He raised the paper window to the courtyard, to see it scattered with fallen petals after a long night’s rain and wind. The scene unexpectedly evoked for him the lines written by Men Haoran, another celebrated contemporary poet of the Tang Empire.

  How we have overslept this spring morning!

  Here, there, everywhere, birds

  are heard chirping, twittering.

  After a long night’s clamor

  of wind and rain, how many petals

  have fallen down to the ground?

  But it was not a spring morning; Judge Dee knew that only too well.

  Stepping out of the hostel in the morning light, he yawned, rubbed his eyes and saw Yang had already placed several more soft cushions in the carriage for him.

  ‘There may be a long day of travel ahead of us, and you have long suffered from terrible backache. You cannot take too much care of yourself, Master,’ Yang said grumpily and cracked the whip loudly in the air. It was probably meant as a demonstration of his continuous protest against the investigation that had been pushed forcefully on to his weak, elderly master.

  ‘You’re being so considerate, Yang.’

  ‘Where is the next stop for us, Master?’

  ‘The Shu River.’

  Yang did not ask why. He merely repeated a crack of the whip in front of the carriage.

  Judge Dee was ready to set out, climbing slowly into the carriage, when Mayor Zhuang came over with enough snacks and water for a journey of at least two days.

  Mayor Zhuang bowed repeatedly to Judge Dee, silhouetted by a tall, sweeping willow tree by the hostel door, even as the carriage moved away.

  Soon the road became bumpy again, and Judge Dee felt increasingly grateful for the soft cushions Yang had prepared for him. These long trips were proving to be a bit too much for a man of his age. With the carriage curtains pulled down, however, he found himself feeling fairly comfortable. Warm and drowsy, it was as if he were wrapped in a soft silkworm cocoon.

  The talk with Dr Hua had left behind a vague feeling of uneasiness. But Judge Dee could not put his finger on it. He did not think he had to take it too seriously, though.

  The unpopularity of the empress among the men of letters was practically tangible. Much more so after the release of that powerful ‘Call to Arms’ penned by Luo Binwang. As for the sensational, salacious speculation about her private life in the declaration, it was not something new or secret to a lot of common people.

  Despite the bumpy carriage, Judge Dee tried to concentrate on any details in his talk with Dr Hua that he might have overlooked, considering things piece by piece, sentence by sentence, until an unexpected wave of sleepiness overtook him …

  And then he was startled out of his nap by a violent jolt at a sharp turn of the road. Glancing out through a crack in the carriage curtain, Judge Dee was greeted by the sight of a blue jay flashing up high into the azure sky. Puffs of wind kept inclining lanky hollyhocks by the roadside toward the carriage. A yellow dog was loitering in the checked shade in front of a farmhouse.

  Judge Dee was relieved to see the carriage was moving close to a quaint village embosomed in verdant trees and bushes, but it was perhaps too early for them to take a break there.

  Rubbing his eyes again, he thought he heard the sound of horse hooves beating the ground furiously from not too far a distance, drawing nearer on a spur. When he lifted the carriage curtain high, the judge caught sight of a black-clad man galloping after them in great haste.

  Yang too started looking over his shoulder, on high alert, and exclaimed in a subdued voice, ‘There’s someone on a horse behind us, Master. Hurrying straight toward us!’

  It soon became obvious that it was a black-attired messenger who was hurrying down the ancient path after them. Judge Dee ordered Yang to halt the carriage.

  When the messenger’s horse was abreast with the carriage, he reined in his horse and handed a letter to Judge Dee through the window. He was still panting as he did so, out of breath from riding over at full speed.

  ‘His Excellency, Mayor Zhuang, wanted me to hurry and hand this letter to you before you got too far away.’

  They had only parted about an hour or so earlier. Why send a messenger in such a hurry? Snatching the letter out of the envelope, Judge Dee started reading it in the carriage.

