by Ian Morson
Now she stood in the shadows, shivering slightly, in the morning chill. She had returned to the only person whom she knew and understood. She had come back to be under the scrutiny of Madam Gao and she was fearful of what might happen to her. But there was now no going back.
I thought I saw a shape in the shadows on the far side of Geng’s courtyard. I moved that way, but it must have been my imagination. A weed blowing in the wind, perhaps. But then I saw the marks of a woman’s pattens on the packed earth. However small, they were not as tiny as Madam Gao’s bound feet, and there were no servants in the house to have made them. Jianxu must have come here. They led towards the kitchen.
She quietly made her way to her old domain – the kitchen of Geng’s house. At the door, she took off her wooden pattens and carefully placed them side by side on the threshold. She stepped inside. The kitchen was cold with no fire burning in the hearth. If she had been here in the past and had let the fire go out, Madam Gao would have given her a tongue-lashing. Even the servants got treated better than her. She picked up a metal poker and prodded the ashes. They drifted up into the air, and a cold wind whistling through the kitchen blew them across the floor. She could not see even a dim red glow left in the embers.
She pricked her ears, thinking she heard a sound. If so, it could only be her mother-in-law. There was no one left in the house. In fact, she had not been sure that the old lady would be here. But then she would not have returned to her old house as it was empty, and all her possessions moved to Geng’s. No, Madam Gao had to be here, and the creaking of timbers above suggested she was awake and moving around. Gripping the heavy poker more tightly in her hand to defend herself, Jianxu crept towards her mother-in-law’s upper room.
The old lady sat upright in the darkened room of the empty house. She had always been taught never to slouch, and though her back troubled her more and more often, she still did not give in to its niggling pain. There was time enough to lie down when you were dead. Her thoughts drifted over the last few years that had been such difficult ones for her. It had started when that penniless scholar had brought his girl child to her. She had needed a servant, and gave the man the money he wanted to complete his studies. She had assumed he would come back to claim his daughter, but he never did. The old lady had no complaints about that – she had got a compliant servant at a very cheap price. The first real piece of bad luck had been Cangbi being so sickly. He had always been a weak child, but she had assumed he would grow out of it as he became a man. He didn’t, and was reliant on her for most of his needs. It had been a surprise and a relief when her son had begged her to let him marry the girl. She was even more surprised when the girl agreed. She had always ignored her son, only doing for him what the old lady told her to do. It had been a great tragedy when he had died, despite the ministrations of the doctor.
Things then had gone from bad to worse in a way that suggested her great yuncycle was on the wane. Old Geng saving her life had seemed like a boon, until she saw what an obligation it had created. The only way out of his clutches that she could see was if he died. She paused in her reverie. Her feet were hurting, and she bent down to squeeze and pummel them. It was the only relief she could find for the aches. If only Jianxu had been here, she could have massaged them for her.
Where was the girl anyway? She had been released, had she not? Why had she not returned where she belonged? The old lady sat up, thinking she heard the floor boards creaking outside the room where she sat. But when she listened hard, she could not detect another sound. She bent down again to manipulate on her feet. One thing she was sure of. When the girl did turn up, she would kill her.
I saw the pattens on the threshold of the kitchen. They had been placed with such exact precision that it had to have been Jianxu’s work. I looked cautiously round the door, but couldn’t see her. The kitchen was cold and silent, the pots left dirty, and several utensils were scattered over the table. It would not have been so when Jianxu was working there. I saw a smear of cold, grey ash had drifted across the floor. In it were the imprints of a woman’s feet clad in socks. I followed the grey marks on the floor towards Madam Gao’s quarters.
She sneaked up the staircase, keeping to the edge to prevent any step creaking and giving her away. If she alerted the old woman to her presence, she feared for her safety. But she had the poker and the element of surprise. She saw that the door to Gao’s bedroom had been slid open, but the room was still in darkness. Gao must have risen, but had not yet opened the shutters to let the daylight in. As she got closer, Jianxu could see strips of sunlight cutting across the room. The shutters were old and warped, and didn’t fit tightly any more. A huddled figure in a blue silk gown sat on a low stool, her head bowed. Her grey hair hung over her face and she seemed oblivious to the intruder. It appeared Madam Gao was examining her bent, bound feet that often still gave her pain in the mornings. Jianxu knew she could hardly bear to put her weight on them until she had rubbed and pummelled them into some sort of feeling.
