The Lacquer Screen

XI

Carnation was waiting for the judge. She had changed into a dark-blue robe and a black silk jacket. With her hair done up in a simple chignon she did not look unattractive, despite her vulgar make-up.

There was no one else in the taproom. She said that the others had gone upstairs for their afternoon nap.

'I'll follow their example, for a while,' Chiao Tai said. 'That wine was rather heady! But I prefer to take my siesta down here.'

He let himself down heavily into the old rattan armchair. Judge Dee and Carnation went out into the hot street.

The girl walked a few paces ahead of the judge, as was customary for a prostitute taking a client with her. If a man went out with his wife she would, on the contrary, walk a few paces behind him.

Carnation knew many short-cuts. Soon they entered a quiet street lined with prosperous-looking, middle-class houses. It seemed a quarter of retired shopkeepers. She halted before a high door, neatly lacquered black. Nothing indicated that it was a house of assignation.

Judge Dee knocked, but when a portly lady dressed in black damask opened, it was Carnation who spoke first and asked for a room. This indicated that it had been she who suggested the address to the customer, and thus was entitled to a commission.

Smiling, the madame let them into a small sitting-room. She said they could have the best room for the afternoon, on payment of three strings of coppers. The judge protested and, after long haggling, they agreed on two strings. The judge paid and she took them upstairs to a large and richly furnished bedroom. After she had left, Carnation said:

'This really is the best room in the house. You can be sure that the lady used this one for meeting her lover.'

'We shall search it!' Judge Dee said.

'You'll have to wait a bit. Soon the woman'll be coming back with the tea. Don't forget to give her a small tip then, it's the custom.' Seeing that Judge Dee was going to sit down at the tea-table, she said casually: 'I don't know what you have in mind, but anyway we'd better change into bed-robes. The people here have sharp eyes. They'll get suspicious if we don't act like other guests.'

She went to the dressing-table, took off her jacket and her robe and stepped out of her wide trousers. Judge Dee dis­robed also, and put on the clean bed-robe of white gauze that was hanging ready on the lacquered clothes-rack next to the bedstead. Carnation was standing naked in front of the dressing-table, washing herself with the unconcern of mem­bers of her trade. It struck the judge that she had a shapely body. When she bent over, his eye fell on the thin white scars that ran criss-cross over her back and hips.

'Who has been maltreating you?' he asked angrily. 'The Corporal?'

'Oh no,' she said indifferently. 'It's already more than a year ago. I wasn't sold to the brothel as a child, you know. I was sixteen already, and I didn't like the work, so I got a whipping now and then. But I was lucky. One day the Corporal came along and took a fancy to me. He told my owner that he wanted to buy me out. The man showed him the receipt for forty silver pieces that my father had signed when he sold me.' She turned round and put on the bed-robe. Fastening the silk sash, she continued with a smile: 'My owner was just starting to count up the other expenses that would have to be refunded, when the Corporal grabbed the paper from him and said: "All right, the deal is closed!" When my owner asked about the money, the Cor­poral just glared at him and said: "I just paid you, didn't I? Or would you call me a liar?" You should have seen the fellow's sour face! But he produced a smile and stammered, "Yes, sir, thank you, sir!" and the Corporal took me along. My owner knew that, if he complained to his guild or to the tribunal, the Corporal would come with his men and smash all his furniture. I certainly was lucky. The Corporal may be a bit short-tempered, but he's a good fellow at heart. And I don't mind those scars, they are my badge of trade, so to speak!'

While listening to her the judge had been pulling out the drawers of the dressing-table. 'There's nothing here,' he said, 'absolutely nothing.'

'What did you expect?' the girl asked, sitting down on the edge of the bedstead. 'Everybody who comes here takes good care to leave nothing that might show their identity. They know that these houses are not averse to a bit of black­mail, at times. Your best chance is the inscriptions and pic­tures put up inside the bedstead here. They are signed only with pen-names, I've always heard, but, since you can read, you might find something there.'

The woman came in with a large tray, loaded with a tea­pot and platters of fresh fruit and candy. Judge Dee gave her a handful of coppers, and she left with a polite smirk.

