The women had come to watch the opera, and the theatre had of course been cleared in advance. But as word spread and more and more notable figures rushed over upon hearing the news, the chattering and laughter in the audience seats grew increasingly noisy. Hongdou sat beside Madame He in the second-floor box watching the opera, while He Yunqin was called away to another area by his brother-in-law and elder brother.
Halfway through the show, a servant quietly came in from outside, saying there was a phone call for the second young master.
Hearing this, Hongdou merely said she needed to freshen up, and made an excuse to go downstairs as well.
In the corridor, He Yunqin had already sent the servant away and stood in place, lost in thought. After a while, he was about to leave when he looked up and saw Hongdou approaching, and stopped again, looking at her. “Detective Wang must have found something. I’m going to return his call.”
Hongdou caught up a few steps. “I’ll come too.”
He Yunqin took her hand, only to find it icy cold and clammy, entirely lacking its usual warmth. After a few steps, feeling something was off, he turned to look at her. “Hongdou.”
Hongdou had been lost in thought, head lowered. Hearing this, she looked up, her gaze tinged with a kind of blankness.
He Yunqin looked at her quietly. “You’ve been off all day today. Did you remember something?”
Hongdou had, after all, been taken away by the murderer. Though her consciousness had not been clear at the time, after these past few days of rest, it wasn’t impossible that she might recall some feature of the murderer.
Hongdou’s expression shifted unpredictably. That night in the back seat of the car, she had woken hazily once—when that person opened the door to get out, in the midst of her dazed confusion, she had unconsciously glimpsed this person’s build and gait.
Yet even though something had stirred in her, she still consoled herself that the hallucinogenic drug would have disturbed her memory most of all—that it was merely a fleeting impression, meaning nothing.
She was silent for a moment, then said dazedly: “He Yunqin, I have a very bad feeling, but I can’t confirm it yet. Let’s go hear what Detective Wang found first, all right?”
He Yunqin looked at her with understanding. “I remember when we first guessed this person could access the library borrowing records, you wouldn’t respond. When we speculated how this person knew Gu Yun was studying in the dedicated classroom in the Education Department, you didn’t want to discuss it in depth either. When we discussed why the murderer used a scarf to cover his face, you only offered a few sparse comments. Hongdou, can you tell me—during those forty minutes when this person attacked and then released you, did you hear or see something?”
In that instant, Hongdou’s face turned utterly bewildered, as if she were standing at the edge of a dangerous abyss, suddenly overcome with a sense of lost, searching helplessness. She stood dazed for a moment, then composed herself and said with sincere earnestness: “I truly don’t know anything.”
Even her expression had changed. Though He Yunqin was full of doubts, he softened after all, lowering his voice. “Alright, I know you’re not deliberately trying to hide anything. Let’s set this aside for now—let’s call Wang Bide first and see what he’s found.”
The call connected, and Wang Bide said on the other end: “Remember when we examined the scene and discussed the murderer’s method? You said then that Yang Yutian was a martial opera actor, and Xu Yishan was also a tall, strong man—how could they possibly have been obediently hoisted onto the beam and then let the murderer tighten the rope around their necks until they suffocated? And the strangest thing is, on the night it happened, none of the neighbors nearby heard the victims cry for help at all.
“I just had someone I know pull the autopsy report from the French Concession police station. It turns out both Yang Yutian and Xu Yishan had, before death, taken a hallucinogenic drug called ketamine—they had already lost consciousness before death. This drug is like ether; only a few private hospitals in this city have it. Fu Zixiao’s autopsy report isn’t out yet, but I suspect these people, like Deng Guizhuang, all had tea, conversation, or even a meal with the murderer, and that’s precisely how they were caught off guard. But here’s what puzzles me—none of these people were naive to the ways of the world; Fu Zixiao and Yang Yutian especially were no innocents. What kind of person could make them lower their guard like that?”
He Yunqin glanced at Hongdou, whose face had indeed grown worse, and asked: “Didn’t we send people to Gongqiao to ask around about the Ding family? Any results?”
Wang Bide said: “Mr. Yu volunteered and just got back from asking around. There’s no family surnamed Ding in Gongqiao at all. Mr. Yu asked around in a circle with no results, so he changed his approach and went door to door asking whether, over ten years ago, any family’s daughter had hanged herself. At first no one knew anything, but he finally got something from an elderly resident. Over ten years ago, a middle-aged couple lived there—having only had a daughter in their late thirties, the couple treasured her as the apple of their eye. But when this child turned seventeen, she suddenly went to a girls’ school and hanged herself. The family was devastated and moved away not long after. The old man only remembered that the man of that household was a university professor, but couldn’t recall the surname anymore.”
