He Yunqin was true to his word, and in less than five minutes, quite a few people arrived both inside and outside the clinic. Uncle had originally worried that the killer might return at night to strike again, but now he was completely at ease.
He Yunqin exchanged a few words with Ruide, then led Mrs. Yu, Hongdou, and the others out.
The family got into the car, and He Yunqin said to Mrs. Yu, “The new house has already been cleaned. Tomorrow before the move, I’ll send someone to pick you up. Once you arrive at the new house, take a look around first — whether it’s the new servants or the residence itself, if anything doesn’t suit you, just tell me.”
Though Mrs. Yu was shrewd, she was fundamentally very strong-willed. She was normally most afraid of troubling others, especially unwilling to burden her son-in-law. Hearing He Yunqin say this, she laughed and sighed, “Chongyi and I have already made most of the preparations for the move. If we really can’t manage, at most we’ll hire a few more workers when the time comes. Good child, you’re busy enough as it is on ordinary days — these are all trivial matters, there’s no need to go to such trouble.”
Hongdou said, “Mother, how could temporarily hired workers be as skilled as the household stewards? There are plenty of things in the house — Father’s photographs, antiques, and so on. They may not be worth much, but they’re keepsakes after all. If something gets broken or damaged, you’d be heartbroken.”
He Yunqin also said, “Mother-in-law, moving house takes a great deal of effort and worry — it shouldn’t fall on you to manage. Arrangements have already been made; it’s all been handed over to my elder brother and me to handle. If you’re still uneasy, just give a few more instructions when the move happens.”
Mrs. Yu was filled with emotion, and unable to keep declining, she could only say, “You’re such a thoughtful child. But speaking of servants, there’s actually something I wanted to discuss with you. When the Yu family’s shops closed, I took it upon myself to dismiss the servants. There are a few old hands the Yu family used to rely on who, having no children of their own, are now living around the Zhabei-Hongkou area. Recently they sent word to me saying they’d like to find work in the concession, no wages required, just wanting safety. You know that area isn’t like the concession — gunsmoke never stops there all day long. These people served the Yu family their whole lives, and running into times like these, a bleak old age would be one thing, but now their very lives are in danger. I felt sorry for them, so I agreed to take them on. So Yunqin, you don’t need to trouble yourself with servants anymore — it’s all been settled.”
He Yunqin glanced at Hongdou and smiled, “That’s fine too — better the old than the new. We’ll do as Mother-in-law says.”
After seeing off Mrs. Yu and Yu Chongyi, Hongdou asked He Yunqin on the way back, “Do you have any leads on Bai Haili’s death?”
“None,” He Yunqin said. “This matter involves too much — all sides are investigating now. For the killer to get away clean after killing Bai Haili, he couldn’t have been acting alone; there must be someone backing him up. What puzzles me is, why would this kind of criminal — one who only takes on major jobs — set his sights on Mrs. Pan?”
Hongdou sighed. “Let’s hope Auntie gets a good rest tonight, and that she remembers something by tomorrow morning. If it’s really as we guessed, and this person is someone Auntie knows, she probably learned something without realizing it, which is what brought this deadly disaster on her. But her mind is completely occupied with Yuqi and Yuyuan’s marriage prospects — even if she saw something, she might not have taken it to heart. It wouldn’t be strange if she can’t recall anything even when questioned.”
He Yunqin remembered something. “Do you remember the photos Wang Bide took last time at Dr. Lin’s Western-style house?”
“The house on Chengfeng Road?”
“After the nurse died, Wang Bide went to inspect the empty second floor. In the study he found a size-39 footprint and photographed it. But those were thousand-layer cloth-soled shoes with a pointed toe — clearly a woman’s footprint. Yet after Bai Haili’s incident, when we checked near the kitchen, the footprint there was from a man’s leather shoe.”
Hongdou pondered. “But we still can’t determine whether the nurse’s death was accidental or intentional.”
He Yunqin paused. “Assuming the nurse was murdered, the two cases share several common points: both crime scenes were ‘haunted’ houses with rumors of ghosts, and both scenes left size-39 footprints. The difference is that one was a woman’s shoe print, the other a man’s.”
Hongdou said, startled, “The print you saw tonight outside the women’s washroom — was it a man’s shoe or a woman’s?”
“It was a cloth shoe that either a man or woman could wear.”
That made sense too. If it had been a man’s shoe print, He Yunqin would have grown suspicious on the spot.
Hongdou propped up her chin. “Could it be that this person deliberately confused things — being a man, deliberately wearing women’s shoes? Or being a woman, deliberately wearing men’s shoes?”
