Lady Li was shocked into silence. She hadn’t considered that there could be another path for her daughters in life. But what would that path even look like? She wouldn’t have any idea where to find it. If her daughters didn’t marry, what would they do? They couldn’t go to school. Couldn’t learn a trade or be apprentices. They would just stay home, embroidering and reading books. What kind of life was that?
She gave Wangshu a smile but did not engage in the discussion further. “I will go see if your room is ready,” she said.
“Thank you, again,” Wangshu said. “I did not return to the Forbidden City for fear of bringing dishonor upon the empress, but I may have brought it here instead.”
“Of course not,” Lady Li said. “I am happy to help you. And by helping you, I am helping the empress. Even if you don’t return to the palace, if you are arrested for the crime it would bring the empress great shame. I cannot allow that.”
“And you think you lack the ability to change your daughters’ fortunes?” Wangshu asked. “If you believed in yourself as much as you believed in me, I think you could move mountains.”
Lady Li felt her face go hot at the compliment. She rushed from the room before tears fell from her eyes.
14
The next morning, Inspector Gong woke up and slipped out as soon as he heard the servants shuffling about so he could avoid his family. He also thought he would have a long day ahead of searching for Wangshu.
He couldn’t simply ask Prince Kung if she had returned to the Forbidden City because then the prince would know he didn’t know where she was. Even though it had been the prince and Lady Li who didn’t let him arrest her in the first place. He should have at least locked her up somewhere, in an abandoned house or chicken coop or something. If he searched all day and still didn’t find her, he would have to tell the prince.
He had told his men, men who helped him search for things or people or assisted him when he needed some extra muscle, to keep an eye out for her. Surprisingly, one of the men had news for him.
“A girl carrying some large bags was seen asking where Lady Li lived,” the man told him.
He felt like a huge boulder had been lifted from his shoulders and he let out a loud exhale.
“Of course, she’d look for Lady Li,” he said to himself. It seemed so obvious now. Lady Li had defended her, kept her from being arrested, and the two somewhat knew each other from Lady Li’s years as a lady-in-waiting to the empress. He headed straight there.
A servant at Lady Li’s mansion admitted him without having to ask for permission from Eunuch Bai or Lady Li. He was becoming a well-known visitor.
“Gong Shuhu!” First Daughter and Second Daughter cried, running toward him as soon as he entered the courtyard.
He smiled and picked up the girls, one in each arm, and spun them around before gently placing them back on their feet. He kneeled down to their level to talk to them.
“And what have you naughty monkeys been up to?”
“I’m going to be a great opera singer!” Second Daughter belted out dramatically. First Daughter only rolled her eyes.
Inspector Gong laughed. “And what made you decide this?”
“Wangshu has been telling me all about her life as an opera singer at the empress’s court,” Second Daughter explained, looking back to the table where she had been sitting with Wangshu and her mother, both of whom were now standing anxiously.
Inspector Gong stood and walked over to the two women. “So, this is where you decided to hide out until all this is over? Must be a great deal more comfortable than your little room at the theater.”
“And safer,” Lady Li added, her face expressionless and her hands folded in front of her.
“Oh?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I was attacked,” Wangshu said.
He nodded and stepped closer to them. “I think I need to hear more about this.”
“Girls,” Lady Li said, probably not wanting them to hear the troubling details. “It is time to visit with Popo.”
“Yes, Mama,” they said as they slinked away.
“Why don’t you have a seat, inspector,” Lady Li said.
He nodded, but before he could, Swan entered the courtyard.
“Oh!” she gasped, putting her hand to her mouth.
Inspector Gong stood and gave her a small bow, but then he locked eyes with her. She was…beautiful. More lovely than he had ever seen her before. Her face had color and her eyes appeared rested. She wore a simple gown and her hair was merely plaited down the back, but she seemed healthy. Youthful. Innocent.
“My Lady Swan,” he said. “I am glad to see you are looking well.”
She gave him a bow, as befitting a woman to her husband. “I am sorry to interrupt. I’ll take my leave.”
