Chapter 34 Liu's Kiss
Ming-tsu was in high spirits. Having sent the Chans' minions in pursuit of
Li Chang, she put her clever mind to work to devise a fitting revenge on the
traitor who had not only betrayed her wealthy patron, and won another woman's
heart, but who had taken such visceral delight in his ruthless domination of her
body only the night before. Her sensitive love-globes were still tender from
the scalding oil with which Li Chang had anointed them, and the punishing
breast-rape that he had inflicted upon them.
Recalling that the Chans had mentioned that a certain servant named Yian
could be trusted, she summoned the shrewish maid who had tormented Erika Weiss
and had been complicit with Mai-Lee in achieving the downfall of her perceived
rival, Ci-ci. With the assistance of the evil-tempered house-servant, she
cleaned the dazed Liu up quickly, bathing and anointing her pain-wracked body
with subtle fragrances.
Yian was delegated the responsibility of scrubbing the blood and sweat from
Liu's naked body, and the hatchet-faced woman seemed to take perverse delight in
rubbing her warm cloth most assiduously precisely where Liu's injuries were most
painful. Yian's impulse to scrub thoroughly reached a pinnacle of energy when
she attended to Liu's throbbing breasts and then again when she lavished her
obsessive attentions on the raw inflamed tissues that had suffered the wrath of
the Tiger. Meanwhile Ming-tsu washed and dressed Liu's hair as skillfully as
she would have her own.
Then Ming-tsu dispatched Yian to the boudoir of Mai-Lee, Richard Chan's No.
1 concubine, in order to borrow, on the authority of George Chan, a beautiful
floor-length robe, a pair of fabulous diamond earrings, and a string of
priceless pearls that Richard had lavished on the concubine. Mai-Lee was
visibly annoyed by this turn of events, but, after what had happened to Ci-ci
earlier that day, was unwilling to risk incurring the wrath of the Chans and
reluctantly assented. While Yian was on her errand, Ming-tsu attended to her own
appearance, not neglecting a dash of cologne with the rich fragrance of orange
blossom, her favorite scent.
Upon Yian's return, they clothed Liu in the lavish silken garment, and in
minutes Liu's ears were bedecked with glittering diamonds, her slender throat
was encircled by the ravishing concubine's brilliant pearl necklace, and her
eyes and mouth were as beautifully made up as if it were her wedding day. The
sumptuous robe completely covered the marks left by the whips, the straps and
the other infernal instruments of torture which had been used upon her exquisite
young body. In less than thirty minutes, thanks to the floor-length gown, to
all outward appearances Liu was even more beautifully arrayed than she had been
when the Scorpions had dragged her bodily into the cellars of the Black Pagoda a
few hours earlier. Shamed by her betrayal of Li Chang, Liu let them do as they
wished with her; her life had lost all meaning.
Throughout all of these proceedings, Wen-chi was but intermittently
conscious. Occasionally his fatigued eyes would open and he would glance
frantically about him until his gaze came to rest on the angelic face of his
grand-daughter. When it, Liu did her best to give the old man a reassuring
smile, as if the events of the past hour had been nothing more than a strange
and terrible dream.
Yian and Ming-tsu were just concluding the final touches of Liu's toilette,
when they heard the rough clatter of heavy footsteps and men's voices at the
underground entrance to the dungeon. When Feng announced through the door that
he and his comrades had indeed apprehended Li Chang, Ming-tsu's inwardly exulted
-- the success of her ingenious plot would no doubt earn her a splendid reward
from the brothers Chan. She ordered Feng and his men to wait outside for a few
minutes more; the little theatrical production she had prepared was nearly
ready.
Finally, just before she told Feng to bring his captive in, she instructed
Liu in a low voice, "You have shown that you know how to remain silent, little
one. Be careful that you remain quiet when we bring the turncoat in. Not a
word! Or what we'll do to the old man will make your stay here seem like a
picnic. If you co-operate, he will not be harmed; I give you my word. If you
do not..." Ming-tsu's flashing eyes glanced meaningfully toward the brazier
where hot irons still rested in the glowing coals. "It would be a shame for an
old man at his time of life to die a painful death, would it not? I trust I
have made myself clear?" Her doe-eyed, half-dazed prisoner nodded silently.
