“That is true,” Lady Li said. “Except for Minister Song. Will you continue to investigate him?”
“I am not under orders to. I don’t have just cause or access to him,” Inspector Gong explained. “There is nothing I can do.”
Lady Li nodded her head. “I see. Well, I should be going.”
Inspector Gong reached out and touched her hand. “Wait. Will I see you again?”
Oh how she wanted to see him again. In this moment she wanted nothing more than to collapse into his arms. She wanted him to comfort and console her. She wanted to make love to him again. She wanted him in her life and in her bed. But she could not give in. She was still a lady and had her family to consider. Here in the Forbidden City, she had been given a taste of freedom, but now she had to return home, return to normalcy.
“You may attend Lady Yun’s funeral,” Lady Li said. “But other than that I doubt I will see you again.”
She slid her hand from his and left the audience chamber even though it broke her heart to do so.
24
The chanting of the monks and the wailing of Suyi’s mother could be heard from down the road. As Inspector Gong reached Lady Li’s mansion to attend the funeral rites for Suyi, he was surprised to see a red banner hanging over the doorway. It stood as a stark reminder that Lady Yun and her family were Manchu to the end, not Han, who would have hung a white banner over the door.
The door to the housing complex was open to welcome mourners, but Eunuch Bai stood by, stoically watching each person who entered. He was dressed in white, as were all the other mourners. He entered the courtyard and saw the coffin laid in the middle, with the lid still open. In front of the coffin, many people were prostrating themselves to the young woman and to her mother. Lady Li and her two daughters were among them.
Inspector Gong took several joss sticks from a monk who was standing by handing them to mourners as they arrived. He walked to the foot of the coffin, bowed three times, and then placed them among the alter that had been placed there.
On one side of the courtyard was a large pile of clothes, money, food, and other items. Inspector Gong walked over and placed a beautiful pair of pot-bottom shoes on the pile. When the body was taken to the burial place, all of these items would be burned so the deceased could use them in the afterlife.
He then went to the coffin, situated himself behind Lady Li, her daughters, Concubine Swan, and Lady Yun’s mother and prostrated himself before it.
The cries of Lady Yun’s mother could make the strongest man weep. He knew the woman was ill and had now lost her last child. Her only family now was her daughter-in-law and her two granddaughters. It did not take long for the woman to wear herself out. She had to be carried away by several servants.
After she was gone, the mourners began to leave or talk among themselves. Since Lady Yun was so young and unmarried, she did not have many friends and did not hold a very high station in society, so most of the mourners were there to support their fellow Bannermen—as Manchu nobles were called since they were all descendants of the eight Manchu banners.
Eventually, Lady Li and her daughters stood up as well. When she turned and faced Inspector Gong, she seemed surprised to see him even though she had given him permission to attend the funeral.
Her little girls, who had always seemed happy to see him, looked exhausted and their faces were stained with tears. Even though Lady Li had had several weeks to process Lady Yun’s death, her daughters only found out about it after she returned home after discovering her killer. They were clearly heavily distraught over the loss of their aunt.
Lady Li handed the girls off to two servants. “I’ll see to them shortly,” she said. “Go ahead and get them ready for bed.” The servants nodded and led the girls away.
“Inspector Gong,” she said formally, with a slight bend of her knees.
“I am sorry for your loss, Lady Li,” he said with equal formality. “I have information for you on the resolution of your sister’s case. Is there somewhere we can speak, or should I come back later?”
She sighed and looked around. “We should get this out of the way,” she said. “After we bury Suyi tomorrow, I would like to put this misery behind us as much as possible.”
She led Inspector Gong from the courtyard and into a formal sitting room. She left the door open so that they could still be seen, but they were far enough away that it would not be easy for anyone to hear what they were saying.
“It was…so terrible,” Lady Li said. “I’m so confused. I had already mourned her, but I feel like I am mourning again. But I do not know if it is for her or for Chu. I know Chu killed Suyi, but her life was so tragic. I can’t help but weep for her.”
Inspector Gong nodded. “Everyone grieves differently. And people are…complicated, to say the least. I think it is possible to be angry with Chu for her crimes and feel sad for the life she lived that caused her to do something so terrible.”
“Did you speak to Minister Song?” she asked. “Will he pay for his role in the matter?”
“I spoke to him,” he said. “But you know there is nothing I can do. We have no evidence of his role in the plot. The words of a murderous maid and a woman I met on the street are not enough to convict a man of his station. We don’t have any evidence that he purchased the gu or knew about Chu being the daughter of the Xianfeng Emperor. I demanded that he give me the paper he found in the imperial archives, but of course he denied knowing anything.”
“Did you at least tell the empress about your suspicions of his involvement?” Lady Li asked.
“I did,” he said. “But she cannot demote him, not without evidence. But it will be a long time before she trusts him again, if ever.”
“But is she safe with him at court?” she asked.
“I cannot say,” Inspector Gong replied. “I think she is for now since he is being closely scrutinized. But who is to say he won’t try something again, if he is as hungry for power as Chu said.”
