“That’s interesting,” Chen said, immediately aware that it was the exact same response people offered him when they learned about his passion for poetry.
“It may not sound like a reasonable choice in today’s society, but with what my father left us, I think I can manage.”
“I understand. But as with poetry, there would be little money in a career in Beijing opera.”
“My father toiled and moiled for money his whole life, but could he take any of it with him?”
“Yes, I understand. You can’t live without money, but you can’t live for it.”
“Besides, no one else really wants me to work at the chemical company anymore.”
“Fu, the new boss, was going to offer your mother a job, I heard.”
“What sort of a job will he offer her? Something at the entry level. It’s nothing but a gesture.”
“But Fu didn’t seem too bad to the people who worked under your father. For instance, Mi was promoted.”
“Don’t talk to me about her,” Wenliang said with an undisguised look of disgust on his face. “It’s just like in the Beijing opera ‘Break Open the Coffin.’ Oh what a horror!”
“‘Break Open the Coffin’?”
“Don’t you know the story of Zhuangzi’s sudden enlightenment about the vanity of the human world?”
“I know of Zhuangzi, of course. I remember some story about his enlightenment. He dreamed of being a butterfly, but when he woke up, he couldn’t help wondering whether it was the butterfly that dreamed of being him. But he was a great philosopher, and we don’t have to take that story too seriously.”
“There’s a popular Beijing opera version you might not know. Indeed, this version is totally different. According to it, Zhuangzi had a young loving wife, who was the one thing that, for all his profound philosophy, he still couldn’t let go of in this world of red dust. One day, he suddenly took ill, and she swore at his bedside that there was only room enough for him in her heart. The moment he breathed his last, however, she started searching around for a new lover. That same day, she had the luck to find one, but he, too, got sick overnight. According to a quack doctor, the sick lover could be saved only by a medicine that consisted of someone’s heart, so she broke open the coffin, which was not yet buried, to cut out Zhuangzi’s heart. It turned out to be a test Zhuangzi set up with his supernatural powers. Shame-stricken, she committed suicide, and he was enlightened about the vanity of human passion.”
Chen remembered having heard a folk tale version of the story, but it was far less gruesome than the one he had just learned from Wenliang.
“So you mean-”
“You know what it means. Mi is nothing but a little secretary kept by her Big Buck boss,” Wenliang said with a sneer. “So she needs a new one to keep her in the same style.”
“Well-”
“A younger one was already waiting backstage in the dark before the old one exited.”
“Oh, like in
“Exactly. They staged a Beijing opera of
Wenliang, of course, could be just another unreliable narrator, understandably biased against her, Chen mused.
“You’re sure about that, Wenliang?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. I wasn’t wind-chasing or shadow-catching, I can assure you,” he said broodingly. “It’s not a crime for a little secretary to carry on with the second-in-command behind the back of the boss. What could I have done? I hated to bring it up to my father, who might not have taken my word on it, and it could have been a huge scandal. One’s father being cuckolded isn’t something to be proud of, so why would I make up such a story?”
“That’s true…”
With the sunlight streaming through the window, the chief inspector thought of what he’d heard over the last few days. They were mostly fragments, to which he hadn’t paid any real attention, such as the story of a younger man seen at night in the company of Mi, the fox spirit. Pieces such as the stories narrated by the two drinkers in the pub, or like the melodrama in the hotel on Nanjing Road, as reported by Detective Yu a short while ago.
Now those pieces were beginning to connect, in a way he had never imagined.
“Thank you so much, Wenliang. We’ll surely do our best to get justice for your-”
He was almost finished with the sentence when Mrs. Liu opened the door and, with a sour expression on her face, stepped inside.
“Oh, you’re here again, Mr. Chen.”
“Yes. I’ve had a good talk with Wenliang, Mrs. Liu. Now, I have just one question for you. In early March, Liu came back from a business trip in Nanjing. He got back quite late that night, I’ve learned, so he might have woken you up when he came in. Do you remember anything about it?”
“Yes, I do. He was coming back from a business meeting in Nanjing, and it was raining heavily that night. He took a taxi home.”
“Can you remember the date?”
“It was March, early March, I think. He apologized for waking me up, saying that because of something unexpected in Nanjing, he had to take the last train back to Wuxi,” she said contemplatively. “Oh, I remember, it was the day before the Women’s Day. He had bought me a gift for the holiday, which was the next day.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Liu. You’ve really helped our investigation. And thank you too, Wenliang.” Chen stood up abruptly. “But now I have to leave.”
TWENTY-ONE
Sergeant Huang was confounded by Chief Inspector Chen’s request when the older detective called early Monday morning.
“Bring Mi over to my place at the center. Immediately. You don’t have to give her any explanation, just let me do the talking. Once she’s here, then you can jump in and play your part when it’s appropriate.”
They had talked to Mi once before in her office. Why did Chen need to talk to her again, and why at the center? Over the course of the investigation, Chen had mentioned her a couple of times, but not once had she come up as a suspect. It might be because of Mrs. Liu, Huang thought. But he didn’t believe that Mi had much more to tell. She would be the last one to cover up something for the widow.
Nor did he think there was anything Chen could really do to alter the conclusion of the case. Internal Security had already gotten approval from Beijing to proceed. Still, Huang was eager to see if the legendary chief inspector would, like in those translated mysteries, be able to achieve the impossible at this late stage.
Huang hurried over to the chemical company, where Mi was just leaving the office for a business meeting downtown. She looked surprised when Huang asked her to accompany him, but she complied without protest.
The Cadre Recreation Center wasn’t far away, and she might not be as apprehensive about going there as she might be about visiting the police bureau.
It took them less than ten minutes to get to the center. Security examined Huang’s badge and waved them both in.
The white villa looked majestic standing on the hill, set off from the other buildings, with its stainless-steel fence glittering in the morning light and an armed guard standing in front. Huang had heard that Chen enjoyed extraordinary status as a cadre who was rising fast, but he was still more than impressed. The villa was one of the most magnificent buildings in the center, standing out against other buildings designed for the use of high-ranking cadres.
“Sergeant Huang?” the guard said. “Comrade Chief Inspector Chen is waiting for you inside.”
“Comrade Chief Inspector Chen?” Mi murmured uncomfortably. “In the villa here?”
Huang took this as a cue that Chen wanted his true identity revealed instead of simply passing himself off as