After all, what did any of it matter now?
Ming-tsu directed Liu to stand out of sight of the doorway behind one of
the great pillars. Then she carefully positioned the smoking brazier slightly
behind Wen-chi's right shoulder. After looking around one last time to make
sure that everything was in place, she bade Feng to bring in his captive, and
the Butcher and his four colleagues dragged their prisoner into the forbidding
cellar. Once they were in the dungeon she sent Dao and Li off to find four more
chairs.
Li, the back of his head matted with blood, was just beginning to recover
from the forceful blow which had knocked him out. He looked around the sinister
subterranean room, taking in the great pillars, the wall-length mirror, the wall
that was studded with whips and canes, the shackles and chains. He had little
doubt but that this was the last sight he would ever see.
Taking no chances, Feng held a sharp knife to Li's throat, even though
he and his men had bound Li's hands behind him. When Dao and Lin returned with
the chairs, Ming-tsu positioned one of them slightly forward and to the left of
the one on which Wen-chi was seated. The man-giant they called the Ox pushed Li
heavily into that chair. Once Li was seated,with his back to the mirrored
wall, Dao and Lin wasted no time in lashing his arms and legs to the heavy
chair.
When they were done securing Li Chang to the chair, Ming-tsu dismissed
Feng's four colleagues, after asking them to tell the fraternal Lords of the
Black Pagoda that their quarry had been brought to bay. The Scorpions were
elated at finally being excused for the night. As they trudged toward the
underground entrance, they exchanged lewd remarks about the exciting dice game
that awaited them at the Pit, and the even more exciting prospect of the spoils
that awaited the victors -- the succulent breasts and the velvety honey-pot of
the young pilferer whom they had left chained to the cot.
Feng followed them halfway to the door. "Remember what I said about the
double sixes!" he warned his comrades. And then in a low voice, but one of great
vehemence, "Her ass belongs to me!"
"Who said "Nobody likes an asshole", Dao mumbled in a low voice to the Ox,
causing the four Scorpions to erupt in ribald laughter as they filed noisily out
of the door.
When they had gone, and Feng had returned to take his position behind
Wen-chi, Ming-tsu approached Li Chang, her words dripping sarcasm, "Hello again,
Mr. VIP. I think you know my new friend? She was most helpful in leading us to
you." And Ming-tsu stepped aside to summon Liu, now resplendently clad in the
elegant robe, dripping with priceless diamonds and pearls, from her position
where she had been concealed behind one of the great pillars. At Ming-tsu's
direction she took a second chair, facing Li and Wen-chi. Ming-tsu then
arranged the other two chairs alongside Liu's.
Li Chang's head throbbed with pain; he knew as soon as he looked around the
grim confines of the dungeon that he was a dead man. But he could hardly
believe his eyes when he saw Liu. His judgment clouded by the heavy blow to
his cranium, he sized up the situation at face value. There sat Liu, bedecked
in jewels in the dismal cellars of the Black Pagoda, while he and his beloved
adoptive father, Wen-chi, sat bound to chairs awaiting a ghastly fate.
Liu. Liu, of all people, had sold him out. And not just himself. Her
grandfather. And their noble cause. "Why?" he cried out angrily to Liu. "Why
have you betrayed me? And your grandfather! For what? A few trinkets? Why?
Because I did not return your affection?"
Li could not see that behind him and to Wen-chi's right Feng was poised to
apply the hot irons to Wen-chi's throat at Ming-tsu's signal, if Liu should
break her silence. If Li had not recently suffered a mild concussion, he might
well have taken better notice of the sea of tears that slowly welled up in the
soft brown eyes of the young woman who had suffered so greatly in his behalf.
The old man's eyes were full of tears, too, as he looked at Li and shook
his head violently no, no, but gagged as he was, he could do no more.