  ‘Doctor Hua was found dead in his hut this morning, according to one of his neighbors,’ Mayor Zhuang had written. ‘To be more exact, he was savagely beheaded with a sharp cleaver. It’s said that his body was lying in pools of blood, as if in a slaughterhouse. I’m on my way to his hut right now.

  ‘Why would somebody want to kill a harmless herbal doctor like Hua? Since you interviewed him just the previous day, would you like to come back to look into it, Your Honor?’

  Judge Dee was too dumbfounded to give an instant answer. There was an unmistakable unspoken message in Mayor Zhuang’s letter. It pointed to a concealed connection between Judge Dee’s visit and Dr Hua’s murder.

  And Judge Dee thought so too. For reasons beyond him, Dr Hua had been murdered just after his face-to-face talk with the judge. The good old doctor did not agree with him on everything, Judge Dee knew, but Hua was a respectable man of integrity.

  The secret police had interrogated him more than once and found nothing of interest. But could Dr Hua’s murder really have been related to Judge Dee’s unannounced visit?

  Everything is possible, though not pardonable. However hard he tried, Judge Dee still failed to see any logical connection between his visit and Hua’s violent death.

  Now what was he going to do?

  As Judge Dee could not manage to come up with any plausible theories for why he could have caused Hua’s death, the close sequence of events could have been just a coincidence. As an experienced investigating judge, however, Judge Dee did not believe in so-called coincidences.

  Nor did he see any point in hurrying back to Dr Hua’s hut right at this moment. For one thing, that would not be what the empress would want him to do. Discovering his actions through her omnipresent secret police, she might see it as something like purposeful procrastination on his part. With the gigantic surveillance network of the Tang Empire, she could easily have had him shadowed all the way here. In the final analysis, he had never pledged exclusive loyalty to the Wu family.

  Besides, Judge Dee still could not see a plausible motive that connected his investigation into Luo’s disappearance to Hua’s subsequent murder. So returning to the scene of the crime would not help him with his current case, but just distract him from his duty.

  Luo had stayed in Dr Hua’s company for a fortnight. Hua had taken care of Luo’s wound, and the treatment had made a difference to the latter’s quick recovery. It would have been natural for Luo to feel grateful to Dr Hua for his help. But then Luo had had no choice but to set out in a hurry to take part in the last disastrous battle by the Wuding River.

  After Lu’s return to the battlefield, it was natural, too, that there would have been no possibility for Luo and Hua to meet up again. The secret police had already interrogated Hua and had found nothing; if they had, Judge Dee would not have been sent out on this wild goose chase to track down a rebel poet who was evidently already dead.

  Therefore, Judge Dee decided not to go back. He wrote to Mayor Zhuang instead.

  ‘Being entrusted with Her Majesty’s mission, I cannot afford to have too long a delay here. I know that you will surely do your best to investigate the Hua murder case and catch the killer. It means a lot to me. I trust your capability.

  ‘Gather all the evidence and the related information regarding this diabolical case, Mayor Zhuang. Don’t rule out any possible theories too quickly. Keep me posted all the way. If needs be, use the fastest delivery available to send any new information to me. All the necessary expense will be covered as a part of the top government work under Her Majesty.

  ‘It was a pleasant surprise to meet you, Zhuang,’ Judge Dee wrote at the conclusion of the letter. ‘You have been following in my footsteps, doing a good job in local government and acting as a real investigating judge too. Someday, when you come to the Chang’an capital for a visit, I’ll introduce you to my colleagues as an excellent student of mine.’

  As the black-attired messenger left in a swirl of dust, galloping on his way back to Mayor Zhuang, Judge Dee was hit with the realization that he had come out in a cold, clammy sweat. His long gown was drenched – too drenched for him to go back to sleep any time soon.

  The road became full of jolts and jerks again. He heard the lonely cry of a wild goose through the distant sky, and then saw the bird losing itself in a bank of gray clouds.

