by Qinghan CeCe
“With what?” he asked.
“The little red fish and the Four Directions Case.”
He looked contemptuously at her long face as if she were a speck of dust. “You can’t help with the first, and the other has nothing to do with me. Why should you bother?”
She stood under the fern whose thin stalks surrounded her and lent her slender, pale face a touch of turquoise. She looked up at him and spoke in a soft but determined voice, “But the Central Court and Board of Punishments need help. The Emperor is sick. I think you’re the only one who can help.”
“Are you sure you’re not just looking for a patron to wipe your slate clean?” He’d mercilessly exposed her intentions. “Li Rui just asked for you; isn’t that a chance too?”
“There’s no chance going with him.” Huang Zixia’s face grew paler. “I don’t need a place to hide. I need to stand in the sun and wash away my family’s shame!”
Li Shubai fixed his cold eyes on her. As she looked at him pleadingly, she withheld a certain stubbornness like a late-night mist that is difficult to detect but tightly wound. He snorted and turned to walk back toward the Water Palace. Huang Zixia followed behind.
When they reached the entrance, several Princes were waiting to say goodbye to the Prince of Kui. The eunuchs said the Emperor would summon the ministers in a few days to write an inscription on a landscape painting, which caused everyone to exchange amused glances.
Once everyone had left, Li Run and Li Shubai remained. Li Run sighed. “The Emperor is really at ease. Military governors are vying for autonomy, eunuchs are power hungry, and the Emperor still feasts and celebrates every day.”
“The Emperor was born to rule over peaceful times,” Shubai said. “This is a blessing to him and all the world.”
Li Run smiled. “You’re right, brother.” His eyes fell on Huang Zixia. His warm, soft face was full of doubt.
“Something the matter?” Li Shubai asked.
“That eunuch, I seem to have seen him somewhere.” He pointed at Huang Zixia.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen him. Why don’t you let him attend to you?”
“You’re kidding, brother. Rui was just refused. How could I bother?” The cinnabar between his eyebrows gently increased as he smiled.
Huang Zixia silently bowed her head. Going with one of them would mean security, but she would rather choose the difficult path. She wasn’t going to live just to live.
Li Shubai only got in his coach after everyone had left. Huang Zixia stood by the door, hesitating. “Get in,” he said.
She hurried in and leaned against the door. The carriage gently started moving.
When they were well beyond the palace, with mountains all around, Li Shubai looked outside and said, “Ten days.”
She looked at him and waited for him to go on.
“That case we were talking about in the palace. I give you ten days. Got it?”
“Maybe,” Huang Zixia responded.
“Just maybe?” He leaned against the carriage wall in a leisurely manner. “Now you have a chance. You can clear your name and avenge your parents, find the truth.”
Huang Zixia thought a moment. “The Prince means, if I help him solve this case, he’ll lend me a hand in avenging my family?”
“Of course not.” He raised his chin slightly, indicating that she sit on the small stool in front of him. “I have something I need help with. But you’ve only just suddenly appeared. I have no reason to trust your abilities.”
“I understand,” Huang Zixia said with a slight nod. “If I break the case in ten days, I may earn the Prince’s trust.”
“At least you would let me know you deserve to be helped. I don’t have enough free time to help someone who can’t do anything but talk.”
Huang Zixia sat on the low stool, her head down, thinking. “The Central Court and Board of Punishments must have a large staff working on the case. In what capacity will the Prince allow me to participate?”
“I will personally go to the Board of Punishments and get the case file for you.”
“Okay.” Huang Zixia reached toward her temple and pulled the wooden hairpin from her hair. As soon as the hairpin was out, her dark hair poured down over her shoulders. It was still damp like black algae tangling over her pale cheeks. She paused, then brushed it back. “Sorry, I used to have several hairpins in my hair. I got used to taking one out to keep a record. I forgot that now I’m a little eunuch with only one.”