"Don't defend her, honored father," Li added contemptuously. "She doesn't
deserve it."
Every word was worse than a dagger to Liu; but in her anguish she felt that
she partly deserved his condemnation. Her only hope now was that perhaps they
would let her grandfather go, if she remained silent. She could not bear to
look at Li; her eyes were downcast as he hurled his imprecations.
"And you, you smiling temptress!" Li exclaimed, his voice crackling with
rage, as he addressed Ming-tsu. "I curse the night that I first set eyes on
you. What I fool I was! Forgive me, Wen-chi, for not having heeded your
advice." At this the old man, unable to speak, sadly nodded his head in
agreement.
Ming-tsu, further incensed by this admission, looked up just then to see
Richard Chan, followed by his younger brother, as they entered the dim,
torch-lit cellar. "May I present the traitor, Your Excellency, as I promised?"
Ming-tsu bowed.
The silver-robed elder Chan surveyed the three prisoners with a look of
implacable hatred. "You have done well, Ming-tsu. Your services will be rewarded
in due time."
Then he turned to face Wen-chi and addressed him in an imperious tone. "So
we meet at last, you tiresome old fool; one would have thought that you might
have learned from your own son's fate, that there is only one outcome, one
inevitably fatal destiny, for those who would oppose the House of Chan."
Liu sobbed softly at the mention of her father, but a baleful glare from
Ming-tsu silenced her.
The Lord of the Scorpions continued to upbraid Wen-chi. "And now you and
this, this worthless scum," he pointed a scornful fingernail in the direction of
Li Chang, "have dared to interfere with my plans."
"Fortunately your excellency," Ming-tsu interjected, twisting the emotional
knife a little deeper, "at least there is one in this family who was sensible
enough to recognize your mastery of Shanghai. Is that not right, girl?" When
Ming-tsu gave Feng a purposeful glance and the brutish Butcher moved the
glowing iron slightly closer to Wen-chi's throat, Liu nodded despairingly.
"And to show our gratitude for disclosing their pathetic attempt at an
insurrection," Li Chang's erstwhile lover concluded, "we have bestowed these
gifts upon her. She seems to have quite a fondness for pearls. Don't you,
Liu?" Ming-tsu asked sweetly, once again making eye contact with the barbarous
Feng.
Liu, helpless to do anything else, nodded again.
"Excellent, Ming-tsu, excellent," Richard acknowledged, knowing full well
that Liu would not have the pearls for long. "But now," the thin-lipped elder
Chan snarled, "we shall make certain that this fugitive, this leader of a
pitiful attempt at a mutiny, never runs away again. Or runs anywhere else for
that matter. As an example to any would attempt to thwart our will!"
The nefarious Lord of the Black Pagoda directed his thin-slitted black
eyes turned toward the hulking frame of Feng the Butcher, and in a voice laden
with implacable malice issued his edict. "His legs, Feng. Break them."
Neither of the Chans so much as blinked as the brawny shaven-headed brute
set the smoldering iron down and selected a heavy wooden club from the wall of
weaponry. His face an inhuman caricature of cruelty, the burly man-monster
lifted the club and without warning slammed it heavily down onto Li's bound
thighs.
Liu gasped in horror, but after seeing Ming-tsu's diabolical glare of
warning did not cry out. But she turned her head away, unable to watch.
Too stunned to cry out, at first, though he thought he heard a bone crack,
Li writhed in his bonds. Feng hammered the club down a second time, and then a
third as Li screamed in agony. Then the hulking Feng, his face contorted into a
hideous grin, whipped the bludgeon across Li's shins with bone-crushing force.
This time Li screamed until he lost consciousness from the pain.
When he revived a few minutes later, Ming-tsu was bending over him holding
a red-hot iron bar, fresh from the smoking brazier, by its wooden handle. "Let
me give you something to remember me by as well, Mr. VIP. Think of it as the
Kiss of Ming-tsu; I hope you treasure it always."
