The inspector nodded as he left. He headed for Prince Kung’s mansion, which was not far from Lady Li’s estate. Prince Kung’s mansion was one of the most opulent private homes in Peking. The mansion had been an imperial residence for centuries, once belonging to a brother of the Jiaqing Emperor. Made up of countless living quarters and gardens, the mansion was practically a miniature Forbidden City.
The inspector was greeted by a eunuch at the gate who showed him into a sitting room near the front of the mansion to wait. He did not have to wait long for Prince Kung to appear. Prince Kung and Inspector Gong went back many years, though they had not always been close. For a long time, Inspector Gong was nothing more than the hundreds of other army men who were under Prince Kung’s purview. But after the inspector proved himself to the prince by helping him solve several high-profile crimes around the city, the two men became friends.
“What brings you here?” Prince Kung asked, gripping his arm in greeting. “Tell me you have found out who murdered Lady Yun. The empress is beside herself with terror.”
The inspector shook his head. “No such luck. I’m such a worthless dog, you won’t believe what I have had to do.”
“What is that?”
“I have had to enlist the help of a woman.”
The prince laughed out loud and nearly fell into a nearby chair. “What? Who? Why?”
“The dead girl’s sister-in-law, the Lady Li. I cannot gain access to the Inner Court. I need to know what is going on behind those doors.”
The prince nodded and stroked his smooth chin. “The Lady Li, you say? She is no laughing matter. Smart, beautiful…”
“You know the lady?” the inspector asked.
“Of course. She served the empress during our flight to Jehol. The empress wanted her to marry me so she could keep her close. We were both amiable to the match, but I was already married and her family would not settle for her being a second wife.”
“She is free now. Have you asked for her again?”
The prince waved the thought away. “I still have a wife and two concubines, I couldn’t debase her by making her wife number four. She deserves better. Anyway, enough about the past. Why are you telling me this?”
“I will need to keep in contact with her and somehow keep her safe. Is there anything you can do to help us?”
“The Forbidden City is safe,” he said. “I never would have thought a girl would be risking her life by going in there. Hell, I will send my own daughters there when they are old enough.”
“But this is a different case,” the inspector said. “We haven’t ruled out why the girl was murdered. If it was personal, the killer might target Lady Li when she arrives.”
“Would the killer be that brazen?” the prince asked.
“It is possible. From my understanding about where the body was found, in a garden, the killer made no attempt to hide what he had done. Even if the murder had been an accident, which I highly doubt, even in a state of panic killers usually try to hide their tracks. He didn’t even move her to a more secluded area or put her in a pond to hide among the lily pads.”
The prince considered this for a moment. “Does she realize the dangers she could be facing?” he asked.
“I think so,” the inspector replied. “But she wants to know what happened. She wants justice for her family.”
The prince nodded. “That makes sense, after her husband…” he trailed off.
The inspector wanted to press him for more information about Lady Li and her past, but he couldn’t let the prince think he had any interest in Lady Li besides solving Suyi’s murder. “If things get dangerous,” he said, “can she handle herself? She doesn’t seem to be the type to give into hysterics, but can she remain calm and take care of herself?”
The prince tossed his head back in a muted laugh. “Oh, she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. I remember during the empress’s coup, she was so bold. She marched right up to Su Shun at one point and called him a stinking pile of pig dung!” He laughed again. He then looked at the inspector and cleared his throat to collect himself. “Never mind. Maybe you had to be there to see the humor in it.”
The inspector sighed at that. How he wished he had been there, but he had been fighting Taiping rebels as a member of Xiang Army in the backwoods of Hunan at that time.
“Suffice to say,” the prince went on, “that I think Lady Li is the best woman for the job. If there is a killer in the Forbidden City, Lady Li will root him out.”
“But is there anything we can do to help her? Get messages to her or protect her?”
“I have some informants on the inside. I can have them keep an eye on her and report to me if anything seems amiss.”
The inspector nodded. “Thank you. She is going there this afternoon.”
“Thank you for letting me know,” the prince said. “I’ll head over there myself later and make sure she is all right.”
“I’m sure there is no need to bother yourself…” the inspector said.
“Believe me,” the prince said, “Lady Li is never a bother.” The prince waved a eunuch over. “Be sure to see our guest out,” he said before making a quick bow and excusing himself.
8
Lady Li’s maid helped her dress in her finest chaopao while some of the other servants packed her traveling cases with clothes, jewels, her writing kit, her embroidery work, and other odds and ends. One thing Lady Li had learned while living at the Forbidden City previously was to always over pack. She had no idea how long she would be there, and life for ladies was terribly boring. It was also important to prepare for anything. When the court had fled from the Forbidden City in 1860, they packed everything they owned. The empress had over fifty mule carts filled with gowns, jewels, paintings, scrolls, embroidery works, porcelains, furniture, and anything she could remove from her apartments that was not nailed down. When they then had to flee the Summer Palace a few days later, the empress had no room left in her carts to rescue anything else. They watched hundreds of years of Chinese history go up in smoke from a nearby ridge after the foreigners sacked the palace.
