I can scarcely blame the provincial governor for being furious at me. I had delayed his entrance into Lotus Cloud's bed, and I rather sympathized with his exasperation.

   1

  "Since you appear to enjoy climbing my tower I shall expose you on top of it, and brick the door shut. You may choose between starving to death slowly, or dying quickly by jumping to your death," the governor snarled. "At least you will have company."

   2

  So they led me to the top of the tower. While the masons waited for my fellow prisoner before bricking the door shut I examined my surroundings. The tower was about fifty feet across, and it was a good one hundred-foot drop to the cobblestones of the courtyard. I already knew that the wall could not climbed without a rope, and soldiers patrolled constantly below. The only things on top of the tower were a flagpole from which fluttered the tiger flag of the Duke of Ch'in and the wreckage of an old bamboo pigeon coop. I decided that I was in bad trouble. Then the soldiers led the other prisoner to the top of the tower and the masons began bricking up the only exit.

   3

  I was beginning to suspect that coincidence had ceased to exist the moment I had arrived at the Pool of Past Existences, and I was not so surprised as you might expect when I took inventory of a pair of tiny pig eyes, a bald and mottled skull, a sharp curving nose like a parrot's beak, the loose flabby lips of a camel, and two huge drooping elephant ears from which sprouted thick tufts of coarse gray hair.

   4

  "Would you care to buy a goat?" I said.

   5

  As I say I was not all that surprised to see Miser Shen, but I was quite astonished when he ran across the tower with a huge happy smile, seized both my hands, and began pumping them vigorously.

   6

  "Dear boy, dear boy!" he cried. "I had feared that I would never have the opportunity of seeing my benefactor again, and thanking him in person!"

   7

  "Thanking him?"

   8

  "For saving my life, dear boy! Had it not been for you I would not have been forced to reveal my wealth to the Key Rabbit, which means that I would not have met Lotus Cloud, and if I had not met Lotus Cloud I would still be the stingiest and most miserable miser in China. Lotus Cloud," said Miser Shen, "made a new man of me."

   9

  "Let me guess," I said. "She bankrupted you in a week?"

   10

  Miser Shen drew himself up proudly, and cried:

   11

  "Great Buddha, no! Such was the extent of my wealth that it took the dear girl nearly a month to reduce me to abject poverty. Of course I owe a good deal to luck," he added modestly, "After she ran through all my money I was able to get extraordinarily good prices for my six houses, my eight flourishing businesses, my carriage, my sedan chair, my horse, my three cows, my five pigs, my ten savage guard dogs, my twenty chickens, my seven half-starved servants, my…do you happen to remember my concubine, Pretty Ping?"

   12

  "Vividly," I said.

   13

  "Well I was extremely lucky there. I managed to buy three more days of Lotus Cloud by selling Pretty Ping to a very nice young fellow in the brothel business. Lucky for Pretty Ping too, because one of her customers fell in love with her and made her his Number Three Wife, and I am told that he showers her with the gifts and affection which she never received from me. Poor girl. I treated her terribly, but then I was not truly human, since I had not yet met Lotus Cloud."

   14

  This was really very interesting. "And what did you do when you had nothing left to sell?" I asked.

   15

  "Why, I turned to crime, of course!" said Miser Shen. "I am particularly proud of my performance during the Dragon Boat Festival. As you know it was originally a somber ceremony honoring the great statesman Ch'u Yuan, who drowned himself as a protest against corrupt government, and the boats raced for the honor of being the first to sacrifice to his spirit. Lately it has become nothing but a boat race, with vast sums wagered on the result, and it occurred to me that Ch'u Yuan could not possibly be pleased at such sacrilege.

   16

  "I began by hitting a few people over the head in dark alleys in order to get money for my equipment," said Miser Shen. "My boy, you would have loved every minute of it! There came the Dragon Boats skimming across the water while the crowds went wild. There floated the Betting Boat, with all the officials and bookmakers on board. And there I came, walking right over the surface of the water. It was a shallow river and I was on stilts, of course. I wore the kind of ceremonial robes that Ch'u Yuan might have worn, and I had a long black beard and a staff.

