Yu Chongyi picked up the newspaper and read through it word by word, but the article only said that person would be arriving soon, without mentioning any specific date anywhere. Thinking about it, that made sense — for an official of such importance, for the sake of personal safety, how could his itinerary be easily leaked to the public?

He hesitated. “Without knowing the specific date, how do we arrange to stake out Keyu Theater?” They couldn’t very well buy tickets and go listen to opera there every single day.

Wang Bide glanced at He Yunqin as if casually, then chuckled. “Don’t worry, if that person really intends to come to Shanghai, there will be people who can figure out exactly which day. Oh right, Gu Yun, since He Yunqin’s here too, why don’t you bring out the notes you’ve organized these past two days, so we can all sort through the case properly together.”

Hongdou looked at He Yunqin, puzzled, and said, “Detective Wang, allow me to interrupt for a moment. Last time I mentioned to He Yunqin the matter of my aunt — first, because there were a lot of cigarette butts where she hanged herself, and second, because it happened in Chunying Alley. Because of this, I specially went home this morning to ask my mother about it.”

Wang Bide vaguely recalled some impression of this matter, and seeing how seriously Hongdou was taking it, he too couldn’t help but grow solemn. “Oh, what did Mrs. Yu say?”

Hongdou pondered for a moment, then stood up. “After all, I wasn’t there myself — some details still need my mother to recount them.”

With her son-in-law coming home to eat, Mrs. Yu had wanted to bring out her lifetime’s culinary skill, personally supervising the cooking of several dishes in the kitchen. It took much persuading from Hongdou to get her into the study. Once seated, she sighed and said gloomily, “This happened eleven years ago now. Just speaking of it makes my heart ache — if it weren’t for Hongdou pressing me again and again, I wouldn’t want to say a single word about it. But Hongdou is right too — since I felt something was off about it back then, perhaps there really was something strange going on. It’s only right to speak of it so everyone can analyze it.”

She rubbed her temples and said mournfully, “Around the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Bingyin year, Hongdou’s aunt was attending a girls’ secondary school. Somehow she came to know the eldest young master of Furong Trading Company, and one thing led to another, and the two began a romance.”

“Furong Trading Company?” Several people were mildly surprised — before going to Daxing Trading, Fu Zixiao had worked precisely at Furong Trading Company.

Mrs. Yu didn’t understand why everyone had shown such surprised expressions, and asked suspiciously, “Yes, Furong Trading Company. That trading company has since gone under. That young master was only seventeen or eighteen at the time — his name was Cheng Guanzhi. After my sister’s death, my brother and I, suspecting something was wrong about her cause of death, specially went to the trading company to demand an explanation from Cheng Guanzhi. But this man first avoided us entirely, and then fell ill with consumption, and before long died of the illness. Old Master Cheng of Furong Trading, grief-stricken over losing his beloved son, lost heart in managing the business. Not long after, the trading company’s business declined sharply, and it went under the following year.”

So this man had already died?

He Yunqin asked, “Mother-in-law, how did you discover back then that your sister had hanged herself? Besides the cigarette butts on the floor, was there anything else unusual about that classroom?”

Mrs. Yu said, “My sister had discovered Cheng Guanzhi’s affections had shifted elsewhere, and even a few days before the incident she’d already seemed somewhat distracted. When I went back to my parents’ home and saw my sister with no appetite, having lost so much weight in such a short time, I asked her what exactly had happened. At first she refused to say anything no matter what, but after I kept pressing her, she finally let slip a few words. The day it happened, my sister said she’d arranged to meet someone to go shopping at the department store, and left in the afternoon, but by eight in the evening she still hadn’t come back. Our whole family assumed my sister had gone to find Cheng Guanzhi again, so we went out searching everywhere. By nearly eleven o’clock, we finally discovered my sister had hanged herself in a classroom at a nearby girls’ secondary school.”

At this point, Mrs. Yu’s eyes reddened. Hongdou, who had been leaning against her mother, quickly handed her a handkerchief.

Mrs. Yu wiped away her tears. “At the time there was no lamp lit in that classroom, pitch black. Fortunately we’d borrowed a flashlight from someone, or we might not have found my sister’s body at all. When we lit it up and looked, my sister was hanging there all alone from the beam. We were scared out of our wits, and hurriedly, clumsily got her down, but it was too late — my sister’s body had already gone stiff. My mother couldn’t bear it — she fainted right on the spot.”

Wang Bide sighed, and said to He Yunqin, “Body discovered around eleven o’clock, with rigor mortis already present by then — that suggests Mrs. Yu’s sister was killed around nine in the evening.”

“The cigarette butts,” He Yunqin reminded — for his mother-in-law to still remember this now, there must have been a great many cigarette butts on the floor at the time.

