The soldiers thanked the judge profusely, overjoyed to get this extension of their leave. When Sergeant Hoong had left together with them, the judge took a sheet of official letter paper and wrote the note to the military commander. Then he told Tao Gan to give Ma Joong and Chiao Tai an account of what he had learned in the gambling den and in the restaurant. When Tao Gan had finished, Hoong came back and reported that the two soldiers had immediately recognized Pan Feng as the horseman they had seen outside the city.
Judge Dee emptied his teacup, then he spoke:
"Let's now survey what we have. First, as regards the murder of Mrs. Pan. Now that Pan Feng's story about his meeting with the so-called robbers has proved true, I hardly doubt that the rest of what he said is also correct. To be quite sure we'll wait till the constables I sent to Five Rams Village are back, then we'll set Pan free. Personally I am convinced he is completely innocent. We must concentrate on getting a clue to the third person, the man who murdered Mrs. Pan sometime between noon of the fifteenth, and the morning of the sixteenth of this month."
"Since the murderer must have known in advance that Pan would be leaving the city that afternoon," Tao Gan observed, "he must be someone who knew the Pans well. Yeh Tai could give us information on Mrs. Pan's acquaintances, he was apparently very intimate with his sister."
"We shall examine Yeh Tai in any case," Judge Dee said. "What you heard about him in the gambling den shows that a thorough investigation of that fellow's activities is indicated. And I myself shall question Pan Feng about his friends and acquaintances. Now we come to the disappearance of Miss Liao Lien-fang. Tao Gan's friend, the rice merchant, told him that she had a secret tryst with a young man in a house of assignation in the market, near a wine house called The Breeze of Spring. Evidently that is the same house mentioned by the tout. A few days later a woman accosts Miss Liao in that same neighborhood, and she slips away with her. I presume that the woman told her that her lover was waiting for her, therefore she immediately went away with her. The role played by the hooded man we can only guess at."
"Evidently he was not the girl's lover," Sergeant Hoong said. "The rice merchant described him as a thin young man, while the dumb boy spoke about a big, burly fellow."
Judge Dee nodded. He pensively caressed his side whiskers for some time. Then he pursued:
"As soon as Tao Gan had told me about Miss Liao's secret meeting, I sent the headman to the shop of the rice merchant, who is to take him to the market and point out the house. Then the headman was to go to Chu Ta-yuan's mansion, and summon Yu Kang, Go and see whether the headman has come back, Sergeant."
When Hoong came in again he said:
"The house which Miss Liao left was indeed the one across the street from the wine house. The neighbors told the headman that the proprietress died day before yesterday, and that the only maid employed there went back to the country. They knew that queer things were happening in that house, often there was much noise till deep in the night, but they thought it wise to pretend they didn't notice it. The headman had the door broken open. The house was better furnished than one would have expected in that neighborhood. It has been standing empty since the proprietress died, nobody has yet shown up to claim it. The headman has made an inventory, then he had the house sealed."
"I doubt whether that inventory will be very complete," the judge remarked. "Most of the movable property'll now be decorating the headman's house, I presume. I mistrust those sudden attacks of zeal of that fellow. Well, it's a pity that proprietress had to die just at this time, she could have told us much about Miss Liao's secret lover. Has Yu Kang arrived?"
"He is sitting in the guardhouse, Your Honor," replied Hoong. "I shall get him now."
When Sergeant Hoong brought Yu Kang in, the judge thought that the handsome young man was really looking ill. His mouth twitched nervously, and he could not keep his hands still.
"Sit down, Yu Kang," the judge said kindly. "We are making some progress with our investigation but I feel we should know more about the background of your fiancee. Tell me, how long have you known each other?"
"Three years, Your Honor," Yu Kang replied softly.
Judge Dee raised his eyebrows. He remarked:
"The ancients have said that when a match between two young persons has been agreed upon, it is to the advantage of all concerned if the wedding takes place as soon as they have reached marriageable age."
Yu Kang's face went red. He said hurriedly:
"Old Mr. Liao is very fond of his daughter, Your Honor, and seemed loath to part with her. As to my own parents, since they live far away in the south, they have asked the Honorable Chu Ta-yuan to act on their behalf in all matters concerning me. I have been living in Mr. Chu's mansion ever since I came here, and he fears, quite understandably, that after I have established my own household, he will no longer be able to command my time. He has always been like a father to me, Your Honor, and I felt I could not insist on his consent to an early marriage."
Judge Dee made no comment. He asked instead:
"What do you think happened to Lien-fang?"
"I don't know!" the young man cried out. "I have been thinking and thinking, I am so afraid . . ."
The judge looked silently at Yu Kang as he was sitting there wringing his hands. Tears were flowing down his cheeks.
"Is it not," he asked suddenly, "that you fear that she has gone away with another man?"
Yu Kang looked up. Smiling through his tears he said:
"No, Your Honor, that is absolutely out of the question! Lien-fang and a secret lover! No, that at least I am sure of, Your Honor."
"In that case," the judge said gravely, "I have bad news for you, Yu Kang. A few days before her disappearance she was seen leaving a house of assignation in the market, together with a young man."
Yu Kang's face turned ashen. He stared at Judge Dee with wide eyes, as if he had seen a ghost. Suddenly he burst out:
"Now our secret is known! I am lost!"
He broke down in convulsive sobs. On a sign of Judge Dee the Sergeant offered him a cup of tea. The young man greedily gulped it down. Then he said in a calmer voice:
"Your Honor, Lien-fang killed herself, and I am responsible for her death!"
Judge Dee leaned back in his chair. "Explain yourself, Yu Kang."
With an effort the youngster mastered his emotion. He began:
"One day, now about six weeks ago, Lien-fang came with her duenna to the Chu mansion to deliver a message from her mother to Mr. Chu's First Lady. The lady was taking her bath, and they had to wait. Lien-fang went to take a walk in one of the gardens, and I saw her there. My own room is located in that part of the compound; I persuaded her to go inside with me. . . . Thereafter we had a few secret meetings in that house on the market. An old friend of her duenna had a shop nearby, and the old woman did not mind Lien-fang's going to look at the street stalls alone while she had an interminable talk with the other old lady. We had our last meeting there two days before her disappearance."
"Thus it was you who was seen leaving that house!" Judge Dee interrupted.
"Yes, Your Honor," Yu Kang replied in a forlorn voice, "it was me. That day Lien-fang told me that she thought she was pregnant. She was frantic, because our shameful conduct would now become known. I also was in great consternation. I knew that Mr. Liao would probably expel her from his house, and Mr. Chu would certainly send me back to my parents in disgrace. I promised her that I would do my utmost to obtain Mr. Chu's consent to an early marriage, and Lien-fang said she would do the same with her father.