A Loyal Character Dancer

first visit, let’s have a typical Suzhou dinner. What about the Pine and Crane Restaurant?”
     
    “I have to take a rain check for dinner, Director Fan,” Chen said, standing up.
     
    “Well, we will see you at the station then,” Fan said, accompanying them to the doorway, where Honghua handed over two bamboo containers. “Suzhou souvenirs. A pound of tea for each of you. First-class Cloud and Mist, a special product for the emperors in ancient China.”
     
    It might have cost five hundred Yuan at Shanghai First Department Store, though probably it would have cost Fan much less—from tea plantations patrolled by Fan’s men. Still, it was a valuable present.
     
    “Thank you, Director Fan. I’m overwhelmed.” It would be a good gift for his mother, a connoisseur of fine tea. Chen felt bad for not having phoned her before he left Shanghai.
     
    It took ten minutes for them to get back to the hotel, and less than five minutes for him to pack. He went to her room, where he called Liu, informing him of the travel arrangements. Liu agreed to accompany Wen to the station.
     
    The next call was to Detective Yu. “We’ve found Wen Liping, Detective Yu.”
     
    “Where, Chief Inspector Chen?”
     
    “In Suzhou. Staying with Liu Qing, a high-school classmate. A poet in that anthology. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you more about it back in Shanghai. We are taking tonight’s train to Fujian, to pick up a few things at Wen’s place.”
     
    “Great. I’ll meet you at the Fujian railway station.”
     
    “No, don’t. Peiqin will be waiting for you at home. Return by air today. We have a special budget. Don’t tell the locals about our plan.”
     
    “I see. Thanks, Chief.”
     
    Finally Chen phoned the Fujian Police Bureau. A junior officer, surnamed Dai, said Superintendent Hong was not in the office.
     
    “I want your people to meet me at the railway station with a car at one tomorrow afternoon. Preferably a van.” Chen did not mention that Catherine Rohn and Wen Liping would be with him.
     
    “No problem, Chief Inspector Chen. It’s an internationally important case, we all know.”
     
    “Thanks.” Chen put down the phone, wondering how all of them could have known that.
     
    Catherine called her headquarters in Washington, where it was early morning. She left a message, saying she would be bringing Wen back in a couple of days.
     
    It was a few minutes past five. They still had several hours to spend in Suzhou. She started taking her things out of the closet to pack. He felt time weighing heavily on him. Staring out the window, he realized for the first time that they were surrounded by dilapidated buildings. Perhaps the hotel was too close to the railway station.
     
    “What does the phrase folk east of the river mean?” Catherine asked, as she put her cosmetics into a small bag.
     
    “It means the people at home who have high hopes for you. Lord Chu was defeated in a battle around 200 B.C. and declared that he was unable to face his folk east of the river. So by the Wu River, he committed suicide.”
     
    “I’ve seen a tape of a Beijing Opera called Farewell to His Imperial Concubine. It is about the proud Lord of Chu, isn’t it?”
     
    “Yes, that’s him.” Chen was not in the mood to talk more.
     
    He was increasingly uneasy about this trip back to Fujian. Wen had appeared so determined, yet every delay increased her risk.
     
    He excused himself and went to smoke a cigarette. There were people at one end of the corridor, holding plastic basins filled with clothes. They were carrying their laundry to the public laundry room the hotel manager had shown him—a long concrete groove with a number of faucets. There was no such thing as a washing machine around here. He walked to a window at the other end. Next to it was a door opening to a flight of steps, which led to a small concrete platform, a part of the flat roof. There a young woman was busy hanging her wet clothes on the clothesline. Wearing a slip with thin straps, bare legged and bare of foot, she looked like a gymnast ready to perform. A young man emerged from behind the clothes and embraced her in spite of the beads of water glistening on her shoulders. A couple on their honeymoon trip, Chen guessed, his eyes squinting from the cigarette smoke.
     
    Most of the people here were not affluent and had to endure the inconveniences of a cheap hotel, but they were contented.
     
    He wondered whether he had done the