Carnation drew the curtains aside and entered the bed­stead. Judge Dee took off his cap and placed it on the tea-table. Then he stepped up into the large bedstead also, and sat down cross-legged on the spotless reed-mat. The bedstead was a small room in itself. Its back and side walls were made of carved blackwood, the panelling reaching high up to the canopy. Carnation was kneeling in front of the back wall, carefully forcing a hair-needle into a fissure of the wood.

'What are you doing there?' the judge asked curiously.

'I jammed the door of the secret peephole,' she replied. 'I don't think there'll be customers for it this early in the day, but you never know. And anyway we don't want them to discover what we're up to.'

She sat down opposite the judge and leaned back against the large pillow.

Judge Dee reflected that he certainly was picking up much useful knowledge. Before his marriage to his First Lady he had occasionally associated with the high-class courtesans of the capital, but he was ignorant of the customs of common houses of prostitution, and the depraved tastes they catered for. He raised his head and, caressing his side-whiskers, began to study one by one the sheets inscribed with poems and pictures that had been inserted into the many square and round frames in the panelling. The bedsteads of married couples are usually decorated with inscriptions and pictures of an edifying kind, alluding to the deep meaning of the married state, and to virtuous men and women of antiquity. Here, however, they were of course of a more frivolous nature. Literary people who visit houses of assignation and brothels often amuse themselves by jotting down a few impromptu verses or making a few sketches. If those are cleverly done, the management will use them for decorating the inside of the bed. When they have faded, they are torn down and replaced by new ones. The judge read aloud a couplet, written in a flowing, scholarly hand :

He nodded and said :

'Crudely expressed, but unfortunately quite true.' Then he suddenly sat up. His eye had fallen on a poem of four lines. The first couplet was written in the same unconven­tional, artistic hand as the inscription on the painting of the lotus flowers which he had seen in Leng Chien's office, on the wall behind the banker's chair. The second couplet was written in the very small, precise calligraphy taught to girls of good family. There was no signature. He slowly read out aloud the first couplet:

And then the second couplet, which ran:

According to the old poetic custom, the man had written down a couplet, and the woman had capped it with a second. It would seem to fit. The poem with its allusions to fallen blossoms and short-lived earthly pleasures could well refer to an illicit relationship. The beggar had described Mrs Teng's lover as a well-dressed young man with red cheeks. Those red patches need not have been caused by indulging in wine, they could be the tell-tale signs of the lingering lung disease Leng Te had died from. And the young painter's predilection for depicting lotus flowers would seem to supply further proof. He said to Carnation:

'This poem could have been written by Mrs Teng and her lover together.'

'I don't quite get the meaning,' the girl said, 'but it sounds to me like a sad poem. Did you recognize her lover's handwriting?'

'I think so. But, even if I am right, it won't help us much in finding Mrs Teng's murderer. The young man who wrote the first couplet is dead.' He thought for a while, then went on: 'You'd better go downstairs now and try to get that woman to give you a good description of the couple.'

'You're very anxious to get rid of me, aren't you?' the girl said curtly. 'You'll have to bear with my company a little longer, though. We must keep up appearances.'

'I am sorry!' Judge Dee said with an apologetic smile. He had not thought that the girl was so sensitive. And she was quite right, of course. 'I am a bit preoccupied,' he added quickly, 'but I like your company very much. How about bringing that tea-tray here? Then we can eat and drink a little, and talk some more.'

Carnation silently climbed down from the bedstead and fetched the tray. When she had placed it on the bedmat between them, she poured out two cups of tea. She ate a piece of candy. Suddenly she said:

'It must be a nice change for you to be in a real bed again, like the one you have at home.'

'What is that?' the judge asked, startled from his thoughts. 'At home? You know very well that men of my profession have no home!'

'Oh, stop that nonsense!' Carnation exclaimed, annoyed. 'You act the part fairly well, so you needn't fear that the Corporal or his men'll find you out. But don't think you can fool an experienced woman when you are in bed with her!'

'What do you mean?' Judge Dee asked, irritated.

