The Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

by Robert Van Gulik

  Chapter 23

  JUDGE DEE SENDS HIS VISITING CARD TO DOCTOR TANG; IN THE HUA MANSION HE REVEALS THE BRIDE’S SECRET

  “THIS”, JUDGE DEE REMARKED, “is very curious indeed. Now did you learn anything by chance about a Mr. Hsu living near there?”

  “Warden Ho Kai”, the sergeant answered, “has now investigated all the families of the surname Hsu in the village, but none of them has any connection whatever with the Bee household. That warden, by the way, is really doing well. When Bee Hsun was murdered, Ho Kai was new to his job. It was through his inexperience rather than through laziness or stupidity that he did not notice that something was wrong. Now, having observed him at his job for several days, I can recommend him to Your Honour as a diligent and shrewd fellow.

  “Although we could not find a Mr. Hsu living in the neighbourhood, we checked on the right neighbour of Mrs. Bee as a matter of routine; for that is the compound adjoining Mrs. Djou’s room. We found that there is but one single dividing wall. It would seem that Mrs. Bee’s house was part of that larger compound originally. So we thought that there might be a secret passage in that wall, and that Mrs. Djou and her lover went in and out by way of that neighbouring compound, or perhaps met clandestinely in a room of that house. We made inquiries, but it turned out that the inhabitants of that compound are eminently respectable people. It belongs to a Doctor of Literature, called Tang Deh-djung. Although he is living in retirement in that small village, it seems that he is quite famous in the literary world. He hardly ever goes out, spending day and night among his books in his library. There are half a dozen or so of the doctor’s disciples living there, all sons of prominent families of this province whom Doctor Tang instructs in the Classics. Warden Ho Kai has their names in his register, but there is no one among them of the surname Hsu. Even so, I would like very much to make an investigation there. But since Doctor Tang is such a distinguished gentleman, I did not dare to go there without a good excuse”.

  Judge Dee thought for a while. Then he smiled and gave one of his official visiting cards to Sergeant Hoong.

  “Take this card with you,” he said, “and go with Warden Ho Kai to Doctor Tang’s house. You tell him that the district magistrate desires to see the doctor in the tribunal to consult him regarding an official matter. Tomorrow I also shall proceed to Huang-hua Village. Then I shall tell you the further details of my plan”.

  Early the next morning Judge Dee put on a simple blue robe and an ordinary small black cap. Taking with him only Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and two constables, he proceeded to the mansion of Mr. Hua.

  When the house steward was leading them to the reception hall, Mr. Hua was standing there, clad in his house robe, supervising the servants putting everything in order for the reception of the judge. Seeing Judge Dee crossing the courtyard, he wanted to leave hurriedly to change into his official dress. But Judge Dee retained him, saying:

  “Don’t go to any trouble on my account. Today I have come here rather as a friend of your esteemed family than as the magistrate. Please call the person in charge of boiling the water for the use of the household for me.”

  Old Mr. Hua did not know what to make of all this. But he sent his steward to the family kitchen, who soon returned with a young maid of about eighteen. She hastily prostrated herself in front of the judge and knocked her head on the floor. Judge Dee said kindly:

  “We are not in the tribunal here, so don’t be so formal. Just stand here and listen to me. Now you remember the day of the wedding. Did not the maid servant Chen fetch hot water from the kitchen two times?” When the maid had affirmed this, Judge Dee continued: “Now tell me exactly what happened in the kitchen. Did you fill the pitcher for her from the large water pan or did she take it herself?”

  “The first time Aunt Chen came”, the young maid said, “Your Honour’s slave herself ladled hot water from the pan into her pitcher. The second time she came I had just gone to the reception hall to help serving the tea and cakes there. When I came back to the kitchen, Aunt Chen was standing on the porch outside the kitchen, with a pitcher of hot water in her hand; she looked sourly at a small waterpan overturned on the floor. It turned out that while I was away the cooks had been so busy preparing the meal for the wedding guests that they had let the fire under the large waterpan go out. Aunt Chen, seeing that there was no hot water, and that it would take a long time to rekindle the fire under the large pan, had taken a small portable stove out to the porch. She lighted it with coal from the large oven and heated a small pan of water. When it boiled, she had filled her pitcher, but then the pan slipped from her hands and overturned on the floor. I asked her if she had scalded her feet. She said not and left the kitchen. That is all I know about this affair.”

  Judge Dee nodded contentedly and ordered Ma Joong to go to the tribunal quickly and fetch the maid servant Chen; he was also to instruct the headman of the constables to go to the School of the Classics and bring Candidate Hoo from there to the tribunal.

  In the mean time Judge Dee sipped several cups of tea, and exasperated old Mr. Hua by talking about other matters, refusing to say one word about the case.

  As soon as the old maid Chen was before him Judge Dee took on his role of magistrate again, and shouted angrily at her: “You stupid old woman, why did you lie to me? Why did you say that both times you went to fetch water from the kitchen, you took it from the large pan? I have found out now that the second time you heated the water yourself on a small stove outside on the porch. Why did you not report this, although I, the judge, instructed you to omit no detail?”

