by Yan LeiSheng
Who could have sent it her? Only Master Yangming knew she was in Beijing, where the former headquarters of the Society of the Mind had been located. Was it possible that another member of the Brotherhood had escaped and was here still?
Like all the others in the tea house, the “Mani” room was only separated from the main room by a thin wall, making it difficult to ignore the surrounding hubbub. Through the crack in the curtain that hid the entrance, Shao Jun could see the back of a man sitting at the table in front of the window.
Who was it? Could it be a trap? To her knowledge, she and the mentor were the last remaining members to know the Brotherhood’s code, but she couldn’t imagine him setting up a meeting right in the middle of the capital.
Of course, he could have sent someone else in his place, but who would he trust enough to do so?
The man inside must have seen her as she hesitated before the curtain.
“Young girl!” he called.
It was Master Yangming’s voice! Despite her surprise, she entered and sat at the table.
“Master…” she began to whisper before suddenly stopping.
While she was known to the Eight Tigers, Master Yangming’s identity was still unknown to them, so she preferred to avoid saying his name. Yet she found it very unwise to meet in such a busy location. What if one of their enemy’s informers found them?
“Young girl,” the mentor said in a low voice, “there is no need to be so concerned. We are not in Shaoxing, where everyone watches everyone else. Do not fear, this place is safe.”
He must have thought that her paranoia resulted from the surprise attack on Mount Wolong that could have cost her life, when Gao Feng and his accomplice had failed to kill her.
“Master, don’t make fun of me,” she laughed. “How was I to know that you would ask me to meet in a place like this?”
“That is entirely the point. Who would think to find us here? The truly wise do not live as hermits in the mountains, but in contact with human trepidations.”
She had already heard this sentence several times before, but it was certainly the first time she saw it applied so scrupulously. Knowing that the mentor would answer her questions in due course, she simply asked, “Master, how did you reach Beijing?”
Wang Yangming spent most of his time at Jishan University since he retired from his government post. The situation must be serious if he felt the need to come to the capital. But the calmness with which he sipped his tea belied this supposition.
“The Emperor called me to Beijing because an uprising has broken out in Tianzhou. As I arrived yesterday and depart tomorrow, I could only see you today. So, did you manage to kill Wei the Snake?”
Tianzhou prefecture in Guangxi had been unstable since Lu Su, a local tribal chief, had rebelled in the fourth year of Jiajing’s reign, and Viceroy Yao Mo and the deputy Chen Xi had to unite to reestablish order. But Lu Su had once again begun to cause trouble. The central government had chosen to send Wang Yangming in response to the viceroy’s request for aid, who was to take part in the military expedition despite no longer being in post. He surely owed this dubious privilege due to the role he had played in the revolt of the prince of Ning.
“Yes, master. I followed your instructions and Wei the Snake is dead.”
The mentor’s expression grew more serious as she recounted the events, which intrigued the young woman.
“Ma the Butcher has not appeared?” he asked after she had finished her story.
“No, not yet. Why?”
“How strange…”
Based on his strategy, Wang Yangming was not surprised that Shao Jun had succeeded in killing Wei Bin, but he did find it strange that Ma Yongcheng, from whom he was normally inseparable, had not yet appeared. He had even concocted a trick to separate them from one another, because they were practically invincible when they were together.
It was possible that the Snake didn’t always accompany the Butcher on his missions, but the two both answered to the same superior: Zhang Yong. And the fact that he had not yet retaliated must mean he was planning something unexpected. Wang Yangming had hoped to get rid of Wei Bin and find out the secret of his old friend and rival, but clearly only the first part of his plan had worked.
Unaware of these inner thoughts, Shao Jun waited for the mentor to sit up and drink a mouthful of tea, before asking, “So, is Ma the Butcher next on my list?”
Many members of the Brotherhood who had fallen into his clutches had begged him to allow them to die quickly. Of all the Tigers, he was the most inhuman, and it was he who the young woman hated the most. Once again, the master ignored her question and continued to sip his tea, which only increased her nervousness.
After a long moment he looked up at her. “Young girl, what do you think of the mind?”
Confused, she wondered why he asked this question. Convinced that she must be missing something, she only dared answer after thinking for a time.
“It’s the universe.”
“The universe is my mind and my mind is the universe”, Zhu Jiuyuan had often said, himself citing the teachings of Master Yangming.
The latter smiled.
“Yes, the universe. It extends above, below, and in all four directions, since time immemorial through to the present day. The universe is all, limitless, in time and space.”
Shao Jun was not in the mood to learn patience. The Society of the Mind could only be rebuilt once the Eight Tigers had been eliminated. They had already killed two since her return to China, and it was time to attack the others. But for now, she just nodded politely.
“Now Wei Bin is dead,” the master continued, “I think the rest of the operation can wait. The trouble in Tianzhou should stabilize within a year, and we can return to our mission when I return. I recommend you leave Beijing until then.”
“Leave Beijing?”
“You did kill Wei Bin after all. I doubt that Zhang Yong is pleased!”
The young woman was lost for words. When she came out of her reverie, she asked, “But what will he do?”
