A Loyal Character Dancer

by Qiu Xiaolong

  “I understand.” Chen repeated after a pause, “I understand the relationship between you, but what will other people think?”

  “Liu says that he does not care what other people think,” Wen said with her head hung so low, it looked as if her neck were broken. “Why should I care?”

  “So you have decided to stay on here with Liu?”

  “What do you mean, Chief Inspector Chen?”

  “Well, what’s your plan for the future?”

  “I want to raise my son by myself.”

  “Where? Liu’s wife has not yet learned about your presence here, has she? It is so close to Shanghai. She may drop in any day. What will she make of this arrangement?”

  “No, I will not stay here for long. Liu will rent an apartment for me for the next few months. As soon as my baby is born, I’m planning to leave.”

  “As long as the gangsters are still lurking about, I don’t see how you can be safe anywhere. Any move you make, whether back to Fujian or to Shanghai, may bring them down on you.”

  “I won’t go far away. I’ll stay in the area. Liu may find a job for me,” Wen said. “Liu has a lot of friends in Suzhou. It will work out, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “The gang will find you.” He lit a cigarette, then stubbed it out after one puff. “It’s a matter of time.”

  “No one knows anything about me. Not even my real name. Liu has made up a story about me, saying I am his cousin.”

  Chen said, “This is a matter of national interests. I have to make a report to the police bureau. Sooner or later, the gang will have a copy of that report.”

  “I don’t understand, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “There may well be a connection between the gang and the Fujian police, as you are aware.”

  He noticed the astonishment on Catherine Rohn’s face. Party Secretary Li had insisted on his holding the Americans responsible for the leaks. Chen would worry about Li’s reaction-and hers-later.

  “So you cannot do anything for me?”

  “To be honest, I have to say we cannot guarantee your safety. You know only too well how powerful those gangsters are. In fact, Liu agrees with my analysis of the situation. What’s more, once they find you, it will surely get Liu into trouble, too. You know what they are capable of.”

  “Do you think I should leave because of Liu, Chief Inspector Chen?” Wen said slowly, looking up at him.

  “As a cop, my answer is yes. Not only the Flying Axes, but the government will bring pressure to bear upon him.”

  “It’s a decision,” Catherine said, “in the interests of the two countries.”

  “Liu cannot win with both the government and the triads against him,” Chen said. “And his wife would never forgive him for giving up everything for another woman.”

  “You don’t have to go on.” Wen stood up with resolve in her eyes.

  “Liu does not want you to leave, because he is concerned about you.” Chen continued. “I am too. I’ll keep in close touch with Inspector Rohn. Feng will not be able to bully you like before. If there is anything Inspector Rohn can do for you, I’ll make sure she does it.”

  “Yes, I will do my best to help you,” Catherine said, grasping Wen’s hand. “Trust me.”

  “All right. I’ll leave,” Wen said hoarsely. “But I want you, Chief Inspector Chen, to guarantee that nothing will happen to Liu.”

  “Yes, I guarantee it,” he said. “Comrade Liu has done a great service by protecting you. Nothing will happen to him.”

  “There is one thing I can do,” Catherine said. “I will assign you a special post office box number. You cannot write to anyone directly, but you can write to this number, and your letters will be forwarded to Liu or anyone else. And you will receive his, too.”

  “One more thing, Inspector Rohn and Chief Inspector Chen. I must go back to Fujian before I leave China.”

  “Why?”

  “I left some papers behind in my hurry. And the poetry collection.”

  “We’ll have Detective Yu bring them to Shanghai.” Chen said.

  “I have to go to my son’s grave,” Wen said in a voice that seemed to leave no room for further argument. “For a last look.”

  Chen hesitated. “We may not have enough time, Wen.”

  “She wants to say good-bye to her son,” Catherine intervened. “It’s only human nature for a mother to want to bid farewell to her son.”

  He did not want to appear cold-blooded, though this seemed excessively sentimental to him. He refrained from saying anything more. The very unreasonableness of Wen’s request made it intriguing.