  ‘Alas, I did not kill Hua, but he died because of me,’ Judge Dee murmured to himself again, almost inaudibly, parodying the same ancient Chinese saying.

  On horseback in front of the carriage, Yang appeared still to be shaking his head in resignation. As Judge Dee’s assistant, working alongside him for so long, he must have known that it would be useless to try to dissuade him from going on with the dangerous mission. He must know, too, that right now, instead of taking a much-needed nap against the soft cushions in the carriage, his master was conjuring up various theories to explain the vicious murder.

  After a couple of hours on the road, Judge Dee told Yang to take a lunch break by the roadside.

  ‘You have been driving the carriage along this difficult road since the morning. No need to speed on like this, Yang.’

  ‘I’m fine, Master,’ Yang protested, but Dee insisted.

  They seated themselves under an ash tree, munching green onion cakes and drinking from a bamboo container of freshly squeezed watermelon juice.

  ‘What do you think, Master?’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘About the murder of Hua, of course, just one day after your unannounced visit to his hut.’

  ‘It’s too much of a coincidence; you’re right about that. I cannot put my finger on there being a definite connection between the two,’ Judge Dee said. ‘On the other hand, I don’t think I can rule out the possibility just yet.’

  ‘So what are you going to do?’

  ‘I’ve written a letter to the mayor. Hopefully, he will do his level best to solve the herbal doctor’s vicious murder. I bet he will. Mayor Zhuang is a clever, capable man. Alas, though. I’m really responsible for Hua’s death.’

  ‘You mustn’t say that. We don’t know anything for sure – not yet. But what are we going do when we reach the Shu River?’

  ‘We are going to find a fishing girl nicknamed Little Swallow.’

  ‘Little Swallow?’

  ‘What happened between Luo and Little Swallow in a sampan on the Shu River could be considered a complicated story. I’ll tell you more about it this evening.’

  Shortly after their lunch, they resumed their journey, and a blue-headed fly stumbled into the soft-cushioned carriage, buzzing, flipping, humming and circling the fatigued Judge Dee.

  The inside of the carriage grew more and more suffocating. It was cold outside, he knew. He pulled up the curtain and waved his hand about forcefully. The droning ceased. The moment the curtain fell back down, however, the monotonous noise returned, more insistent than before.

  He felt unbearably bugged.

  He was, after all, in his sixties. Traveling so long on the uneven road, working on theories concerning the murder of the late herbal doctor Hua, enduring the company of the insistent fly, it all added to a feeling of bone-deep weariness …

  One or two hours later, Judge Dee woke up with a start from another horrible dream. His sweat-soaked robe clung tight, clammy and uncomfortable against his body. An unexpected sense of impotent déjà vu gripped him.

  In the dream, a monstrous black dragon with a white fox’s tail was glaring down from a high palace beam, a drop of steaming saliva hitting Judge Dee’s sweaty forehead. He turned and looked at his own reflection, shivering with distortion, in a rusted bronze mirror, the candle beside it burning down to ashes. He seemed to hear the night watchman beating his bamboo knocker frantically around the city wall, shouting, ‘Fire, fire, fire—’

  Judge Dee jumped up in panic, still lost in reeling disorientation. As if in mysterious correspondence, a flower vase fell off its mahogany stand, crashing to the floor with a loud bang—

  His devoted assistant Yang curbed the carriage to a hasty stop and asked tremulously over his shoulder, ‘Everything is OK with you, my master?’

  ‘Oh, yes, everything is fine. Just another scary dream. Nothing to worry about, Yang.’

  ‘So many bad dreams on this long journey. Let’s take a break. She should not have sent you out, traveling so far, far away from the capital, in the first place.’

  ‘I cannot say no to her; you know why. Several times, the empress has declared me to be a pillar of the empire at the court, and to be fair to her, she has treated me as such. I could not but have appreciated it. Just as in an old saying, if someone takes you seriously as a pillar of the state, you have no option but to continue to stand staunch and upright.’

