Chapter 31 Changing Times
All according to plan, thought Ming-tsu. She quickly told Feng and Dao to
leave the room and wait outside. "But Feng, bring me a robe from upstairs. And
three pitchers of cold water. Quickly!" Feng wondered at this, but bowed,
donned his black shirt and left with Dao trailing in his wake.
Then Ming-tsu walked over to the wall clock, looked meaningfully at
Wen-chi, and advanced the hands of the clock from 11:35 to 5:20. Just then Feng
returned with a woman's robe, and moments later Dao appeared with the three
containers of water as ordered.
After telling her puzzled comrades to wait outside, Ming-tsu retreated
behind Liu, just in case the girl were to revive suddenly. Then she stripped off
the costume she had been wearing, put on the robe, and quickly re-did her hair,
eyes, and lips. Then she moved some discarded Chinese lanterns into the area
behind the Tiger, and lit them, so as to give the impression of incipient
daylight. Dawn never came to the dungeons of the Black Pagoda, where the gloom
of night was everlasting, but her prisoner would have no way of knowing that.
Looking around the room, and satisfied that her ruse was complete, she
picked up the first pitcher of water and dumped it over Liu's head. At first the
tortured girl only stirred, but after being doused with a second canister of
water, she slowly regained her senses, as she returned, sputtering, to
consciousness.
The icy water anointed Liu's naked body with loving affection, the droplets
glistening on her golden skin. Twin beads of moisture seemed to cling to her
swollen nipples for dear life, as if they were enamoured of the lovely breast
flesh and were loath to relax their gentle grip and fall to their damp demise
against the unwelcoming stones of the dark dungeon floor.
Liu's newly conscious eyes tried to focus on Ming-tsu standing ominously
before her, fresh as a flower, in a room much brighter than the one she
remembered. Ming-tsu's body stood between Liu and the clock. The brazier still
gave off its ominous glow.
"Good morning, my little songbird," Ming-tsu said pleasantly. "You look
refreshed from your long nap. Shall we begin again? Are you ready yet to tell
me where I can find Li Chang?" Ming-tsu thrust the evil-looking pair of tongs
back into the coals as she spoke. After a moment or two, she picked up the
tongs and walked toward Liu, opening wide the hissing jaws of the tongs as she
did so.
As her tormentor approached, and made as if to take Liu's dark-streaked
breast between the smoking jaws of the atrocious tongs once again, Liu was
finally able to see past her toward the wall clock. It read 5:20! Liu
inhaled triumphantly, and despite her predicament exclaimed in a voice imbued
with renewed life, "You have lost, Ming-tsu; Li Chang has won."
Wen-chi, still gagged, but now realizing the significance of the clock, was
frantically shaking his head from side to side. "Do not worry, grandfather,"
Liu began, despite her ordeal speaking loudly enough for the aged sage to hear.
"They can kill me now, I don't care. Li Chang is safe. He left on the midnight
boat for Taipei. Where he'll be safe from these demons."
Ming-tsu's beautiful scarlet-tinged lips curled into the smile of an
enchantress. She looked over slyly at the old man as Wen-chi slumped
despairingly back into his chair. "Did he now?"
"Feng!" she called out sharply. The stocky gangster appeared in the
doorway instantly. Ming-tsu rattled off commands - "Take some men to Pier 147 -
the traitor will be waiting for the boat to Taipei. Alive, if you can. Hurry!
Oh, one other thing," Ming-tsu asked with a sly smile. "Have you got the time? I
don't think the clock here is quite right."
Feng the Butcher growled, "It's twenty minutes to midnight, Miss. I just
saw a clock upstairs."
"Thank you, Feng. Now, hurry!" And Ming-tsu smiled at the bewildered Liu,
strolled over to the wall clock and re-set the hands to 11:40. "You'll be
pleased to know, Miss Liu, that the docks are only a few minutes from here.
You'll be seeing your precious Li Chang soon."
And Liu let forth a heart-rending cry of anguish. After everything she had
gone through, she had unwittingly betrayed the one she loved to the fiends of
the Black Pagoda.