  Chapter 31

  Where are we going now?” Catherine Rohn asked Chen in the taxi.

  “The Suzhou Police Bureau. I called their director. If Wen had decided to stay, Liu could have whisked her away. I had to call on the local cops for help, to put some men outside his place.” He added, “And for their protection, too.”

  “So you’re not that trusting even of a fellow poet?”

  He did not respond to her question. “We’d better leave Suzhou as soon as possible. Have you heard of the proverb ‘There can be many dreams in a long night.’ “

  “No.”

  “It’s like an English one-’There’s many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip.’ If we must go to Fujian, I want to take Wen there today. Anything is possible with those gangsters. To get the earliest train or airplane tickets, we need the help of the local police.”

  “She told me a lot about her life while you were with Liu upstairs. I feel terribly sorry for Wen. That’s why I supported her request, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “I understand,” he said. Suddenly he felt exhausted, and he spoke little the rest of the way.

  The moment they entered the reception room of the Suzhou Police Bureau, Director Fan Baohong burst in. “You should have informed us earlier of your visit, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “We arrived only yesterday, Director Fan. This is Inspector Catherine Rohn, of the U. S. Marshals Service.”

  “Welcome to Suzhou, Inspector Rohn. It’s a great honor to meet you.”

  “I’m so happy to meet you, Director Fan.”

  “It must take an important investigation to bring both of you to Suzhou. We’ll do whatever we can do here to assist you.”

  “It’s a sensitive international case, so I cannot give you the details,” Chen said. “Are your people still stationed outside Liu’s residence?”

  “Yes, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “Keep them there. I have to ask you another favor. We need three tickets to Fujian as soon as possible, by air or by train.”

  “Honghua,” Fan shouted to a young woman officer sitting at the front desk outside. “Check on the earliest available tickets to Fujian.”

  “We appreciate your help, Director Fan,” Catherine said.

  “Now let’s move into my office. It is more comfortable there,” Fan said.

  “No, please don’t bother,” Chen said. “We have to leave soon. The fewer people know about this, the better.”

  “I understand, Chief Inspector Chen. I will not say a single word to anyone-”

  “Excuse me, Director Fan.” The young woman officer appeared in the doorway. “I’ve got the information for you. There’s no direct flight from Suzhou to Fujian. Our guests have to go back to Shanghai first. There will be a flight from Shanghai at three thirty in the afternoon. On the other hand, there is an express train from Suzhou to Fujian this evening, leaving at eleven thirty. The trip takes about fourteen hours.”

  “We’ll take the train.” Chen said.

  “But all the soft sleepers are sold out. We can get only hard sleepers.”

  “Go and tell the railway bureau: We must have soft sleepers,” Fan said. “If necessary, they can put on an additional car.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Director Fan.” Catherine said. “Hard sleeper will be great for me. In fact, I prefer it.”

  “Inspector Rohn wants to see th
e real China,” Chen explained. “Traveling in hard sleeper like an ordinary Chinese traveler will be an experience for her. It’s settled. Three tickets.”

  “Fine, if Inspector Rohn insists.”

  “Tell this to your people outside Liu’s residence,” Chen said. “Liu will accompany a woman to the train station this evening. If they are heading in that direction, follow them at a distance. If not, stop them. In the meantime, watch out for any suspicious people.”

  “Don’t worry. That is their job.” Fan took a glance at his watch. “Now, we have several hours before us. For Inspector Rohn’s first visit, let’s have a typical Suzhou dinner. What about the Pine and Crane Restaurant?”

  “I have to take a rain check for dinner, Director Fan,” Chen said, standing up.

  “Well, we will see you at the station then,” Fan said, accompanying them to the doorway, where Honghua handed over two bamboo containers. “Suzhou souvenirs. A pound of tea for each of you. First-class Cloud and Mist, a special product for the emperors in ancient China.”