Li Shubai frowned slightly, not speaking. She bowed her head and raised her hand to put her hair in a bun in front of him. This girl who had trekked a thousand miles, not once hesitating with fear, now felt shy.
Li Shubai seemed to realize something deeper than when he had his hand around her throat. The person in front of him was not as mature and calm as she seemed on the surface.
She was beautiful.
He thought of Li Run’s impression of her when she was fourteen. The girl who reached worldwide fame at twelve was now a slender and delicate seventeen-year-old woman. She’d suffered greatly but had not been defeated. She was struggling to find the truth and relying on her own strength to make it known.
Huang Zixia stared at him and touched her own face, nervous and afraid.
“Kind of similar to the wanted poster.” Li Shubai turned and looked at the intertwined branches on the curtain. “Don’t show up looking like this in the future.”
“Okay,” she responded as she tightened her hair. “Does Your Highness remember when they said the crimes occurred?”
“The seventeenth of the first month, the twenty-first of the second month, the nineteenth of the third month,” he said without hesitation.
“Today’s the sixteenth day of the fourth month. Which means if the timing’s about the same, the murderer should strike soon.” She slowly wrote on the carriage wall with her finger, thinking. “Within ten days.”
“With only those words to help, can you find the killer among a million people in the capital?”
“No.” She stopped writing. “Without knowing the killer’s traits and motivations, it’s impossible to pick them out of the crowd.”
Li Shubai looked at her casually. “So you don’t have a handle on it?”
Huang Zixia’s finger began writing on the wall again. She mouthed to herself, “First month, seventeenth, old watchman dies, killer writes peace. Second month, twenty-first, middle-aged blacksmith, killer writes bliss. Third month, nineteenth, four-year-old child, killer writes self . . .”
“Four Directions Case. First in the north, second in the south, third in the west, southwest to be precise,” Li Shubai said.
Huang Zixia thought a moment. “If it really were four directions, they would try to do them clearly in the north, south, west, and east, but the third was in the southwest. It’s a bit strange.”
“Or maybe he wasn’t trying to strike clearly in the west. Maybe he’s changing quadrants to avoid being seen?”
“Yes, anything’s possible now. It’s hard to know the true reason.” Huang Zixia squeezed her fingers together to jog her memory. “The first victim was old, the second a strong blacksmith, the third a child.”
Li Shubai leaned on his cushion, finding a comfortable position before he spoke. “I asked the Central Court about this. The two men make sense. Maybe the killer was looking for easy targets, but the child surprises me, because it was a four-year-old dying of hunger, abandoned by his parents on the roadside. A passerby already determined he was too far gone. So whether the killer acted or not, the kid probably wasn’t going to make it through the night. Still, he sneaked into the shelter to kill him, unnecessarily.”
“I see; that really is strange. Why would the killer risk being found out by sneaking into a shelter and killing a dying child?” Huang Zixia frowned, and her fingers started writing peace, bliss, self, eternal on the wall again.
Li Shubai watched her. Then he turned outside to look at the landscape through the thin curtain. H
is voice was calm. “With just these clues, what’s key for you to be able to break it in ten days?”
“Without evidence from the previous three cases, the best thing would be to predict the time, place, and target of his next crime.” Huang Zixia kept looking at her fingers, slowly counting on them.
“I feel the same way. So if you’ve got a handle on it, I can give you a few days to work with the detectives working on the case, but you’ll have to take care of your hair and not let anyone find out you’re a woman.”
“No need.” Huang Zixia touched the hairpin in her hair and looked at him. Still respectful, her lips raised slightly in a show of confidence and calm. “I already know the killer’s motive. If I’m not wrong, I can figure out where he’ll appear next.”
Li Shubai saw she had thought it through. “So you have a handle on it?”
“Yes, I just need the Prince to give me a Tung Shing almanac.” Outside, the wind blew gently and came through the curtain. The slowly rotating sun shone inside, enveloping Huang Zixia’s body, making it glow. Her eyes, clear as morning dew, were fixed on Li Shubai without hesitation.
