by Ian Morson
‘It is impossible that such a thing could have happened. I know Lin Chu-Tsai well, and he is of an unstained character.’
Li grunted, suggesting he was unconvinced. I diverted his thinking by asking about our scam.
‘Now, how much have you for me in your purse. You have just been to the temple, have you not?’
Li puffed out his fat cheeks.
‘That is the main reason I wanted to talk to you alone. I want to renegotiate our arrangement. It seems to me I do all the work, and you take all the money.’
I smiled coldly.
‘Only my fair share. You are paying in instalments for my original idea. However, I am prepared to negotiate. You will find me a generous and accommodating man. Look, meet me in the theatre shortly after dusk tonight. It is empty then, and no one will disturb us.’
Li licked his lips, obviously wondering if he could trust me. But then we were both involved in something illegal, so what could I do that would endanger him? He agreed, and hurried away across the square. I returned to the house, unsure if I would tell Lin about the rumours or not.
As it turned out, I didn’t have time.
I was bothered by Wenbo’s introduction of the beggar into the story. This person had never appeared in the official documents. I was also mindful of the play we had seen in T’ai-Yuan-Fu – The Mo-Ho-Lo Doll. In it, a crucial piece of missing information was the identity of the unknown man who had told the murderer of the victim’s illness. This had led to the murderer administering poison, thinking the illness would cover his killing. It was only when the doll-maker had been identified that the truth came out. I was concerned that the unidentified beggar might equally prove the key to this murder case.
Not being able to let matters lie, I hunted out Tadeusz as soon as I got back, catching him before he had disappeared to seek out the doctor. I asked him to put off that search for the time being, and use his connections with the guild members in Pianfu to see if they could identify the beggar. Wenbo had said he was dressed in a distinctive off-white, loose robe that he used to envelop himself in, wrapping the end around his head. Tadeusz said he would try and find out who it might have been.
‘Though I am not confident of achieving a result, Nick. On my wanderings round the city, I am aware there are many beggars in the streets. Some are simply poor and without work, but others have no eyes, or are mutilated in some other way. I have seen beggars without legs, who propel themselves around on little carts. The fact that this is a very prosperous city does not seem to diminish the numbers of the destitute.’
‘I would guess, Tadeusz, that the prosperity of the city is the very reason these poor souls have gravitated here. To scrape an existence from the generosity of the rich and well-fed.’
I was reminded again how I, in my own way, lived off the beneficence of Kubilai, picking up scraps from his table almost. These beggars were at the very bottom of that heap. I put my arm over Tadeusz’s shoulder, and walked with him across the courtyard.
‘Do what you can, and let me know whatever you find out.’
It was early afternoon when I received a curious message from Tadeusz. I had been thinking of the rumour about Lin and how to broach it with him. And I was also planning how I was to deal with the prefect when I met up with him. All that brain work had made me feel tired, and I had resorted to a mind-refreshing doze in the courtyard. I would need to be at my most alert later, after all. I was soon dreaming of white-faced handmaidens singing to me and plying me with grapes, when I felt a tugging at my sleeve. Was it a courtesan, or a nimble and willowy acrobat ready to indulge my every whim?
‘My darling,’ I murmured, reaching out, only to hear a snort of childish laughter. I opened my eyes, and sat abruptly up. Beside me stood a filthy urchin, wiping the snot from his nose with a grubby sleeve that, from its shininess, I deduced had been long used for the purpose. He had a broad and lascivious grin on his dirty face. I soon wiped that off by grabbing the front of his tattered shirt and pulling him close. I shoved my face into his, putting on my best demonic look.
‘What are you doing here, snotface?’
I don’t think he understood my words, but he knew their meaning. He gulped, and wriggled out of my grasp. But before I could cuff him, he waved a scrap of paper at me. I went to take it, but he snatched it away, and held out his hand, palm upwards. I growled, but he stood his ground, and only let me take the paper after I had placed a small coin in his sticky hand. The business completed, he bolted for the street door, stopping only to stick his tongue out as a last defiant gesture at the foreign demon. I laughed at his cheek, and unfolded the piece of paper.