Lady Li shook off the bad memories and sent for Concubine Swan. Concubine Swan seemed completely normal, not in a fog. She had suspected for days that something was wrong and was a little mad that Lady Li had kept her in the dark for so long.
“I cared for her too, you know,” Concubine Swan said tartly. “And I thought you trusted me more than that.”
“I do trust you,” Lady Li said. “Which is why I am telling you now and leaving you in charge of the house. But I warn you, if I find out you were eating opium while my children were in your care, you will regret it.”
Concubine Swan’s eyes watered and she looked away. “You speak of your children and then you wonder why I eat opium?”
“No,” Lady Li said. “I know exactly why you want to sleep and dream of a better life. That is why I haven’t stopped you or punished you. But you can’t do that while I’m gone. Do you understand?”
Concubine Swan nodded. “I am so ashamed.”
“Don’t be,” Lady Li said. “Enjoy the next few days of freedom, pretending to be the lady of the manor and a mother.”
“How can I be happy knowing what happened to Lady Yun? And knowing you might be in danger?”
“I’ll be fine,” Lady Li said taking Concubine Swan’s hand. “I have lived in the palace before. And I will have people inside and outside to protect me.”
“Why do you trust this inspector so much?” she asked. “You don’t know him.”
“He is known to the empress and to Prince Kung,” Lady Li said. “And I trust them. That is enough for me.”
Concubine Swan stood up to leave. “You better write to us every day. Let us know you are safe.”
“I will,” Lady Li said. “Popo will be arriving today. Greet her kindly and help her settle in.”
Concubine Swan nodded and left the room just as Eunuch Bai entered. He spoke to her in a low voice
. “When you arrive, you will be assigned a maid and a eunuch. If everything goes as planned, you should be assigned Eunuch Jinxi. You can trust him. He knows why you are coming and you can use him to smuggle letters in and out of the Forbidden City.”
“I am impressed that you have been able to maintain relationships inside the walls after all these years,” she said.
“Inside or outside of the city, we trade in information and connections, my lady,” he said with a bow as he walked away to make sure her trunk was properly loaded into the sedan chair.
Lady Li met her daughters in the garden to tell them goodbye. “You must be good little ladies while I am gone,” she said, giving them hugs. First Daughter tried to remain strong, but Second Daughter did not hide her tears. Lady Li did her best to fight them back herself. Since she had entered her husband’s home, she had not left it for more than a few hours, and never overnight. She had never been separated from her children.
“I don’t understand why you have to go,” First Daughter said.
“The empress has sent for me,” Lady Li lied. “I must go to her.”
“But why?” First Daughter asked. “You already served her. Why do you need to go now? She already has Auntie.”
“We are all servants of the throne,” Lady Li said. “We must always do our duty and obey our empress and, one day, the emperor. Never forget, we are daughters of the eight Manchu Bannermen. When our empress calls us, we answer. One day, your time will also come.”
First Daughter sighed and nodded her resignation. Second Daughter continued to cry even though her mother hugged her tight. The little girl did not want to let her go, but she eventually let Lady Li hand her over to Concubine Swan.
As she was about to get into her sedan chair, Inspector Gong rode up. For a moment, her heart skipped a beat as she realized how handsome he was sitting astride his horse. She remembered the feeling of pride and warmth in the pit of her stomach when she watched her husband ride as well.
He jumped down from the horse and walked over to her, keeping his voice low as he spoke. “I have spoken to Prince Kung,” he said. “He has contacts among the guards who will keep an eye on you, at least during the day.”
She nodded. “Eunuch Bai has told me who I can trust on the inside. Once the empress has agreed to let me stay, I will send you a message.”
“As soon as you can, you must find out where the…incident took place,” he said, speaking carefully in case anyone had hearing keen enough to listen to their conversation. “Observe the scene as best you can and report everything back to me. Everything. Leave nothing out. Even the smallest detail could be a clue.”
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Talk to the other ladies,” he said. “But don’t give yourself away. Be their friend and earn their confidence. Then, find out what they thought of her or what their suspicions are. They must at least have a theory about what happened.”
“I can do that,” she said, though her confidence was wavering. Her chin dropped to her chest as she suddenly felt nervous about her task and her hands began to shake. She didn’t know how to be an investigator. How would she know what to look for? And what if people realized why she was there? What if the murderer suspected her just because she was Suyi’s family? Would she be able to defend herself if she were attacked so brutally?
Inspector Gong must have sensed her apprehension. He took one of her small, trembling hands in his. Once again, Lady Li felt a surge of warmth when he touched her. “Do not be afraid,” he said. She didn’t respond; she wasn’t sure she could. He reached up and lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “I believe you can do this.”
She felt a sense of calm wash over her and regained her senses enough to realize that they should not be so familiar in public. Here on the street, anyone could be watching them. The gossiping tongues would certainly start wagging before her sedan chair even rounded the corner. She pulled her hand from him and responded with, “At least one of us does.”
He chuckled. “Go, before you are late. I am sure the empress does not like to be kept waiting.” He helped her into the sedan chair and finally released her hand as Eunuch Bai pulled the curtain over the opening and securely fastened it closed.
The sedan chair bearers hefted the chair up and Lady Li leaned back in her seat to get comfortable for the rocky ride to the palace.
