Seeing that Hongdou had no leads, He Yunqin said to everyone: “Let’s review the clues from the beginning.
“The first victim, Yang Yutian, was found dead at Keyu Theatre on the tenth of last month. After examining the traces, this was not a hanging but murder—someone used a pulley-type tool to hoist him to the beam and strangle him. The autopsy confirmed Yang Yutian’s time of death as roughly between nine and ten o’clock. Because when the body was discovered, many people rushed to the back courtyard upon hearing the news, the ground was trampled into chaos, so no isolated Changle brand cigarette butt was found. But judging from the unusual tool used in that case, this person should be the first victim in this series.
“The second victim, Xu Yishan, died at his own residence on the eighteenth of this month—the night of my and Hongdou’s wedding. On-site examination showed he too was hoisted to the beam by pulley and made to look like a suicide. But unlike last time, this time a Changle brand cigarette butt was clearly discarded on the floor of the Xu family’s bedroom—yet Xu Yishan normally only smoked Sanwu brand. Because Mrs. Xu had spontaneously decided to go to her maiden family’s house to play mahjong during the wedding, we suspect the murderer was also present at the wedding at the time.” As he spoke, he took a fountain pen from his robe and wrote this last sentence down on paper, marking it as Key Clue One.
“The third victim, Fu Zixiao, was killed on the twenty-second of this month. Unlike the previous two, the murder site was not the victim’s own residence, but an abandoned classroom near the back gate of St. John’s University—as for why the murderer changed the crime scene, we can infer from Fu Zixiao’s household circumstances. This man was a well-known comprador in this city, with six concubines alone, and countless servants in his household. In such a place full of prying eyes, the murderer naturally couldn’t act conveniently, and could only lure him to a secluded place away from home. Because Hongdou happened to stumble upon the crime in progress, the murderer was forced to change plans on the spot, making Fu Zixiao the only victim in this case to be directly strangled. Of course, a Changle brand cigarette butt was found at this crime scene as well.
“But because several unusual events occurred the night Fu Zixiao was killed—Gu Yun was attacked, and Hongdou was taken away by the murderer—we gained a great deal of information as a result: tall and thin, wearing a long robe, large hands and feet, shoe size 43, walks quickly, probably doesn’t smoke normally but definitely smokes while committing the crime. As for the reason for attacking Gu Yun, it’s very likely related to those reference books. Notably, according to the witness at the noodle shop in the back alley, this person, while driving off with Hongdou, still remembered to cover his head and face with a scarf—this is extremely unusual, and based on this I suspect this person frequently visits St. John’s and is well known to the people around there—this is Key Clue Two.”
“As for the fourth victim, Deng Guizhuang, he died at his own residence. Based on the on-site examination, this was a hanging, not a murder—but the Deng family’s servant said Deng Guizhuang never smoked, yet a Changle brand cigarette was found at the scene as well. And the night Deng Guizhuang hanged himself, there was indeed a guest visiting the Deng household. Deng Guizhuang knew in advance this person would come, and for some reason sent the servant away beforehand. To entertain this guest, he even brought out the Biluochun tea he normally only used for distinguished visitors.”
He finished speaking and looked up at everyone. “Is the whole case clear now?”
“Clear.”
He Yunqin stroked his chin. “Looking over this whole case, the murderer’s only two slip-ups were the attacks on Gu Yun and Hongdou that night. The murderer’s motive for attacking Gu Yun remains a mystery, but we can’t rule out a connection to those reference books—and the library borrowing records show that in the past three months, only Gu Yun and Deng Guizhuang have borrowed them. The former was attacked, the latter hanged himself. So I have reason to believe that although the murderer never borrowed the books himself, he has some way of accessing the library’s borrowing records—combined with the two key clues before, I suspect the murderer may be a St. John’s student, teacher, or clerk-type employee.”
“And,” he said, looking at Hongdou with a complicated expression, “although we can’t confirm whether the murderer personally draped his coat over Hongdou that night, judging from this person’s series of contradictory behaviors after abducting Hongdou, I still believe this person knows Hongdou.”
With the clues laid out one by one, everyone couldn’t help but believe it. Yu Chongyi glanced at his sister, puzzled. “Could the murderer really be from St. John’s? But what would his motive be?”
The group gathered around to look at the wedding guest list. That day, over a hundred St. John’s teachers and students had attended the wedding. Excluding the female teachers and students, there were still over sixty remaining.
Hongdou went through the list one by one, recalling each person’s height and appearance. Perhaps St. John’s simply produced fine specimens—among these sixty people, from Principal Sir Johnson down to classmates in the same department, there wasn’t one who wasn’t tall and imposing. Too many suspects—they couldn’t possibly investigate each one’s shoe size individually.
Hongdou pondered and said: “I keep feeling that these victims all knew each other, and shared some secret together—just look at the people connected to this case. First, Bai Fengfei—her first reaction after Yang Yutian’s death was to find Wang Bide to investigate, yet afterward she avoided everyone, and now she’s hidden without a trace. Second, Fu Zixiao—this man had been uneasy for a month before his death, and recently planned to go stay at his villa in Suzhou. Third, Deng Guizhuang—Mr. Deng had borrowed reference books before his death; I wonder if he too had grown suspicious about those deaths, and that’s why he went to borrow books to research.”