“No,” the inspector said abruptly, surprising even himself. “Stay, please. We were about to discuss Wangshu’s…unfortunate situation. You have helped me in the past. Perhaps you can offer some insight.”
Her eyes sparkled and she kept her sleeve to her mouth as she smiled. “Yes, I’d love to.”
He motioned for her to take a seat at the table, but as he did so, his eyes fell on Lady Li, and his own smile quavered. She was not looking at him, and she was neither smiling nor frowning. She wore only the impenetrable façade she had spent years practicing.
“Tea and cold dishes,” Lady Li told a nearby servant, who bobbed her head and disappeared.
Inspector Gong, Wangshu, Lady Li, and Swan sat on their knees around the low table, enjoying the comfortable breeze in the shade of Lady Li’s courtyard.
“I take it that Dr. Xue had been to see you, Lady Swan,” Inspector Gong said.
“Yes,” Swan said, keeping her eyes demurely downcast. “I can’t remember the last time my mind felt so clear. And my appetite has returned. Thank you.”
“I am glad to hear it,” he said with a smile, but making a point not to look in Lady Li’s direction. He was truly impressed with the progress Swan had made in such a short amount of time. Surely everyone was wrong about her not being a good choice as a wife. She only needed time to come out of the opium cloud. Of course, he would still prefer Lady Li, but Swan would be an acceptable alternative.
Two servants brought out a tray with a teapot, teacups, chopsticks, and several small plates of cold dishes such as pickled cucumbers in sauce, spicy lotus root, sautéed wood ear mushrooms, and almond cookies.
Inspector Gong used his chopsticks to grab a piece of cucumber while Swan, being the youngest person at the table, prepared the cups of tea.
“So, Wangshu, tell me about this attack in your dressing room,” he said.
“It was terrible,” she said, accepting a teacup from Swan. “He burst into the room, called me horrible names. He said I needed to be punished for daring to show myself publicly. I believe he was going to rape me.” She shuddered.
Inspector Gong nodded slowly as he listened. “Go on,” he said, and she did. The room did appear to be in disarray, but he couldn’t say that an assault as she described had happened there. In fact, she mentioned every askew piece of furniture in her retelling of the events, which was oddly specific. He didn’t want to voice his doubts, especially if she was telling the truth, but he had a feeling she wasn’t being completely honest about what happened in her room.
“Can I trust you to stay here?” the inspector asked when she finished her story. “I need to know where you are at all times. I can’t have you running away again.”
“Yes, I’ll stay here,” Wangshu said. “Lady Li has been the most gracious host. I could not repay her by fleeing into the night.”
“Of course, if someone would attack you in the theater, they could come for you here as well,” the inspector said, and Wangshu blanched.
“What do you mean?” Lady Li asked.
“Wangshu is a subject of scorn,” Inspector Gong asked. “Many people are not happy with her taking the place of a man, even if it is just on the stage. Yo
u know how people can work themselves up into a frenzy. What if they came here looking for her? I think I should station one of my men outside your gate at all times.”
“How…kind of you,” Wangshu said, but the inspector thought she meant anything but kind. Had she been planning on escaping again?
“Do you really think we could be in danger?” Swan asked.
“One can never be too careful,” he said.
“Forget about that,” Lady Li said, some irritation bubbling in her voice. “We need to find out who really killed Fanhua. Wangshu needs to get back to her life. There is supposed to be another opera performance in two days.”
“I doubt that will happen,” Inspector Gong said. “Changpu is furious that Wangshu left and took all the costumes with her.”
“Most of those were my costumes,” Wangshu said. “I brought them with me because the Dashu troupe was little more than a group of riverbed beggars.”
“Changpu said the troupe dated back over a hundred years,” the inspector said. “They performed for the Qianlong Emperor.”
“That didn’t keep his father or his grandfather from pilfering away their profits over the years,” Wangshu said. “They had their name only. If the empress hadn’t offered them such a substantial sum to take me on, they’d still be performing on the street.”