“I don’t know what he has in mind, but the most likely is that he will send Ma the Butcher after you. His attack will be meticulously planned, and I am afraid you will be in deep trouble without me.”
As captain of the Eastern Bureau, the empire’s secret police, Ma Yongcheng had numerous spies at his disposal, which made him difficult to trap and a dangerous adversary. And so, despite her annoyance, Shao Jun was forced to admit that she had no chance of winning against him without Master Yangming’s help, just like she would never have triumphed over Wei Bin. While he worked to pacify the rebellion, she would lie low for a time. She was ready to accept this, but would have liked to know when exactly the fight could recommence.
As if he was reading her mind, the mentor continued. “Don’t worry, young girl. You won’t be bored while I am away in Tianzhou.”
“Hm? What do you want me to do?”
“It’s about that scroll…”
“What does it contain exactly?”
When the former Emperor had given this mysterious object to his favorite just before his death, he had asked her to give it to one man: Wang Yangming. But at the time, the young woman had no idea he was the mentor of the Society of the Mind, and so she had missed her opportunity.
Zhang Yong had then turned the palace upside down looking for it, and finally had it in his possession.
“While we still don’t know what they want it for,” said the mentor, ”we now know that the scroll and the box are connected, and that Zhang Yong is determined to have them both, badly enough even to set fire to the Leopard Quarter. Your task will be to investigate this matter. If Wei Bin was prepared to let you live in exchange for the box, it must be of the utmost importance.”
“Certainly, master. But do you know the meaning of the characters Dai Yu engraved on t
he scroll case?”
“According to the writings of the philosopher Lie Tzu, it was the place the old Emperor named, by imperial edict, one of the five sacred mountains in the east of the Bohai Sea, into which the Sky River flows near the gulf of Guixiu, ‘the place of return’.”
“The sacred mountains?” Shao Jun repeated with a shiver.
Old Emperor Zhengde had received a number of Tao monks and magicians from various places into the court, and had himself practiced their art, “the way of enlightenment, wisdom, and plenty which leads to eternal life”, as it was known then. But the Emperor died at the age of thirty-one, and all the masters who had predicted a long life were ridiculed.
“Lie Tzu says that the giants of the dragon kingdom once fished the two turtles which carried Dai Yu and Yuan Jiao on their backs, and that the mountains then drifted towards the north pole. That is why now only three remain.”
Shao Jun had long ago heard of these three mountainous islands from the supervisor of the harem.
“But why did the old Emperor insist on naming the island?”
“He was a wise man, so there must have been a reason.”
Wang Yangming put down his tea cup and gazed out of the window. The individual rooms in Baoji tea house looked over a small garden planted with gingkos, a tree which grows so slowly that it takes two generations to produce fruit, earning it the nickname of “the grandchildren tree”. The ones near the temple, planted under the Yuans over two hundred years before, bore small buds in the early spring weather. In just a few weeks they would be covered in luxuriant leaves. Contemplating this unmoving spectacle, the mentor spoke again.
“You said you knew Chen Xijian, the old eunuch who attended the Leopard Quarter, is that right?”
“Yes! Do you know if he is still alive?”
“Yes, he now oversees the Xiaoling tomb in Nanjing,”
Although the tomb was the burial place of the founder of the Ming dynasty, Emperor Hongwu, the position was not that prestigious. After the capital was moved, the emperors had their mausoleums built in Beijing, so a move to Xiaoling was a lackluster end to any career.
“He was transferred there in the third year of Jiajing’s reign,” the mentor explained, “after taking part in the mutiny against Zhang Yong. But as a former attendant of the Leopard Quarter, he must know the scroll’s secret.”
“That’s true, he was present when Emperor Zhengde gave it to me.”
“That said, he won’t necessarily agree to help you just because he was demoted. Who knows, he may have been the one who told Zhang Yong about the scroll…”
Shao Jun’s heart sank. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Master Yangming about A-Qiang. Her friend had betrayed her. She didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“Master,” she responded quietly, “Uncle Chen can be trusted.”
The mentor remained silent for a moment, then suddenly declared, “Young girl, trusting too easily will get us into serious trouble. Perhaps Uncle Chen has been corrupted, in which case you will need to take drastic measures.”
If Uncle Chen tried to denounce her, she would be forced to kill him, but the idea seemed inconceivable when she thought of the kindly old septuagenarian. As if reading her mind, the mentor added, “Distinguishing good from evil is an essential knowledge, and true knowledge allows evil to be transformed into good. If this man has broken faith, you place your life in his hands simply by visiting him, and if his heart is still treacherous, then he will be beyond all redemption. Young girl, you have a good heart but you are too indecisive: you consider your smallest actions a thousand times instead of acting decisively in the midst of chaos. I must warn you that this attitude could be your downfall. Remember it well.”
Shao Jun’s thoughts suddenly cleared.
“Master, is it not true that, great or small, good is good, and likewise for evil?”
“The general who spends his life killing in cold blood could become a great buddha at the time of his death,” Wang Yangming laughed.