He Yunqin nodded. “Looked at individually, these unusual points wouldn’t amount to valuable clues, but together they become quite thought-provoking. Detective Wang, this afternoon I asked you to take that newspaper clipping photo my mother-in-law cut out and ask around at the victims’ homes—what did you find?”
That photo was too old; among them, they could only recognize Yang Yutian and Deng Guizhuang in it.
Wang Bide said: “Your method really works. I went to Fu Zixiao’s house first. All his concubines were married in recent years—none of them know what Fu Zixiao looked like eleven years ago. But the Fu family’s servants, who had followed him since before he made his fortune, recognized him from the photo at a glance. Look, this is him.” As he spoke, he laid the photo on the table. Sure enough, several heads had been circled in pen. The one Wang Bide pointed to sat in the second row of benches, about twenty-some years old, wearing a short jacket, close-cropped hair, quite handsome. Fu Zixiao had spent these past years indulging in wine and women, and had long since gone to seed—if not for someone who knew him well, no one could have connected the handsome young man in the photo to the current portly middle-aged comprador.
Wang Bide then pointed to another young man in a long robe wearing glasses. “This one is Xu Yishan—I identified him this afternoon after asking Mrs. Xu. Eleven years ago, this man was still studying at Nanyang Public School.”
Gu Yun was recording everything nearby. “Yang Yutian, Deng Guizhuang, Fu Zixiao, Xu Yishan—all four victims are in the photo.”
Hongdou searched around. “Since it’s a photo of the opera troupe, why isn’t Bai Fengfei in it?”
Wang Bide said: “I had planned to go ask around at Keyu Theatre, but just as I left the Xu house, I got word of Deng Guizhuang’s death and rushed straight to the Deng household, so naturally I couldn’t get to Keyu Theatre. This photo is old and has many people in it—unless you already knew the person, who could pick them out just from the photo? I’ve never seen anyone with such sharp eyes, in any case.”
Gu Yun pushed up her glasses. “There’s a teacher in our department who has exactly that ability—he only needs to see students twice to remember all their faces, calls roll without even needing the register. No one can ever skip his class.”
A flicker crossed He Yunqin’s eyes, and he looked up at Gu Yun. “This person is that famous Master Yan? How tall is he? How old?” He recalled his younger sister mentioning this teacher a couple of times—remembered this teacher was extremely strict, terrifying when scolding students; his younger sister was very afraid of this teacher and disliked Chinese literature class most of all.
Gu Yun exchanged a glance with Hongdou.
Hongdou’s face changed slightly; even Gu Yun’s usually calm expression rippled faintly. After a long moment, she said: “Master Yan is around sixty-some years old. As for his height—I only know he’s very tall.”
He Yunqin was about to take the wedding guest list to look it over when Yu Chongyi pointed to a girl with a long braid in the photo. “Who is this? Does she know Deng Guizhuang?”
This girl wore a waist-length jacket on top and a long skirt below—the dress of a female student. She stood not far from Deng Guizhuang. Deng Guizhuang was looking at the empty stage, but the girl was looking at Deng Guizhuang. Since her side profile faced the camera, they couldn’t see her face straight on, but judging just from her profile, this girl’s features were extremely delicate.
Hongdou’s thoughts were still lingering on the matter before, growing more uneasy by the moment, and she said absently: “Could she be Deng Guizhuang’s lover?”
Wang Bide said: “Tonight I asked Deng Guizhuang’s mother. She doesn’t remember her son ever having a romance. As for why Deng Guizhuang suddenly went to Beiping back then, she still hasn’t figured that out to this day.”
Yu Chongyi said: “This afternoon I went to ask my friend’s father, and it turns out I misremembered—this friend of mine’s father never actually worked at the French Concession police station. But his neighbor across the way had a friend who worked as a coroner. In casual conversation once, this coroner had mentioned the case of the female student who hanged herself at Chunying Li Girls’ School in the year of Bingyin. The first one was our little aunt; the other, a girl surnamed Ding, lived near Gongqiao, not far from his home, so he still remembers it to this day. If we go to Gongqiao and ask around carefully, we should be able to find out more about this Ding girl.”
He Yunqin checked the time—almost nine, the show was about to start. He and Hongdou had to leave. He pondered a moment, then said to Wang Bide: “Tomorrow that person from Nanjing is going to Keyu Theatre to watch the opera. Since many women are accompanying him, with so many mouths talking, I estimate this news will spread across the Shanghai Bund tonight. By tomorrow morning, some reckless newspaper is bound to make a big story of it.”
Everyone was stunned—if so, Bai Fengfei would have nowhere left to hide and would have to come out to rehearse.
Hongdou stood watching He Yunqin, a great shadow seeming to slowly settle over her heart, her expression tinged with a kind of bewilderment.
He Yunqin said to Wang Bide: “So we have one more night. Tonight I’ll send everyone I know to help Detective Wang—have them take this shortlisted list and find out these people’s addresses within the hour. One group will keep watch on these people, the other will go to Gongqiao to ask around about the Ding family.”
He Yunqin spoke while watching Hongdou, seeing that she was deeply troubled, and sensing something himself. He fell silent for a moment, then said to Wang Bide: “If you find someone who might be the murderer, don’t rush to act on the next step—call the He mansion right away.”
With that, he took Hongdou’s hand and helped her up, saying gently: “Don’t overthink it. Let’s go to the theatre first.”
Author’s Note: This Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter has a red envelope.