   17

  "'Insolent dogs!' I roared, shaking my staff. 'You dare to turn my honorable death into a sporting event? I call upon the gods to smite you with plagues and earthquakes!'

   18

  "It was very effective because I had covered my face and head with protective ointment and my fake black beard with pitch," said Miser Shen, "and at that moment I set fire to my beard. So I marched across the surface of the water thundering terrible curses, with a halo of flames around my head, and of course everyone on the Betting Boat dove into the water and swam for their lives. Then I cut the anchor rope, climbed aboard, and poled off with all the money. I spent every cent for pearls and jade and followed Lotus Cloud here, but they caught me before I could reach her, and since fifty percent of the bookmakers' profits were to have gone to the Duke of Ch'in I was sentenced to death, and here I am."

   19

  This was Miser Shen? This vibrant fellow with sparkling eyes and a superb natural talent for crime? Now it was my turn to grab both his hands and pump them vigorously.

   20

  "Miser Shen, as soon as we escape from here we must go into partnership," I said. "Inside of three years we will own all China!"

   21

  "I think that is an excellent idea. But how are we going to escape from here?" said Miser Shen.

   22

  "I have concluded that the only way is to fly away like a couple of birds," I said. "So we will fly away like a couple of birds."

   23

  "Splendid," said Miser Shen.

   24

  "Of course we will probably be killed," I cautioned.

   25

  "I can well believe it," said Miser Shen.

   26

  We began work at sundown and finished at midnight. The bamboo poles from the old pigeon coop were strong and light and made an excellent framework, and the duke's tiger flag was first-rate silk, but I was a trifle worried about the design. At the Pool of Past Existences I had spent only a few minutes studying Chang Heng's man-carrying kites, and for some perverse reason I had paid more attention to the one seater than the two seater. Besides, I had completely forgotten Chang Heng's steering mechanism. Still, it would have to do.

   27

  "If this doesn't work I will ask the Yama Kings in Hell to allow me to be reborn as a three-toed sloth," I said. "I could use a long rest."

   28

  Miser Shen thought about it quite deeply, and then he said:

   29

  "I would like to be reborn as a tree. During this miserable existence I have done nothing but grub for money, and I would like to spend the next one providing free fruit for the hungry, free shade for the weary, free roosts for the birds, and when I am old and worn out free wood for woodcutters."

   30

  Miser Shen flushed with embarrassment. "You see, I come from peasant stock, and peasants name their favorite trees. It is the fondest wish of stingy Miser Shen to be known as 'Old Generosity'."

   31

  "Save a branch for a three-toed sloth," I said.

   32

  "I shall be honored to have you as my guest," said Miser Shen with a polite bow.

   33

  The wind sighed mournfully around the tower. Far above us a few silver clouds drifted across the face of the yellow moon, and far below we heard the hollow echo of the soldiers' boots as they patrolled the courtyard. There was no point in waiting. We lifted the kite over our heads.

   34

  "Ready? One...two...three...go!

   35

  We raced across the tower, hurled ourselves into space, swung up upon the seats, and plunged toward earth like a couple of rocks. Down, down, down, down - I could see the startled faces of the soldiers as they looked up and ran for their lives.

   36

  "Farewell, tree!" I yelled.

   37

  "Farewell, sloth!" yelled Miser Shen.

   38

  Down, down, down...up! We were lifting! The fingers of the wind grabbed hold of our kite and pitched it up into the air, and we shot up so fast that we feared we might collide with the moon. Then it leveled off, and we floated through the night like a couple of ants upon a leaf, gently drifting upon a balmy breeze.

   39

  "We must not forget to stop somewhere and collect a few pearls," I said.

   40

  "And jade," said Miser Shen.

   41

  "Lotus Cloud!" we cried as one, and we sailed on through the summer night beneath the bright yellow moon and a billion trillion twinkling stars.

   42

  I had intended to conclude the chapter at this point, but on second thought I would like to add something. Miser Shen and I both wanted to get back to Lotus Cloud more than anything else on earth, but he was afraid that I might think badly of her for accepting the love of someone so old and ugly as himself. So he told me his story in a shy and halting voice, and I would like to pass it on to you. I will stick to his own words as far as I can remember them.

