I applauded the actor’s skill that had saved his life.
‘Well done, Natural Elegance. Your role as Empress Tu prepared you well for the part as Madam Gao. The somersault was a little flashy, though, don’t you think?’
The young and limber actor Tien-jan Hsiu, nephew of Lin Chu-Tsai, executed a bow, and pulled the grey wig off his head. He grinned youthfully at me through the heavy make-up.
‘Forgive my little theatrical flourish. But you didn’t tell me that I was to be brained with a poker when I agreed to substitute myself for the old lady.’
‘Yes, well, I had planned to be here sooner, but Jianxu slipped away without my being aware.’
I turned to look at the still stunned young girl.
‘What was that you were saying about killing them all? Can I take that as a confession?’
Jianxu’s otherwise pretty face twisted into a snarling mask in a transformation that Tien-jan would have envied. She took a step towards me, and raised the poker above her head. I put my arm up to protect myself from the blow, but it never came. Tien-jan had stepped smartly up behind her, and grabbed the weapon at the top of its arc. Yanking it backwards, he pulled Jianxu off her feet and on to her behind, removing the poker from her grip in the process. He looked astonished at his own skill.
‘Heavens! I thought that only worked as a move onstage.’
‘I am glad you can perform your part so well, young man.’
I bent down to lift Jianxu back to her feet. But she shook off my grip and got up by herself. By the time she was standing, her face had once again shaped itself into an impassive mask. And her eyes were dead orbs in the middle of an oval void. She had retreated into herself once again.
Tadeusz, who, under my instruction, had taken Madam Gao back to her own house for safety’s sake, was nearly bowled over by the old lady. She either imagined he was a burglar — forgetting why she had been removed from the Geng household in the middle of the night by him — or that he was Jianxu come home. The old lady was ignorant of the girl’s misdeeds and probably wanted to chastise her for not returning to the fold immediately she was released. If so, it was the first time Tadeusz had been taken for a twenty-year-old woman. He managed to save the tray of tea he had brought her and calm her down. He even agreed to massage her mutilated feet for her.
Jianxu remained impassive and acquiescent even when she was returned to the cell she had, until recently, occupied for so long. The same cell through the grille of which she had seduced Wenbo into putting a cord round his neck, and then had pulled it hard until she had strangled him. She sat impassively on her pallet while I extracted a confession from her as required by Chinee law. There was no need for the bastinado this time.
TWENTY-EIGHT
I killed Old Geng by poisoning him with aconite. I knew Geng Wenbo was infatuated with me, and I convinced him that I had to get rid of Madam Gao because she had treated me cruelly. He thought he was buying the poison from Doctor Sun for that purpose. But while he was distracted, I took the broth with the aconite in it to Old Geng instead. The boy was distraught and wanted to confess, but I couldn’t let him or he would implicate me too. I promised him the comforts of my body if he kept our secret. He was too distracted by the thought of what I promised to do anything other than what I told him to do. When the red-hair arrived, I thought I would be freed, as my yun cycle had changed. And I believed that I had convinced the barbarian of my innocence. When his interfering ways seemed to be getting close to the truth, I seduced Wenbo into doing what he originally intended; to confessing to the murder of Old Geng. He actually believed that, if I were freed, I would save him as he appeared to have saved me.
I confess to the murder of Geng Wenbo. It was too much of a risk to let him live. I came to the prison in the night, and convinced him that he must seem to have tried to kill himself. When he took his belt cord and put it round his neck, I reached through the bars and strangled him. I had the idea of stealing the prison keys and unlocking the doctor’s cell that night. If I had done so, then Sun would have been seen as the murderer of Wenbo. But the gaoler must have heard Wenbo’s death throes and woken up. I had to leave quickly. However, I came back the next night and unlocked the door of Sun’s cell. His disappearance would then have been linked with the murder of Madam Gao that I planned to carry out the same night. But the fool was too scared to leave his cell, muttering about the Devil being abroad. So I had to take a stick and beat him to death in his cell, and drag the body down the unlucky road to where I could bury it. You will find it close to the bare tree. He deserved to die, as he had also helped me kill my husband Cangbi with cinnabar under the pretext of curing him and conferring immortality upon him.
TWENTY-NINE
‘ She killed her husband too?’
Gurbesu was genuinely shocked when I read out Jianxu’s confession to my companions. It had surprised me too, until I had begun to analyse her behaviour. She had always seemed so unemotional, so controlled, and we had put it down to her upbringing in Gao’s household. And her acceptance of the role of a woman in Chinee society. It now appeared there had been some more sinister worm inhabiting her heart. I hesitate to use the word, but all I saw in her actions was pure, cold evil. I answered Gurbesu’s question.
‘It would appear so. Though whether Sun did it deliberately at her instigation, or was seduced into administering his “cure” to ensure immortality a little too eagerly we shall never know.’
Lin spoke up.
‘By the way, the prefect’s men found Sun’s body, barely covered, exactly where she said it was. The fact that the doctor was missing from his cell will go badly for Li Wen-Tao. I imagine his career, as stalled as it was already, will go backwards now. And he deserves it to do so.’
Gurbesu looked at me, pain showing deeply in her dark, brown eyes. She was hurting at having so misjudged Jianxu.
‘When I asked how long you had known who the murderer was, and you said not long but you knew it was her, I really thought you meant Madam Gao.’
Lin chipped in too.
‘And so did I. But you must have been sure it was Jianxu by then, because you hid Madam Gao away in her old home and substituted my nephew for her. I can forgive you for letting me think I had solved the case by landing on Madam Gao, but I may not forgive you for placing Tien-jan in danger. He could have been killed by Jianxu.’
‘Yes, I am sorry about that. I had it all planned so well. But Jianxu sneaked off before I knew. I took my chance to speak to you in her hearing, Gurbesu. Do you remember?’
‘I wondered why you moved me away from her room, but then bellowed something out loud about seeking Madam Gao, who you made clear was still at Geng’s. I should have guessed it was one of your scams.’
I grimaced at the thought of my crude efforts.
‘I didn’t do it very well, because I had not yet arranged for Tien-jan Hsiu to play the role of the old lady. I had spent the night convincing Madam Gao to leave the Geng house, and arranging for Tadeusz to stand guard over her.’
Tadeusz laughed.
‘Yes, and I almost got brained by her when I brought her some tea. She leapt at me calling me a lazy child and hitting me round the head. She cannot see so well, and I suppose she thought I was Jianxu. Ironic really.’
I continued my story.
‘So, that took so long that I had to leave it to the daytime to get Tien-jan to stand in for her. A part, I may say, he performed almost as well as the role of the priestess in my scam to trap the prefect.’
Lin gasped in astonishment.
‘The priestess in the temple was my nephew? I gave her — him — some coins and didn’t even guess.’