With those words, Ming-tsu held the hissing instrument against the side of
Li's face for long seconds, incinerating the skin, and leaving a narrow but
ghastly brand down the left side of his face. "That was for the Night of the
Forty Lashes, Li Chang. Wear it always with my compliments. I do so want you
to remember me. Especially since no woman will look upon you with anything but
revulsion again!"
Ming-tsu turned back to the Chans and said, "Now, your excellencies,
perhaps you would enjoy some more pleasant diversions? Our attractive new
disciple, Miss Liu, has asked if she might have the honor of offering herself to
you. Isn't that right, Liu?"
Liu looked up at Ming-tsu, who was now hovered ominously over her
grandfather, still holding the horrible piece of glowing metal. Liu nodded,
yes, fatalistically, and then rose from her chair at Ming-tsu's gesture.
Having won Liu's unwilling co-operation, Ming-tsu approached her again.
"Out of deference to the old fool's sensibilities, though, let us turn her
around." Ming-tsu turned the girl so that she had her back to Wen-chi and Li,
while Richard and George Chan took seats facing them. "On your knees, slut!",
Ming-tsu warned her in a whisper, and when Liu had complied, Ming-tsu directed
her to kneel-walk submissively across the cold stone floor of the dungeon to
where Richard Chan was seated.
When she was kneeling defenselessly before the Tyrant of the Black Pagoda,
Ming-tsu opened the front of Liu's robe so that Richard Chan could appreciate
both the beauty of her sublime figure and the savage punishment that had been
inflicted upon it. The robe had a strip of cloth that Ming-tsu fastened,
cape-like, around Liu's neck, leaving the front of her body visible and
accessible to the Brothers Chan, but completely hidden from her fellow-captives.
"Well done, Ming-tsu!" the Lord of the Black Pagoda congratulated her, as
the sadistic voluptuary licked his lips in anticipation; the abrasions and
bruises on Liu's delicate body served only to heighten his arousal. "Rarely have
I beheld such an enticing display." And then he whispered so that only she could
hear him, "You used those pincers to good effect, didn't you? Superb! Most
stimulating indeed. What do you say, my brother?"
George Chan, ever-beaming, and rather proud of his concubine's scheme,
bowed in assent, as his lecherous eyes raped the virginal body of their young
prisoner. "Ming-tsu, you have done great service for the House of Chan. I
salute you."
Ming-tsu bowed, pleased with the compliment.
"May I remind you, Your Excellency, that Liu wishes to serve both of her
new masters?"
"So you wish to pay homage to us, your new masters? Very well. You can
begin by taking this between those lovely lips of yours!" And the Lord of the
Scorpions withdrew his erect member from his robe. As the kneeling Liu bent to
her loathsome task, Richard said, "No! Stand up and bend over me. That way I can
caress you, my dear."
The trembling and tearful Liu, now facing her first erect penis, climbed
painfully to her feet, and then stood astride Richard's legs, her hands on the
arms of his chair, as she lowered her mouth docilely toward his rigid,
dark-veined erection. An instant later, as his powerful hands closed painfully
on her abused breasts, she realized why he had asked her to stand.
Liu hesitantly brought her virginal lips down on the throbbing penis. She
was, of course, completely ignorant of how to please a man, and Richard Chan was
hardly the most patient of lovers. At first The Lord of the Scorpions was
content to crush the entirety of her tender globes in his cruel hands; from time
to time, though, just to vary her torment, he would trap a raw nipple-bud, still
excruciatingly sore from the horrendous grip of the hot pincers, between a
sharp-nailed finger and thumb and twist and tear at it until she felt certain
that he would rip it from her breast. The worst thing for Liu was that she
could not determine if his iron grip tightened when she pleased him with her
inexperienced mouth, or when she did not. His tenacious talons seemed to
administer pain randomly.
