Seeing their Beautiful Shifu was not present, and thought that she must be with that Li Gongzi, the two boys felt extremely disappointed; it's just that they could not resist the temptation of food, so they replied perfunctorily with some polite remarks, and then sat down to gorge themselves, pushing all unpleasant thoughts to the back of their minds.
Bu Tianzhi was not talkative either; he spoke one minute and was quiet the next. He only asked the two boys' past experience. Kou Zhong gave him some made up stories, yet he seemed to be very satisfied.
At the end of dinner Bu Tianzhi beckoned his subordinate to fetch an embroidered case, opened the lid, and took out an exquisite looking book. The cover was embossed with Dong Ming Pai insignia, which was of the same pattern as the embroidered flag of the Floating Fragrance Flagship.
The two boys looked at Bu Tianzhi in astonishment.
Bu Tianzhi did not say anything; he simply opened the first page. They saw the page was densely packed with small characters, written in black, ink stick, and vermillion, ground cinnabar ink. On one side was the type of weapon and its quantity, written in black, on the other side was the amount of money paid, written in vermillion; to their surprise, the unit of currency was gold, the highest amount reached three thousand taels of gold, which was more than enough for an ordinary person to eat for more than ten lifetimes. There was also a note on the date and place of delivery.
The most shocking was that written at the top was ‘Li Clan the First of Longxi', six characters [long xi li fa di yi], but there was neither signature nor seal.
Kou Zhong pretended to be confused. "The letters recognize me, but I don't recognize them,” he said, "What does it say here?” he pointed to the top.
Bu Tianzhi turned to the second page, but it was blank.
Bu Tianzhi turned back to the first page and said, "What we are asking two Xiao Xiongdi to steal is precisely this account book. When you open the book, the first page will look exactly like this. You must remember it carefully, don't make any mistake.”
Xu Ziling probed further; pointing to the character ‘yi' [one/first, which is basically a dash (-)] of the ‘Li Clan the First', he said, "I know this is character ‘yi', but I don't know the rest. What does it say, actually?”
"You don't need to worry about anything,” Bu Tianzhi said, "This ‘yi' character simply indicates the first page. By the time you leave the ship, I will show it to you again.”
The two boys were getting even more suspicious. But since they still need to learn Ol' Chen's great stealing skill, they did not have time to think about it too much; whenever they had spare time, they would practice secretly inside their bedroom.
Five days later after passing through the mouth of Yangtze River, they dropped anchor and tarried over for four days, but the two boys were not allowed to come ashore.
After that they continued northwards. That evening during dinner they found out that Yun Yuzhen has returned, but they did not see Bu Tianzhi.
Yun Yuzhen was in high spirits, it was as if her beauty had spread all over her body and made her glowing. But since Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling already knew that she did not trust them completely [orig. baring her heart into their keeping], they did not see her with the same longing as when they first saw her. Because she was definitely not another Fu Junchuo or even Susu.
"Where are we going, actually?” Kou Zhong asked.
‘We are now heading north toward Huai River,” Yun Yuzhen replied, "After that we will head west to Zhongyang. At that time we will plan your mission.”
After sizing them up for half a day, she laughed and said, "I am sure that after two years you will be dignified, handsome and imposing men. Right now after you have your beard shaved, your hair tidied up, you are already a lot more impressive than before. How old are you this year?”
"I just turned eighteen,” Kou Zhong replied, "And he is a year younger.”
Yun Yuzhen cheerfully said, "I heard from Grandpa Chen that you guys managed to master any trick as soon as you learned it; you did not fail to live up to my expectations at all.”
Xu Ziling asked, "If we are successful in stealing the account book, how are we going to leave the ship?”
"You don't have to worry about that,” Yun Yuzhen replied, "I will have my people teach you how to use the light signals to communicate with us. At that time I might personally come to the ship to pick you up. I guarantee it will be foolproof.”
Kou Zhong asked, "Dong Ming Pai came to the Central Plains, why would they stay this long?”
Yun Yuzhen replied, "Every three years they would come to the Central Plains for a period of time, to accept new orders and collect payments. As for the delivery of goods, they have other vessels transporting the weapons. This, you don't need to mind.”
Xu Ziling asked, "Are there any new developments on the outside world?”
Yun Yuzhen unenthusiastically replied, "Du Fuwei still occupies Liyang unchallenged, several times has he repelled the Sui army. Four months ago Dou Jiande proclaimed himself as the King of Changle, his prestige is actually above Du Fuwei's. Recently several new people emerged; among them is Xu Yuanlang, another one is Lu Mingyue. These two are Wulin characters who hold the balance of power. But in term of sensation, no one surpasses Yingyang Pai's Liang Shidou and Liu Wuzhou who together raised an army against the Sui. Both of them were originally Sui generals; therefore, their rebellion has significantly weakened the Sui forces.”
