MASTER CRANE ROBE AND JUDGE DEE
His host said suddenly:
'The water was taken from where the brook springs from the rocks. Last night I placed the tea leaves in the bud of a chrysanthemum. I took them out this morning when the flower opened in the sun. These leaves are saturated with the essence of the morning dew.'
Then, without any transition, he continued:
'Yoo set out on his official career and I went away to roam over the Empire. He became a prefect, then a governor. His name rang through the marble halls of the Imperial palace. He persecuted the wicked, protected and encouraged the good, and went a long, long way towards reforming the Empire. Then, one day, when he had nearly realized all his ambitions, he found that he had failed to reform his own son.
He resigned from all his high offices and came to live here a life of retirement, tending his fields and his garden. So we met again, after more than fifty years. We had reached the same goal by different roads.'
The old man suddenly chuckled softly like a child as he added:
'The only difference was that one way was long and tortuous, the other short and straight!'
Here his host paused. Judge Dee debated with himself whether he should ask for some explanation of that last remark. But before he could speak his host went on:
'Shortly before he passed away, he and I were discussing this very point. Then he wrote down that couplet on the wall there. Go and admire his calligraphy!'
Judge Dee obediently rose and went to look at the paper scrolls on the wall. Now he could read the signature: 'Penned by Yoo Shou-chien of the Abode of Tranquillity.' The judge knew now for certain that the testament they had found in Mrs. Yoo's scroll picture was a forgery. The signature resembled the one added to the alleged last will, but it was definitively not the same hand. Judge Dee slowly stroked his beard. Many things had become clear to him.
As he sat down again the judge said:
'If I may respectfully say so, Governor Yoo's calligraphy is excellent, but yours, Sir, is in the inspired class. Your inscription on the gate to the Governor's maze struck me as…'
The old man seemed not to have listened. He interrupted the judge saying:
'The Governor was so full of purpose that a life time was not enough for exhausting his energy. Even when he had settled down here he could not stop. Some of his plans for righting old wrongs were not even meant to bear fruit until years later, when he himself would be dead! Wanting to be alone, he built that astonishing maze. As if he could ever be alone, with all his schemes and plans buzzing around him like angry wasps!'
The old man shook his head. He poured another cup of tea.
Judge Dee asked:
'Did the old Governor have many friends here?'
His host slowly tugged one of his long eyebrows. Then he chuckled and said:
'After all those years, and after all he had seen and heard, Yoo still studied the Confucianist Classics. He sent me a cartload of books out here. I found them most useful. They made excellent kindlings for my kitchen stove!'
Judge Dee was going to offer some respectful objections to this derogatory remark on the Classics, but his host ignored him. He continued:
'Confucius! Now that was a purposeful man for you! He spent his entire life rushing all over the Empire, always arranging things, always giving advice to whomsoever cared to listen to him. He buzzed about like a gadfly! He never paused long enough to realize that the more he did the less he achieved, and the more he acquired the less he possessed. Yes, Confucius was a man full of purpose. So was Governor Yoo…'
The old man paused. Then he added peevishly:
'And so are you, young man!'
Judge Dee was quite startled by this sudden personal remark. He rose in confusion. With a deep bow he said humbly:
'Could this person venture to ask a question…'
His host had risen also.
'One question', he gruffly replied, 'only leads to another one. You are like a fisherman who turns his back on his river and his nets and climbs a tree in the forest to catch fish! Or like a man who builds a boat of iron, makes a large hole in the bottom and then expects to cross the river! Approach your problems from the right end and begin with the answers. Then, one day, perhaps, you will find the final answer. Good-bye!'
Judge Dee was going to bow his farewell but his host had already turned his back on him and was shuffling back to the screen at the end of the room.
The judge waited till the blue screen had dropped behind his host's back. Then he went out.
Outside he found Sergeant Hoong sleeping with his back against the garden gate.
The judge woke him up.
The sergeant passed his hand over his eyes. He said with a happy smile:
'It seems to me that I have never slept so peacefully! I dreamt of my childhood when I was still four or five years old, things I had completely forgotten!'
'Yes', Judge Dee said pensively, 'this is a very strange abode…'
They climbed the mountain ridge in silence.
When they were standing once more under the pinetrees on the top, the sergeant asked:
'Did the hermit give Your Honour much information?'
Judge Dee nodded absent-mindedly.
'Yes', he replied after a while, 'I learned many things. I know now for certain that the testament we found concealed in the Governor's picture is a forgery. I also learned what was the reason why the old Governor suddenly resigned all his offices. And I know now the other half of General Ding's murder.'
The sergeant was going to ask for some further explanation. But noticing the expression on Judge Dee's face he remained silent.
After a brief rest they descended the slope. They mounted their horses and rode back to the city.
Ma Joong was waiting in Judge Dee's private office.
As he started on his report of how he and Chiao Tai had caught the Uigur, the judge shook off his pensive mood and listened eagerly.
Ma Joong assured the judge that no one knew about the arrest. He related in great detail his conversation with the Uigur chieftain, omitting only his unexpected meeting with the girl Tulbee and her warning; he assumed, quite correctly, that Judge Dee would not be interested in that romantic interlude.
'That is excellent work!', Judge Dee exclaimed when Ma Joong had finished. 'Now we have the trump card in our hands!'
Ma Joong added:
'Tao Gan is now entertaining Yoo Kee in the reception hall. They are drinking tea together. When I looked in there a few moments ago Tao Gan was fretting because Yoo Kee is talking so fast that he can't get in a word!'
The judge looked pleased. He said to Sergeant Hoong:
'Sergeant, go to the reception hall and tell Yoo Kee that to my great regret I am unavoidably detained by urgent business. Offer him my apologies and inform him that I shall see him as soon as I am free!'
When the sergeant made to go the judge asked:
'Did you, by the way, succeed in finding out the whereabouts of Mrs. Lee, that friend of the Governor's widow?'
'I ordered Headman Fang to see to that, Your Honour', replied the sergeant. 'I thought that since he is a local man he might obtain quicker results than I.'
The judge nodded. Then he asked Ma Joong:
'What are the results of the autopsy on the old couple we found in the garden of the Governor's mansion?'
'The coroner confirmed that they died a natural death, Your Honour', Ma Joong replied.