Jianxu couldn’t believe how easy it was to get right up behind her without Gao knowing. The old lady was even muttering to herself, unaware of someone else being in her room. Jianxu had feared this woman all her life and had been afraid Gao might kill her. Now she gripped the poker firmly, and swung it up into the air. But before she brought it down in its murderous arc, Jianxu could not resist a cry of triumph.
‘I killed them all one by one. Now only you stand in my way, you bitch.’
As she brought the heavy iron poker down towards Madam Gao’s delicate skull, Jianxu was astonished to see the old lady rise into the air, and fly across the room, landing with her legs akimbo on feet that were no longer painful and tiny but a man’s firm feet. A burst of applause came from the doorway behind her. She spun round the see the red-haired barbarian filling the opening. He was clapping his big, coarse hands like he was watching a play.
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 fol
d 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
The confession of Jianxu
Ikilled 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 myyun 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
Behind an able man there are always other able men.
‘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.’
‘As you yourself said, he is a good actor. I went straight from talking to you, Gurbesu, to get him to agree to the role as the old lady. Unfortunately, Jianxu chose that moment to slip away. My original plan was to lay in waiting for her and follow her more closely.’
It was Lin who asked the obvious and most pertinent question.
‘How did you figure out it was Jianxu, when all the evidence pointed to Madam Gao.’
I looked at the friar, who had been quiet through our whole conversation.
‘Alberoni put me on to her.’
The friar looked astonished.
‘Me? How could I have helped you? I knew nothing about the case.’
‘But you told me something about my own past that showed me the way to the truth in this case. About families falling out over money with tragic consequences. And your own quest for Prester John and the tale of the Golden King made everything slot into place. You spoke of men who spent two years of their lives planning an outcome that would enrich them.’
Alberoni was still puzzled.
‘How did all that guide you to Jianxu?’
‘No one else had such a compelling motive to murder as she had. Oh yes, Madam Gao had a reason to do away with Old Geng. She had money, and didn’t need a penniless old man as a husband forced on her. She wanted rid of him, but it didn’t make sense for her to have Wenbo as an accomplice. She knew the boy was stupid. Sun, I discounted as a possible killer quite early on. He did try to strangle the old lady once, but he didn’t plan properly then, and couldn’t have done so now. No, Jianxu had a clear motive, and was working to a long-term plan. She knew how wealthy Madam Gao was and arranged to marry her son. She probably seduced him into asking his mother, so it didn’t seem as though she was the prime mover. Once she had married into the family, she got rid of Cangbi with the help of Doctor Sun. The next step would have been to wait for the old lady to die, or maybe to help her along if she appeared to be living too long. But then Old Geng came into the picture and spoiled all her plans.’
Gurbesu smacked her hands together.
‘If the old lady married Geng then she would lose everything she had worked for. She could have married Wenbo, and waited again. But who’s to say Geng wouldn’t have squandered all Gao’s money before she could get it?’
‘Exactly. Jianxu dra
gged Wenbo into an imaginary plot to kill Gao, and he got the poison for her from Sun. When Geng – the real target of her plan – died, she pretended to Wenbo that it had gone badly wrong. She persuaded him he would have to keep quiet, and he did. When the family were being interrogated, she was afraid that Wenbo would break down, and confessed.’
‘And made it seem as though she had done it to spare Madam Gao.’
Gurbesu was right. Jianxu had been calculating all the time under torture. Just as she had been all her life.
‘Yes. She confessed, knowing full well that she could manipulate Wenbo later. Then, once hehad confessed, he was no longer useful, so she killed him to ensure his silence. And the same applied to Sun.’
It was Tadeusz’s turn to speak. There was some guilt in his voice.
‘If we had not found the doctor, he might still be alive. It would not have been necessary for Jianxu to kill him.’
I laughed grimly.
‘If we had not found him he would have been beaten to death by one of his patients’ relatives. He was incompetent and a conspirator in murder, so don’t blame yourself for his death.’
The facts I had laid out were sobering, and we all were silent for a while as we contemplated the turnings of fate. It was Gurbesu who finally spoke out.
‘Do you think that her confession covers all Jianxu’s deeds? I mean to say, in her confession, she tosses off her murder of Sun and her husband as though they were nothing to her.’
