The Way of the Traitor: A Samurai Mystery (21 page)
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Authors: Laura Joh Rowland
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BOOK: The Way of the Traitor: A Samurai Mystery
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A deep, wracking cough convulsed his body. Blood gushed from his mouth. He began to tremble uncontrollably. The death throes seemed to rob him of courage and faith, and the painful reality of dying to banish dreams of divine paradise. His gaze cleared, sharpening with terror.
oNo! I don't want to die. I'm afraid! His hand gripped Sano's with desperate strength. oPlease, save me!
Sano tried to quiet him; Toz was beyond help. But the Christian refused to accept the inevitable. oPlease, Honorable Chief Persecutor, he begged, mistaking Sano for Dannoshin. oI'll do anything you ask. Another cough produced a fresh outpouring of blood. oI renounce... the Christian religion. I spit on God... I swear eternal allegiance... to the shogun. He thrashed and shuddered.
oQuiet, Sano urged, hating to see a fellow warrior "even a Christian criminal "admit defeat. oRest.
oI'll tell you anything you want to know. Just don't let me die!
Sano was appalled. He badly needed information about Nagasaki's Christian underground, but how could he take advantage of this cruel torture? Tasting shame and anticipation, he held the crucifix in front of Toz's eyes and said, oWhere did this come from? Who owns it?
o... Barbarians... Deshima... secret network. Christian contraband... passed along a chain of couriers from the Dutch to my people... Toz coughed and gasped.
oWho leads the network? Sano asked urgently.
oUh... uh... A massive convulsion spasmed Toz ~s body. Blood gurgled in his throat. Then he became still. Disappointed, Sano bowed his head and offered a silent prayer for the man's spirit. Christian or Buddhist, everyone died eventually; everyone deserved a ritual to mark the end of life. Then Sano gently laid aside Toz's limp hand and walked back to Dannoshin's office.
The chief Persecutor looked up from the dais. oToz is dead, then? he asked, reading Sano's expression.
Sano nodded.
oDid he renounce his faith, or tell you anything before he died? Dannoshin asked hopefully.
Without hesitation, Sano said, oNo. Nothing.
However, Toz's statement had given Sano an idea of what activities on Deshima might have led to Spaen's murder. And he could think of one way to prove it, tonight.
Then, after he'd left Nagasaki Jail and mounted his horse outside the gate, two soldiers approached him. oWe have an urgent message from Yoriki Ota, said the spokesman, and Sano guessed that the paunchy guard he'd seen earlier had told the soldiers where to find him. oThe courtesan Peony is dead. Please come with us.
Chapter 17
ARRIVING AT the Half Moon Pleasure House with his escorts, Sano noted the brothel's grim transformation since his last visit. Bamboo shades covered the window cages, although it was early evening and almost time for the festivities to begin. The crowds, evidently aware that a death had occurred, gave the Half Moon a wide berth. As Sano dismounted, he saw courtesans peering fearfully from the upstairs windows. A doshin and three civilian assistants guarded the doorway, where the proprietor Minami stood, his scowling temple-dog face livid with anger.
oI can't run my business with the house full of police, he raged. oAnd no one wants to come inside while she's still here. I want you to leave. Now!
The doshin merely folded his arms with an air of weary tolerance. Minami jumped aside and glared as Yoriki Ota pushed past him out the doorway. oI'm losing money, Minami huffed. oI demand that you take your men and go, so I can clean up the mess and resume my business!
oBe quiet, or I'll arrest you, Ota told him, then greeted Sano with a perfunctory bow. oSo here you are. Come. I'll take you to Peony.
They entered the house. More doshin and assistants lounged in the lamp-lit reception room, smoking and talking. In the dim corridors, frightened servants shrank against the walls to let Sano and Ota pass.
oHow did she die? Sano asked.
oSuicide. You'll see.
Yoriki Ota led Sano upstairs to the courtesans' living quarters, a series of tiny chambers behind paper-paned walls. From somewhere came the sound of a woman's hysterical weeping.
oShe's in there, Ota said, stopping outside a door where another doshin stood guard.