She suddenly sighed before continuing, "These two men have close relationship with the Tujue. Liang Shidou recently did obeisance to become a disciple of Tujue's ‘Wu Zun' Bi Xuan [see Book 1 Chapter 5] school. With Tujue people's involvement, I don't know how this mess is going to be cleaned up.”
The two boys recalled Liang Shidou's son, Liang Shunming and Shen Tianqun's beautiful daughter Shen Wushuang; momentarily they were lost in thought.
Xu Ziling was concerned over Susu, he asked about her master, Zhai Rang.
Yun Yuzhen was indeed well-informed of the current situation; she calmly replied, "Zhai Rang and Li Mi are concentrating their forces in preparation to attack Xingluo Warehouse. If they succeed, Sui Clan will be in danger. Speaking about character and prospect, among the militia the Great Dragon Head [or simply ‘Big Boss'] Zhai Rang has the biggest fame and power, but he achieved his fame and power relying on Li Mi. Sooner or later there will be a problem.”
And then she curiously asked, "You seem to also know a little abut this aspect?”
"Du Fuwei told us all of these,” Kou Zhong said.
The two boys were worried about Susu, they hurriedly finished their dinner, and went to the Ol' Chen to continue their training. By the time they returned to their room, it was already the third watch of the night [between 11pm - 1am].
The two boys pretended to lie down on the couch to sleep, but they were talking it over under the bed curtain.
Kou Zhong said, "Our Beautiful Shifu is beautiful on the outside, but the scheming in her heart is not too good. She clearly wants to exploit us to steal something to harm others.”
Xu Ziling said, "She must want to blackmail the Li Clan people just like she blackmail us. We simply must not become her accomplice; we might as well slip away and be done with it.”
Kou Zhong sighed and said, "Do you think I did not want to leave? Problem is, if Beautiful Shifu really wants to treat us cruelly, she would broadcast our whereabouts to the world, so much so that she might make our portraits, and then we certainly won't be able to move a single step. Therefore, we must come up with a proper escape plan.”
Xu Ziling said, "When we really see Madame Dong Ming, we can tell her everything, and then beseech her to take us to Ryukyu. It's just that by doing this, we won't be able to avenge Niang.”
"And we won't see Li Dage and Susu Jie either,” Kou Zhong added.
After being silent for half a day, Kou Zhong said, "Have you noticed that the situation on the ship these days is a bit peculiar?”
Xu Ziling nodded and replied, "Ever since Beautiful Shifu is back, the ship suddenly become very tense, from time to time it changes course as if they are guarding against the enemy.”
"I got it!” Kou Zhong slapped his thigh, "Those people might come for us. For example, Haisha Bang, or perhaps our Ol' Die Du Fuwei. You can plant spies in other people's organization, why can't others use the same trick to deal with you?”
Xu Ziling smiled wryly, "What kind of bird trick is that?” he said, "Captured by the Ol' Die or Han Pudi, I'd rather stay here. At least we get polite hospitality.”
The know-it-all Kou Zhong said, "Mountain people have brilliant scheme, we'll launch the move ‘escaping by death'; we will appear to be killed, but actually we'll escape without a trace.”
"It's easier said than done,” Xu Ziling dejectedly said, "But how do you do it?”
Kou Zhong said, "If we are elsewhere, or our skill is as useless as before, naturally it is impossible. But now, as long as we pretend to fall into their trap and fall into the sea, and spurt some blood, and then walk secretly at the bottom of the sea, everybody will think that we are swallowed up by the sea. Won't we be able to regain our freedom then?”
"Where can we get the blood from?” Xu Ziling asked.
Kou Zhong made a gesture as if he was grabbing something. And then he laughed and said, "Every day we have a large chunk of chicken meat entering our belly, evidently they keep quite a few chicken in the kitchen; you got that?”
Xu Ziling was dismayed, "Problem is we don't know exactly when the enemy will strike; if we take the blood prematurely, it will coagulate into a hard lump. Supposing that when we fall into the sea and then lumps of chicken blood emerge, won't the enemy laugh until their big teeth fall off?”
"We can knock the chicken out,” Kou Zhong said, "We are the experts in that kind of trick in stealing chicken. After stealing it, we keep it under our bed. If the enemy has not come yet, we'll replace the chicken with two others. This will work.”
While Xu Ziling was still hesitating, Kou Zhong sat up and said, "It's time to test our lightness skill and Ol' Chen's stealing technique.”