  ‘But the rebellion has been crushed! Luo’s nobody but a feeble scribe now, without the strength to kill a goose. What big trouble would he be able to stir up? She could have sent someone else – someone younger and stronger – to carry out this investigation.’

  ‘I don’t know about that. The empress is taking the case so seriously. How could I have kept saying no to her? In fact, I’ve made several unpleasant suggestions to her in my time, but she has never rebuffed me too harshly. She has made a point of showing me the highest respect in the royal court.

  ‘As I’ve told you before, there was one time when she had just taken a bath, but she still ran out barefoot to usher me in for a long discussion. And she said she was simply imitating the high honor the first Han dynasty emperor had paid to a wise minister. Confucius says, a man will be ready to lay down his life for the one who appreciates him, and a woman will be willing to make herself beautiful for the one who appreciates her—’

  ‘You have told me this anecdote several times already, my Master. You’re too much of a Confucian scholar sometimes.’

  ‘You are probably right, I think. I may be just “a totally useless scholar writing” as depicted in a poem written by Luo Binwang – or by another poet in his association. Alas, my poor memory is failing me again.’

  Seven

  ‘Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

  Go where it doth deserve.

  And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

  My dear, then I will serve.

  You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

  So I did sit and eat.’

  – George Herbert

  ‘There are no facts, only interpretations.’

  – Friedrich Nietzsche

  ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.’

  – Plato

  In a hurry, in a great hurry,

  mountains and passes are left

  behind, like in fading dreams …

  Waking up on the morning when they finally reached the Shu River, Judge Dee murmured these lines to himself. He could not help wondering whether they had somehow come out of his fading dream.

  Looking out of the carriage window, he saw a curl of blue smoke rising from a huddle of roofs. Could it be just another scene in the dream? The sight served as another depressing reminder of Hua’s hut, with its weather-worn thatched roof trembling in the wind.

  Was Hua’s cold, stiff body still lying there, in the midst of those pools of blood? Judge Dee again was thunderstruck by the thought.

  Along the river’s banks, new willow shoots appeared, glistening with the morning rain. Under one tall willow tree, he caught sight of several young men of letters gathering under a white tent. They were holding a farewell party, singing the celebrated parting poem composed by the well-known contemporary poet Wang Wei.

  The dust of the Wei City

  Moistened by the morning rain,

  the willow shoots so young,

  so green by the hostel—‘Drink,

  drink one more cup, my dear friend!

  Once out of the Yang Pass,

  heading to the west, you’ll find

  no companion from the old days.

  Judge Dee chose to check into a willow-shaded riverside hostel nearby. He thought he needed a much-deserved break.

  Following Judge Dee’s instructions, Yang tethered the carriage horse at a sturdy tree near the hostel’s gate and then walked out to collect more information about the fishing girl nicknamed Little Swallow. He was also going to book the special boat meal with Little Swallow on behalf of his master for the night.

  It turned out to be another job drastically different from Yang’s imagination. Little Swallow’s special sampan meals appeared to be extremely popular. She was already fully booked for the next few months.

  Yang eventually managed to approach Little Swallow in person. A young, swarthy and athletic girl, she didn’t seem to be very interested in a new customer. Yang talked to her on a pier for a couple of minutes, offering a higher price, much higher than the one that had already been paid for tonight’s meal. But she would not budge, refusing to make a change to the pattern of her normal business practice.

  Yang knew that Judge Dee could not afford to wait here for months just to try Little Swallow’s special sampan meal.

  And Judge Dee also knew, only too well, that he could not afford to wait for such a long time. So when Yang told him the bad news, he knew he had no option but to seek help from a local official. He decided to make an unannounced visit to the mayor, surnamed Qian.

  ‘I did not want to bother you, Mayor Qian, but I have a direct order from Her Majesty to carry out an investigation into the disappearance of Luo Binwang. Her Majesty expects a quick conclusion – as quick as possible.’