A Case of Two Cities

is?” Li said sarcastically. “It’s like the sun rising in the west.”
     
    In the bureau, Kuang had gone so far as to taunt Yu with Chen’s connection to An in front of other cops.
     
    “Your boss has really enjoyed the peach blossom luck,” Kuang declared in the main office of the bureau. “A tit-tat meeting with that beautiful anchorwoman in a ‘Lovers’ Nest’—a couple days before her death.”
     
    Yu ignored it as a joke, which it wasn’t. Kuang must have heard something, or he wouldn’t have had the guts to speak of Chen like that.
     
    But the only thing Yu had so far was An’s cell phone record, which he had studied for days without discovering anything substantial. It was out of the question for him to approach those officials. He had thought about doing research on them, but he would have to get special access permission for the bureau computers. And that might not be a good idea, as others might trace his work. Everybody knew about his relationship to Chen.
     
    He didn’t have a computer at home. Among his friends, no one had one at home. Not even Chief Inspector Chen.
     
    Spitting out a loose tea leaf, he remembered he had seen a laptop in Chen’s home. Not Chen’s, but one lent to him for a translation project by an upstart named Gu—a computer as well as the college girl, White Cloud, as a “little secretary,” who was “lent” to Chen’s mother this time.
     
    It wasn’t difficult to guess why Gu had befriended Chen. It was an investment for future return. But since the shrewd businessman saw potential in the chief inspector, Gu might help his assistant as well.
     
    Yu took a taxi to the Dynasty Karaoke Club. He still had many things to do afterward, so on the way there, he got the money for Qinqin’s English camp out of the bank.
     
    As soon as Yu sent in his business card, Gu came out and welcomed him into a spacious office. A tall man in a Western-style suit with Chinese-style cloth-heeled shoes and green jade neck decoration, the entrepreneur was gracious to the detective. Yu lost no time explaining the purpose of his visit, though he refrained from mentioning any specific details.
     
    “It’s something important for Chen, Mr. Gu, or I would not have come to you like this.”
     
    “You don’t have to explain,” Gu said, picking up the phone on his desk and giving instructions to his secretary outside the office. “We haven’t met before, but Chen has talked such a lot about you. It’s like I have known you for years too.”
     
    A young waitress in a pink cheongsam came in with a new laptop still in the box, and another, in a green cheongsam, with a platter of fruit enveloped in a mirage of spiraling mist. “Tropical rainforest,” she said. She also had a bottle of foreign wine in an ice bucket and opened the wine with a pop.
     
    “If you are not in a hurry,” Gu said, raising the cup, “I’ll have one of our best K girls for you in a private room. My treat. You have really given me face today.”
     
    “Thank you, but I’m really in a hurry. Next time, Mr. Gu.”
     
    There would be no next time, Yu was sure. He had heard of stories about K girls in private rooms and he had to think of Peiqin. That was the bottom line.
     
    “It’s an honor that you thought of me, Detective Yu. I am a businessman, but a man of yiqi too. I am willing to have my chest pierced with knives for a friend.”
     
    It sounded sort of like triad jargon. Detective Yu was confounded that someone with triad connections would make such a statement to a cop.
     
    “We have already cooperated,” Gu went on warmly. “Between your wife Peiqin and White Cloud. What a masterstroke Peiqin made in the water shop.”
     
    As Yu was about to leave the club with the laptop, Gu said casually, as if in afterthought, “You have a room in the Luwan District, close to the intersection of Huaihai and Madang Road, right?”
     
    “Yes . . .”
     
    “Don’t exchange it with others. There are huge potentials there. If you really want to move to a larger apartment, let me know. I’ll give you a new three-bedroom apartment in a decent area—plus a hundred thousand yuan in cash.”
     
    “No kidding!”
     
    “Think about it. You don’t have to give me an answer right now. Not a single word about it to anyone else, of course. You are my friend and I’m not an unscrupulous businessman who would rip off a friend like you.”
     
    Probably not, Yu observed. Stepping out of the