  The old maid, thus harshly addressed, knocked her head on the floor several times in great consternation. She said in a quavering voice:

  “I beg Your Honour’s pardon. The other day in the tribunal I was so confused by everything that I completely forgot about this occurrence. I pray that Your Honour’s slave will be treated leniently”.

  Judge Dee pounded the table with his fist, and said angrily: “Your stupidity, woman, has deferred the solution of this case several days. I shall presently give you the punishment that you deserve”. Then Judge Dee said to Mr. Hua: “We shall now go to the family kitchen”.

  By now old Mr. Hua was completely at a loss as to what to think about all this. Without a word he rose and preceded judge Dee through various galleries and courtyards till they reached the large kitchen of the mansion.

  Judge Dee looked around. On the right was a large brick oven, where three cooks were busy with their pans and ladles. By its side stood a second brick stove; on top of it a huge iron pan, where the water for the use of the household was boiling. The kitchen opened on a small well yard and a porch with a floor of stamped earth. Judge Dee went out on the porch and looked up. He saw that the roof over the porch was very old. The eaves were covered with cobwebs and one beam especially was blackened by age, and seemed rapidly mouldering away. The whole roof seemed to be so old that it might crash down any day. Judge Dee turned to the maid Chen, and asked her:

  “It was out on this porch that you lighted the small stove, was it not?” When the old maid servant had affirmed this, he continued: “Now I shall tell you how you shall be punished for delivering false testimony in court. Bring out a portable stove. Put it in exactly the same place as that day of the wedding and boil here water till I tell you to stop. I shall sit here and see to it that this order is carried out properly”. To Mr. Hua he said: “I beg you to have two chairs placed here”.

  Old Mr. Hua had now recovered from his astonishment and become very cross. He said:

  “You are the judge and I suppose you know what you are doing. But if you think that I am going to take part in this theatrical performance, you are completely wrong. I decline all responsibility for this farce”.

  He wanted to leave, but Judge Dee said to him with a cold smile:

  “All this may seem a farce to you, but I, the magistrate, assure you that this farce will solve the case. So I advise you not to engage in idle talk”.


  In the mean time the servants had brought two armchairs and placed them side by side on the porch. Judge Dee sat down gravely and offered the other chair to Mr. Hua. The old gentleman was fuming with suppressed rage, but he did not want to make a scene in front of the cooks and the servants who were crowding the kitchen, curious to see what was going to happen. So Mr. Hua sat down by the judge’s side.

  The old maidservant had placed a portable clay stove on the porch and started fanning the coals to heat the water in the iron pan standing on top. After a while it started to boil and steam curled up to the eaves. Judge Dee seemed to find this proceeding of absorbing interest. Leaning back comfortably in his chair, he watched the old maid’s every movement, slowly caressing his beard.

  After half an hour or so, the water had nearly evaporated. The maid looked bewildered to Judge Dee. He shouted immediately at her:

  “Why don’t you add more water? And keep on fanning the stove!”

  She scurried to the cold water basin in the yard and added water in the pan. Then she squatted down again in front of the stove, and fanned the fire vigorously till the perspiration streamed down her face. Soon the steam was curling up again.

  Mr. Hua, who had been fretting in his chair, now thought that this had lasted long enough and abruptly rose from his chair. But Judge Dee laid his hand on his arm, and said:

  “Just wait a while, and look! There is the poison that killed your daughter”.

  He pointed upwards to the roof of the porch. Mr. Hua followed his direction. On the mouldering beam, exactly above the stove, something red shimmered. Judge Dee kept pointing with his finger. Ma Joong, Chiao Tai, the constables, the servants, all came forward and looked intently at the roof.

  They saw the shining body of a red adder slowly crawl out of the mouldering spot in the beam; when about two inches had become visible, the adder raised its evil small head, and moved it to and fro, apparently enjoying the warm moisture of the steam. Suddenly it opened its ugly mouth, and a few drops of venom dropped down into the pan with boiling water. Judge Dee dropped his hand, and said: “That is the murderer of the bride”.

  The old maidservant, who had been squatting there looking up at the evil thing above, paralysed with fear, now emitted a piercing cry and the adder hastily withdrew into its hole. A murmur of astonishment and admiration went up from the crowd assembled there. Mr. Hua sat motionless in his chair, still looking up at the roof in complete stupefaction. Judge Dee rose from his chair, and said to Mr. Hua:

  “Exactly the same thing occurred on the day that your daughter-in-law died. Fate had decided that her young life should thus be cut short. The water used for making tea in your household is always heated inside the kitchen itself, in the large iron pan. But it so happened on that particular day, that the old maid servant heated the water here outside on the porch. The adder nestling in the mouldering beam was attracted by the hot steam, and its venom dropped in the pan underneath. Fortunately the maid Chen let the pan slip from her hands, and the poisoned water was spilt on the earthen floor; else several other people would have died using it. But this happened after she had filled the pitcher which she took to the bridal room, and poured into the teapot by the side of the couch. From the beginning I noticed that peculiar musty smell in the bridal room, but I could not locate its origin. If the maid servant Chen had told me that she had heated the water here on the porch, I would have solved this case much earlier. Thus nobody is guilty, except that you, as head of this household, bear a heavy responsibility for being so lax in supervising affairs in your mansion as to allow the roof of this porch to fall into such a disgraceful condition of decay”.