The inspector wasn’t sure what to make of this information just yet. Changpu had said he lived in a large house in an upscale district. He was hardly a riverbed beggar. Though he supposed it was possible Changpu had kept most of the money the troupe earned for himself while the other actors and theater employees starved. He had thought it was odd that so many people were living in the dressing rooms. Still, private squabbles between actors were not his concern. He only wondered if this had anything to do with Fanhua’s murder.
“Changpu will probably make you prove you didn’t steal them,” the inspector said.
“My family will vouch for me,” Wangshu said. “They never wanted me to do this. But…well, who can say no the empress?”
Everyone else nodded in commiseration. Even if they didn’t know the empress personally, everyone knew her reputation—and she was not a woman you could easily deny when she set her mind to something.
“And what about you?” Lady Li asked Wangshu. “Did you want this assignment? This responsibility of being the first woman to perform opera in public?”
“Well, surely, Lady Li, you know I’m not the first woman to perform opera on stage,” Wangshu said. “Only the first to do so with a woman’s name.”
“Wangshu?” the inspector asked. “That’s not a very feminine name, is it? Is it your real name?”
Wangshu chuckled from behind her closed lips. “You are astute, Inspector Gong. No, Wangshu is not a traditional name for a woman, but it just…fit. It is a name I chose when I started performing for the empress.”
“Wangshu is the god who drives the moon across the sky each night,” Swan said in her soft voice. Inspector Gong gave her an appreciative smile.
“Quite,” Wangshu said, nodding at Swan. “But in answer to your question, no, I didn’t really want the responsibility. Like the empress, I thought that women who were already involved in opera outside the palace would be happy to start performing in their own right, but no one was willing. Someone had to do it, but I didn’t want to leave my home, my family, all for what? Public scorn and humiliation?”
“For the future of opera,” Lady Li said. “Thanks to you, more women will be able to perform now. It will just take time.”
“Not if I lose my head over it!” Wangshu said. “It will be another hundred years before a woman tries a public performance if I’m executed for killing Fanhua.”
“That won’t happen,” Inspector Gong said with more conviction than he possessed. “Just keep telling me what you know about Fanhua, Changpu, the theater, that night. Everything. I will find the person behind this.” Whether he would find the real killer before or after Wangshu was held responsible for Fanhua’s death was another matter.
“I’m doing my best, inspector,” Wangshu said.
Inspector Gong doubted that, but he pressed ahead anyway.
“Tell me about your relationship with Fanhua,” the inspector said as he sipped his tea, not taking his eyes off of Wangshu.
“I’m not sure what there is to tell,” she said looking pensively at her teacup. “We were…friendly, but he was greatly distraught over the loss of his role as the dan. But we were making the best of it.”
“In what way?” the inspector asked.
“We spent time together,” Wangshu said. “He showed me how he played the role of Xueyan and we worked together to help me improve on it. He supported me being on the stage, even if it meant he lost the role. It wasn’t as though he had to leave the theater. He was still able to play the wusheng. And if he really had his heart set on playing the dan, he could have gone to another troupe, or just started his own.”
“Would it be that easy?” Inspector Gong asked. “To just move to a new troupe?”
“Not always,” Wangshu said. “But for someone as talented and popular as Fanhua, other troupes would be climbing the gates to have him.”
There was something in her tone that he couldn’t quite identify. Something she was hinting at or leading him toward.
“Were you and Fanhua…” Swan started, but then hesitated. She looked to Inspector Gong, and he nodded, urging her on. She smiled and sat up a little straighter. “Were you having an affair?”
Wangshu’s smile quavered, just a bit, so slightly it was hardly noticeable. She looked down and her head swayed from side to side. She held her hand to her mouth and let out a giggle. Her movements were so practiced, so precise, it was as though she was performing an opera right in front of them, and Inspector Gong knew she was going to lie to them.
“Well, not yet,” Wangshu said. “But it was certainly headed in that direction.”
Inspector Gong suppressed the urge to call her out for her lie right there. He had too many sources telling him that Fanhua was only interested in men to discount them. The question was why Wangshu would lie about her relationship with Fanhua. The only thing he knew for certain was that Wangshu, for whatever reason, couldn’t be trusted.