Lady Li felt a jitteriness in her as she headed toward the Forbidden City. If only she were not going to investigate the murder, she would be looking forward to going back. She had many fond memories of her time there. It was also the first time she experienced freedom. She was no longer under the watchful eye of her mother and was able to do and say things she had never dared before. Lately, she had been feeling trapped again, bound by the rigid laws of society. Going to the Forbidden City seemed like a small escape once again.
Of course, it had been a turbulent and frightening time as well, but she persevered then as well. The empress had just given birth to her son not long before and was enjoying her new rank. She had only been a sixth-rank concubine before. The country was at war with itself and with outside forces. The Taiping rebels in the south were ravaging the countryside while the foreigners were battering the court. There were clashes in Peking and the coastal cities between local Chinese and the foreign interlopers. The emperor and Prince Kung were constantly at odds over how to deal with them. The emperor’s health was not good, though, so the empress was secretly helping him read and respond to various letters and notices. But the empress was not very well educated herself, coming from a poor Manchu family.
At first, Lady Li had been jealous of the empress. They were near in age, but Lady Li was better educated, from a higher-ranking family, and, in her opinion, more beautiful. The only reason Lady Li had not been included in the emperor’s consort selection process was because their birth charts didn’t line up. He was a rabbit; she was a rooster. Such a match would have been rejected even if he had not been the emperor.
But over time, Lady Li learned just how difficult life in the palace was, that it was nothing to envy. The empress was extremely lonely. After she had become pregnant, the emperor was not allowed to bring her to his chambers anymore, so he found companionship among other women. After the birth and her recovery, he exalted her for giving birth to a son, but he never called her back to his chambers at night. She rarely saw her son. She was not allowed to nurse him, and his rearing and education were the charge of imperial tutors. She had few friends, and even fewer confidants. Her closest friend was her eunuch, Te-hai. Her days were strict and orderly and she had no privacy.
So Lady Li resolved the help the empress however she could. She befriended her and earned her confidence by helping the empress improve her reading and writing skills so she could better assist the emperor. Then, they all had to flee to Jehol. That was a terrifying and exhausting ordeal. They never knew if the foreigners were going to ride up behind them and drag them back to the city or if they would come across a band of rebels and be slaughtered on the road. They marched for weeks to reach Jehol, the site of a former hunting lodge in the far north. They arrived in the winter and the old building was freezing cold and had very few supplies…
As the sedan chair came to a halt outside the west gate of the Forbidden City, the Gate of Glorious Harmony, Lady Li chided herself for dwelling on bad memories. She needed to stay focused if she was going to find Lady Yun’s killer, and she needed to be there for the empress.
One of her servants helped her out of the chair while the other began unloading her trunk. A palace eunuch greeted her at the gate and led her inside. The Forbidden City was every bit as awe-inspiring as she remembered. Every building was made of red bricks and tiled with gold. The beams holding the buildings together were red lacquered and painted with beautiful, colorful designs of auspicious animals or Buddhist scenes. The gardens were green and lush. Countless ladies—court ladies, officials’ wives, princesses, former concubines—all walked around the pal
ace grounds in the most beautiful gowns and the tallest hairdos. Eunuchs in their dark blue robes and red hats shuffled here and there in their silent linen shoes with their heads bowed.
Lady Li was led directly to the empress’s palace, the Palace of Gathering Essence. When she walked through the two large front doors, she locked eyes with the empress immediately. The empress looked as though she wanted to run to her old friend, but, as always, she kept her emotions in check. Lady Li kneeled in the doorway. The empress dismissed all of her other attendants, even Eunuch Te-hai, and motioned for Lady Li to approach her. The empress stood, and Lady Li kneeled before her as far as she could go without actually getting on her knees and bowed her head.
“Long life to the Dowager Empress,” Lady Li said.
The empress reached out and took Lady Li’s hands in her own. Lady Li looked up and saw her eyes filled with tears. She stood, and the two embraced.
“I can hardly believe you are here,” the empress said.
“Forgive me for not coming sooner,” Lady Li replied.
The empress finally released Lady Li and motioned for her to sit near her. “I am sure these days have been difficult for you,” the empress said.
“You are kind to consider me, my lady,” Lady Li replied.
“It has been terrible here,” the empress said. “I cannot sleep. I jump at every sound. I talk to no one. I’m nauseous. How can I trust anyone knowing there might be a…a murderer,” she whispered, “in my midst?”
“I am sure you have nothing to fear,” Lady Li said.
“How can you be sure?” she asked. “How could such a crime happen here, in my own home? I fear for my son. I fear for the rest of my ladies. They never go anywhere alone now.”
“Staying together is wise,” Lady Li said.
“Not only that, but now I am short a lady. Lady Yun was such a comfort. She was so witty! And she knew just how I liked my gowns stored so they wouldn’t wrinkle. Te-hai says he can just find a new lady, but how? Who? All of the young ladies I have sent for have made some sort of excuse. You wouldn’t believe how many suddenly have ill mothers. They have all heard! They are all terrified to enter my service. It should be an honor for them no matter what has happened.”
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 6