  It might have cost five hundred Yuan at Shanghai First Department Store, though probably it would have cost Fan much less-from tea plantations patrolled by Fan’s men. Still, it was a valuable present.

  “Thank you, Director Fan. I’m overwhelmed.” It would be a good gift for his mother, a connoisseur of fine tea. Chen felt bad for not having phoned her before he left Shanghai.

  It took ten minutes for them to get back to the hotel, and less than five minutes for him to pack. He went to her room, where he called Liu, informing him of the travel arrangements. Liu agreed to accompany Wen to the station.

  The next call was to Detective Yu. “We’ve found Wen Liping, Detective Yu.”

  “Where, Chief Inspector Chen?”

  “In Suzhou. Staying with Liu Qing, a high-school classmate. A poet in that anthology. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you more about it back in Shanghai. We are taking tonight’s train to Fujian, to pick up a few things at Wen’s place.”

  “Great. I’ll meet you at the Fujian railway station.”

  “No, don’t. Peiqin will be waiting for you at home. Return by air today. We have a special budget. Don’t tell the locals about our plan.”

  “I see. Thanks, Chief.”

  Finally Chen phoned the Fujian Police Bureau. A junior officer, surnamed Dai, said Superintendent Hong was not in the office.

  “I want your people to meet me at the railway station with a car at one tomorrow afternoon. Preferably a van.” Chen did not mention that Catherine Rohn and Wen Liping would be with him.

  “No problem, Chief Inspector Chen. It’s an internationally important case, we all know.”

  “Thanks.” Chen put down the phone, wondering how all of them could have known that.

  Catherine called her headquarters in Washington, where it was early morning. She left a message, saying she would be bringing Wen back in a couple of days.

  It was a few minutes past five. They still had several hours to spend in Suzhou. She started taking her things out of the closet to pack. He felt time weighing heavily on him. Staring out the window, he realized for the first time that they were surrounded by dilapidated buildings. Perhaps the hotel was too close to the railway station.

  “What does the phrase folk east of the river mean?” Catherine asked, as she put her cosmetics into a small bag.

  “It means the people at home who have high hopes for you. Lord Chu was defeated in a battle around 200 B.C. and declared that he was unable to face his folk east of the river. So by the Wu River, he committed suicide.”

  “I’ve seen a tape of a Beijing Opera called Farewell to His Imperial Concubine. It is about the proud Lord of Chu, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, that’s him.” Chen was not in the mood to talk more.

  He was increasingly uneasy about this trip back to Fujian. Wen had appeared so determined, yet every delay increased her risk.

  He excused himself and went to smoke a cigarette. There were people at one end of the corridor, holding plastic basins filled with clothes. They were carrying their laundry to the public laundry room the hotel manager had shown him-a long concrete groove with a number of faucets. There was no such thing as a washing machine around here. He walked to a window at the other end. Next to it was a door opening to a flight of steps, which led to a small concrete platform, a part of the flat roof. There a young woman was busy hanging her wet clothes on the clothesline. Wearing a slip with thin straps, bare legged and bare of foot, she looked like a gymnast ready to perform. A young man emerged from behind the clothes and embraced her in spite of the beads of water glistening on her shoulders. A couple on their honeymoon trip, Chen guessed, his eyes squinting from the cigarette smoke.

  Most of the people here were not affluent and had to endure the inconveniences of a cheap hotel, but they were contented.

  He wondered whether he had done the right thing for Wen.

  Was Wen going to have a good life with Feng in that faraway country? She knew the answer. That’s why she had chosen to stay in Suzhou. With the best years of her life already wasted in the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, Wen was trying to hang on to the last remnant of her dreams by staying here with Liu.

  What had he done? A cop was not paid to be compassionate.

  Some unexpected lines came to him as he stared out of the window…

  “What are you thinking about?” Inspector Rohn came to his side by the window.

  “Nothing.” He was upset. But for their interference, Wen might have stayed on with Liu, though he knew it was not fair to blame Inspector Rohn. “We have done our job.”