It was a message that said simply ‘Come to the bathhouse in physicians’ square’, and was signed ‘Pyka’. Though there were few words, I could still sense the urgency of the message. Knowing I had time before my meeting with Li, I left immediately to seek out the place. However, I could not for the life of me think why he had not returned to the house to report to me. I mean to say, what was he doing luxuriating in a bathhouse, if there was something urgent to discuss? It was not somewhere I would like to be seen in all that often for fear of seeming effeminate.
I knew where the square given over to doctors and astrologers was located – we had passed through it when we first arrived. But when I got there, it was not immediately obvious which of the many fine buildings was the place where people came to bathe. I traversed the square once, and finally decided to stop someone and ask. One of the words I had learned from the gaoler, while Gurbesu had been talking to Jianxu, had been the word for washing. I just hoped he hadn’t been having a joke with me and had taught me the word for fornication instead. I might get a strange reaction if so. I chose an innocuous-looking elderly man in a bei-zi robe, on the assumption that he, rather than a peasant, would use a bathhouse. Striding over to him, I tried my word.
‘Shi-dzaw?’
He screwed his eyes up, and looked puzzled. At least I had not uttered a profanity, I thought. I tried again.
‘Shi-dzaw?’
This time he realized what, with my awful accent, I was trying to say. He smiled, and rubbed his hands over his body in a way suggesting he was scrubbing himself clean. I nodded, and he repeated the word back to me. It came out in a much more mellifluous way, and he pointed to a large building at the top of the square. It looked like a palace to me, and I had discounted it as a simple bathhouse. I gave him my thanks, and made my way across the bustling square to my goal. Once inside the building, I could easily tell its purpose. Though the baths were not visible from the entrance hall, the place echoed with conversation and the splashing of water. I made for an archway to my right, only to be shooed away by a female attendant. Glimpsing the unmistakeable shape of bare womanly flesh through the arch, I realized I had chosen the section devoted to females. Thinking that perhaps this communal bathing thing was not such a ridiculous idea, I raised my hand in acknowledgement of the attendant’s reprimand, and crossed the hall to the other archway.
At this door into the men’s section stood a stocky, hairy and definitely male individual wearing just a loincloth. He sized me up and indicated I should go inside and remove my clothes. I had no way of telling anyone that I was just looking for Tadeusz, so I stripped off and left my clothes in a niche in the wall. Feeling a bit conspicuous with my red hair and height, I strolled past large tubs of what was clearly cold water with naked men vigorously rubbing themselves. Lin had told me once that Chins reckoned cold water was good for the health, and that from childhood they bathed in it regularly. I could only imagine it was conducive to freezing your balls off. As I could not see Pyka in any of the cold tubs, I moved on. At the end of the men’s section I could see steam emanating from a separate room. As this looked more promising, and I had not yet found Pyka, I strode towards the room. Inside was a single tub filled with hot water, and in it sat Pyka. He was vigorously scrubbing his skin, and the water splashed over the rim of the tub, causing rivers to run across the floor. As his s
kin was bright red, it looked to me as if he had been scrubbing for some time. Either that or the hot water had boiled him like a piece of meat. I walked over, and stood before him. He didn’t even notice me and continued his frenzied ablutions. I leaned on the rim of the tub, and with the palm of my hand splashed some water at his face. Startled, he stopped his scrubbing and took me in.
‘Nick. Thank you for coming. I’m… cleansing myself.’
‘So I see.’
He still looked agitated, and I gripped the side of the tub. There was room for more than one in it, and perhaps if I joined him, he might relax. Besides, I had not washed for a week or so.
‘Oh well.’
Sighing, I hoisted myself up and into the tub. The water splashed over the rim like a waterfall, but it was still warm and felt not at all bad. I lay back with my arms encircling the rim. Tadeusz looked at me for a moment, then started to rub his body again. I reached out and stopped his feverish activity.