“If it wasn’t you,” the inspector said, doing his best to mask his annoyance, but he was far from a skilled opera performer, “who wanted Fanhua dead, then who? I haven’t found a single person with a motive to take the poor boy out.”
“I think the problem,” Lady Li said, leaning over to refill Inspector Gong’s teacup, “is that your investigation isn’t focused. You are dividing your attention on both who wanted Fanhua dead and who would want to frame Wangshu. Am I correct?”
Inspector Gong thought about his interviews so far and realized she was right. While he would start talking to people about Wangshu, the conversation would eventually drift to Fanhua.
“That might be a fair assumption,” he said.
“The question is, who is the real victim?” Lady Li said. “Was someone trying to kill Fanhua and used Wangshu as the weapon? Or was that person trying to frame Wangshu and Fanhua was merely collateral damage?”
“If someone wanted to kill Fanhua,” Swan interjected, “they could have done it any other time or place. They could have done it more…secretly. Not on stage for everyone to see.”
“It was no coincidence the murder happened my first night on stage,” Wangshu added.
“And we cannot forget that the murder weapon was the sword, the prop that was switched,” Lady Li said.
“So the killer must be someone at the theater,” Swan said, excitement causing her cheeks to flush.
Inspector Gong chuckled as he watched the three ladies discuss the crime. They were clever enough that if left to their own devices, they would probably solve the murder on their own. He couldn’t let that happen.
“I agree,” he interjected. “I believe that Wangshu was the intended victim of this crime, so that is w
here I need to focus my investigation. I should be going. I have many more people to speak to.”
He stood, as did all three of the ladies. He bowed to each of them, but he let his eyes linger for a moment on Swan, which was completely inappropriate since she was to be his betrothed. But he was impressed with her contributions to his questioning of Wangshu. She was a very clever girl, someone he could talk to, if they ever had a moment alone. Everything else about their courtship had been unconventional. Perhaps Lady Li would let him call on Swan…
He shook his head and looked away. He couldn’t do that to Lady Li, ask for permission to call on Swan in her home. He and Lady Li had already been together intimately in that same home. Did Swan know about that?
Suddenly he felt uncomfortable with all of the women’s eyes on him. He offered one last bow and then excused himself, but Lady Li escorted him out.
“Are you all right?” she asked him at the gate.
He wasn’t. He felt confused. Conflicted. And as he looked at Lady Li, the feelings only got worse.
“I’m fine,” he said. “But keep an eye on Wangshu. She wasn’t telling the whole truth back there. I don’t know why she’s lying to me, to you, but she is.”
Lady Li pressed her lips and nodded. “I will. And I’ll let you know if I learn anything else.”
They looked at each other, unsure of what else to say. He wanted to hold her, tell her he was sorry for looking at Swan. The guilt was washing over him, burying him. He couldn’t take it. He needed to focus.
Without a goodbye, he opened the gate and stormed out into the street.
15
Inspector Gong went back to the White Lotus Theater. The line of thinking that the killer was someone associated with the theater was a good one. Someone must have been familiar with the play and the prop sword and be familiar enough to the members of the troupe that no one would have found the killer suspicious.
As he entered the theater, he noticed that there was no guard to keep people out. As he thought about it, he realized that didn’t remember ever seeing a guard. It had been the prince’s men who ushered the crowd out and kept them outside on the night of Fanhua’s murder. On the night of the show, after Wangshu killed Fanhua, he had been able to simply walk backstage with no one trying to stop him. No one kept Lady Li or Prince Kung from going backstage either. At the time, he had chalked it up to the fact that he and Prince Kung were well-known, so no one would stop them from going wherever they wanted to go. But now, he wondered if the theater ever had a guard at all, someone to keep the crowds and the admirers at bay. If not, then anyone could have snuck in and changed the sword. Still, it would have to have been someone who wouldn’t have drawn attention and would know where the prop sword had been kept.
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 44