Robert Gulik - The Chinese Gold Murders

Tang came in. He said, "Two of the guards did remember the artisan, your honor. The man came to the tribunal once about ten days before the magistrate's death, when his excellency was presiding over the afternoon session. He was a Korean from one of the ships in the harbor, and could speak only a few words of Chinese. Since I had instructed the guards that they could let him in, they brought him to the library. They stayed with him there to see that he didn't pinch something. They say that the man worked for a time on the roof beam, then he climbed down his ladder and muttered something about the damage being so bad that he would have to lacquer the entire ceiling anew. He left and was never seen again."

Judge Dee leaned back in his chair. "Another dead end!" he said disconsolately.

MA JOONG and Chiao Tai went back t the Nine Flowers Orchard in high spirits. When they were entering the restaurant the latter said contentedly, "Now we'll have a real good drinking bout!"

But when they walked over to the table of their friends, Kim Sang gave them an unhappy look. He pointed at Po Kai, who was lying with his head on the table. A row of empty wine jugs was standing in front of him.

"Mr. Po Kai drank too much in too great a hurry," Kim Sang said ruefully. "I tried to make him stop but he wouldn't listen, and now he is in a foul temper; there's nothing I can do with him. If you two will kindly look after him, I'd better be off. It's a pity because that Korean girl is waiting for us."

"What Korean girl?" Chiao Tai asked.

"Yü-soo, of the second boat," Kim Sang replied. "Today she has her night off, and she said she would show us some interesting places in the Korean quarter, places which even I don't know yet. I had already hired a barge to take us out there and to have a drink on the river. I'll go now and tell them it's all off." He rose.

"Well," Ma Joong remarked judiciously, "we can always try to wake him up for you and make him see reason."

"I tried," Kim Sang said, "but I warn you he is in a vile temper." Ma Joong poked Po Kai in his ribs, then dragged him up from the table by his collar.

"Wake up, brother!" he bellowed in his ear. "Off to the winc and the wenches!"

Po Kai looked at them with bleary eyes.

"I reiterate," he spoke carefully with a thick tongue, "I re-iterate that I despise you. Your company is degrading, you are nothing but a bunch of dissolute drunkards. I will have no truck with you, with none of you!"

He laid his head on the table again. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai guffawed.

"Well," Ma Joong said to Kim Sang, "if that's the way he feels, you'd better leave him alone!" To Chiao Tai he added, "Let us have a quiet drink here. I estimate that Po Kai'll have sobered up by the time we leave."

"It seems a pity to call off the trip just because of Po Kai," Chiao Tai said. "We have never been to the Korean quarter. Why not take us along instead, Kim Sang?"

Kim pursed his lips.

"That won't be easy," he replied. "You'll have heard that there's an understanding that the Korean quarter has more or less its own jurisdiction. The personnel of the tribunal is not supposed to go there unless the warden asks for their assistance."

"Nonsensel" Chiao Tai explained. "We can go there incognito. My friend and me will take off our caps and bind up our hair, and nobody'll be the wiser."

Kim Sang seemed to hesitate, but Ma Joong shouted, "Good idea, let's go!"

As they were rising, Po Kai suddenly looked up.

Kim Sang patted him on the shoulder and said soothingly, "You'll have a nice rest here and sleep off the effects of the amber liquid."

Po Kai sprang up, overturning his chair. Pointing a wavering finger at Kim Sang, he shouted, "You promised to take me, you treacherous lecher! I may seem drunk to you, but I am not a man to be trifled with!" He resolutely picked up a wine jug by the neck and waved it threateningly at Kim Sang.

The other guests started to look at them. Ma Joong cursed roundly, quickly took the wine jug from Po Kai's hand and growled, "Can't be helped. We'll have to drag him along with us."

Ma Joong and Chiao Tai took Po Kai between them, and Kim Sang paid the bill.

Outside Po Kai began to lament tearfully, "I am very ill, I don't want to walk. I want to lie down, in a boat." He sat down in the middle of the street.

"You can't!" Ma Joong said cheerfully, dragging him to his feet again. "This morning we blocked your cozy mousehole in the watergate. You'll have to stretch your lazy legs; that'll do you good!" Po Kai burst out crying.

"Rent a litter for him!" Chiao Tai said impatiently to Kim Sang. "Wait for us at the east gate; we'll tell the guards to let you pass!"

"I am glad you came along," Kim Sang said. "I didn't know that gap in the trellis had been repaired. I'll see you at the gate."

The two friends went east at a brisk pace. Ma Joong looked askance at his companion, who walked along silently.

"Almighty heaven!" he suddenly burst out, "don't tell me you have got it again! I must say you don't get it often, but when you get it you get it bad! How many times have I told you to stagger it, brother. A little love here, a little love there, that's the way to enjoy yourself and to stay away from trouble."

"I can't help it, I like the wench," Chiao Tai muttered.

"Well, have it your own way," Ma Joong said resignedly. "But don't say later that I didn't warn you."

They found Kim Sang at the east gate, in an acrimonious argument with the guards. Po Kai was sitting up in the litter, singing a bawdy song at the top of his voice, to the undisguised delight of the chair bearers.

Chaio Tai explaianed to theguards that they had orders to confront Po Kai with a man on the other side of the creek. The Guards looked skeptical, but they let them pass.

They paid off the litter bearers, crossed the Rainbow Bride and hired a boat on the opposite bank. In the boat Ma Joong and Chiao Tai stuffed their black caps in their sleeves, and bound up their hair with a few pieces of tar rope.

A fairly large Korean barge was moored alongside the second boat. Garlands of colored lamps hung between the two low masts

Kim Sang climbed on board, followed by Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, who hoisted Po Kai up.

Yü-soo was standing against the railing. She was clad in her native dress, a long straight robe of flowered white silk, bound uh tightly under her breasts with a silk scarf tied in a beautiful large bow, and flaring out toward her feet. Her hair was done up in a high chignon, and she had stuck a white flower behind her ear. Chiao Tar looked at her, his eyes wide with admiration.

She greeted them with a smile.

"I didn't know you two would be along too," she said. "But why do you have those queer things round your heads?"

"Hush!" Ma Joong said. "Don't tell anybody! We are disguised." Then he shouted to the fat woman on the second boat, "Hey, grandma, send my plump girl friend over! She must hold my head when I get seasick!"

"You'll find plenty of girls in the Korean quarter!" Kim Sang said impatiently. He barked an order in Korean to the three boatmen. They pushed the barge off, and started rowing.

Kim Sang, Po Kai and Ma Joong sat down cross-legged on the silk cushions that were lying on the deck -round a low, lacquered table. Chiao Tai was going to join them but Yü-soo beckoned him to the door of the deck cabin.

"Don't you want to see what a Korean ship looks like?" she asked, pouting.

Chaio Tai gave the others a quick look. Po Kai was filling the wine cups, Kim Sang and Ma Joong were deep in conversation. He stepped over to her and said gruffly, "I don't think they'll miss me, for a while."