Li Shubai was entranced. A while later he said, “All right, then I’ll wait and see.”
Three
AS A EUNUCH
Li Shubai brought Huang Zixia to Kui Palace, to Jingyu Hall where he lived.
Huang Zixia flipped through the almanac. Li Shubai sat and watched her turn from the twenty-first of the second month, to the nineteenth of the third month, and then to today’s date quickly, then put it down.
“Officers on patrol tonight should keep tight watch on the city’s southeastern quadrant, especially pregnant women, who are the likely target of the killer,” Huang Zixia said.
“You’re sure the killer’s fourth target will be a pregnant woman?” Shubai said, raising his eyebrows.
“It’s quite likely.”
Li Shubai turned and shouted out, “Jing Yang.”
A cute eunuch with curvy features came in. “My Prince.”
“Take a trip and tell Minister Cui Chunzhan to come.”
“Understood.” Jing Yang didn’t look at Huang Zixia as he gave his salute. Before Jing Yang could turn and leave, Li Shubai pointed to Huang Zixia and said, “Take him down and give him proper accommodations; he’s a eunuch.”
“Yes, I’ll take care of it, my Prince.”
The wanted criminal Huang Zixia thus became a palace eunuch.
Jing Yang took her to where the eunuchs live in the north and gave her a private room. He got her daily necessities and three pairs of eunuch clothing. “Little man, you’ve just arrived, so you won’t get responsibilities. Just remember to greet the Prince in his hall every day.”
Huang Zixia thanked him again and went next door to ask another eunuch about daily life and then to the kitchen to eat. She’d been running around all day battling what life threw at her and was tired.
She fell asleep before her head hit the pillow.
When she woke up, it was already late morning. She went to the well to fetch water. A eunuch sweeping the courtyard said, “Jing Yang asked us to let you know when you woke up to go to Yubing Hall.”
She quickly had a bowl of porridge, asked the way, changed clothes, and went to Yubing Hall. It was the Prince’s study and was surrounded by flowers and trees. The doors and windows had transparent curtains.
Before Huang Zixia had entered through a latticed window, she saw Li Shubai sitting and looking at a map of the capital.
Hearing her footsteps, he looked up and said plainly, “Come here.”
Huang Zixia went over to him. He pointed at the map and said, “Last night the perpetrator did not appear. But according to your theory, will the killer come out in the northwest tonight?”
Huang Zixia was slightly surprised. “The Prince already knows my method?”
“You can read a Tung Shing almanac; so can I,” he said. His slender white fingers touched the twelfth district of the northwest quadrant. “This morning, my men reported there are a lot of pregnant women in this district. Quite a few are already showing signs of it. For example, one near Xiude Square is seven months pregnant. Puning Square has one ready to give birth. Jude Square has two pregnant women, one five months, one six.”
“Puning Square.” She placed her finger on the map.
Li Shubai tilted the map to get a better look at the detail of Puning Square. “The pregnant woman’s home is next to the former residence of Mr. Li, Duke of Ying.”
Huang Zixia looked too and suddenly remembered something that made her hesitate. She decided to wait until the case was broken to say it.
But Li Shubai seemed to have thought of it. “Zhang Xingying’s house is also in Puning Square.”
“Right.” Since he brought it up, she decided to pursue the topic. “Has the Prince thought about whether or not to let Zhang Xingying return to the honor guard if we break the case?”
“Impossible,” he said without hesitation.
Huang Zixia pressed on. “Zhang Xingying let me pretend I was him and enter the city with the Prince’s honor guard. Though he broke the rules, he’s a truly good man. Gratitude is one of the great virtues. Could I ask the Prince to forgive him and let him help me investigate the case?”
“Don’t be silly,” he said. “Though I can understand his intentions, I have no need for a sentimental person.”
Huang Zixia bit her lower lip and whispered, “Please show mercy—”
He cut her off. “If someone who makes a mistake can just act like nothing happened a few days later, what’s the purpose of punishment? How can I manage my men?”