Mrs. Yu paused for a moment. “Right, the cigarette butts. Our whole family refused to believe my sister would take her own life, so crying, we went to report it to the police station, and also found a doctor from nearby, still hoping my sister might somehow be saved. Everyone’s minds were in chaos at the time, so no one paid attention to what was on the floor — it was only when we were laying out my sister’s body that I noticed there were quite a few cigarette butts on the ground. Later when the police came, I told them my sister never smoked, that these cigarette butts were suspicious and needed proper investigation. But the police at the time simply wouldn’t listen, and later the coroner’s examination also concluded my sister had hanged herself with no doubt about it.”

He Yunqin asked, “Mother-in-law, do you still remember the brand of those cigarette butts?”

Mrs. Yu smiled bitterly. “Hongdou asked me this same thing this morning, but it’s been so many years now, who could still remember? I just know it was some common everyday brand, not expensive, available everywhere.”

She paused, then continued, “Although my brother and I both felt my sister couldn’t possibly have taken her own life like that, after we brought my sister’s body back and examined it carefully, apart from the ligature mark on her neck, there really were no other signs of external injury. And considering my sister was still young after all, and had already been so distraught over this Cheng Guanzhi before the incident, it’s possible that in a moment of extreme distress she got stuck in a dead end of her own thinking. It’s just too bad Cheng Guanzhi himself also fell ill — we had nowhere to demand an explanation. Not long after, my mother fell ill from grief and anger, and my brother and I were busy caring for her, so this matter was completely set aside.”

Wang Bide handed a list he’d compiled to Mrs. Yu. “Take a look — do you recognize any of these people?”

Mrs. Yu held the paper up to her eyes, pulling it back slightly, squinting. “Fu Zixiao? The little hoodlum from Chunying Alley, how could I not recognize him? Handsome enough on the surface, but a belly full of bad tricks. When Hongdou’s aunt died, when we went to Furong Trading to settle accounts, it was him who came out to block us on behalf of the young master of his household. After Furong Trading went under he went elsewhere, and I heard he’s doing quite well for himself now. Oh, right, back then there was an unknown opera troupe that came near my parents’ home, and this Fu Zixiao had some kind of affair with one of the female leads in the troupe.”

“A female lead?” Hongdou started. “Was it Bai Fengfei?”

Mrs. Yu looked at her daughter. “Back then I was busy during the day helping your father tend to his shop, and in the evenings looking after you and your brother — when did I ever have the chance to go back to my parents’ home so often? I also only found out by chance that Fu Zixiao had become infatuated with some opera performer. At the time that troupe performed extensively in Chunying Alley, though the audiences were sparse, but there was a foreigner who seemed to be researching what they called local customs of Shanghai, who often set up a camera stand nearby to take photos. Once your uncle and I happened to pass by and accidentally got caught in the shot. Your uncle kept that photo afterward. Let me go find it — it should still be around.”

So saying, she opened the door and went out, and before long returned with an old photograph in hand.

Several people crowded together to look — it was an open-air stage, the stage itself empty, but below it the long benches were packed with people, clearly waiting for the performance to begin.

Aside from Mrs. Yu and Pan Fusheng, who were both facing the camera directly, most people showed only their backs or side profiles, difficult to make out clearly.

“The foreigner put this photo in the newspaper, along with an article. Since it had a photo of my brother and me in it, your uncle specially cut it out to keep.”

Hongdou looked through it one by one, and suddenly her eyes lit up. She pointed at a young man in the front row. “Isn’t this Yang Yutian?”

This man wasn’t as famous as Bai Fengfei, but he was also fairly well known, and since martial-role performers had to train their physique daily, even after some ten-odd years, Yang Yutian’s appearance and build hadn’t changed at all, so Hongdou recognized him at a glance.

Gu Yun pointed to a corner in the upper right. “This person here looks a bit like Deng Guizhuang to me. Our secret fellowship organization was founded by Senior Deng — there was a photo of him from back then in the group, and Senior Qin showed it to me when explaining the fellowship’s origins.”

Everyone looked, and saw a refined-looking young man, tall and thin, standing off to one side, head raised looking at the empty stage.

Looking closely, there indeed seemed to be a hint of Deng Guizhuang about him.

Aside from these two, no other familiar faces could be found in the photo.

He Yunqin stared at the photo. “After all, it’s been so many years, and the photo is blurry too — unless someone has extremely sharp eyes, it would be very hard to identify anyone from just this photograph.”

Hearing this, a hazy thought flickered vaguely through Hongdou’s mind, but unfortunately that thought was as light as willow floss, and vanished without a trace in an instant.

Mrs. Yu chimed in from the side, “That opera troupe wasn’t far behind that school where Hongdou’s aunt died — come to think of it, that school really was cursed. Not long after Hongdou’s aunt’s death, another female student hanged herself at that same school, and I heard that in the end that too was never resolved. That was also a time when the foreigners brought in a corrupting influence, promoting all sorts of talk about free love everywhere. There were plenty of female students secretly carrying on romances behind their families’ backs, and if unfortunate enough to run into some fickle-hearted scoundrel, a girl’s reputation would be ruined right then and there — drowning themselves, hanging themselves, even poisoning themselves, none of it was the least bit rare.”