“And the empress will recover from the poisoning?” Lady Li asked.
“The doctors think so,” he said. “It will take time for the poison to clear out of her system, but as long as she is not ingesting any more, she should recover.”
Lady Li sighed and slowly blinked her eyes. “That is good. I suppose everything worked out.”
“Do I need to do anything about Eunuch Jinxi?” he asked. “Didn’t he recommend Chu for you?”
“I don’t think so. He was recommended to me by Eunuch Bai, who cannot stop beating himself up over what happened. Eunuch Jinxi seems genuine in his innocence. He knew Lady Yun and Chu were friends, so he thought she would be useful to me. He had no idea of her involvement. I have no reason to doubt him. I don’t want anyone else punished if there is a chance they are innocent.”
She was certainly thinking of the other eunuchs who had been executed after the empress learned of their involvement.
“After spending only a few days in the palace I remember why I was so glad I was not married to the emperor myself,” Lady Li said. “The palace is a gilded cage. It is grand and opulent and a thing of envy, but the inside is rotten.”
“I agree,” Inspector Gong said. “I don’t know how those women live that life every day.”
“My daughters…” Lady Li started to say, but shook her head. “I don’t know what I am going to do.”
Inspector Gong remembered how Prince Kung said that Lady Li’s daughters were both on the short list of possible consorts for the new emperor when he came of age. After this experience, Lady Li must have feared for their future.
“I have to ask,” he said at the thought of Prince Kung, “did Prince Kung teach you that? How to defend yourself I mean? That was quite impressive.”
Lady Li could not keep one side of her mouth from curling up in a smile. “My years as a lady-in-waiting were dangerous times. Yes, he taught me a few tricks.”
He wondered what the other tricks were. He hoped he would have the chance to f
ind out.
“Anyway, you should go before people start to talk,” Lady Li said.
“I…I also wanted to ask, Lady Li,” he started to say, but found himself stuttering. “About…well, about us…”
“Us?” she asked, confused.
“Yes,” he said. “After the night we spent together, I thought maybe we…that I could see you again…”
“There is no us,” she said firmly. “I am a Manchu lady while you are a Han nobody. There cannot be a ‘we’. I must still consider my reputation, my future, my daughters’ future.”
Inspector Gong stepped back as if she had slapped him. “I’m not a nobody, Lady Li,” he said. “I might not have a high and mighty title like you, but I’m well respected in this city, as is my family. I might not be a Manchu, but I am not beneath you.”
“That remains to be seen,” Lady Li said walking past him and motioning that he should leave.
Inspector Gong scoffed as he started to walk past her. What a cold, calculating woman. He had never felt so used.
“There can never be an us, inspector,” she reiterated after he stepped through the door. “But if you were to call upon me again, I would not turn you away.”
He didn’t look back because he couldn’t keep from smiling and didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing how pleased he was.
They both knew they would see each other again.
Murder in the British Quarter
1
The riot had started in the dark hours of the morning, when the Chinese employees of the Foreign Legation had begun venturing into the Chinese portions of Peking to run their morning errands. They took the news of the murder with them, spreading truth mixed with hearsay and rumor and stirring up dissent. By the time Prince Kung and Inspector Gong arrived, the gates had been closed and hundreds of angry people had gathered outside the legation.
“Can you believe this?” Prince Kung asked. “All over some peasant girl. If she’d been killed anywhere else in China, no one would have given a shit about her.”
Inspector Gong grunted his agreement as he peeked out the windows of the sedan chair. He rarely ever traveled in such a stately manner, but he had first been summoned to Prince Kung’s mansion, and together they traveled to the legation. When it came to troubles between the foreigners and Chinese, Prince Kung was the man people turned to. Prince Kung had filled Inspector Gong in on what little he knew about the situation on the way there.
A serving girl had been murdered in the home of a wealthy British merchant overnight in the British Quarter of the legation. They had sent for the British police, but of course the other Chinese servants knew what was happening. Word about the murder spread, and people were, rightly, concerned that the murder would just be covered up. If she had been killed by a foreigner, the killer would never see justice. If people hadn’t rioted, the situation may have completely gone unnoticed by the Chinese authorities, not that they could do much about it.
The chair bearers stopped outside the crowd of people. Even though the front gate was still many meters away, they could get no closer. Prince Kung and Inspector Gong climbed out of the chair. The prince motioned for his guards to clear the people out of his way. Fortunately, Prince Kung was popular with the people, so few put up a fight as the prince and the inspector made their way through the crowd. In front of the gate, there was an opening in the sea of people. On the ground, two elderly people were knocking their foreheads to the ground and wailing, a traditional way of publicly mourning when someone had been wronged.
“You are the girl’s parents,” Inspector Gong said loudly over the din of people.
The man stopped and looked up at him while the woman continued her lament. “We are,” he said. “Our girl, our beautiful girl, was ripped from us this night. Where are lowly ones such as ourselves to find comfort, much less justice? These white devils kill us and we are supposed to do nothing?”
At that, the crowd erupted again and pushed in toward the prince and the inspector. The prince’s guards held the people back, but worry showed on his face.