Good and evil are not so opposed as they may seem. As Confucius said, “The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father”: they each evolve in a constant relationship of equivalence and interdependence, their edges often blurred by the complexity of their entwinement. And yet, it is precisely because they are inseparable that Master Yangming’s philosophy aspired to distinguish them in order to act with an enlightened mind.
There is a tale of a king who, after spending his life killing at every opportunity, on his deathbed regretted his actions and had a Buddhist priestess called to his bedside. She burned incense and told him that under the Song dynasty, the monks of her faith preached that “one who spends their life committing the greatest crimes is not necessarily devoid of compassion, just as one who never steps on an ant is not necessarily a model of altruism”. By this, she meant that his crimes were no longer sins as his heart had already begun on the path to enlightenment.
Master Yangming’s philosophy was inspired by Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and he would use all of their secrets to help Shao Jun find her peace. Drawing a small piece of jade from his pocket, he said, “Keep this with you, young girl. When you reach Nanjing, if you are in dire straits, present this pendant to the master of the Temple of the Jade of the Five Virtues, and he will protect you. His influence is such that not even Zhang Yong will be able to find your trail.” He was silent for a moment, then continued. “But please, only go to him as a last resort.”
The jade was small but of excellent quality. On one side it featured the sculpted character for teaching in seal script, and plants and waves on the other. Wang Yangming had complete trust in his friend, but did not wish to trouble him unless the need was extreme.
Hands pressed together, Shao Jun bowed as a sign of respect. “Thank you, master!”
When she lifted her head, the mentor had disappeared, but his smile was engraved in her memory. She was happy that he had indicated the path to follow. When Ezio Auditore and she had parted ways, he had given her the Precursor Box to guide her in the case of uncertainty, but the box was empty, and she had found no hint or guide within.
Wang Yangming was on his guard against the unlikely possibility that he was being watched by a spy, but he passed as unnoticed as a drop of water in the ocean when he merged into the crowd of visitors and pilgrims exiting the tea house.
He must immediately depart for Tianzhou prefecture. While the rebellion was smaller than that of the prince of Ning, he did not know how long it would last. As minister of state, he willingly agreed to put his talents at his country’s service, but he was nevertheless concerned that he had been recommended for this task by… Zhang Yong!
Wang Yangming was not convinced that it was a simple political favor from an old friend, and his unease had continued ever since the leader of the Eight Tigers had visited him at the university. Yes, he must be suspicious. But more than anything, the mentor was worried about Shao Jun, whose impatience and youth led her to underestimate her enemies. And it had been far too easy to trap Wei Bin… Zhang Yong was not a man to make this kind of mistake.
The leader of the Tigers maintained that the reform of the empire must come through conquest, which required radical decisions and careful study of past mistakes to avoid repeating them. But he must know that control on this scale was an illusion. His power was certainly considerable, but he did not have the time to lead the citizens and military of the empire. Did he really think that the scroll would allow him to control the world? If so, how? With devastating artillery? Some kind of firearm which didn’t need to be reloaded? Whatever it was, weapons alone were not enough to control the world. And what Shao Jun saw at the Leopard Quarter didn’t look like research for military equipment.
Before he died, Wei Bin had revealed a link between the scroll and the box, but too many details were still unknown. It was
however certain that Zhang Yong was determined to acquire the box then kill Shao Jun, and it was probably why he had sent her protector to Tianzhou, evidence that he suspected a connection between them. Wang Yangming congratulated himself on having kept the item with him, it was safer that way. It had also been wise of him to advise the former imperial favorite to leave the capital, as unlike her, the mentor felt the cold jaws of the trap beginning to close around them. Their enemy would probably try to use Wei Bin’s death to his advantage.
Like any cautious chess player, Wang Yangming preferred to avoid reckless risks and to move the fewest pieces as possible while he tried to read his opponent’s strategy. But his adversary wasn’t afraid to break the rules completely, and his disregard for human lives, including those close to him, appeared to give him a certain advantage. Unable to do anything but wait for the other’s move, the mentor knew he was in a weak position, despite his secret weapon. For the moment, the key was finding out if this Chen Xijian was reliable or if he was nothing more than bait…
The old master suddenly broke into laughter.
He was overthinking things, that was it. The more he thought, the more problems he would find. Perhaps it was he who was blind to Shao Jun’s potential. After all, she had lured Wei Bin into the trap and killed him, which was far beyond the skills of any ordinary girl. So, if she trusted Uncle Chen, she must have good reason, and the rest didn’t matter. It would be good for her to develop her own plans and carry them out without his help. And if it went badly, he had told her of the safe haven in Nanjing…
Wang Yangming was not pleased with the turn in this latest chapter of his friendship with Zhang Yong, the conclusion of which would not be long in coming. Whether it pleased him or not, they may soon face one another in a final duel from which only one of them would emerge alive.
The jade pendant he had just given away had symbolized the affection and respect between Zhang Yong and Yang Yiqing. He had never imagined he would use it so, but he was relieved to hand it over to Shao Jun, as recently he had felt as if it were burning against his chest.