Gingerly Sano slid back the door. The fetid, metallic smell of blood and death poured out, polluting his skin, his lungs. Fighting nausea, he entered the room. The guard brought a lantern and hung it on the wall. Sano saw that the window had been opened to let in fresh air, but the cramped chamber was still hot and stuffy. Peony lay sprawled against the wall, knees bent, in the tangle of her blood-soaked garments. Flies alit on the thickly clotted gash that slanted down the left side of her neck and across her throat. More blood had dribbled from her mouth, caked her long hair into sticky strands, and fanned across the tatami. Her clouded eyes bore an expression of terrified shock. Her left hand gripped the plain wooden handle of a knife that protruded from the fatal wound.
Sano shook his head pityingly. oWho found her, and when? he asked Ota, who stood in the doorway behind him.
oOne of the maids. Around noon, Ota said.
Sano turned. oNo one missed her until then? Now he understood Minami's impatience to remove Peony, before the stench permanently tainted the house.
Ota shrugged. oMinami said she must have sneaked away from the party last night, come up here, and killed herself. There was a disturbance "some guests got in a fight and had to be expelled from the quarter. No one noticed that Peony was gone. Her chambermates were entertaining clients in the guest rooms. The maids didn't like Peony "she was a mean girl and a sloppy worker "so when she didn't show up for her chores this morning, they didn't bother looking for her. Then the cook noticed blood leaking through the pantry ceiling. We kept her just the way she was found because we thought you'd want to see.
The explanation sounded reasonable, yet a sense of wrongness nagged at Sano's mind when he recalled Peony serving the other courtesans, and the meeting at Governor Nagai's office. He walked around the corpse to the table. It held a mirror, comb, lamp, and a lacquer box containing a sheet of thin paper covered with inked characters.
oHer suicide letter, Ota said as Sano picked it up.
Sano noted that while the table and other articles all bore spatters of dried blood, the letter was clean. It read:
I must die to pay for killing the man I loved. It was an accident, but I blame myself.
During our love games, Spaen-san often brought out a gun he'd hidden in his room. He would lie on the bed, and I would mount him and point the gun at him while we coupled. We both enjoyed this. But last time, I got too excited. My finger pulled the trigger. The gun went off: boom! Spaen-san screamed. And through the smoke, I saw him lying dead, with a bloody hole in his chest.
I was so scared I didn't know what to do. I took Spaen-san's knife and tried to cut out the bullet, thinking I could bring him back to life. My hands shook so much that I stabbed his chest many times.
I knew I would be punished if anyone found out what I'd done, so I decided to make it look as if he'd run away. I dressed him in his trousers. I hung his crucifix around his neck and wrapped his body in bedclothes. I dragged him outside, to the water gates. It was raining very hard, and no one was around. I unbarred the gates and pushed Spaen-san into the sea. I threw the knife and gun in after him. Then I ran back to his room. I washed myself, made up a clean bed, and pretended to be asleep until the guards came in the morning.
May the spirit of my lover forgive me for what I have done. May we meet again in paradise, and spend all eternity together.
"Peony
oSo I guess this ends our problems, Yoriki Ota said. oI'll have her body wrapped up to deliver to the Dutch captain. I'll tell the harbor patrol to arrange the ship's escort, and Chief Ohira to prepare for its landing.
Sano didn't answer. The scenario Peony described seemed as believable as the apparent circumstances of her death. He could close the case and mend Dutch-Japanese relations. He and Hirata could begin the inspection of Nagasaki and restore their former harmony.
But he couldn't overlook the obvious discrepancies he saw. With much regret, but no less resolve, he turned to Yoriki Ota and said, oDirector Spaen's killer hasn't been caught yet.
Ota's eyebrows shot up. oBut the whore confessed. She killed herself out of remorse. What more proof do you need?
oWhen I met Peony yesterday, Sano said, oshe poured tea and combed another courtesan's hair "using her right hand. Don't you think it odd that she would stab herself with her left hand?
Ota shrugged. oSo people do strange things when their minds are troubled.
oThe divers haven't recovered a gun or knife from the waters off Deshima. And about this letter. Striding over to Ota, Sano held it before the yoriki ~s face. oVery nice and neat; it accounts for all the evidence. But Peony was a peasant girl. I'd be surprised if she could write at all, let alone this well.
oSo she had someone write it for her. Ota stood his ground, but his ruddy complexion darkened. oShe had a miserable life. Uglier than a pig; bedding dirty foreigners. Minami, the clients, the other courtesans, and even the servants treated her like dung. Death probably seemed better than all that. Killing her lover pushed her over the edge. I've been in the police service for twenty years. Are you telling me I don't know my business?
