despise him if they found out that he was totally ignorant of these matters; so he just nodded and said that he would.
'Anyway, ' he thought, 'I shouldn't have any difficulty in handling her.
She's only a girl.'
'Could you lend me a knife, Master?' said Butcher Qian.
Trinket wondered nervously what he wanted it for, but stooped down nevertheless and extracted the dagger from inside his boot.
Butcher Qian took it from him and made an incision in the back of the pig's carcass.
Unaware of the blade's incomparable sharpness, he was somewhat surprised at the ease with which it sank in, at once burying itself up to the hilt and slicing through fat and flesh as if it were bean curd.
'This is a good weapon you've got here, ' he said admiringly.
In no time at all he had cut off the two forelegs and two large collops from the back.
''You can keep these to roast and eat yourself, Master, ' he said.
The rest you can give to the little Goong-goongs to carry back to the kitchens.
I'll take my leave now.
If there's any business in the Society to report, I'll let you know straight away, '
'Right, ' said Trinket.
He glanced towards the Little Countess lying on the bed: 'This girl—she's sleeping very soundly.'
He'd wanted to say, 'This girl better not stay here long.
It's terribly dangerous having her here.
If anyone were to find out, I'd really be in the shit, '
But then he reflected that all members of the Triad Society were heroes who laughed at danger and would despise him if they heard him uttering such craven words.
As soon as Butcher Qian had gone back to the kitchens, Trinket barred the door and checked the window to make sure there were no chinks or slits in the paper through which anyone could peep into the room, then, sitting on the edge of the bed, he inspected the Little Countess.
She was staring fixedly at the top of the bedstead, and when she saw Trinket approach, she closed her eyes fast.
He laughed.
'You can't talk and you can't move!
All you can do is just lie there like a good little girl!'
Her dress was still clean, and Trinket reflected that Butcher Qian must have done a good job of cleaning out the inside of the carcass.
He threw a coverlet over her.
From the snowy pallor of her cheeks, drained of all their colour, and the fluttering of her long eyelashes, he could tell that she was very frightened.
'Don't be afraid, ' he said.
'I'm not going to kill you.
Just wait a few days and I'll be setting you free again.'
The Little Countess opened her eyes wide, looked at him for a moment, and then quickly closed them again.
Trinket thought of the great awe in which the Mu Family were held by all the Brotherhood of River and Lake; of their stuck-up henchman the elder Bo—now dead, fortunately, struck down by one of his Triads—and his younger brother who had raged at him and nearly broken his wrist.
(The bruise was still there, he saw on inspecting it, and only slightly fainter.)
'And now their Little Countess is in my hands,' he thought.
'I can beat her and curse her as much as I want to, and she won't be able to move a muscle.'
The thought was so gratifying that it made him laugh out loud, causing the Little Countess to open her eyes to see what he was laughing at.
'Call yourself a countess, do you?' said Trinket.
'I suppose you think you're very superior.
Well, to me you're nobody.'
He grasped her right ear and gave it a few pulls, then he pinched her nose between finger and thumb and twisted it a couple of times, laughing as he did so.
The Little Countess had shut her eyes again, but two fat tears escaped from under their lids and coursed down her cheeks.
'Don't cry!'
Trinket shouted at her.
'I forbid you to cry.'
But the Little Countess's tears ran even faster.
'Hot-piece momma!' said Trinket exasperatedly.
'Being stubborn, are we?
Open your eyes and look at me, you smelly little tart!'
But the Little Countess closed her eyes even tighter.
'Huh!
Think you're on your Mu Family estate still, do you?' said Trinket.
Think you've got your tamardy Paladins to look after you?
Grandmother's!
What's so tamardy wonderful about them?
I tell you this: if they ever come my way, I'll chop them into little bits, each one of them.'
No response.
'Open your eyes!' he hollered at the top of his voice.
But all the Little Countess's strength seemed to go into closing them tighter.
'All right,' he said.
'If you won't open your lousy eyes, you won't be needing them any more.
I might as well cut them out.
They'll make a nice little snack for me next time I'm having a drink.'
He took out his dagger and slid the flat of the blade a couple of times over her eyelids.
A shudder ran through her whole body, but she still would not open her eyes.
Trinket was at his wit's end to know what to do with her.
'You don't want to open your eyes but I want you to open them,' he said.
'All right, we'll play a little game and see who comes out best, the high and mighty Little Countess or the nasty little beggar-boy.
For the time being I'm not going to cut your eyes out.
I'll cut a little turtle on your left cheek and a cow-pat on the right one.
Then, when the cuts have scarred over and you go out into the street, people will come crowding round in thousands to gaze at the sight.
"Oh, look!" they'll say.
"How beautiful!
The beautiful Mu Countess with a turtle on one cheek and a cow-pat on the other!"