  Old Mr. Hua stood with bowed head while Judge Dee delivered this speech. He could not find one word in answer.

  Judge Dee ordered all the servants to clear the kitchen, and told the two constables to fetch a long stake. He ordered the cook to hand Chiao Tai a pair of fire tongs and stand in the yard in front of the cold water basin. When file constables had brought the stake the judge ordered Ma Joong to pull the roof down. It crashed to the floor at the first push, and the adder appeared, trying to crawl to the well. Chiao Tai grasped it by its neck with the fire tongs, while Ma Joong crushed its head with the end of the stake. Judge Dee told the constables to burn it, and to pour the tainted water in the pan into an old pitcher. This he sealed, and ordered the constables to take it to the tribunal, to be destroyed together with the dead dog and the teapot. Then he asked Mr. Hua to guide him back to the reception hall.

  Wen-djun and old Mrs. Lee were waiting there. Judge Dee explained to them what had happened and added some appropriate words about the Will of Heaven. Mrs. Lee and Wen-djun were crying softly, while old Mr. Hua tried in vain to comfort them.

  Judge Dee advised Mr. Hua to have masses read in the Buddhist temple for the peace of the bride’s soul. Then took his leave.

  Chapter 24

  WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD DOCTOR OF LITERATURE; A THIEF IN THE NIGHT MAKES A STRANGE DISCOVERY

  WHEN HE RETURNED to the tribunal, Judge Dee told a runner to go and fetch old Mrs. Hoo, and then had brought Hoo Dso-bin before the bench.

  He reprimanded him sharply in front of his mother, saying that this occurrence ought to teach him how dangerous it is always to try to be funny; he exhorted him to apply himself diligently to his studies of the Classics, so that he would be able to gladden his mother’s old age by passing the literary examinations as the best candidate. With that he allowed him to go.

  Both Candidate Hoo and his mother knocked their heads on the floor repeatedly to show their gratitude, exclaiming that the judge had saved Candidate Hoo’s life.

  Judge Dee dismissed them and retired to his private office to deal with some documents that had come in. The constables made preparations for his departure for Huang-hua Village in the afternoon.

  In the meantime Sergeant Hoong had returned to Huang-hua Village the night before and explained the judge’s instructions to Warden Ho Kai. In the morning they went to Doctor Tang’s house together.

  Warden Ho Kai knocked and an old servant came to open the door. He gave them a surly look and asked what they wanted. Warden Ho exclaimed:

  “Well, if it isn’t old Mr. Djoo! Don’t you know the man who eats his rice from the taxes you pay?” The old servant recognised the warden, and said with a smile: “Warden Ho, what brings you here? My master is still asleep”. Warden Ho gave the sergeant a wink and both quickly entered the courtyard. The old servant crossed the second courtyard. The warden and the sergeant followed him until they arrived in front of the library. There the sergeant said to Warden Ho Kai:

  “What are you waiting for? Since Doctor Tang is at Home, let us have him roused, so that I can deliver my message”.

  The old servant, knowing from the sergeant’s tone that he was a servant of the tribunal, hastened to say:

  “Mr. Constable, what do you want to ask my master? Please tell me. I shall go and inform him.” The warden said:

  “This gentleman is the sergeant of the tribunal in Chang-ping. He brings the calling card of His Excellency Judge Dee. He has come to invite Doctor Tang to pay a visit to the tribunal for a consultation about an official matter.”

  The old servant received Judge Dee’s visiting card respectfully in two hands and walked round the library. Warden Ho followed him, giving a sign to Sergeant Hoong to remain. Behind the library was a smaller courtyard with three rooms in back of it. He noticed that the room on the extreme left was right next to Mr. Djou’s room in the Bee house.

  Warden Ho was just thinking that this fitted in exactly with their theory, when the door of the room on left opened and a young man of about 25 appeared. He was tall and slender, and had the dignified bearing of the son of a noble family. His features were regular. One could indeed call him a very handsome youngster. He quickly asked the old servant: “Who is this man?”

  “This is a curious affair,” the old servant answered. “Our master, Doctor Tang, hardly ever leaves his house.
He spends all his time on his studies and on the instruction of his disciples. Now why should His Excellency, Judge Dee want to see him?”

  The mentioning of the name of the judge seemed to startle the young man considerably. He said hurriedly: “Well, why don’t you tell this gentleman that Doctor Tang has renounced all worldly affairs and cannot be bothered with visits to the tribunal?”

  Warden Ho Kai thought that if it came to looking for the lover of the beautiful Mrs. Djou, this handsome young fellow, who seemed to live in the room adjoining hers, would exactly fit the role. He said:

  “What might be your honourable name, young Sir? Are you living here in this compound? To tell you the truth, His Excellency has heard that Doctor Tang not only is a scholar of wide learning, but also a man of noble character. He therefore wants to consult with him about the organisation of some charitable enterprise in the district”.