He Yunqin frowned. “If it were as you say, wouldn’t everyone find it strange and draw attention? How could the killer go about murdering someone then? The nurse’s case is one thing, but Bai Haili came up from the streets as a petty thug — encountering someone dressed so oddly, he would have been on guard immediately.”
“By your reasoning, then, could these two cases have been done by different people? A woman frightened the nurse, a man killed Bai Haili? And whoever attacked Auntie could be either a man or a woman?”
He Yunqin tacitly agreed with this. “Bai Haili’s case was done too cleanly and efficiently. It wouldn’t be strange for the killer to have an accomplice — it would be strange if he didn’t.”
Hongdou mused, “Yesterday at the tea party, Mei Lizhen said that the nurse who died in the Western house, named Shi Chunli, was a distant relative of hers. Before the incident, she’d mentioned the strange happenings in the house to her family, saying she’d heard a woman crying more than once. Why don’t Gu Yun and I find out where this relative lives, and go ask around at her house tomorrow?”
“This matter is too dangerous. If you’re really curious, at most you can join us in analyzing the case — leave everything else alone.”
Hongdou was displeased. “Why is it that the moment the subject of the house comes up, you think it’s dangerous? Just what secret does this house hold, that even Bai Haili lost his life over it? — Was Chen Baidie selling the house because she foresaw the danger in advance?”
He Yunqin was silent for a while, then said, “Ten years ago, there was an American goods merchant named John who, under the guise of missionary work, disguised himself as a reverend and brought a batch of valuable goods to China to trade. But less than three months after arriving in Shanghai, he died in that Western house on Chengfeng Road —”
Hongdou was startled. “The house where the nurse died?”
“Yes. What’s strange is that the very night John died, the batch of gold bars he’d obtained from selling goods vanished without a trace. Afterward, various factions sealed off all channels, and it was never seen leaving Shanghai. All the major money houses, afraid of inviting bloodshed, didn’t dare take on the business of melting down the gold. At the time there were fully eight thousand bars — transporting or hiding them would have been extremely troublesome either way, so the outside world believed the gold remained in the city. Yet for years, various organizations in Shanghai searched and never discovered where it had been hidden.”
“Eight thousand gold bars.” Hongdou was simply astonished. Such an enormous fortune was enough to drive people mad. To have accumulated that many gold bars in such a short time — one could well imagine what exactly that American merchant John had been trading in.
He Yunqin sneered. “To find this batch of gold, various forces have searched every corner of the Shanghai Bund over the years — practically dug three feet into the ground. Yet more than ten years later, the whereabouts of this pile of gold remains a mystery.”
“You all suspect the gold is hidden in these few haunted Western houses?”
He Yunqin smiled faintly. “In recent years, there have only been a handful of Western houses in Shanghai rumored to be haunted. That’s what I thought at first, and judging from the deaths of Bai Haili and Shi Chunli, clearly someone firmly believes this theory too. In the earlier years, for fear that someone would meet with foul play before the gold was even dug up, no one dared act rashly. But because of the war advancing south this year, Shanghai’s military defenses are strained, and naturally people have remembered the whereabouts of this gold again. One side wants to use it to save the nation and its people; the other wants to use it to betray the nation for profit. All sides are watching for their chance to act — that’s why people keep dying in these Western houses.”
Hearing all this, Hongdou was more than startled — she was truly shaken. No wonder He Yunqin had never let her ask about the Western houses; this matter had long since slipped beyond the control of ordinary people, and was in fact an utterly ruthless game of pursuing profit.
Amid her shock, she grew even more curious — if this person really did know Auntie, under what identity had they been lying in wait, unnoticed? Probably someone very ordinary, since even though Auntie had nearly lost her life over this, she still hadn’t suspected that person at all.
She looked again at He Yunqin — his expression was relaxed, as if he were simply chatting with her about everyday matters.
He Yunqin noticed her unease and frowned. “Look at you — you insist on asking, and then you worry after you’ve asked.”
Hongdou waved a hand, admitting she still felt somewhat dazed. “You — just let me sort this all out properly first.”
She didn’t know why, but perhaps it was her trust in He Yunqin’s abilities — however uneasy she felt, she wasn’t especially frightened.
At this point they arrived at the He mansion. He Yunqin parked the car, and looking at Hongdou, deliberately changed the subject. “Hongdou, you’ve been a little strange these past two days.”
She asked, puzzled, “What do you mean?”
He Yunqin rubbed his chin and smiled brilliantly. “Lazier. And plumper, too.”
“He Yunqin!” Hongdou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “I’ve been worried sick, and you still have the mood to tease me.”
Suddenly a servant came smiling to greet them. “Second Young Master, Second Young Madam, you’re finally back! Fourth Miss is waiting in her room and has something to tell you. Madam is there too.”