questions ... Go and fetch my medicine chest.' 'Yes, Goong-goong!' piped Trinket. He went into the other room again, but nowhere could he see a medicine chest. He opened the cupboard and searched every drawer. 'What are you up to in there?' snapped Old Hai. 'Who told you you could rummage in my drawers?' Trinket's heart missed a beat. 'So those drawers are out of bounds,' he thought quickly. puma shoes uk 'I was looking for the medicine chest. I don't know where you put it.' 'Stuff and nonsense!' cried the old eunuch petulantly. 'Can't you even find the medicine chest Trinket improvised frantically: 'But I've just killed someone ... I feel funny, I'm all shaky and afraid . . . And now you tell me you're blind . . . Oh Goong-goong, I just can't seem to do anything right at the moment He let out a great wail. He was terrified that his failure to locate the medicine puma shoes ferrari chest would give him away. Wailing was one thing he could always fall back on with conviction. 'Silly boy! Killing's nothing cheap puma shoes ! Nothing! The medicine chest is inside one of the big trunks.' 'Yes, Goong-goong!' sobbed Trinket, most pathetically. 'I'm just so scared . . .' He took a quick look at the two trunks. They were both of them padlocked, and he had no idea where to find the keys. Fortunately, the first padlock simply opened when he tugged at it. It had not been properly closed. Tm in luck!' he whispered to himself. 'If I'd had to ask where the keys were, heaven help me! The Old Turtle would certainly have tumbled to it then.' He removed the padlock and opened the trunk. It contained mostly clothes, but on the left side he spotted a medicine chest of the sort used by peripatetic doctors. He took it out and went back to the other room. 'Sprinkle some of the Decomposing Powder on the corpse!' ordered Hai. 'Yes, Goong-goong.' Trinket opened the little drawers of the medicine chest one by one, and found them to be full of tiny porcelain bottles of different shapes and colours. Which of them contained this strange-sounding powder he had not the least idea. 'Which bottle is it?' he asked. What's the matter with you today, you idiotic boy?' grumbled Old Hai. 'Have you quite lost your senses?' 'I. . .' Trinket hesitated. 'I'm just so scared. Goong-goong, do you think you'll be able to use your eyes again?' He sounded most passionately concerned for the old eunuch's sight. Hai seemed touched; he stretched out his hand and patted the boy gently on the head. 'It's the little triangular bottle, the blue one with white spots. Be careful: the powder is very precious. You only need to use the tiniest amount.' 'Yes, Goong-goong.' He took out the little bottle Hai had described, removed the stopper, found a piece of white paper in the chest, and tipped a tiny amount of the powder on to it. This he then sprinkled over Laurel's corpse. Minutes went by, and nothing happened. What's the matter?' asked Old Hai. 'Nothing seems to be happening,' replied Trinket. 'Did you sprinkle it on his blood?' 'Oh! I forgot!' He tipped out some more of the powder and this time sprinkled it directly on the wound. There's really something queer about you today,' grumbled the old eunuch. 'You even speak quite differently.' As he said this Laurel's body started to make a sizzling sound, and to give off steam. A yellowish pus-like fluid started oozing from the knife-wound, the steam grew denser, the flow of yellow fluid more abundant. It gave off a bitter, acrid smell; the wound began to enlarge and suppurate, and the flesh all round it to show visible signs of decomposition. The yellow pus made the flesh steam on contact, and then gradually the flesh itself—and even the clothes he was wearing—liquefied. Trinket watched all this in dumbstruck amazement. He dropped his own clothes (the ones he had just discarded) on top of the corpse, and, noticing that his own sandals were broken at the toe, he pulled off Laurel's, slipped them on, and added his own cast-offs to the decomposing pile. The whole process took about two hours. By the end of that time, Laurel, his clothes, and Trinket's sandals and socks, were all gone, and all that was left was a puddle of pus. 'If only the Old Turtle had passed out!' thought Trinket to himself. Then I could have chucked him on too. And that would have been the last anyone would have seen of him But Old Hai was still alive and coughing, and showing no signs of losing consciousness. The Dice are Loaded First light began to glimmer dirough the paper panes of the window. Trinket pondered his situation: 'Now I'm all dolled up in these clothes, I can just stroll out and no one will even know who I really am ... It'll be a walkover!' His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by Old Hai: 'Laurel, tell me, it's dawn isn't it?' 