Hou signed with emotion, “Li has really put me to shame!” He turned to Yang, “My friend, I’m really sorry. Even a singer sometimes can show us the path of righteousness. How can we neglect moral integrity and confuse loyalty and betrayal? Colleagues from the Fu She regard me highly for my personal loyalty. If I make friends with traitors, they will condemn me also. If I can’t even defend myself, how can I save anybody else? These clothes and jewelry are from Ruan. I ask you to return them to him.”
Yang had no other choice but to leave. When Ruan saw his gifts returned, he was outraged. He thought Li and Hou had completely disrespected his kindness. He vowed to take revenge on them too one day.
Before long, the rebels led by Li Zicheng had captured Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen was forced to commit suicide. Ruan colluded with Ma Shiying, the bandit leader of Fengyang County, and supported Prince Fu as the new emperor in Nanjing. With direct power and influence now in his hands, Ruan launched a massive crackdown on Fu She members. Hou was forced to flee and Li also had to take refuge.
One of Ma’s associates named Tianyang was promoted to the position of water transport inspector for Huaiyang County. Tian led a debauched life and was always seeking pleasure and diversion. He had heard that many beauties lived on the banks of the Qinhuai River. He desired a beautiful performer to have as his concubine. Seeing the possibility for getting some revenge, Ruan recommended Li Xiangjun immediately.
Tian asked Yang Wencong to find Li and tell her he was willing to take her as his concubine and to offer her 300 taels of silver. Li turned it down without a thought, “I am married to Hou already. I will wait for him for the rest of my life.”
Tian got very angry when he was told about Li’s decision. He thought, as a high-ranking court official, it was shameful for him to be refused by a mere singer. He couldn’t take it. If he couldn’t get what he wanted by persuasion, he determined to take it by force.
Tian sent several men led by his chamberlain to Meixiang Lou with Yang. Li Zhenli – the foster mother of Li Xiangjun – was afraid of courting trouble if she offended Tian. She didn’t know what to do. Yang went upstairs to look for Xiangjun. He tried to persuade her to come quietly. He pointed out that she didn’t even know when or indeed if Hou would come back. She replied, “Was it not you who arranged our meeting, and affianced me to Hou? I still have the court fan with the love poem on it. Have you forgotten? I am determined to wait for Hou. I would rather go cold and hungry and barefoot than marry Tian.”
The chamberlain kept pressing Yang to force Xiangjun get on to the sedan chair. Yang and Zhenli had to compel her to get dressed. Xiangjun cried out, “I’d rather die, I will never go with them!” Then she broke free from Yang’s grasp and bumped her head against the wall. At once, blood spattered onto the wall and the white gauze court fan which lay beside her.
Seeing this, Li Zhenli fell into a panic. She helped Xiangjun up and bound up her cuts. At this moment, the chamberlain was still hurrying them from downstairs. Zhenli had no way out. Yang told her, “A singer gets married, which is good for her. With Tian she will be set up for life. She refuses to take the opportunity, so why don’t you take her place. You are only a couple of years older than her, and you look very young. Ruan and Tian have never met Xiangjun. If I tell them you are Li Xiangjun, nobody will doubt it. But if you won’t go with them, they will send someone to hunt her and maybe you also. No one will escape.”
Zhenli signed, “Well, it does seem the only way out. I have to go with them.” She dressed up and said to her daughter, “Take care of yourself, what I do, I do for you.”