He Yunqin paused for a moment, then said: “When the child died, this man would have been about forty-five to fifty. Now, another eleven years have passed—we can narrow our range a bit. Tonight, let’s focus on watching those on the wedding guest list who are over sixty and employed at St. John’s. Of course, so far we still don’t know whether the murderer’s motive is connected to the Ding girl, so we can’t let our guard down on the others either.”
Wang Bide thought for a moment. “By that logic, we’d need to focus on watching Principal Sir Johnson, Old Mr. Liu from the Political Science Department, and Master Yan from the Chinese Literature Department.”
Hongdou forced out a faint smile. “But if it’s connected to that matter, the girl was surnamed Ding—none of these old gentlemen are surnamed Ding.”
He Yunqin fell silent for a moment, then asked Wang Bide again: “Still no news of Bai Fengfei’s whereabouts?”
“None,” Wang Bide said, thoroughly frustrated. “This woman has all sorts of friends from every walk of life. If she truly wants to hide, no one will ever find her.”
He Yunqin said: “That person from Nanjing likes best to show off how approachable he is. Tomorrow when he goes to Keyu Theatre to watch the opera, he may well not clear the theatre in advance. If the murderer disguises himself as an audience member and slips in, given this person’s cunning and methods, Bai Fengfei won’t escape death. Tonight we need to watch those few people at St. John’s closely, and also try searching around elsewhere—best if we can find Bai Fengfei before dawn. Everyone else should head to the front and back entrances of Keyu Theatre in advance to stand guard, to keep the murderer from getting in and setting things up beforehand.”
After the show ended, Hongdou returned to the He mansion with He Yunqin. But by the early hours of the morning, there was still no sign of Bai Fengfei. Fortunately, that night none of the people on the St. John’s list showed anything unusual, and the night passed without incident. Unable to resist He Yunqin’s insistence that she rest, though still uneasy, she finally went to sleep with a heavy heart.
The next day, Bai Fengfei still hadn’t turned up, but since no relevant news appeared in the papers all day, Hongdou’s anxious heart eased somewhat by evening.
Who would have thought that when the servant brought the newspapers in the evening, in just one afternoon’s time, over half the papers had run news that Bai Fengfei would perform on stage that night.
He Yunqin stared at the newspaper without speaking. Hongdou, however, suddenly stood up and said thoughtfully: “That person from Nanjing surely brings a large retinue. If he really goes to Keyu Theatre to watch the opera, there will certainly be a heavy guard inside and outside the theatre. If the murderer can’t help but act, he’ll surely be caught on the spot. No, I need to go to the school.”
He Yunqin pulled her back. “What are you going to the school for? Who are you going to see?”
Hongdou turned to look at him. “These men are all professors at school whom I deeply respect. I don’t want the murderer to be any of them, and even less do I want them caught in such a disgraceful way.”
He Yunqin looked at her. “It’s precisely because I understand your concerns that I’ve had people watching those old gentlemen’s residences at St. John’s, and had people searching for Bai Fengfei all last night. That person from Nanjing has an extremely complicated status—the He family will likely go to watch the opera together tonight as well. To avoid suspicion, we really shouldn’t do anything at the theatre in advance. Hongdou, we’ve done everything we can with this case at this point—”
Hongdou stared steadily at He Yunqin, then after a moment softened her tone. “I know, I know all that, but—” Just then, someone knocked at the door. It was Wang Bide calling.
In the study, they heard Wang Bide say: “He Yunqin, Bai Fengfei has finally shown up! This woman just arrived at Keyu Theatre by car. Since she hasn’t shown her face in so long, there’s a huge crowd of fans outside the theatre tonight. But we’ve watched the front and back entrances all day, and haven’t seen any St. John’s teachers or students go in to watch the opera.”
He Yunqin looked at Hongdou. “Good. Keep watching. We’ll be there shortly.”
Author’s Note: About five days ago, in Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter 60, an angel named Luo Qingyi correctly guessed the murderer and gave a well-reasoned analysis. I took a screenshot of this genius’s comment and posted it on Weibo—those interested can take a look. Tomorrow there will still be two updates. By the way, Hongdou wasn’t deliberately hiding anything—she just didn’t want to believe it. And given how clever she and He Er are, she’d already figured out who the murderer was long ago; she’s been working with He Er all along to stop the murderer from killing again.