Li and Wen-Chi could see none of this; all they could see was Liu's cloaked
back bent, apparently willingly, for long minutes over Richard's groin. Her
grandfather knew that Liu's actions were anything but voluntary, but to Li,
half-crazed with the pain of his own injuries, the unmistakable sound of moist
lips on an eager male organ seemed to confirm the fact that Liu was nothing more
than a willing concubine to his enemies. Wen-chi was thrashing furiously about
in his bonds, but Feng was unconcerned by his struggles - what was an old man of
eighty going to do, even if by some miracle, he did get one hand free?
Feng edged several steps closer so that he could get a good look at the
anguish in Liu's face and the enchanting planes and hollows displayed by her
frontal nudity. His own cock had been rock-hard for most of the last several
hours, since he had first seen Ci-ci in the Chans' ingenious vertical rack. But
he had not yet had the opportunity to slake his fierce lust on either of the
attractive trophies this night had brought his way; but perhaps his fortunes
were about to change.
After several minutes of Liu's inexpert oral ministrations, Richard
released one breast and pulled her head down hard on his throbbing cock and
face-fucked her vigorously until at last he erupted in her mouth. Liu made as
if to spit out the vile viscous liquid, but, Richard's hissed command, "Swallow
it, pretty one. Every last drop," forced to her slide even deeper into the
depths of degradation.
After a long slow sigh of sexual gratification, Richard spoke again. "Lick
it clean, my newest concubine, lick it clean." There was something perversely
stimulating about deflowering an unwilling virgin, no matter how inexpertly she
made love. It made a pleasant change to the practiced virtuosity of the
infinitely artful Mai-lee. When the last traces of his lusty eruption had been
licked from his swollen member, Richard Chan covered himself and instructed her,
"And now, Liu, you must extend the same courtesies to my brother George".
And Liu, humiliated beyond words at having to debase herself in the
presence of the two men she admired most in the world, moved slightly to her
right, and prepared to pay oral homage to a smiling-faced George Chan, even as
she had his heartless brother. George had already removed a sizable erection
from his trousers, his carnal appetite having been whetted to a fever pitch by
watching his brother torment the innocent girl.
After a few minutes of forcing Liu's head down on his own penis, George
sniffed the stale air of the dungeon, turned to Ming-tsu and said, "It's a
little stuffy down here tonight, isn't it? Bring some incense sticks."
Ming-tsu obliged and lit several sticks and set the slow-burning aromatic
tendrils in incense holders here and there around the ghastly dungeon. The
sweet, pungent aroma of sandalwood began to diffuse through the dank cellar,
which, not unsurprisingly, was normally permeated by the oppressive odor of
fearful sweat and innocent blood, mementos of the numberless victims, mostly
young women, who had suffered indescribable agonies at the hands of the Chans.
"Hand me one, Ming-tsu; I love the smell of sandalwood." And George
lifted the pungent stick to his nostrils, inhaled deeply, and then let the hot
end of the stick brush against the inside of Liu's left thigh, halfway up her
leg. George's smile widened when he saw the way the well-toned muscles in Liu's
supple thighs jumped at the kiss of the hot incense stick.
"Remember, girl -- not a sound!" Ming-tsu whispered.
Ming-tsu had positioned the girl's cloaked body well; the old man and the
traitor were not even aware when he touched the burning stem to Liu's honey-gold
flesh. George Chan proceeded to blaze a fiery trail up the length of a shapely
thigh, letting the burning end revisit the angry bruises left by Feng's savage
strapping. When Liu lifted her ebony tresses from his swollen penis, in
reaction to a particularly long visitation of the fire stick, George touched the
burning reed to her quivering left nipple as she shuddered in pain, and held it
there until she returned to her oral caresses.
After a slow progress up her quivering thigh, the smoldering stick was now
at the juncture of her thighs. George delighted in igniting a few of strands of
her fine pubic hair, watching each little triangle of flame blaze ever so
briefly before dying out. And then, as his sexual excitement neared its climax,
he pressed the aromatic ember directly against her sensitive vaginal lips as he
ejaculated, shooting spurts of semen into Liu's moist oral cavity. Liu's inner
screams of misery and degradation were stifled by the mouth-filling presence of
the younger Chan's swollen manhood.
