the regulations concerning high cadres’ car service. A high cadre at Wu Bing’s level was supposed to have a car exclusively, including a full-time chauffeur at the government’s expense, but the cadre’s family members were not entitled to use the car. With Wu Bing lying in the hospital, it was not justifiable for his family to have the chauffeur drive them around. So Wu Xiaoming, citing the necessity of visiting his father in the hospital every day, had offered to drive himself. Who had been driving it while Wu was in Beijing?
Overseas Chinese Lu had not succeeded in identifying the driver of the car. Nor had his repeated attempts to contact Ouyang in Guangzhou borne fruit. Ouyang was not at home. This could mean Ouyang had also gotten into trouble-like Xie. Internal Security was capable of anything.
The uncertainty of waiting, in light of the recent information as to Wu’s application for a U.S. visa, was becoming too much for Chen. He had to talk to Party Secretary Li.
Despite his high rank, Li was in the habit of fetching hot water for tea from the boiler room at eleven fifteen every morning. So at eleven fifteen, Chen was also there, holding a thermos bottle. It was a place where people would come and go. Their encounter might seem natural.
Several other people were filling thermoses with water in the boiler room. Li greeted each of them warmly before he moved over to Chen. “How are you, Comrade Chief Inspector Chen?”
“I’m fine, except that I’m doing nothing.”
“Take a break. You’ve just come back.” Leaning over to pick up his thermos bottle, Li added under his breath, “Have you found what we talked about the last time?”
“What?”
“After you have found it,” Li said, “come to my office.”
Li had already turned toward the stairs, taking with him the filled thermos bottle and the last word.
The motive.
That was what Li had asked for the last time they met in his office. Chen had to find it. There was no point discussing anything more in the boiler room. Politics aside, justification of further investigation depended on discovery of Wu’s motive.
Chen went over it again. If Wu had wanted to part with Guan, she was in no position to stop him. She was a third party-the other woman-a notorious person in China’s ethical system. She would have found herself in a socially condemned position. Furthermore, revelation of an extramarital affair would have been political suicide. Even if she had been desperate enough to make such a disclosure, she probably would not have got anywhere. Wu had had an affair with her, but he wanted to end it. So what? As Party Secretary Li had pointed out, an affair would not have been considered too serious a political lapse now. With his family background and connections, Wu could have gotten away with it easily.
She could not have presented a real threat to Wu, even at a time when people were talking about Wu’s promotion.
On the other hand, Guan was a national celebrity-not some provincial girl. Wu would have to have known that her disappearance would be investigated, which could lead to him, secret as their affair had been. Wu was too smart not to have realized this.
So why should he have taken such a risk?
Guan must somehow have posed a much more serious threat to him, a threat Chief Inspector Chen had not yet discovered.
And until he did, Chen could only occupy himself in reading the latest Party documents delivered to his office. One was about the ever-increasing crime rate in the country and the Central Party Committee’s call on all Party members to take action. He also had various forms to fill out for the coming seminar of the Central Party Institute, though he doubted if he would be able to attend after all.
In frustration, he dug out his father’s book. He had not read it since the day he had bought it. It was a difficult one, he knew. He turned to the end of the book, to an epilogue in the form of a short fable entitled, “A Jin Dynasty Goat.”
Emperor Yan of the Jin Dynasty had many imperial concubines, and one favorite goat. At night, the emperor let the goat amble before him through a sea of bedrooms. When the goat stopped, the Emperor took it as a sign from Heaven to spend the night in the nearest room. More often than not, he found the goat halted in front of the three hundred and eleventh concubine’s pearl-curtained door. She was wrapped in white clouds, in anticipation of the coming rain. So she bore him a son who became Emperor Xing. Emperor Xing lost the country to barbarian aggressors through his thirst for a sea harbor. It was a long, complicated story, but the three hundred and eleventh concubine’s secret was simple. She sprinkled salt on her doorstep. The goat stopped there to lick the salt.
The late professor used the fable to illustrate the contingency of history. But for a chief inspector, everything about a criminal case should be certain, logical.
It was almost three. Chief Inspector Chen had skipped lunch, but he did not feel hungry. He heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said.
To his surprise, Dr. Xia stood in the doorway carrying a huge plastic bag in each hand.
“My shoes are wet.” Dr. Xia shook his head, showing no inclination to step in. “I’m bringing you a Beijing roast duck from the Yan Cloud Restaurant. Last time you generously treated me. As Confucius says, ‘It is proper and right to return other people’s kindness.’”
“Thank you, Dr. Xia,” Chen said, standing up, “but a whole duck is too much for me. Better bring it back to your family.”
“I have another one.” Dr. Xia lifted up the other plastic-wrapped duck. “To tell you the truth, a patient of mine is the number-one chef there. He insisted on giving them to me-free. Here is a small box of their special duck sauce. Only I don’t know how to prepare green scallions.”
“As Confucius says, ‘It is not proper and right to decline a senior’s gift.’” Chen tried to imitate Doctor Xia’s bookish style. “So I have to accept it. Have a cup of tea in my office?”
“No, thank you, I can’t stay. “But Dr. Xia remained in the doorway, fidgeting, then half turning to the main office.“But I have to ask a favor of you.”
“Sure, whatever I can do,” Chen said, wondering why Dr. Xia chose such a moment to approach him for a favor.
“I want you to introduce me into the Party. I’m no activist, I know. There’s a long way for me to go before I can prove myself to be a worthy Party member. Still, I’m a honest Chinese intellectual with minimum conscience.”
“What?” he was astonished. “But-haven’t you heard the news here?”
“No, I haven’t,” Dr. Xia raised his voice, waving his hand, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses. “Nor do I care. Not at all. Listen, you are a loyal Party member, that’s all I know. If you are not qualified, no one else in the whole bureau is.”
“I don’t know what to say, Dr. Xia.”
“Remember the two lines from General Yue Fei? ‘I will kowtow to Heaven / when the land is set in order.’ To set our land in order, that is what you want, and what I want.”
With this dramatic statement, Dr. Xia raised his head higher, as if defying an invisible audience, and walked off, not bothering to take a look at the surprised faces in the large office.
“Bye, Dr. Xia,” someone said belatedly.
Chen closed the door after himself with one hand, the duck in the other.
He knew why Dr. Xia had paid him this unexpected visit. It was to show his support. The good old doctor, who had suffered such a lot during the Cultural Revolution, was far from ready to join the Party. The visit-together with the rehearsed statement and the roast duck-was a stance Dr. Xia felt impelled to take as an honest Chinese intellectual-with “minimum conscience.”
And it was not just for him, Chief Inspector Chen realized.
It might be a losing battle, but Chen saw he was not alone in it. Detective Yu, Peiqin, Old Hunter, Overseas Chinese Lu, Ruru, Wang Feng, Little Zhou… and Dr. Xia, too.
Because of them, he was not going to quit.
He resumed reading Guan’s file, making notes until it was long after office hours. Then he ate a small portion of the roast duck. The sight of its golden, crispy skin had revived his appetite. Dr. Xia had even included a couple of pancakes. The duck, rolled in the pancake with the special sauce and green onion, tasted so delicious. He stuffed