She leaned over and pulled his robe down. Quickly feeling his shoulder, she said contemptuously:

'Look at that smooth skin! A daily bath, and expensive ointments! And do you want me to believe that your hair got that gloss from the wind and rain? You are strong, but your skin is white and without a single scar. Those muscles of yours you got from fencing and boxing in the training-hall, with the other young gentlemen! And the cheap way you're treating me! You may think I am not worth a second look, but let me tell you that no real highwayman or vagrant crook would be sitting calmly on the bedmat with me here, daintily sipping his tea! Those men get a chance at a woman like me only once in a while; even if they were on a job they'd grab me as soon as I had lowered my trousers, and worry about the job afterwards! They can't afford to be as casual as you, with your four or five fawning wives and concubines at home who coddle you day and night, and who have expensive powder instead of stripes on their behinds! I don't know who or what you are, and I care less, but I won't be insulted by you and your haughty airs!'

Judge Dee was taken aback by this sudden outburst. He did not quite know what to say. The girl went on in a bitter voice:

'Since you don't belong to us, why come and spy on us? Why spy on the Corporal, a fine fellow who trusts you completely? To laugh and joke about us later when you're back with your own people, I suppose?'

Angry tears had come into her eyes.

'You are right,' the judge said quietly, 'I am indeed act­ing a part. But certainly not as a cheap joke. I am an official engaged in a criminal investigation, and you and the Cor­poral, without knowing it, are giving me exactly the assis­tance I had been hoping for when I assumed my role. As to me not belonging to you, there you are completely wrong. I have sworn to serve the state and the people, and that includes the Prefect's First Lady as well as you, the Prime Minister as well as your Corporal. We, the great Chinese people, all belong to each other, Carnation. That is our eternal glory, and that makes us, the cultured people of the Middle Kingdom, different from the uncouth barbarians of the rest of the world, who hate and devour each other like wild beasts. Am I making myself clear?'

The girl nodded, somewhat mollified, and wiped her face with her sleeve.

'Another thing,' Judge Dee went on. 'Let me assure you that I think you are a very attractive woman, you have a sweet face and a splendid figure. If I didn't happen to have a lot of other things on my mind just now, I would be very happy indeed if you would grant me your favours!'

'It probably isn't true,' Carnation said with a thin smile, 'but it sounds nice anyway. You do look tired. Lie down and I'll fan you!'

Judge Dee stretched himself out on the soft mat. The girl let the robe slip down from her shoulders, took the palm-leaf fan that hung in a comer of the bedstead, and started to fan him. Before he knew it he was sound asleep.

When he woke up he saw Carnation standing fully dressed in front of the bed.

'You had a good nap,' she said, 'and I had a good talk downstairs. The woman paid me a decent commission, too. I'll use that for buying myself a present from you!'

'How long have I slept?' Judge Dee asked anxiously.

'A couple of hours. The woman downstairs remarked that you must be an ardent lover. She also told me that the couple came here twice, just like old Drip-eye said. She was a slight woman, but very distinguished, quite a lady. The young man was also of good family, but he didn't seem very strong; he was suffering from a bad cough. He paid handsomely. The woman also said that both times the couple had been fol­lowed.'

'How do you mean, followed?'

JUDGE DEE AND CARNATION

'Right into this house and this room! Both times another fellow came in shortly after the couple had gone upstairs, and paid a round sum for using the peep-hole up in the bed­stead there.'

'Who was that man?' the judge asked tensely.

'Did you expect him to leave his visiting-card? The woman downstairs said he was tall and thin. He had pulled his neck-cloth over his face up to his eyes, so she couldn't see what he looked like, and his voice was muffled. But she's sure he was an educated man, with a certain air of authority about him. And he walked with a limp.'

Judge Dee remained standing still, with his robe in his hands. That could have been no one else but Teng's coun­sellor, Pan Yoo-te! Silently he put on his robe, assisted by Carnation. When he had wound the sash round his waist and put on his cap, he felt in his sleeve and said, somewhat diffidently:

'I am deeply grateful for your excellent help. Allow me to offer you a . . .'

'The information was gratis, for nothing!' the girl inter­rupted him curtly.' But I wouldn't mind your taking me here again, some other day. I am sure you could keep a girl quite agreeably occupied — when your mind isn't on other things, at least. Then you can pay me sixty coppers, and a hundred if you want to make a night of it. That's my regular price when I work outside.'

She went to the door. Downstairs the madame was waiting for them, and obsequiously escorted them to the door.

In the street the judge said to the girl:

'I'll have to go to the north quarter now. I'll see you again at the inn, at meal time.'

She gave him a few directions about the road north, then they parted.