The Chans, having at last sated their sadistic lust, got up to leave,
whispering a few instructions in Ming-tsu's attentive ear before they left.
And then Feng came over, and bluntly indicated to Ming-tsu that as a reward
for his good service, during this long night, that he, too, deserved some good
"service", before the comely prisoner was put permanently out of commission.
Ming-tsu was uncomfortable with the way Feng eyeballed her when he made his
request; his cold black eyes seemed never to leave her generous breasts. But
without question tonight he too had served the Chans well. So, too tired to
argue, she directed the stocky torture-master to sit where the Chans had sat,
and advised him that she was going to get something to eat and that she would be
back in a little while.
The stocky gangster sat down, stared lewdly at the delicious body of the
young maiden, and beckoned to Liu to approach. "And be quick about it, or what
I do to the old man won't be pretty!" he growled softly enough so that only she
could hear.
In abject despair, Liu slowly edged toward him, and bent in obeisance
before yet another tormentor's cock, this one even bigger, thicker and hairier
than the two she had already serviced. As she pleasured him, Feng began to maul
her excruciatingly sore breasts. From behind her she heard Li Chang cry out,
"She is their courtesan, Wen-chi. No better than a whore. My curse is upon
you, Liu, for betraying me! You dishonored your venerable grandfather when you
betrayed our noble cause!"
As she heard these words, Liu's shoulders slumped in unutterable sorrow.
Just then, Wen-chi, who had been thrashing around in his bonds for many
minutes, finally, with a supreme effort, was able to send his chair crashing
sideways to the floor. The ropes still held him fast to the chair, but his gag
had come partially loose, and the venerable old man gasped out a volley of words
in a frail, almost inaudible voice. Try though he might, Li could only make
out a few of the old man's desperate words. "Take back your curse, my son...
Liu ...for hours... terribly. But she...silent..., Li Chang... horrible
trick...pretended ...only to save me... or you...guiltless."
Then with one great final effort he rasped again, "she is guiltless, Li.
Take back your curse." And with those words the revered old man's heart at last
gave out, and his head fell lifeless against the floor.
Meanwhile, when the old man's chair had overturned, Feng had looked up,
momentarily distracted by the loud noise. Liu, with her back to her
grandfather, could not hear his words, but she saw Feng's knife in the sheath at
his waist, and in a flash she had seized it, and held it to the carotid artery
in his neck.
Still with her back to Li, Liu said, in a voice that was remarkably calm,
"Li Chang, you called me a willing concubine. Would a concubine do this?" And
she removed a diamond earring and held it to Feng's lips. "Swallow it! Now,
Pig!"
The gruesome torture-master eyed the knife at his throat, and then took the
precious stone in his mouth, and forced himself to swallow. Then Liu removed
the other priceless earring and proffered it. When Feng hesitated, she pricked
him with the sharp blade, drawing a thin trickle of blood. Feng the Butcher
gulped and swallowed the second earring.
With her other hand, Liu unclasped the priceless string of pearls at her
throat, and compelled her erstwhile tormentor to down the two dozen perfect
opalescent gems down one by one. It took him several minutes to accomplish this
feat, even with his capacious stomach; every time he paused, Liu prodded his
throat with the point of the knife.
When he was finished, Liu spoke bitterly, "I wish them luck in finding
their jewels."
And then Liu gathered the front of the cape-like robe together, and turned,
for the first time since the Chans had taken their seats, to face Li Chang and
her grandfather. It was only then that she saw the lifeless body of her saintly
grandfather on the floor. A mournful wail escaped her lips and tears welled up
in her eyes. And then, very deliberately, she drew the blade of the knife
across Feng's throat; his eyed widened in abject horror as geysers of blood
erupted from the long gash in his neck, and spilled out on to his black shirt as
well as the front of Liu's costly silken robe. Feng's mouth attempted to scream,
but he choked on his own blood, and crumpled silently to the floor. As he fell
Liu spat on him, again and again, as if she were trying to purge from her mouth
the degrading taste of his unholy masters.
