The Red Pavilion

'Keep to what really happened!' Judge Dee ordered.

'But Lee didn't want to buy any antiques. He told me that he wanted me to help him arrange a secret meeting with Jade Ring, Feng Dai's daughter! He had met her when their boats collided. He had tried to persuade her to pass the night with him in his cabin, but she had refused. Now the fool's pride was hurt; he was determined to force her to comply with his wishes. I tried to explain to him that it was absolutely impossible, that she was a virtuous girl and that her father was a wealthy man, with great influence not only here but also ...'

'I know that. Tell me how your hatred for Feng Dai made you change your mind!'

He saw Wen's haggard face twitch. His guess had been right. The curio-dealer wiped the perspiration from his forehead. He spoke dejectedly:

'The temptation was too strong for me, Your Honour! I made a terrible mistake. But Feng always treats me as ... as an inferior, both in business and in ... in private affairs. I thought, fool that I was, that this was an opportunity for humiliating Feng, deal him a severe blow, through his daughter. And should the plan miscarry, then all the blame would go to the Academician. So I told Lee I knew a way to force the girl to come to him and grant him her favours. If he would come to my house in the afternoon, we would discuss the details.'

The curio-dealer shot a quick look at Judge Dee's impassive face before he went on:

'Lee came. I told him that formerly a leading citizen here had killed himself, because the courtesan he loved had jilted him. That it was well known that Feng Dai had been the dead man's rival in love, and that there were rumours that Feng had murdered him. There must have been some truth in those rumours, Your Honour! I swear that on the night the man died I saw Feng, slinking about behind the hostel where it happened! I am convinced that it was indeed Feng who had murdered that man, making it appear as if he had committed suicide.' He cleared his throat, then continued: 'I told Lee that Miss Feng knew of those rumours about her father. If the Academician would send her a message, telling her that he possessed irrefutable proof of her father's guilt, she would certainly come to him, for she is very fond of her father. Then he could do with her what he liked, for she would never dare to accuse him. That's all, I swear it, Your Honour! I don't know whether the Academician actually did send her such a message; I don't know whether, if he did, the girl really paid him a secret visit. I only know that, on the night Lee died, I saw Feng in the park, just behind the Red Pavilion. But I don't know anything about what happened there. Please believe me, Your Honour!'

Again he fell on his knees and knocked his forehead repeatedly on the floor.

'I shall verify every word you say,' Judge Dee spoke. 'I hope that you told the truth — for your sake! Now you'll write out a full confession, stating that you told the court a deliberate lie, that after Autumn Moon had whispered to you that you could find Silver Fairy bound naked to a pillar in the training hall and completely at your mercy, you went there, and when the girl refused to comply with your disgusting proposals you cruelly beat her across her hips with a long bamboo flute. Rise, and do as I told you!'

Wen hastily came to his feet. With trembling hands he took a sheet of paper from the drawer and spread it out on the table. But after he had moistened his writing brush he didn't seem to know how to begin.

'I'll dictate it!' Judge Dee snapped. 'Write! I, the undersigned, herewith confess that on the night of the 28th day of the seventh month . . .'

When the curio-dealer had finished, the judge told him to impress his seal and thumbmark on the document. Then he pushed it over to Ma Joong, who also added his thumbprint, as a witness.

Judge Dee rose, put the document in his sleeve and said curtly:

'Your trip to the capital is off. You are under house arrest until further notice.'

Then he descended the stairs, followed by Ma Joong.

XII

When they were walking down the street Judge Dee said:

'I admit that I did the Crab and that other friend of yours an injustice. They supplied valuable information.'

'Yes, those two are all right. I must say, though, that half of the time I don't get what they are talking about—especially the Crab! As to Wen, sir, did you believe what that mean crook was telling us just now? '

'Partly. We took him by surprise, I assume that what he told about the Academician wanting to possess Miss Feng, and about the mean stratagem Wen suggested to him is quite true. It fits the Academician's proud and overbearing attitude, and also Wen's cowardly, nasty character. It also explains why Feng is so eager to marry his daughter to Kia Yu-po. The young poet depends completely upon Feng, he'll never dare to send his bride back to her father when he discovers she isn't a virgin any more.'

'So you are convinced that Lee did actually rape her, sir?'

'Of course. That was why Feng killed him. He made it appear as if the Academician had committed suicide, just as, thirty years ago, he concealed his murder of Tao Kwang.' Seeing Ma Joong's doubtful expression, he resumed quickly: 'It has to be Feng, Ma Joong! He had the motive and the opportunity. And I now fully agree with your two friends the Crab and the Shrimp that the Academician was not the type of man to kill himself because of unrequited love. Feng must have murdered him. Next to the opportunity and a compelling motive, he also had a method that had turned out to be foolproof thirty years ago. I regret that there is no alternative, for Feng made a very favourable impression on me. But if he is a murderer, I shall have to proceed against him.'

'Perhaps Feng'll then give us some clues to the death of Autumn Moon, sir!'

'I certainly need them! Our discoveries about the murder of Tao Kwang and the Academician don't bring us one step nearer to solving the Queen Flower's death. I am convinced that there's a connecting link somewhere, but I haven't the faintest idea where to look for it.'

'Just now you said, sir, that you believed what the old goat said about Lee and Jade Ring. What about the rest?'

'After Wen had told us about his advice to the Academician, I noticed that he succeeded in collecting his wits. I fear that he then realized that I had been bluffing. He couldn't change what he had told us already, but he then and there decided to leave it at that. I have a feeling that he spoke with the Academician also about other matters which he thought it better not to disclose. Well, we'll find out in due time, I am not yet through with him!'

Ma Joong nodded. They walked on in silence.

Tao Pan-te stood waiting for them in front of the wine shop. The three men went on together to Silver Fairy's dormitory.

It was she herself who opened the door. She said in a low voice:

'Miss Ling was ashamed to receive you in her miserable hovel, sir. She insisted that I brought her here, ill as she was. I smuggled her into the training hall, it's not being used at the moment.'

She quickly took them there. Next to the pillar by the back window a slight figure was sitting hunched up in an armchair. She was clad in a plain dress of faded brown cotton. Her grey, untidy hair hung down over her shoulders; her thickly veined hands were lying in her lap. When she heard them come in, she raised her head and turned her blind face in their direction.

The light of the paper window fell on the disfigured face. Deep pockmarks covered the hollow cheeks, which showed unhealthy red patches. The opaque eyes were strangely still.