   43

  "Many years ago I was a happy man. I was a peasant and I was poor, but I had a wonderful wife and the most adorable little daughter in the whole world, and we had a roof over our heads and enough to eat. I never dreamed of asking for more. But then the Duke of Ch'in - the father of the present duke - doubled the tax on our village. We could not possibly pay such a tax. So we drew lots, and I was the unlucky one who was sent to plead with the duke.

   44

  "There were many peasants at court who had come to plead for lower taxes, and it was a long time before I was granted an audience. I fell upon my knees and I told of the flood that had broken our dikes, and of the sickness that had killed our pigs. I told of the drought that had come in the two years before, and of the bandits who bullied us and stole our rice. It was a long story and a true one, and I had practiced it for a long time and I know that I told it well. When I was through the duke looked at me with his terrible tiger mask flashing in the torchlight, and he said,

   45

  "'Shen Chunlieh, today I have heard many tales of poverty, but yours alone rings true. Because I truly believe that you cannot pay my tax I have decided to grant you a very special favor. Not only shall I remit your taxes for this year, but I shall further decree that your village need never pay taxes again. My word is my bond, Shen Chunlieh, and you should remember my words when slanderers say that the Dukes of Ch'in are merciless.'

   46

  "I cannot describe my joy. I kissed the floor and crawled backwards from his presence. My feet had wings as I ran home with the wonderful news, and with each step I sang the praises of the Duke of Ch'in. When I climbed to the top of the last hill and looked down, I looked down upon smoldering ruins. 'Your village need never pay taxes again', said the Duke of Ch'in. His word was his bond. A village too poor to pay taxes was no use to the duke, so he had destroyed it as an example to others.

   47

  "By a miracle my wife and quite a few others survived. They had been at the lake fishing - the men fished and the women salted and dried the catch - but do you remember that I told you I had a little daughter? Her name was Ah Chen, and I loved her more than anything in the world. She had been left behind in the village, so she had been killed with all the others. I nearly went out of my mind with grief. I saw her face everywhere, and in the middle of the night I would hear her cry in the woods, and I would stumble through the darkness shouting: 'Ah Chen, your father is here!' They said that I would feel better if I sent a prayer to my little girl in Hell where she had gone to be judged. I could not read or write, so I went to a priest and he wrote down my prayer for me, and we burned it with food and paper money and sent it to Ah Chen. But I did not feel better.

   48

  "One day a traveler told of a great man who lived at the end of Bear's Path, high in the Omei Mountains. 'He is the wisest man in the world,' said the traveler. 'He is called the Old Man of the Mountain, and he knows all secrets, and he can surely bring your little girl back to life. But you must bring money,' said the traveler. 'You must bring much money, because the Old Man of the Mountain does not sell his secrets cheaply.'

   49

  "I had no money, so I set out to make some. Like everyone else who sets out to make money I lied and I cheated and I stole and I ruined my friends, but only the money mattered. I had to bring my little girl back to life. When my wife fell ill I scarcely noticed. I was too busy making money, and when they dragged me to her deathbed she said: 'Shen Chunlieh, beloved husband, you must forget about money. You must let little Ah Chen rest in peace. If you go on this way you will surely lose your mind.' When she died I wept, but I went right on making money.

   50

  "I was not aware of losing my mind. The years passed, and gradually I forgot what I wanted the money for - oh, I would remember the Old Man of the Mountain now and then, but I would tell myself that he would ask a tremendous price to bring Ah Chen back to life and that I did not have enough. The money mattered, only the money. I could not get enough of it. I could not spend any of it. I must make more and more and more, and I must bury it in chests. So I became Miser Shen, the greediest and stingiest and most miserable of men, and I would have remained that way until I died if Lotus Cloud had not bankrupted me and brought me to my senses.

   51

  "Li Kao, there are women who can see right into the heart of a man. Perhaps you will feel better if you realize that Lotus Cloud never accepted the love of Miser Shen. She accepted the love of a poor peasant who loved his little girl too much, and who went insane."

   52