When Chen had gone, Qian Long dismissed the eunuchs

and opened the small box. He read the Emperor Yong

Zheng's note and the letter written by his natural

mother, which said correctly that he had a red

birthmark on his left buttock. He sighed. There could

no longer be any doubt about his true origins. He

ordered a eunuch to bring him a brazier and threw the

documents one by one into the fire. As the flames

leapt up, he began to feel more at ease, and on an

impulse, threw the small wooden box into the flames as

well, filling the room with heat and smoke.

He stared for a moment at the jade vases on the table,

then said to the eunuch: "Send her up." The eunuch

disappeared, and returned on his knees to report:

"Your slave deserves to die. The lady refuses to

come."

Qian Long laughed shortly and glanced at the jade

vases again. Then he stood up and went downstairs. Two

eunuchs followed carrying the vase.

One floor down, a maid servant pulled aside a curtain

and Qian Long walked through into a room full of fresh

flowers. Two other maids servants took the vases from

the eunuchs and carefully placed them on a table.

A girl wearing a white gown was sitting facing the

wall. With a wave of his hand, Qian Long dismissed the

maid servants from the room. He had just opened his

mouth to speak when the door curtains parted and two

bodyguards came in and stood quietly by the entrance.

"What are you doing here? Get out," he said angrily.

"Your slaves have orders from the Empress Dowager to

protect Your Highness," said one of the bodyguards.

"I'm fine. What do I need protection for?"

"The Empress Dowager knows she ... that the lady is

not ... that she is strong-willed, and is afraid that

she will inflict injury on Your Highness's precious

self."

Qian Long glanced down at his bandaged hand, and

shouted: "There's no need. Get out!"

The two bodyguards kowtowed frantically but did not

retire. He knew that no matter what, they would not

dare to disobey the Empress Dowager's orders, so he

took no further notice of them, and turned back to

face the girl in the white gown.

"Turn round, I have something to say," he said in the

Muslim tongue. The girl took no notice. In her hand

was a dagger. She gripped it even tighter.

Qian Long sighed. "Look at what is on the table," he

said. The girl ignored him for a moment, but finally

her curiosity got the better of her. She glanced round

and saw the pair of jade vases, and at the same

moment, the Emperor and the bodyguards were dazzled by

the sight of her beauty: it was Princess Fragrance.

She had been captured by General Zhao Wei's army and

sent to Beijing under special guard to the Emperor.

Qian Long thought it would be more interesting to be

able to talk to the girl directly, so he called for a

teacher to teach him the Muslim tongue. He was an

intelligent man and studied diligently, and after a

few months he could talk in a halting fashion.

But Princess Fragrance was already tightly bound to

Chen. Furthermore, Qian Long had been responsible for

the death of her father, making her even more adament

in her refusal of his advances. Several times she had

been forced almost to the point of suicide, but each

time she thought of Chen and restrained herself.

"I will be just like I was when surrounded by the

wolves," she thought. "That large wolf wanted to eat

me, but my knight finally saved me."

Qian Long watched her becoming more haggard day by

day. He was afraid she would die of melancholy, so he

called for the capital's best craftsmen and had the

Precious Moon Pavilion built for her to live in.

But Princess Fragrance took not the slightest notice.

The priceless treasures used to decorate the pavilion

were ignored, except for the murals covering the

walls. They depicted scenes of the Muslims areas, and

she stared at them glassy-eyed, reliving over and over

the carefree happiness of the days when she and Chen

had been together.

Sometimes Qian Long spied on her secretly and saw her

staring into distance, the trace of a smile playing

around her lips. One day he could resist it no longer

and he stretched out his hand to grasp her arm. There

was a flash of a dagger, and only Princess Fragrance's

ignorance of kung fu and his own sprightliness saved

him. But his left hand had been cut and in a moment

was covered in blood. He was so scared by the incident

that from that moment on, he did not dare to risk

annoying her again. When the Emperess Dowager heard of

the matter, she ordered the eunuchs to take the dagger

off her, but Princess Fragrance pointed it at her

chest whenever anyone came near her and threatened to

commit suicide. So Qian Long ordered them to stay away

from her and not to interfere.

Princess Fragrance was also afraid they would put

something in her food or drink, so apart from fresh

fruit she had peeled herself, she would touch nothing.

Qian Long had a Muslim-style bath constructed for her,

but she refused to use it, and after many days of not

bathing, her body's fragrance became even more

pronounced. Originally naive and ignorant of worldly

affairs, she became increasingly strong and

knowledgeable as the weeks went past as a result of

her exposure to the evil people who populated the

palace.

As soon as she spotted the vases, she started in shock

and quickly turned back to face the wall, gripping the

hilt of the dagger tightly and wondering what Qian

Long was up to.