‘Tadeusz. Tell me what this is all about. Why are you and I here?’
He looked at me, his eyes full of pain.
‘It’s the beggar.’
SEVENTEEN
Life is a dream walking, death is a going home.
I leaned forward, full of curiosity.
‘You have found him already.’
‘Well, I don’t know. Not really, but… let me explain.’
I raised my hand to indicate he should proceed, and returned my arms to the rim of the tub. He took a deep breath, and began.
‘When I left you, I went to see my friends in the silversmith guild. I asked them about beggars, and whether they simply begged in the street or went round to houses. They said that most beggars kept to the streets, but sometimes a beggar would try his luck at a rich man’s house. They were usually ejected by the servants without any alms, mind you. But sometimes their yun, as they call luck, could be in, and they got a scrap of food. When I described the beggar – wrapped all in white with his head covered – they fell silent, so I thought they knew who I meant. But when I pressed them, all they would say was some word that I had not heard before. It sounded like dafeng.’
‘Dafeng? What does it mean? Do you know?’
‘If I heard it right, it literally means big wind. But further than that I could not begin to guess. I asked if there was anywhere I would find this beggar, and they said such a beggar would be in the dark alleys, not in the big squares like the others asking for alms. I did not understand why this should be so, but I thanked them and decided it might be worth just looking around in case I came across him. I walked down many of the quieter side alleys leading off the squares, quartering back and forth until I felt quite dizzy. In fact I got lost finally, and thought I would ask someone for directions. Except the area I had come to was silent as the grave. There simply was no one to ask. Then I saw him – a ghost of a figure in white lurking in the dark just ahead of me.’
Tadeusz shivered, though whether from the recollection of the ghostly sight, or the cooling of the bath water, I was not sure. He moaned a little, but finished his story.
Tadeusz knew the beggar must have seen him because he took a few paces towards him and started to raise his hand from under his white robe. But then something happened to startle him, and he stopped in his tracks. Tadeusz could not see his face as it was hidden by the enveloping white robe, so he could not see his reaction. Perhaps he was scared to be confronted by a barbarian with a burned face. Perhaps he thought, with his disfigurement, Tadeusz was just another beggar and so not worth asking for alms. Whatever it was that disturbed him, the white-clad figure turned and started to run off. Tadeusz called after him in the Chin language.
‘Wait. I must speak with you. I mean you no harm.’
The beggar did not stop, and though his gait was ungainly Tadeusz knew that, if he ducked down any of the side alleys, he might lose him. He started to give chase, and soon caught him up. The beggar was hampered by his robe, which enveloped him from head to foot, as well as appearing to be not very nimble himself. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every step he took was a lurch from side to side rather than a fleet progression forward. Tadeusz grabbed the back of his white shroud, and gave him a shove. The beggar stumbled and pitched forward on to the ground, pulling Tadeusz on top of him. His breath came out of him in a great gust, and Tadeusz could feel nothing but bony protuberances under him. He yanked the veil of cloth away that covered the beggar’s face.
Tadeusz’s eyes were like saucers as he stared at me across the scummy water in the tub.
‘Oh, Nick, it was awful. He had no hair on his head, not even on his brows which were like great horny swellings, his nose was eaten away revealing gaping holes in his face. Exhausted by the chase, his breath came in terrible hoarse wheezes. I suddenly realized what the word dafeng meant.’ He leaned towards me, and whispered. ‘The man was a leper.’
The grim truth of what Tadeusz was describing hit home to me. Leprosy. Some said there was a moral cause to catching the disease, others that the poison of it could be got rid of to a healthy person by sexual congress. The very thought of doing that made me feel cold. Whatever the cause, leprosy was a curse. Tadeusz’s description of the white robe that the beggar wore as a shroud was quite appropriate. Many said lepers existed in a place between life and death. Alive but ritually separated from mundane existence. I could see Pyka was scared by his close contact with the man, and he had a fearful addition to his tale.
‘Nick, the leper was so worn out by the chase he was gasping for breath, and spittle flew from his mouth and landed on me. Do you think I am infected?’