“I’ll need to question her parents further,” the inspector said softly in the prince’s ear.
The prince nodded. “But not here, not now. That man knows what he is doing. He’s whipping up the crowd.”
Inspector Gong nodded. The father wasn’t just mourning, he was encouraging the rioters. To what end, the inspector wasn’t sure yet. He would have to parse that out later.
The prince led the inspector to the gate, which was lined with a dozen very nervous British guards. The head guard held his hand up as they approached.
The guard said something in English that Inspector Gong didn’t understand, but his meaning was clear. He wasn’t going to let them in.
The prince grew indignant and yelled, in English, at the guard, who looked sufficiently shaken when the prince was done. The guard quickly saluted and then bowed in apparent confusion about how to react to the prince, especially in such a situation. He stammered something else and then nearly ran to the guard room on one side of the gate and opened a small window in the back to talk to someone on the other side.
He returned quickly and said something, accompanied with a bow. He indicated that the prince should follow him. The guard led them to a small door inside the large gate and ushered the prince, Inspector Gong, and the prince’s guards through.
They were welcomed by several foreign men in various dress, some in uniforms, some simply in suits. Inspector Gong knew nothing about foreigners or their ways, so he had no way of knowing who the men were, so he simply followed the prince’s lead. He shook hands and nodded his head, but he didn’t speak. Even though he could say hello, thank you, and other small words, he had no confidence in his English ability and knew he would speak heavily accented. He didn’t want to give any appearance of weakness in front of people who he might have to, somehow, question about the girl’s murder.
Prince Kung, on the other hand, was fluent in English. As he spoke to the men, he nodded his head gravely and then forcefully explained the situation. They argued back and forth for a moment, then the foreigners turned away.
The prince explained more of the situation to Inspector Gong as they followed the foreigners. “These men are the chief of police for the British citizens, the British ambassador, and the British, American, and German consuls. They want to handle the situation internally, of course, but I told them that the situation had escalated beyond that now. If they want to avoid an international incident, we have to be allowed to conduct our own investigation or at least be part of their investigation. The locals need to be reassured that justice will be done.”
Inspector Gong nodded his head.
As they walked, Inspector Gong took in the sites. He had never been into the Foreign Legation before. Like the Forbidden City, whose southern wall loomed just to the north of the legation, the Foreign Legation was a world apart. Only foreigners were allowed to live here, except for the Chinese servants they often employed, and the different sections of the legation took on the aspects of the country they represented. The finest dress shops could be found in the French Quarter, the best food could be found in the German Quarter, and the most opulent houses could be found in the British Quarter.
The inspector was nearly awed by the large houses that loomed two and three stories tall like white teeth ready to gnash anyone unwelcome who walked by. The houses had green lawns and wrought iron fences. White faces peeked out of the windows on the upper floors as they walked past. The inspector chuckled to himself. Nosey neighbors were universal, it seemed.
They finally arrived at what appeared to be the largest and most well-appointed house in the British Quarter. A crowd had gathered outside, both of uniformed officers and average lookyloos, both foreign and Chinese.
Inspector Gong examined the house. A window on the third floor was shattered and the glass had fallen on the walkway leading up to the front door and was being trampled by people standing around
unhelpfully. He looked across the street and saw that there were several houses of the same height.
The prince and the inspector were led inside the house. Inspector Gong had been in some fancy homes in his life, even the Forbidden City, but Chinese decor was damn near austere compared to this. It was downright garish. The floors and walls were a dark mahogany wood and a large staircase greeted them. The inspector looked up and saw a crystal chandelier. There were gilded mirrors and picture frames on every wall. Elaborate carpets covered the floors. Every table top, of which there were many, were covered with lace and countless knickknacks. He was surprised to see several Chinese items among the mess—ink and wash paintings on the walls, embroidered lotus slippers on a table, and a Tang Dynasty terracotta horse standing in one corner.
They were taken to the first room in the left, which had similar decorations but also had plush green couches and chairs for sitting. A tall portly man with thick, fair facial hair was standing there, drinking something out of a small crystal goblet. A woman with similarly round features and the largest, most prominent bosom Inspector Gong had ever seen was sitting on the couch, a handkerchief to her face.
“This is the owner of the house, and the employer of the young woman,” the prince explained as he shook hand with the man. “His name is Mr. John Gibson.”
Inspector Gong nodded and shook the man’s hand, but remained silent.
The prince and Mr. Gibson talked back and forth for a few minutes, of which the inspector understood nothing. He looked at the woman for a moment. At first he thought she had been crying, but then he realized she wasn’t. She was holding the handkerchief to her face, but her eyes were not red or puffy and her cheeks were dry. She did have a bit of a far off look to her, as if she was lost in thought, but she seemed more worried, possibly angry. He then noticed her foot was tapping anxiously. Of course, it was natural to be apprehensive if someone was murdered in your home, but the inspector had a feeling there was some other cause for her unease. He hoped he would have a chance to chat with her at some point, but he doubted it.
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 16