Huang Zixia lowered her head and gave up. “So what should I do next?”
“Go back to sleep. Tonight, you’re going to Puning Square with me.”
Northwest Changan, Puning Square
People were forbidden from entering the square or walking in the streets after nine p.m., so Li Shubai posed as a scholar and Huang Zixia as his assistant. It was evening, and they were dressed in ordinary clothes on their way to the Puning Square Inn. One was handsome and astute, the other a delicate, refined boy. Even the men turned their heads to have another look. Once they were in the inn, the hostess came four times to bring water, and the owner came the fifth time.
“Maybe I should talk to the Board of Punishments people tonight.” Huang Zixia was tying her hair to get ready. “As for you, I suspect the owner and hostess will lock you in here.”
Li Shubai said, “You think you can leave me here to be tortured by this hostess?”
Huang Zixia was about to speak when, out the window, she saw the hostess coming gracefully with the teapot. She turned and looked at Li Shubai. He looked back at her with that slight smile on his face. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes to be off,” he said.
That didn’t seem like enough time. The hostess was persistent. Huang Zixia had an idea.
She took a step toward Li Shubai and brought his hand to her waist, and just loud enough to be heard outside the window, said, “Oh, master, we’re in public. We need to be discreet! Don’t, don’t touch me there. Oh, that’s worse, stop it, we’re both men, imagine what people will think.”
The hostess’s graceful posture suddenly stiffened.
Li Shubai froze too but only for a moment. He quietly released her grasp and turned to drink tea. “This hostess is always staring. Maybe she knows I like men.”
The hostess outside the window trotted away with her teapot, and Huang Zixia thought she could hear the pieces of the hostess’s broken heart falling along the way.
Huang Zixia shut the door latch, opened the window, looked back, and jumped out. She waved him along. “Let’s go!”
Down the second alley after Li’s former residence to number six—the Wei family. Their yard had pomegranate flowers.
Given the high cost of real estate in the capital, their home wasn’t very large. The so-called yard wasn’t more than ten square feet. Beyond it were two bungalows. The wall
s were no higher than Huang Zixia’s chest.
They quietly hid in the bridge archway behind a few clusters of peony flowers.
It was already nine p.m., and the streets grew quiet. Lights went out.
It was a cloudy night, and the moon shone dimly. She and Li Shubai hid awhile under the peony flowers, admiring the moon’s reflection in the water.
Huang Zixia spoke quietly. “Why did the Prince want to come? Where are the court and board people?”
“Didn’t tell them,” he said casually. He pulled down a peony bud and examined it. “This year, the air’s been warm, so some species of peony haven’t bloomed, while others are already budding.”
Huang Zixia suddenly understood that her only help in catching the terrible killer would be him.
She had to ask, “Why not contact the court and board?”
“The court minister, Cui Chunzhan, said it was critical to concentrate on the east, the fourth direction. He’s stubborn, so I let him stick with his position. He’s waiting in the east with his men.”
“What about the board?”
“The board person on this case is Minister Wang Lin. You didn’t marry his son, Wang Yun. Do you want to face him?”
The moonlight reflected off the ripples in the water onto her face. Li Shubai saw some tension there, but it disappeared immediately, like a mirage.
“Forget it; let them go to the east side,” she said.
It was already midnight when a sound came from the Wei house. A candle was lit in the eastern room, and water began boiling in the kitchen. The family was urgently attending to tasks. A man threw on a coat and opened the door. As he walked out of the yard, someone behind called, “Liu Wenoi lives in the fourth house on Chouhua Alley; don’t forget!”
“Don’t worry, Mother!” Though the man walked anxiously, there was a bounce in his step.
Huang Zixia fixed her gaze upstairs. Li Shubai let go of the peony branch and said, “Seems ready to bloom.”
“Yes.” Now she looked at the wall and saw the line of a figure on top beside the pomegranate tree. “Hoo, hoo,” it called.