No sooner had Madam Li set foot within the room than a rank, fetid odour met her nostrils, and she saw the Vice Sect Leader Ma and Elder Qian seated cross-legged on either side of the couch, their eyes closed, composing their breath in meditation. In the bare space between the two men stood a basin of blood-water black as ink, whence the foul stench rose up. Their faces were somewhat pale, as Han Li had indeed said, for they had spent no small measure of their power.
Madam Li felt a stir of gratitude spring up within her toward the pair. She herself knew no martial arts; yet, long and deeply steeped in such matters by hearing and example, she was well aware that she must not disturb them in this hour. She therefore slackened her step, and moving with light, quiet tread came to the bedside and looked upon the man who lay there.
There lay Elder Li, sunk in a sweet, deep sleep, the painful furrow that had knit his brows utterly gone. His face was yet somewhat sallow and tinged with green; but the black vapours were clean swept away, and of the poison-spots there remained only faint traces, like the stain a drop of water leaves upon a stone. The venom was truly and wholly undone; and Madam Li could not forbear to weep for very joy.
A good while she stood thus, until at length she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and it came into her mind that she ought now to go back and richly thank Han Li. So she turned and slipped softly away to the guest hall; but no sooner was she at the door than she was hemmed in on all sides and pelted with questions, seven tongues wagging at once; yet, scanning the gathering, she found no Han Li among the crowd.
This gave her no little surprise, and she made haste to ask Ma Rong and the others what had become of him. From their answers she learned that Han Li, having written out a tonic prescription, had taken his leave and gone floating away as lightly as a cloud, without tarrying so much as a moment longer in the place.
Madam Li heard it out; for a long while she could find no word, but her mind was made up. The moment her husband should be restored to health, the two of them must needs go in person to Han Li's own door, and with heavy gifts of gold repay this great debt of a life preserved.
What Madam Li did not perceive was that, besides the worthy Physician Han, one other had slipped away from the hall — none other than Li Feiyu, who but a little before had stayed glued to Zhang Xiuer's side, never moving an inch from her.
By the side of some remote lane, beneath a great and leafy tree, lay Han Li, newly come from Elder Li's dwelling. He lay sprawling upon the grass, his hands pillowed behind his head, counting, with prodigious tedium, the green leaves upon a certain branch. When he had numbered close upon a thousand, a dark shadow dropped from the sky and hurled itself upon him with the fury of an eagle stooping upon a chick, fiercely, at full tilt, as though driven by some deep-seated enmity.
"Ho there! Enough of your horseplay!" cried Han Li. "Every time we meet, it's tug and tussle. Mind you, I'm not that Zhang Xiuer of yours!"
At these words the dark shadow, mid-flight, turned nimbly in the air, and settled lightly down at Han Li's side with a grace that was a marvel to behold. It was Li Feiyu, come hot upon his heels.
"Han Li, you — with that black, sooty complexion of yours, how dare you set yourself beside Miss Zhang Xiuer? You'd only shame the girl to be mentioned in the same breath as you!"
So saying, Li Feiyu, with an air of displeasure, lifted the tip of his right foot and dealt Han Li a smart kick upon the hinder parts, by way of punishment.
Han Li rolled his eyes at this, and then, with a lightning spring — fish leaping from the water — was on his feet.
"It seems our Senior Brother Li has made up his mind to prize a fair face above a friend. A sorry way I chose my comrade!"
"Spare me the tattle," said Li Feiyu, in some heat, "and tell me outright why you called me here. I scarce could find an hour to be near Miss Zhang, and I've thrown it away on this. Unless you can give me a reason that will hold water, you'll not be let off easily!"
But Han Li made a great show of astonishment — a farce so broad it could scarce be missed. "Did I call you out? I had no notion of it. Did ever I say the words with my own lips?"
"The look you shot me as you came out — any man but a blind man could read it. Don't beat about the bush. If there's nothing in it, I'll truly be going." Li Feiyu turned as if to leave, but contrived the feint so well that Han Li could not tell truth from jest.
Yet Han Li was not minded to carry the mockery further. His countenance changed, and he spoke to Li Feiyu in all seriousness:
"Do not think me a meddlesome tongue; but, as a friend, I would ask you one thing. Does Miss Zhang Xiuer know that you have taken the Marrow-Draining Pill, and that but a few years of life are left to you?"
At these words the blood drained from Li Feiyu's face in a moment, till it was white as paper and without a trace of colour; and for a long while he could not utter a word. Han Li sighed within himself, knowing there was no more to ask. The look on the other's face at that instant told the whole tale.
"Why must you wake me so cruelly from my dream?" said Li Feiyu at last, in a voice full of grief, and after a long pause, with great pain.
Han Li did not answer the accusation, but instead gently patted the other upon the shoulder, in token of comfort.
"You must have heard," said Han Li, when at last the other's mood had somewhat steadied, "that in this matter of feeling, the more a man gives, the more he stands to suffer." Those few words struck Li Feiyu with such force that he could but stare.
"It is because I would spare you a heavier grief hereafter, that I seek to draw you out before you are sunk too deep," Han Li added, slowly.
Li Feiyu gazed at Han Li in a daze, a strange look in his eyes. "What is the matter?" asked Han Li, a little unsettled by the other's fixed stare, and he made haste to look himself up and down.
"How old are you, boy? You speak as though you were a veteran of the haunts of love, one who has seen through the vanity of this mortal world. Have you, then, known the delight of man and maid?"
"Of course I have not. These words I took from books; and thinking they held some truth, I brought them out for your consolation."
"Oh, is that all! I thought as much. For with the handsome, dashing air that Heaven has dealt me, I could not think to lag behind you in such a matter, that you should hold forth on your insights. So it was all book-lore, nothing more!" And Li Feiyu let out a long breath, and patted his chest over and over, as though he had had a great fright.
Han Li was wordless. The fellow recovered his spirits at a speed that passed belief — in one breath he had been beside himself with despair, and in a trice he was grinning again, a frivolous creature, a slave to every passing mood.
Yet Han Li was of a mind to press the matter to the bottom, and would not let it go. "Tell me true — have you truly given up on Miss Zhang Xiuer? Could you look on unmoved while another man held her in his arms?"
At this, the levity upon Li Feiyu's face froze into something cold and merciless. With a murderous air, and in a tone chill as frost, he said, "Let but a single man so much as lay a hand upon Miss Zhang, and I will hew that hand from his body!"
"That much, when I am dead, I neither can nor will govern; but while I draw breath, Miss Zhang Xiuer shall belong to me, and to none other." And the very words, falling from his lips, seemed enough to turn a man to ice.