He sighed. "When I first saw your image on the vases,

I was certain that such a person could not exist in

this world," he said. "But now I have seen you, I know

that the greatest of craftsmen could not capture a ten

thousandth of your beauty."

Princess Fragrance ignored him.

"If you continue to worry like this all day, you are

going to become ill," he continued. "Do you miss your

home? Go and look out of the window." He ordered the

bodyguards to open the window shutters.

Seeing the two bodyguards and Qian Long standing near

the window, Princess Fragrance harrumphed and turned

away. Qian Long understood and walked to the other

side of the room and ordered the bodyguards to do the

same. Only then did Princess Fragrance slowly walk

over to the window and look outside. She saw the

expanse of sand and the Muslim tents and her heart

twisted in pain. Two tears rolled slowly down her

cheeks, and she picked up one of the vases on the

table and threw it with all her strength at Qian

Long's head.

One of the bodyguards shot forward and intercepted the

vase, but it slipped from his grasp and shattered on

the floor just as the second vase came flying after

the first. The other bodyguard tried to catch it, but

it slipped through his hands and smashed beside the

first vase.

Afraid that she would try some other way of harming

the Emperor, the bodyguards sprang across the room at

her. Princess Fragrance immediately turned her dagger

round and put it to her throat.

"Stop!" Qian Long shouted frantically, and the

bodyguards halted in the tracks. Princess Fragrance

retreated several steps, and as she did there was a

clinking sound as something fell from her dress to the

ground. The bodyguards were afraid it was some kind of

weapon and quickly picked it up. Seeing it was a piece

of jade, they handed it to the Emperor.

Qian Long took hold of it, and his face drained of

colour. He recognised it instantly as the piece of

warm jade he had given to Chen on the breakwater at

Haining. When he had presented it, he had told Chen to

give it to the lady of his heart as an expression of

love.

"Do you know him?" he asked, flustered. He paused for

a second, then said: "Where did this piece of jade

come from?"

Princess Fragrance put out her hand. "Give it back to

me," she said.

Qian Long's jealousy flared. "Tell me who gave it to

you and I will return it."

"My husband gave it to me."

Qian Long was greatly surprised by this reply.

"Are you married already?"

"I have not married him in body yet, but my heart has

long been married to him," she answered proudly. "He

is the kindest and bravest person in the world. I know

he will rescue me from you. He is not afraid of you

and neither am I, even though you are Emperor."

"I know the man you are talking about," he said, his

voice full of hatred. "He is the Great Helmsman of the

Red Flower Society, Chen Jialuo. He is just a bandit

leader. What is so special about him?"

Princess Fragrance's heart leapt for joy at the sound

of Chen's name and her face lit up.

"So you know of him too. It would be better if you let

me go."

Qian Long looked up and happened to catch a glimpse of

his own face in a dressing table mirror. He thought of

Chen, his features handsome and cultured, equally

versed in scholarship and the martial arts and knew he

was no match for him. Full of jealousy and hatred, he

threw the jade piece at his image and smashed both it

and the mirror, covering the floor in broken glass.

Princess Fragrance rushed forward to pick up the jade,

which was unharmed, and wiped it lovingly, making Qian

Long even more angry. With a stamp of his foot, he

stormed out of the room and down the stairs.

He went to the quiet study where he usually read and

wrote poetry, and spotted a half-written poem on the

desk entitled 'The Precious Moon Pavilion': "The Fairy

Princess is in the Pavilion, A vision from the Son of

Heaven's dreams of former days."

Now, in a flash of anger, he ripped the poem up, and

then sat in silence for a long time.

Slowly, his temper cooled, and he thought: "I am the

Son of Heaven, I am all-powerful. So it finally comes

out that this barbarian girl's stubbornness is the

result of interference by Chen Jialuo. His appeal to

me to drive the Manchus out of China is a good idea,

but if things do not go as planned, not only will the

affair end in failure, but could end my life as well.

I've been debating this matter for months now, unable

to come to a decision. What should I do?"

And another thought rushed to the fore: "I can do

whatever I like already, and if this affair is

successful, it could mean I would be controlled by

these people. Can I allow myself to become a puppet?

Why abandon concrete assets for the sake of improving

my reputation? This Muslim girl thinks of nothing but

him. All right, we'll settle these two matters

together."

He told a eunuch to call for Bai Zhen who appeared

shortly afterwards. "Station four top-ranking

bodyguards on each floor of the Precious Moon Pavilion

and another twenty outside," he ordered. "There must

be no slip-ups of any kind." Bai Zhen bowed. "And call

for Chen Jialuo again. I have important business to

discuss with him. Tell him to come alone."

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