Still holding the knife in her right hand, Liu used that hand to pull the
now blood-soaked robe close about her. Then she crossed to Wen-chi, and bent
down to touch his ancient face. Stroking it lovingly, she lifted one of his
withered hands to her cheek, and then to her lips. Quietly sobbing, she said,
"He was a great man, Li Chang. And a good man. I tried ..." she choked back
the massive knot of grief that sought to silence her. "I tried so hard to spare
him pain last night, but I failed. I was not strong enough."
Then, Liu tried to use the knife to hack away at the ropes holding Li, but
he said, coolly, "It is too late, Liu. They have crushed my legs. I could not
stand, much less flee."
Still holding the crimson-splattered robe tightly about her, Liu wrung her
tiny hands in despair; her face was a mask of grief. "And all ... all because
I...I was too weak."
Li was about to interrupt, when Liu raised her hand, "Please, Li, let me
finish," she said in a soft voice. "I have spent my whole life listening. To my
grandfather. And then to you." She paused, smiling sadly, recalling the
countless tales Li had read to her; in all those stories had there been a family
so ill-favored by fortune as her own? "Please, this once, let me speak. It
will not take long."
"You once read to me, Li, about a noble warrior 'who loved not wisely, but
too well'. I have never forgotten those words."
Struggling to choke back her tears, Liu poured out her heart.
"I am such another, Li Chang. I am no concubine, my love. You are the
only man who has ever touched my heart. But," she smiled wistfully, "my love
was only a foolish dream."
Liu's face was angelic in her anguish. The torchlight of the ghastly
dungeon, whose red-orange flames had seemed to evoke the ninth circle of hell
not so long ago, now seemed to bathe her countenance in the warm glow of a
friendly hearth. Twin teardrops coursed down her cheeks as she took Li's right
hand in her left.
"I have brought pain to my grandfather, Li Chang, because I lacked the
courage to remain silent. And I have betrayed you because, like a fool, I fell
into the trap they set. But please, Li Chang," she begged tearfully, "When you
think of me, remember me as a coward, and as a fool if you must, but not as a wh
..." Liu's voice cracked as she fought to pronounce a word she had never
pronounced before. "Please Li, not as a whore ...."
And all of the pain and sorrow that she had suffered that night overwhelmed
her, and she wept in untold misery for many long seconds.
At length, after her sobs subsided, Liu looked in the direction of the
frail body of her grandfather. Despite her grisly surroundings, after seeing her
grandfather at peace, an aura of tranquility seemed to transfix Liu's
tear-streaked face. After a long moment of staring dreamily out into space, she
spoke, her voice having found again the familiar silvery lilt that the night's
horrors had stolen from her. "I'm coming grandfather," she whispered, and with
those words, Liu plunged Feng's knife into her chest, and fell forward across
Li's lap. As she did so, the robe fell open in front, and the horror-stricken
Li Chang could see, for the first time, the cruel injuries that she had borne to
protect the men she loved.
And the meaning of Wen-chi's dying admonition became clear.
"Liu, forgive me! I didn't know! Liu! I didn't know!" Li cried, as his
bound right hand struggled to stroke the softness of the lustrous hair that lay
across his knees. Her face grew paler in the torchlight as her life's blood
slowly spilled from the gaping wound in her chest.
"No, it is for you to forgive me, Li Chang," Liu said softly in a voice
both tranquil and serene. If I had not fainted, their trap would not have
worked. And you would yet be free."
"How could I be free without you? No, Liu, no! It is I who must beg your
forgiveness. How could I have thought ... My poor angel!" His arms struggled
desperately for freedom that he might hold her and comfort her, but the ropes
were too tight. From an ancient memory Li Chang whispered words from that work
which he had read to her so long ago.
"A maiden never bold,
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blushed at herself."