  “We’ve done our job,” she repeated. “To be exact, you have done it. A wonderful job, I have to say.”

  “A wonderful job indeed.” He ground out the cigarette on the windowsill.

  “What did you say to Liu in his study?” she asked, touching his hand lightly. She must have sensed the change in his mood. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to bring him around.”

  “There are so many perspectives from which we can look at one and the same thing. I merely provided another perspective for him.”

  “A political perspective?”

  “No, Inspector Rohn. Not everything is political here.” He noticed the young couple staring at them from the roof. From their perspective, what would they think of the two of them, a Chinese man and an American woman standing by the window? He changed the subject. “Oh, sorry about turning down the dinner invitation. It would have been a sumptuous dinner, I imagine. Loads of toasts to friendship between China and the United States. I was not in the mood.”

  “You made the right choice. Now we have a chance to take a walk in a Suzhou garden.”

  “You want to go to a garden?”

  “I have not visited a single one yet,” she said. “If we have to wait, let us wait in a garden.”

  “Good idea. Let me make one more phone call.”

  “Fine, I’ll take a few pictures of the hotel out front.”

  He dialed Gu’s number. Now that they were about to leave Suzhou, it should be safe for him to make a call to Gu in Shanghai.

  “Where are you, Chief Inspector Chen?” Gu sounded genuinely anxious. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  “I’m on my way to another city, Gu. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

  “Some people are after you. You have to take care.”

  “Who are those people?” Chen said.

  “An international organization.”

  “Tell me about them.”

  “Their base is Hong Kong. I have not yet found out everything. It’s not convenient for me to talk at the moment, Chief Inspector Chen. Let’s discuss it when you come back, okay?”

  “Okay.” At least it was not Internal Security.

  Catherine was waiting for him in front of the hotel. She wanted to take a picture of him standing by the burnished bronze lion, his hand on its back. It did not feel like bronze. He examined it
more closely, and found it was made of plastic, covered with gold paint.

  Chapter 32

  Chen was still in a dark mood, which soon proved to be infectious. Catherine was also subdued as they entered the Qing-style landscape of the Yi Garden.

  There was something on his mind, she knew. A number of unanswered questions were on hers, too. Nevertheless, they had found Wen.

  She did not want to raise those questions for the moment. And she felt uncomfortable for a different reason as she walked beside him in the garden. In the past few days, Chen had played the role of the cop in charge, always having something to say- about modernism, Confucianism, or communism. That afternoon, however, their roles had become reversed. She had taken the initiative. She wondered whether he resented her.

  The garden was quiet. There were hardly any other visitors. Their footsteps made the only sound.

  “Such a beautiful garden,” she said, “but it’s almost deserted.”

  “It’s the time of the day.”

  Dusk was beginning to envelop the garden path; the sun hung above the tilted eaves of the ancient stone pavilion like a stamp. They strolled through a gourd-shaped stone gate to a bamboo bridge where they saw several golden carp swimming in the clear, tranquil water.

  “Your heart’s not in sightseeing, Chief Inspector Chen.”

  “No. I’m enjoying every minute of it-in your company.”

  “You don’t have to say that.”

  “You’re not a fish,” he said. “How do you know what a fish feels?”

  They came to another small bridge, across which they saw a teahouse with vermilion posts, and with a large black Chinese character for “Tea” embroidered on a yellow silk pennant streaming in the breeze. There was an arrangement of strange-shaped rocks in front of the teahouse.

  “Shall we go there?” she suggested.

  The teahouse might have served as an official reception hall in the original architect’s design, spacious, elegant, yet gloomy. The light filtered through the stained-glass windows. High on the wall was a horizontal board inscribed with Chinese characters: Return of Spring. By a lacquer screen in the corner, an old woman standing at a glass counter gave them a bamboo-covered thermos bottle, two cups with green tea leaves, a box of dried tofu braised in soy sauce, and a box of greenish cakes. “If you need more water, you can refill the bottle here.”