The Red Pavilion

'Why didn't you report that plot to me at once?' Judge Dee asked curtly.

Feng looked embarrassed. After some hesitation, he answered:

'We of this island hang very much together, sir. It has always been our custom to settle ourselves all quarrels among us, we find it. . . awkward to bother people from outside with our local feuds. Perhaps it is wrong, but we . . .'

'It certainly is wrong!' the judge interrupted peevishly. 'Proceed with your story!'

'When my men had reported Wen Yuan's scheming against me, Your Honour, I decided to go and see the Academician. I wanted to ask him openly what he, the son of an eminent man whom I had known well, meant by taking part in a sordid plot against me. At the same time I wanted to take him to task about his trying to assault my daughter, on the boat. However, on my way here I met Wen Yuan, in the park. It was very strange, somehow or other this meeting reminded me of that other night, thirty years ago, when I had met Wen on my way here to see Tao Kwang. I told Wen that his treacherous plans were known to me, and that I was going to see the Academician about it. Wen Yuan was profuse in his apologies, he admitted that he had in a weak moment discussed with the Academician a plan to oust me from my position. Since the Academician was apparently in urgent need of money, he had at first agreed. But then he had, for some reason or other, reconsidered and told Wen that the plan was off. Wen urged me to go on and talk with the Academician, he would bear him out.'

'When I entered this room, I knew that my vague foreboding had been right. The Academician was sitting here slumped in his chair, dead. Had Wen known about this, and intended me to be discovered with the dead body, to accuse me of having murdered him? Thirty years ago I had suspected Wen of a similar scheme, namely to have me accused of murdering Tao Kwang. Then I remembered how that old murder had been staged as a suicide, and decided to apply the same trick. The rest was exactly as I told Your Honour this afternoon. When it had been established that the Academician had killed himself because of his unrequited love for Autumn Moon, I told my daughter everything. That made her decide on her impulsive attempt at covering up my tampering with the body.' He cleared his throat and resumed unhappily: 'Words don't suffice to express how sorry I am about all this, Your Honour. Never in my life did I feel so ashamed of myself as when I had to support Your Honour's mistaken interpretation of the Academician's last scribblings. I really . . .'

'I don't mind being made a fool of,' Judge Dee remarked dryly. 'I am accustomed to it, it's happening to me all the time. Fortunately I usually discover it before it's too late, though. Well, as a matter of fact the Academician's last scribblings did refer to Autumn Moon. But he didn't kill himself because of her.'

The judge leaned back in his chair. Stroking his long black beard, he went on slowly: 'The Academician was a man of great talent, but of a cold and calculating nature. His success came too soon, it went to his head. He had become an Academician, now he wanted to rise higher still, and quickly. But for that he needed much money, and he didn't have that, for the family estate had declined through bad harvests and reckless speculation. Therefore he worked out, together with your old enemy Wen Yuan, a plan to get access to the fabulous wealth of Paradise Island. Ten days ago he arrived here to execute that plan, confident and overbearing. When he saw your daughter that night on the boat, his stupid pride was hurt by her refusal, and he tried to rape her. When the curio-dealer came to meet him on the landing stage, he was still chafing under that rebuff, and ordered Wen to help him to get your daughter, reminding him that soon you would be arrested and sent to the capital, found guilty of tax-evasion. Wen then took heart and suggested how he could force your daughter to grant him her favours. That rascally curio-dealer saw there his chance to deal you also a personal blow.'

Judge Dee took a sip from his tea. He resumed:

'However, after his arrival here the Academician got so busy amusing himself with Carnation, Peony and other beautiful courtesans that he forgot all about your daughter. But not about the plan to oust you. He met at the gaming table a young man whom he thought he might use for concealing the money in your mansion.'

'Then, on the 25th, the day of his death, the Academician made a discovery, or thought he had made a discovery, that changed everything for him. He paid off the three courtesans he had been sleeping with, and he sent his sponging boon-companions home, back to the capital. For he had decided to put an end to his own life. In the evening, before executing this plan, he walked over to the pavilion of the Queen Flower, for a last meeting with her.'

'Since they are both dead, we shall never know what their exact relationship was. According to what I heard, however, the Academician invited her to his parties just to lend glamour to them, he never got round to trying to sleep with her. And perhaps for that very reason she became to him, in his last hours, the symbol of all the earthly pleasures he was about to renounce. In that nostalgic mood he entrusted her with a letter to his father, which she forgot to deliver. She had not tried to make him her lover, probably because her intuition had told her that he had the same cold, utterly selfish character as she herself. And he certainly never offered to redeem her.'

'Never wanted to buy her out? But that's preposterous, sir!' Feng exclaimed. 'She said so herself!'

'She did. But that was a lie. When she heard that he had killed himself, and left a few scribblings referring to her, she thought that an excellent chance to bolster further her reputation in the world of the "flowers and willows". She boldly stated that she had refused the flattering offer of this famous young scholar.'

'She offended against the unwritten code of elegant life!' Feng burst out angrily. 'Her name shall be struck from the list of Queen Flowers.'

'She wasn't better than she should have been,' Judge Dee remarked dryly, 'but it was your trade that made her so. Another reason for not speaking harshly of her is that she died a most horrible death.'

The judge cast a quick glance at the closed veranda door. He passed his hand over his face. Then he fixed his two visitors with his penetrating eyes and resumed:

'You, Feng, tampered with the evidence of a suicide. And you, Jade Ring, told me a string of lies. However, fortunately for you, you two lied to me in informal conversation, you didn't put your false testimony in writing, marked with your seal and thumbprint. Neither do I forget that when you, Feng, swore to me that you were telling me the complete truth, you said emphatically that this oath was limited to your account of what happened thirty years ago. Well, the law defines the ultimate aim of justice as redressing, as much as possible, the damage wrought by a crime. And attempted rape is a crime, and a very serious one too. Therefore I shall forget about the mistakes you and your daughter made, and I shall have the Academician's suicide now registered as such, including the alleged motive of unrequited love. There is no sense in spoiling the reputation the unfortunate Queen Flower left here, so you shan't mention her deceit, and you shan't strike her name from the list.

'As regards the curio-dealer Wen Yuan, he is guilty of malicious plotting. But he did that in such an ineffectual way that all his clumsy plans came to nought before he had even dared to begin their execution. He probably never committed any real crime, his character is mean enough but he lacks the courage to translate his cowardly, underhanded schemings into action. I shall take appropriate measures for preventing Wen, once and for all, from getting up schemes against you, and from maltreating defenceless girls.'

'Two capital crimes were committed here in the Red Pavilion. Since, however, neither you nor your daughter, nor, indeed, Wen Yuan, had any part in them, I shan't discuss those dark deeds. That's all I have to say to you.'