Sano faced the gruesome tableau. oWhat if she came up here last night not to commit suicide, but to meet someone? He came; they argued. He stabbed her. Sano turned to Yoriki Ota. oThen, before he left, he put the letter "free of blood, because he'd kept it inside his clothes "in the box.
Ota guffawed. oThat's ridiculous. The knife came from the kitchen downstairs "the cook identified it. Minami says Peony stole things all the time, including the box. And who would want to kill that ugly whore?
oJan Spaen's murderer, Sano said. oPeony was on the island with Spaen the night he disappeared. She might have seen something. Sano recalled her sly reference to things happening on Deshima that weren't recorded. oIf she knew who the killer is, he couldn't let her live to tell. If he shot me, he wouldn't have hesitated to silence Peony.
oAny idea who this person might be? Ota asked disdainfully.
oThe merchant Urabe, Sano said. oPeony is the only witness to his presence on the island. He's having financial troubles, and might have killed her to avoid blackmail. Remembering Urabe's explanation for Peony's grudge against him, Sano added, oHe's also a client of this house. He could have attended the party last night and sneaked up to the women's quarters.
Then another, more ominous possibility loomed in Sano's mind. What if Peony had also possessed dangerous knowledge about someone in Nagasaki's administration "Chief Ohira, another Deshima staff member, or even Governor Nagai himself? Had this person arranged a osuicide for Sano's benefit? Unfortunately there were many men in the bakufu capable of murdering a helpless citizen for personal gain.
Sano didn't voice his suspicions to Ota, who might be an accomplice, if not the killer. Instead he fervently hoped that his plan for tonight would lead to the truth, so he needn't launch an investigation of Nagasaki officialdom and court the political danger it would entail.
oWhat about the barbarians? Ota said with an exaggerated sneer perhaps intended to hide worry. oAre you going to tell me they escaped Deshima and killed the whore?
oNo, Sano said. oBut there's at least one other suspect besides Urabe who was free to move about town, and might have wanted Peony dead.
Chapter 18
HIGH IN THE hills above Nagasaki, evening rites had ended at the Chinese temple. In his austere room, Abbot Liu Yun knelt on the floor to meditate. The lamps mellow, soothing light warmed the plaster walls. Once this had been Liu Yun's favorite time of day, when peace filled his soul and spiritual enlightenment seemed within reach. But his brother's death had destroyed his serenity, and his faith. The past had returned to haunt him.
Liu Yun began to chant, willing the ritual to calm him, but the ceaseless lament howled in his mind: Hsi! My brother. Gone, forever! As he stared at the wall, scenes from another time and place appeared there.
Spring, sixty-five years ago, on the Liu family's estate in Shantung Province. The scent of flowers drifted through the window of the study where Liu Yun and Liu Hsi, aged ten and eight, took their lessons. Old Teacher Wu fixed his shrewd gaze on Liu Hsi. oWhat are the five cardinal virtues of Confucius?
oThe five virtues are, uh... Hsi gulped, then blurted, oWhat good is school, when I want to be a soldier?
oDon't talk back to teacher! Liu Yun exclaimed, mortified because he was the good son who wanted to please his elders. Also, he'd coached Hsi in his lessons, and his brother's failure reflected poorly on him.
Teacher Wu pummeled Hsi's head and shoulders with his cane. oYou will apologize for your rudeness!
As Hsi sobbed, a wild, contradictory impulse seized Liu Yun. He'd often tried to beat sense into Hsi, but couldn't bear for anyone else to hurt his brother. An invisible cord "stronger than love, hate, or blood "joined them. Liu Yun shot out of his seat and jumped on Teacher Wu's back, shouting, oLeave him alone!
Teacher Wu screamed and whirled and struggled, trying to dislodge Liu Yun, while Hsi laughed and clapped his hands.
oWhat a good fighter you are, elder brother! he cried. oLet's run away together and become soldiers! And Liu Yun, though horrified at his own behavior, roared in triumph.