Now will you open your eyes?'
The poor Little Countess, mistress of herself only in the ability to open or close her eyes, now closed them even tighter.
'I see,' said Trinket, pretending to be talking to himself.
The little tart knows she's not good-looking.
She's decided she wants a bit of decoration on her face to improve her looks.
All right, then.
I'll carve the turtle first.'
He took the lid off an inkstone that was on the table, ground some ink in it, and dabbled the tip of a writing-brush in it until it was well soaked.
The brush, the inkstone, and the ink-stick had all been the property of Old Hai.
Trinket had never had a writing-brush in his hand before and held it like a chopstick.
Carrying it over to the bed, he proceeded to draw a small turtle with it on the Little Countess's left cheek.
Her tears continued to flow, turning the drawing into an inky streak.
'I'm doing the pattern with the brush first,' he said.
'I'll be going over it with a knife afterwards.
That's what they do when they make seals, isn't it?
Ah, yes, Little Countess, I know what.
When the carving's ready, I'll be able to take you out into Changan Street and set up there as a print-seller.
"Roll up, roll up!"
I'll say.
"Buy a nice turtle print, three cash a sheet!"
I'll have your face ready painted over with black ink, then as soon as a customer gives me his three cash: sheet of white paper, rub it over, peel it off, and there's a little turtle!
Won't take a moment.
I ought to be able to do a hundred in a day.
That's three hundred cash.
Quite a tidy little sum!'
All the time he was gabbling this nonsense, her eyelids never ceased to flutter.
He could tell that she was both very angry and very frightened.
This gave him great satisfaction and inspired him to further idiocy.
'Hm, a cow-pat on the right cheek—no, I don't think anyone's going to pay good money for that.
A fat pig would be better—a great big, fat, stupid-looking pig.
That would sell.'
He moved round to the other side with his brush and executed a crude drawing on her right cheek: a creature with four legs and a tail which could perhaps have been a pig but might equally well have been a cat or a dog.
Then he laid the brush down and took up a pair of silver-shears, the point of which he applied lightly to her left cheek.
'Now, if you don't open your eyes, I'll start cutting.
I'll carve the turtle first.
The pig can wait till later.'
The Little Countess's tears were now welling through the closed lids in streams, but still she wouldn't open her eyes.
And since Trinket was unwilling to admit defeat, there was nothing for it but to begin moving the point around on her cheek.
Although she had the most delicate complexion imaginable, the point was so blunt that it made not the slightest mark on her skin; but so great was her fear, that she imagined this horrible boy really was cutting patterns on her face and, from excess of emotion, she fainted clean away.
Trinket got a shock when he saw the change that had come over her and wondered for a moment if she really had died of fright; but when he held his hand against her nostrils, he was relieved to find that she was still breathing.
'Little tart!' he said.
'You're only shamming dead.'
It was by now obvious that she would die sooner than open her eyes for him, but he was damned if he was going to admit defeat.
'As the man reading the songbook while he rode his mule said, "We'll work something out as we go along,"' he thought: 'Old Trink's not going to be beaten by a smelly little girl like you.'
He took a wet cloth and wiped the ink-marks from her cheeks.
They came off fairly easily, revealing once more the beauty of her delicate, rather aristocratic features.
She had fine eyebrows, long lashes, a small mouth and a slightly aquiline nose.
But Trinket was unimpressed.
'Little Countess Lah-di-dah,' he said.
'I expect you look down on a little eunuch like me.
Well, I don't think much of you either, so that makes us quits.'
After a while the Little Countess began to regain consciousness and presently opened her eyes.
Startled to see Trinket bending over her, staring, with far from friendly eyes, from barely a foot away, she quickly closed them again.
Trinket laughed gleefully.
'Ha ha!
You've opened your eyes now and looked at me.
I've won, admit it!'
It was agreeable to have won, but it rather took the gloss off his victory that she couldn't speak.
He would have liked to open the vital points that would enable her to do so, but he didn't know how.
'Now that your vital points are closed, you can't eat,' he said.
'If they're not opened, you'll just starve to death.
I was thinking of opening them for you, but though I did once learn the method, it's such a long while ago that I can't remember it.
Do you know how it's done?
If you don't know, just lie there perfectly still.
If you do know, blink your eyes three times.'
He watched her intently as she lay there, inert and unblinking.
After a long pause, very slowly and deliberately, she blinked her eyes three times.
'Thank heavens for that!' said Trinket delightedly.
'I was beginning to think all of you Mu people were dead from the neck up.'
He lifted her up in his arms and sat her down in a chair.
'Now look,' he said, 'I'm going to start pointing to places on your body.
If I point to the right place, blink three times; if it isn't right, just keep your eyes open and don't move.
When I've found the right vital point, I'll open it up for you.
Understand?'
The Little Countess blinked three times.