He Yunqin was greatly surprised, and looked up at Mrs. Yu. “There was another hanging at that school back then? Was that also in the Bingyin year? Mother-in-law, do you still remember who that female student was?”

Mrs. Yu said, “Also the Bingyin year — not long after my sister’s death, within two months at most. But I don’t think I knew that female student — otherwise, when others mentioned it, I should have had some impression of the child’s name.”

Wang Bide couldn’t sit still any longer. “There are still plenty of old residents living in Chunying Alley now — asking around carefully, surely someone remembers this. It’s a shame the girls’ secondary school in Chunying Alley closed long ago, or checking the school records would settle it at once.”

Sister Zhou knocked on the door from outside to say the meal was ready, and the group had no choice but to come out.

After the meal, He Yunqin said to Detective Wang, “Hongdou’s body still isn’t fully recovered, and after what happened last time, I don’t want her getting involved in this case any further. I’ll take her home to rest shortly. Although Bai Fengfei will be performing at Keyu Theater before long, the culprit is very likely to find her before then, so I’ve had one group of people searching for Bai Fengfei’s whereabouts, and another group tailing Deng Guizhuang. But these people are currently occupied with other matters and won’t be in position until tonight. Before then, please have your men keep a close watch on Deng Guizhuang, Detective Wang — we absolutely cannot afford any mistakes.”

Wang Bide said, “Of course. This afternoon I’ll take Gu Yun and the others to Chunying Alley to ask around about that other female student. I’ll call the He residence if there’s any news.”

Yu Chongyi said, “I have some experience gathering information — why don’t I come along to Chunying Alley too?”

Hongdou exchanged a few more words with her mother and brother, then went back to the residence with He Yunqin.

The moment the two of them entered, the household manager quietly informed them that Madam was upstairs in the small parlor playing mahjong with guests — since a number of the wives of political dignitaries had come, Second Young Master and Second Young Madam ought to go pay their respects.

He Yunqin was startled. “Understood.”

He glanced at Hongdou, and seeing no reluctance from her, took her hand and led her upstairs. While still in the hallway, they could already hear lively, cheerful laughter and chatter — clearly quite a few guests had come.

Inside the parlor it was indeed very lively — three tables had been set up in the room, all filled with female guests, everyone dripping with pearls and jewels. Besides the wives playing mahjong, there were also a number of elegantly dressed young ladies. Since there were no classes that afternoon, He Zhuyun and Duan Mingyi were also present.

As He Yunqin and Hongdou entered together, side by side, one of the wives seated there took a close look and a flash of admiration crossed her eyes. “Your Second Son is so outstanding — I’ve long been curious what your Second Young Madam would look like. Too bad I was in Chongqing for your Second Son’s wedding and couldn’t make it. Seeing her today, this appearance and bearing really is beyond words.”

Everyone turned to look at the two of them.

Mrs. He glanced at her son and daughter-in-law, but out of modesty said, “She’s fine enough, I suppose. Her schoolwork is good too, top marks every year, the teachers all adore her. These days when the two of them talk, it’s one clever remark after another — this old woman can’t even get a word in edgewise.”

Seeing how thoroughly delighted she looked, everyone knew she was fond of this daughter-in-law, and the way they looked at Hongdou grew noticeably warmer and friendlier.

He Yunqin led Hongdou inside, smiling as he introduced her to everyone one by one.

After Hongdou had gone around with sweet smiles, she heard Mrs. He say, “Mingyi, you weren’t feeling well this morning. Now that Hongdou’s here, let her attend to the guests. You should go back to your room and rest if you need to — no need to force yourself.”

Hongdou looked over and saw that Duan Mingyi indeed didn’t look well.

Hearing this, Duan Mingyi only smiled faintly. “It’s rare for these aunties and my good friends here to come to Shanghai — not to mention my health has already gotten much better, but even if it hadn’t, I ought to see this through to the end. Auntie Wang, that tile you just played was wrong — even someone with as shallow a grasp of mahjong as me knows you should have played the eight of circles.”

He Lanzhi said to Hongdou with a smile, “Mingyi and her friends here have put together a club — there’ll be an event in a few days, and Hongdou, you should come join us then too.”

He Yunqin’s expression cooled slightly. He turned to look at Hongdou and asked, “Do you want to go?”

The implication was clearly that she should decline. Hongdou was just about to answer when He Zhuyun, recalling that a few days earlier her Second Brother had casually mentioned wanting to teach Hongdou German and having no time to tutor her in her regular schoolwork, covered her mouth and laughed. “Second Brother’s been having Second Sister-in-law study German with him every day lately — Second Sister-in-law’s probably too busy to have time for it.”

Everyone paused, then burst into laughter all at once. “Mrs. He, you just said your Second Son is fond of his wife, and I was wondering about that — of course newlyweds are affectionate, but now we really know it for sure. German of all things is so hard to learn, and yet Second Young Master’s willing to teach her personally — that shows real patience toward Second Young Madam.”