Their victory was short-lived. Teacher Wu resigned; Liu Yun's father beat both sons for driving away their tutor. Still, the early pattern held. Liu Yun would coach, beg, and punish Hsi, trying to mold him into the Confucian ideal of scholarship and filial piety. Hsi would resist. Liu Yun would defend his brother, and they would both suffer....
oNo! I don't want to die. I'm afraid! His hand gripped Sano's with desperate strength. oPlease, save me!
Sano tried to quiet him; Toz was beyond help. But the Christian refused to accept the inevitable. oPlease, Honorable Chief Persecutor, he begged, mistaking Sano for Dannoshin. oI'll do anything you ask. Another cough produced a fresh outpouring of blood. oI renounce... the Christian religion. I spit on God... I swear eternal allegiance... to the shogun. He thrashed and shuddered.
oQuiet, Sano urged, hating to see a fellow warrior "even a Christian criminal "admit defeat. oRest.
oI'll tell you anything you want to know. Just don't let me die!
Sano was appalled. He badly needed information about Nagasaki's Christian underground, but how could he take advantage of this cruel torture? Tasting shame and anticipation, he held the crucifix in front of Toz's eyes and said, oWhere did this come from? Who owns it?
o... Barbarians... Deshima... secret network. Christian contraband... passed along a chain of couriers from the Dutch to my people... Toz coughed and gasped.
oWho leads the network? Sano asked urgently.
oUh... uh... A massive convulsion spasmed Toz ~s body. Blood gurgled in his throat. Then he became still. Disappointed, Sano bowed his head and offered a silent prayer for the man's spirit. Christian or Buddhist, everyone died eventually; everyone deserved a ritual to mark the end of life. Then Sano gently laid aside Toz's limp hand and walked back to Dannoshin's office.
The chief Persecutor looked up from the dais. oToz is dead, then? he asked, reading Sano's expression.
Sano nodded.
oDid he renounce his faith, or tell you anything before he died? Dannoshin asked hopefully.
Without hesitation, Sano said, oNo. Nothing.
However, Toz's statement had given Sano an idea of what activities on Deshima might have led to Spaen's murder. And he could think of one way to prove it, tonight.
Then, after he'd left Nagasaki Jail and mounted his horse outside the gate, two soldiers approached him. oWe have an urgent message from Yoriki Ota, said the spokesman, and Sano guessed that the paunchy guard he'd seen earlier had told the soldiers where to find him. oThe courtesan Peony is dead. Please come with us.
Chapter 17
ARRIVING AT the Half Moon Pleasure House with his escorts, Sano noted the brothel's grim transformation since his last visit. Bamboo shades covered the window cages, although it was early evening and almost time for the festivities to begin. The crowds, evidently aware that a death had occurred, gave the Half Moon a wide berth. As Sano dismounted, he saw courtesans peering fearfully from the upstairs windows. A doshin and three civilian assistants guarded the doorway, where the proprietor Minami stood, his scowling temple-dog face livid with anger.
oI can't run my business with the house full of police, he raged. oAnd no one wants to come inside while she's still here. I want you to leave. Now!
The doshin merely folded his arms with an air of weary tolerance. Minami jumped aside and glared as Yoriki Ota pushed past him out the doorway. oI'm losing money, Minami huffed. oI demand that you take your men and go, so I can clean up the mess and resume my business!
oBe quiet, or I'll arrest you, Ota told him, then greeted Sano with a perfunctory bow. oSo here you are. Come. I'll take you to Peony.
They entered the house. More doshin and assistants lounged in the lamp-lit reception room, smoking and talking. In the dim corridors, frightened servants shrank against the walls to let Sano and Ota pass.
oHow did she die? Sano asked.
oSuicide. You'll see.
Yoriki Ota led Sano upstairs to the courtesans' living quarters, a series of tiny chambers behind paper-paned walls. From somewhere came the sound of a woman's hysterical weeping.
oShe's in there, Ota said, stopping outside a door where another doshin stood guard.
Gingerly Sano slid back the door. The fetid, metallic smell of blood and death poured out, polluting his skin, his lungs. Fighting nausea, he entered the room. The guard brought a lantern and hung it on the wall. Sano saw that the window had been opened to let in fresh air, but the cramped chamber was still hot and stuffy. Peony lay sprawled against the wall, knees bent, in the tangle of her blood-soaked garments. Flies alit on the thickly clotted gash that slanted down the left side of her neck and across her throat. More blood had dribbled from her mouth, caked her long hair into sticky strands, and fanned across the tatami. Her clouded eyes bore an expression of terrified shock. Her left hand gripped the plain wooden handle of a knife that protruded from the fatal wound.
