9. One of the merchants helps himself to half a scoop from the second keg. As the liquor vendor goes to stop him another seizes the opportunity to take a scoopful.
10. Spotting him just in time the liquor vendor grabs the scoop from his hand, pours the liquor back into the keg and flings the scoop on the ground.
"Hey! How about some manners?" says the vendor.
11. "Commander Yang, those date merchants had the first keg and now they've drunk from the second one too. The liquor can't be drugged. Let us buy some. It's boiling hot on this ridge, we're absolutely parched, and there's no water around."
"Go on then, and be quick about it. Get your drink, then we move."
12. "Don't sell it! Don't sell it! The liquor's drugged!" cries one of the merchants.
"No it's not," says another, turning to the vendor. "There's no need to be such a stickler about it, let them have some." He lugs the keg of liquor across to the soldiers, and gives them a scoopful of dates too.
13. Each of the men drinks a scoopful, and nothing happens. Yang thinks to himself: "Well there's no harm in downing half a scoop, since I'm so thirsty."
14. As liquor vendor heads off the ridge, one of the merchants points at Yang and his men and shouts: "They're dropping like flies!"
15. The merchants tip the dates from their carts, load up with booty, and strap covers over the top.
16. The seven men head down from the ridge, wheeling their treasure-filled carts. Yang is so weak he can barely move, and watches helplessly as they leave.
The seven men masquerading as date merchants were in fact "Towering King" Chao Gai, "Smart Operator" Wu Yong, "Dragon-among-men" Gong-Sun sheng, "Redbeard" Liu Tang, "Big Bad" Ruan Xiao'er, "Short-lived Second Son" Ruan Xiaowu, and "Demon-catcher" Ruan Xiaoqi. And it was "Daylight Rat" Bai Sheng, in his guise of liquor vendor, who slipped potion into the scoop so as to knock out the soldiers and make it easy to take the treasure.
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