'Yes, Goong-goong.' 'Fetch some water and mop the floor. There's a nasty smell in here.' Trinket scooped a few gourdfuls of water from the tub in the inner room, and washed the pus from the floor. 'After breakfast you can go and play dice with the others,' said the old eunuch. Try and win something for a change!' Trinket was somewhat taken aback by this, and diought for a moment the old man must be having him on. 'Play dice? I don't think I should. I oughtn't to go skipping off and leave you, not when you're blind—' 'It's not skipping off, silly boy!' snapped the old eunuch. 'All these months I've been trying to teach you, and all you've done is lose me hundreds of taels of silver. Don't forget the cause, what it's all for Don't go against me now!' Trinket had no idea what this was all about, and mumbled back: 'I never . . puma trainers . meant to go against you, Goong-goong. I was only thinking of your health. You're so weak, and coughing so badly. If I go and ... do this, there'll be no one left to take care of you.' 'You seem to have forgotten: do this and you will be doing something of the u white puma shoes tmost importance. Go, try your hand again. See if you can throw.' Throw . . . Throw what?' blurted Trinket. 'Bring me the dice!' barked the old eunuch angrily. 'And stop making feeble excuses! You're just hopeless. All this time to practise and still you talk like a loser!' At the words 'Bring me the dice!' Trinket's eyes lit up. In Yangzhou his favourite pastime, apart from listening to the storyteller, had always been watching the gambling. Though he was only a boy, in the dens of Yangzhou he was already considered a mean hand at dice. There was only one slight problem: where were the dice he was now supposed to fetch? 'My mind's gone a complete blank, Goong-goong. I can't remember anything. I can't think where I put the dice.' 'Useless creature!' growled Hai. 'You're just scared of playing. And why, for goodness' sake? It's not even your money. Go on, they're in the big trunk, where they always are.' 'I suppose so, Goong-goong.' Trinket trotted off into the inner room, and after rooting around in the open trunk he finally came across a little brocade box with a porcelain bowl inside it containing six dice. It was like seeing an old friend! He couldn't help letting out a little cry of glee. And then, when he held them in his hand, he let out another little cry: for these were not just any old friends, these were very special, very intimate old friends. The minute they were in the palm of his hand he knew they were loaded—filled with mercury, and specially 'weighted'. They were indeed the seasoned cheater's bosom buddies. He returned to Hai with bowl and dice. 'Are you sure you want me to go and play? Are you sure you'll be all right here on your own?' 'Stop talking so much, and let's see what you're good for,' said Old Hai. 'I give you ten tries to throw me a Sky.' In those days, gamblers used either four or six dice. With six dice, you had to throw four of a kind, and if the remaining two dice were Sixes the resultant combination was known as a Sky; two Ones made an Earth. 'What an insult!' thought Trinket to himself. Ten tries to throw a Sky—with puma shoe design loaded dice!' But the dice he'd been used to were loaded with lead. Mercury was a lot harder to control. His first five throws produced nothing. On the sixth throw he had two Sixes, three Threes, and a Four: it only needed that Four to be a Three, and he'd have a Sky. A deft little piece of finger-play on the part of Trinket, and hey presto! Four became Three, and there was his Sky! He clapped his hands and announced triumphantly: There! A perfect Sky!' 'Don't think you can fool me boy, just because I can't see! Bring the dice here and let me feel them!' He felt inside the bowl, and sure enough there were four Threes and two Sixes. 'You're in luck today! Now—throw me a Plum Blossom!' Trinket took the dice and was about to throw again, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. It was evident by now that Laurel had not been much of a success as a gambler. If he, Trinket, now displayed his real skill it would start to look fishy. The Old Turtle might get suspicious.