Sano shook his head pityingly. oWho found her, and when? he asked Ota, who stood in the doorway behind him.
oOne of the maids. Around noon, Ota said.
Sano turned. oNo one missed her until then? Now he understood Minami's impatience to remove Peony, before the stench permanently tainted the house.
Ota shrugged. oMinami said she must have sneaked away from the party last night, come up here, and killed herself. There was a disturbance "some guests got in a fight and had to be expelled from the quarter. No one noticed that Peony was gone. Her chambermates were entertaining clients in the guest rooms. The maids didn't like Peony "she was a mean girl and a sloppy worker "so when she didn't show up for her chores this morning, they didn't bother looking for her. Then the cook noticed blood leaking through the pantry ceiling. We kept her just the way she was found because we thought you'd want to see.
The explanation sounded reasonable, yet a sense of wrongness nagged at Sano's mind when he recalled Peony serving the other courtesans, and the meeting at Governor Nagai's office. He walked around the corpse to the table. It held a mirror, comb, lamp, and a lacquer box containing a sheet of thin paper covered with inked characters.
oHer suicide letter, Ota said as Sano picked it up.
Sano noted that while the table and other articles all bore spatters of dried blood, the letter was clean. It read:
I must die to pay for killing the man I loved. It was an accident, but I blame myself.
During our love games, Spaen-san often brought out a gun he'd hidden in his room. He would lie on the bed, and I would mount him and point the gun at him while we coupled. We both enjoyed this. But last time, I got too excited. My finger pulled the trigger. The gun went off: boom! Spaen-san screamed. And through the smoke, I saw him lying dead, with a bloody hole in his chest.
I was so scared I didn't know what to do. I took Spaen-san's knife and tried to cut out the bullet, thinking I could bring him back to life. My hands shook so much that I stabbed his chest many times.
I knew I would be punished if anyone found out what I'd done, so I decided to make it look as if he'd run away. I dressed him in his trousers. I hung his crucifix around his neck and wrapped his body in bedclothes. I dragged him outside, to the water gates. It was raining very hard, and no one was around. I unbarred the gates and pushed Spaen-san into the sea. I threw the knife and gun in after him. Then I ran back to his room. I washed myself, made up a clean bed, and pretended to be asleep until the guards came in the morning.
May the spirit of my lover forgive me for what I have done. May we meet again in paradise, and spend all eternity together.
"Peony
oSo I guess this ends our problems, Yoriki Ota said. oI'll have her body wrapped up to deliver to the Dutch captain. I'll tell the harbor patrol to arrange the ship's escort, and Chief Ohira to prepare for its landing.
Sano didn't answer. The scenario Peony described seemed as believable as the apparent circumstances of her death. He could close the case and mend Dutch-Japanese relations. He and Hirata could begin the inspection of Nagasaki and restore their former harmony.
But he couldn't overlook the obvious discrepancies he saw. With much regret, but no less resolve, he turned to Yoriki Ota and said, oDirector Spaen's killer hasn't been caught yet.
Ota's eyebrows shot up. oBut the whore confessed. She killed herself out of remorse. What more proof do you need?
oWhen I met Peony yesterday, Sano said, oshe poured tea and combed another courtesan's hair "using her right hand. Don't you think it odd that she would stab herself with her left hand?
Ota shrugged. oSo people do strange things when their minds are troubled.
oThe divers haven't recovered a gun or knife from the waters off Deshima. And about this letter. Striding over to Ota, Sano held it before the yoriki ~s face. oVery nice and neat; it accounts for all the evidence. But Peony was a peasant girl. I'd be surprised if she could write at all, let alone this well.
oSo she had someone write it for her. Ota stood his ground, but his ruddy complexion darkened. oShe had a miserable life. Uglier than a pig; bedding dirty foreigners. Minami, the clients, the other courtesans, and even the servants treated her like dung. Death probably seemed better than all that. Killing her lover pushed her over the edge. I've been in the police service for twenty years. Are you telling me I don't know my business?