At these words, Liu, her breathing growing weaker by the moment, smiled
sadly, and whispered, "Yet, let me kiss my lord before I die," and with her last
ounce of strength, pulled herself up so that her soft lips touched his in the
way of a woman, for the first and only time. Li leaned forward desperately as
if somehow by pressing his lips against hers he could imbue her with what
remained of his own strength, but after a few transcendent moments he could feel
the sweet softness of her lips began to slip away from his own.
"No!" Li cried out frantically. But it was too late. Slowly, Liu's arms
relaxed their fervent grip on his shoulders, and she slumped, lifeless and
still, across his lap.
********
Moments later Ming-tsu returned to a tableau of horror. Liu's dead body
lay across Li's shattered legs, while Feng and Wen-chi each lay dead a few feet
away. For all of his loathing of Ming-tsu, Li did not even look up; his eyes
and his tears were on the poor broken body before him. Although his legs were
painfully shattered, the weight of Liu's body across his limbs provided more
comfort than distress. He tried to reach for the knife so that he might use it
on himself, but once again his bonds proved too tight.
Ming-tsu examined the blood-soaked robe, wondering how she was going to
explain that to Richard Chan. Then, anxious to dispose of the bodies quickly,
she dispatched Yian, the spiteful housemaid, to summon the Scorpions who had
captured Li Chang. A few minutes later -- gap-toothed Dao, Zheng the Ox, and a
third young man, handsome and strangely familiar who seemed to be their leader,
now that Feng was no more than a blood-stained carcass. Unbeknownst to her,
this third young man was Chiang Chan, the son of George Chan. "Throw the bodies
into the sea. Let's see if Mr. VIP can swim with broken legs!" she spat at Li,
as the Scorpions undid his bonds.
Since Li was unable even to stand, the Scorpions picked him up bodily and
threw him painfully into a large cart, that was parked outside the underground
entrance to the dungeons, along with the three dead bodies. Ming-tsu followed
them outside, and then, just before the Scorpions threw an old blanket over the
mangled bodies, Li caught her eye, and said, "Ming-tsu, you have taken the life
of an angel. The gods will have their revenge. You will come to regret this
night."
"You don't frighten me with your superstitions, Mr. VIP! I am of the Black
Scorpion; we fear no men and no gods. Get them out of here, I said!"
A split-second later, Li once again felt his head explode with pain, as
Dao's night-stick descended; but this time, luckily, the blow was only a
glancing one. Somehow Li had the self-possession to feign unconsciousness; his
only chance was for the Scorpions to become incautious. Perhaps if they thought
he were dead or comatose...
******
The cart was a block or two away before Ming-tsu, in a moment of panic,
remembered the diamonds and the pearls. What had happened to them? After a
quick glance around the room, she hastily summoned another Scorpion, none other
than the pimple-faced Lin the Drooler, and sent him in pursuit of his comrades
in the slow-moving cart, with orders to search the garments of the four victims
carefully before disposing of the bodies. And to bring whatever they found back
to her.
******
As the cart rattled its way toward the nearby docks, Li tried to remain
as still as possible under the filthy blanket. He mourned Wen-chi, the
kind-hearted philosopher who had taken him into his house as a child. Who had
tried to teach him ch'eng - sincerity - in all things. Knowing that he was near
death, and hoping to find the courage to face it, Li's mind raced at breakneck
speed through the hundreds of thrice-familiar aphorisms of the ancient sages
that the old man had viewed as the key to a good and productive life.
But his mind and his heart always returned to just one, from the Fifteenth
Analect:
"A high will, or a loving heart, will not seek life at cost of love. To
fulfill love they will kill the body."
And each time he thought of it, and Liu, the heaviness in his chest
crushed his heart anew.
By chance Liu's body was lying alongside his, her dark hair resting gently
upon his shoulder as it never had in life. Li cursed the blindness that had
prevented him from taking her into his arms long before. And he cursed the
fates that had allowed him to become enslaved by the erotic sorcery of Ming-tsu.
But he was grateful that those same fates had allowed him to hold the still-warm
body of Liu in his arms during their last bumpy ride.