We were still sitting quite close, and naked, in the tub. It took all my strength not to shrink instinctively away from him at this stage. I had to remind myself of a conversation I had had with the Arab physician, Masudi al-Din. He told me that, despite people’s fears of contagion, it was very difficult to catch the disease. I deliberately leaned close to Tadeusz and put a hand on each of his shoulders.
‘Tadeusz, you are not infected. You will not get this disease, I promise you.’
Pyka relaxed a little, but still instinctively rubbed his face as he spoke.
‘Do you think the beggar could have had anything to do with Geng’s murder? I did manage to overcome my disgust at his appearance to ask him if he had ever been to the Geng house. He professed not to know it, even after I had described its location. His tone was guttural, and he was hard to understand, but he still insisted he had never been there. I had to let him go, Nick. How could I hold on to him in his state?’
‘You did well. If we want him, I am sure we can find him again. If it was him at the house, he did have a chance to administer the poison. So we can’t rule him out. Perhaps it was a random act of evil or revenge on society, who knows?’
I know I would need to keep Pyka busy for the next few days to prevent him brooding.
‘What you need to do now is to find Doctor Sun. When we get back, you will take my horse, and seek him in this village you mentioned.’
He nodded his head, glad of the task. I squirmed a little as the wooden slats at the bottom of the tub began to press uncomfortably into my buttocks.
‘Now, can we get out of this tub before the attendant thinks we are a couple of sodomites? Besides, the water has gone cold, and my privates are shrivelled to such an extent I would not like a lady to see them until I have had chance to warm them up.’
The girl – she had been called that so much by Madam Gao over the years that she even thought of herself in such terms – was now sure the wheel of fortune had turned in her favour. Wenbo had just shown up at her lonely cell with information about the investigators from Tatu, the capital. The flame-haired one had been suspicious of Madam Gao, he was sure of it.
‘And when I told him you were innocent, I think he believed me.’
Jianxu kept silent at this juncture. She could not yet convince herself that what the boy said was the case. He was rambling on, eager to please her.
&nb
sp; ‘Then the red-robe asked to see the kitchen. Why would he do that?’
She was startled by his words. She wasn’t sure, but a little bud of doubt began to grow inside her. She wanted to know more.
‘Did you tell them about the beggar?’
Wenbo nodded reluctantly.
‘Yes, I had to. Madam Gao told them about him. They seemed excited to learn about that. Maybe we should have told the prefect about him before. Then you might not be in this situation.’
He banged his hand continuously against the cell door that separated them, and Jianxu reached through the grille. She stroked his cheek to calm him.
‘Never mind that now. What’s done is done. They may even find out that the beggar is the guilty party. If so, I will be freed very soon, and it will all be thanks to you.’
Even as she spoke, she could hardly bear to look at his shining face.
I managed to slip away after it got dark. Lin had retired to his own quarters, and for once the wine had got the better of Gurbesu. Mainly because I had plied her with it during the evening. As I left, I could hear her snoring loudly. I hoped it would not disturb Lin too much. The streets were quieter and I got a few curious looks as I made my way to the central square. One woman stopped and rubbed a small charm in the shape of a dragon that hung around her neck. I was clearly an evil spirit to be warded off. Her talisman worked, because I was on my way without a thought for her. She was too old for me anyway.
The theatre was now a dark and gloomy place with scraps of paper drifting across the empty yard. The warning poster put up by Li Wen-Tao had been torn from the entrance door and shredded. The wind grew in strength, and I could hear the structure of the raised platform creaking. One of the pieces of paper lifted up and blew against my legs. I peeled it off, and looked at the Chinee letters. I think it was the last part of the poster – the bit that said ‘SEVERELY PUNISHED’. I hoped it wasn’t an omen. I screwed the warning up and threw it to one side. The creaking of the platform sounded more than the wind would account for. I guessed the fat prefect was somewhere on the stage waiting for me. So I walked over to the steps that led up to the raised area where the actors performed.