Sano faced the gruesome tableau. oWhat if she came up here last night not to commit suicide, but to meet someone? He came; they argued. He stabbed her. Sano turned to Yoriki Ota. oThen, before he left, he put the letter "free of blood, because he'd kept it inside his clothes "in the box.
Ota guffawed. oThat's ridiculous. The knife came from the kitchen downstairs "the cook identified it. Minami says Peony stole things all the time, including the box. And who would want to kill that ugly whore?
oJan Spaen's murderer, Sano said. oPeony was on the island with Spaen the night he disappeared. She might have seen something. Sano recalled her sly reference to things happening on Deshima that weren't recorded. oIf she knew who the killer is, he couldn't let her live to tell. If he shot me, he wouldn't have hesitated to silence Peony.
oAny idea who this person might be? Ota asked disdainfully.
oThe merchant Urabe, Sano said. oPeony is the only witness to his presence on the island. He's having financial troubles, and might have killed her to avoid blackmail. Remembering Urabe's explanation for Peony's grudge against him, Sano added, oHe's also a client of this house. He could have attended the party last night and sneaked up to the women's quarters.
Then another, more ominous possibility loomed in Sano's mind. What if Peony had also possessed dangerous knowledge about someone in Nagasaki's administration "Chief Ohira, another Deshima staff member, or even Governor Nagai himself? Had this person arranged a osuicide for Sano's benefit? Unfortunately there were many men in the bakufu capable of murdering a helpless citizen for personal gain.
Sano didn't voice his suspicions to Ota, who might be an accomplice, if not the killer. Instead he fervently hoped that his plan for tonight would lead to the truth, so he needn't launch an investigation of Nagasaki officialdom and court the political danger it would entail.
oWhat about the barbarians? Ota said with an exaggerated sneer perhaps intended to hide worry. oAre you going to tell me they escaped Deshima and killed the whore?
oNo, Sano said. oBut there's at least one other suspect besides Urabe who was free to move about town, and might have wanted Peony dead.
Chapter 18
HIGH IN THE hills above Nagasaki, evening rites had ended at the Chinese temple. In his austere room, Abbot Liu Yun knelt on the floor to meditate. The lamps mellow, soothing light warmed the plaster walls. Once this had been Liu Yun's favorite time of day, when peace filled his soul and spiritual enlightenment seemed within reach. But his brother's death had destroyed his serenity, and his faith. The past had returned to haunt him.
Liu Yun began to chant, willing the ritual to calm him, but the ceaseless lament howled in his mind: Hsi! My brother. Gone, forever! As he stared at the wall, scenes from another time and place appeared there.
Spring, sixty-five years ago, on the Liu family's estate in Shantung Province. The scent of flowers drifted through the window of the study where Liu Yun and Liu Hsi, aged ten and eight, took their lessons. Old Teacher Wu fixed his shrewd gaze on Liu Hsi. oWhat are the five cardinal virtues of Confucius?
oThe five virtues are, uh... Hsi gulped, then blurted, oWhat good is school, when I want to be a soldier?
oDon't talk back to teacher! Liu Yun exclaimed, mortified because he was the good son who wanted to please his elders. Also, he'd coached Hsi in his lessons, and his brother's failure reflected poorly on him.
Teacher Wu pummeled Hsi's head and shoulders with his cane. oYou will apologize for your rudeness!
As Hsi sobbed, a wild, contradictory impulse seized Liu Yun. He'd often tried to beat sense into Hsi, but couldn't bear for anyone else to hurt his brother. An invisible cord "stronger than love, hate, or blood "joined them. Liu Yun shot out of his seat and jumped on Teacher Wu's back, shouting, oLeave him alone!
Teacher Wu screamed and whirled and struggled, trying to dislodge Liu Yun, while Hsi laughed and clapped his hands.
oWhat a good fighter you are, elder brother! he cried. oLet's run away together and become soldiers! And Liu Yun, though horrified at his own behavior, roared in triumph.
Their victory was short-lived. Teacher Wu resigned; Liu Yun's father beat both sons for driving away their tutor. Still, the early pattern held. Liu Yun would coach, beg, and punish Hsi, trying to mold him into the Confucian ideal of scholarship and filial piety. Hsi would resist. Liu Yun would defend his brother, and they would both suffer....
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