He cut it open and found one sheet of note paper. It was a brief letter, written in excellent, concise literary style.
To the Honoured Father: Your ignorant and unworthy son finds he can never emulate your indomitable courage and iron will-power, he dares not face the future. Having reached what now shall remain the peak of his career, he must leave off here. He has informed Wen Yuan that he cannot continue, entrusting him with taking appropriate measures.
Not daring to come under your stern eyes, I write this letter to be transmitted to its high destination by the courtesan Autumn Moon. The sight of her exquisite beauty brightened my last days. On the 25th day of the seventh moon, during the Festival of the Dead, the unworthy son, Lien, kneels down and three times touches his forehead to the floor.
Judge Dee sat back with a perplexed frown. The style was so terse that it was not easy to grasp the writer's exact meaning. The first paragraph suggested that the retired Censor Lee, his son the Academician, and the curio-dealer "Wen Yuan had been engaged together in some nefarious scheme, but that the Academician had at the last moment found that he lacked the courage and will-power to go through with it; and that he, unable to follow his father's instructions, saw suicide as the only solution. But that meant that the scheme involved much more than a petty plot of ousting a warden on a trumped-up charge! Heaven knows what weighty issues were at stake, matters of life and death, perhaps even affairs of state! He must again question that rascally curio-dealer, if necessary with legal severities, then visit the Academician's father. He must...
He wiped the perspiration from his forehead, it was stifling hot in the room, and the smoking candle smelled badly. He recollected himself. He must not go too fast, he must first try to reconstruct the sequence of events. When the Academician had reached his decision and handed the envelope to the Queen Flower, he did not commit suicide after all, because, before he could kill himself, he was killed by the girl he tried to rape. The judge hit his fist on the table. This was sheer nonsense! A man determined to end his life, trying to rape a girl! He refused to believe that such a thing was possible!
Yet the letter could not be a fake. And that the Academician had indeed decided to abandon a scheme was proved by Kia Yu-po's statement made to Ma Joong. Also Autumn Moon's not delivering the letter entrusted to her was quite in character. Whatever her relationship to the Academician might have been, as soon as he was dead the woman had become preoccupied by her next conquest, namely that of his gay colleague Lo. She had thrown the envelope unopened into her drawer and forgotten all about it. Until that night at the dinner, when Lo's defection had made her regret her dead admirer. Some facts fitted, others not. He folded his arms in his wide sleeves. Knitting his bushy eyebrows in a deep frown, he stared at the luxurious bedstead where the Queen Flowers of succeeding years had disported themselves with their chosen lovers.
Again he went over in his mind what he knew about the persons concerned in the three deaths that had taken place in that other bedroom, in the Red Pavilion. He tried to recall, in the exact words, what Feng Dai and his daughter Jade Ring had said. Also Wen Yuan's partial confession, and the additional information gathered by Ma Joong. Apart from the improbability of the Academician's wanting to rape a girl on the eve of his intended suicide, the circumstances of his death had been satisfactorily explained. After Miss Feng had accidentally killed him, her father had staged the faked suicide. The scratches on the hands and face of the Academician had been caused by Miss Feng, only the swellings on his neck remained unexplained. As regards Autumn Moon's death, her scratches had been caused by Silver Fairy when she tried to ward off the Queen Flower's vicious slaps. In her case the feature still unaccounted for was the blue bruises on her throat. He had a vague feeling that if he could connect those two unexplained facts, the riddle of the Red Room would be solved.
Then he suddenly saw a possible explanation. He jumped up and began to pace the floor. After a long while he stood still in front of the huge bedstead. Yes, he now saw the pattern! Everything had found its logical explanation, including the attempted rape, and the attack by the armed ruffians on Ma Joong! The secret of the Red Pavilion was unspeakably repulsive, even more horrible than his weird nightmare there, after he had discovered the white, naked body of the courtesan on the red rug! He suddenly shivered.
The judge left the Queen Flower's pavilion and went straight to the Hostel of Eternal Bliss. Standing at the counter he gave one of his red visiting cards to the manager, ordering him to have it taken immediately to the warden's residence, with the message that the Assessor wanted to see Feng Dai and his daughter as soon as possible.
When he was back in the Red Pavilion, Judge Dee went out on the veranda. Leaning over the balustrade he carefully scrutinized the shrubbery and undergrowth below.
Then he stepped back into the sitting-room and pulled the double door shut. After he had put the cross-bar into place, he also closed the shutters of the window. As he sat down at the tea-table he realized that it would become very hot in the closed room. But he could not afford to take any chances. He knew now that he was dealing with a desperate, completely ruthless murderer.
XVII
Ma Joong had treated himself to a good dinner in a noodle restaurant, finishing two large jugs of strong wine. Now he was walking down the street of the dormitories, humming a gay tune. He was in a festive mood.
The elderly woman who opened the door marked 'Second rank, No. 4' gave him a sour look. She asked:
'What do you want now?'
'To see the courtesan Silver Fairy.'
Taking him to the staircase, the woman asked worriedly:
'She hasn't got us into any trouble, I hope? The office notified me this afternoon that she has been bought out. But when I told her the good news, she seemed frightened. She wasn't glad at all!'
'Wait till you see her when we are leaving! Don't bother to go up. I'll find her room.'
He climbed the narrow staircase, and knocked on the door marked with Silver Fairy's name.
'I am ill, can't see anyone!' he heard her call out.
'Not even me?' Ma Joong shouted through the door.
It flew open and Silver Fairy pulled him inside.
'I am so glad you came!' she said eagerly, smiling through her tears. 'Something terrible has happened! You must help us, Ma Joong!'
'Us?' he asked, astonished. Then he saw Kia Yu-po sitting cross-legged on the bed. He was looking as dejected as usual. Dumbfounded, Ma Joong took the stool the girl pushed over to him. Seating herself on the bed close to the young poet, she began excitedly:
'Kia Yu-po wanted to marry me but he had lost all his money, and then that awful Miss Feng got her hooks into him! He always has such terrible bad luck, the poor boy!'
She gave the youngster an affectionate look. 'And tonight came the worst blow of all! Imagine, some wretched man has bought me! We had been hoping all along that we would be able to find some way out, but this is the end! You are an officer of the tribunal, aren't you? Can't you talk to the magistrate, and make him do something about this? '
Ma Joong pushed his cap back and slowly scratched his head. Giving the poet a dubious look, he asked him:
'What's all this talk about marrying? Weren't you going to the capital first, to pass the examinations to become an official of sorts?'
'Heaven forbid! That plan goes back to a weak moment of mistaken ambition. No, my ideal is to have a small house somewhere in the country, a woman that suits me, and to write poetry. You don't think I would ever make a good official, do you?'