A Loyal Character Dancer

right thing for Wen.
     
    Was Wen going to have a good life with Feng in that faraway country? She knew the answer. That’s why she had chosen to stay in Suzhou. With the best years of her life already wasted in the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, Wen was trying to hang on to the last remnant of her dreams by staying here with Liu.
     
    What had he done? A cop was not paid to be compassionate.
     
    Some unexpected lines came to him as he stared out of the window...
     
    “What are you thinking about?” Inspector Rohn came to his side by the window.
     
    “Nothing.” He was upset. But for their interference, Wen might have stayed on with Liu, though he knew it was not fair to blame Inspector Rohn. “We have done our job.”
     
    “We’ve done our job,” she repeated. “To be exact, you have done it. A wonderful job, I have to say.”
     
    “A wonderful job indeed.” He ground out the cigarette on the windowsill.
     
    “What did you say to Liu in his study?” she asked, touching his hand lightly. She must have sensed the change in his mood. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to bring him around.”
     
    “There are so many perspectives from which we can look at one and the same thing. I merely provided another perspective for him.”
     
    “A political perspective?”
     
    “No, Inspector Rohn. Not everything is political here.” He noticed the young couple staring at them from the roof. From their perspective, what would they think of the two of them, a Chinese man and an American woman standing by the window? He changed the subject. “Oh, sorry about turning down the dinner invitation. It would have been a sumptuous dinner, I imagine. Loads of toasts to friendship between China and the United States. I was not in the mood.”
     
    “You made the right choice. Now we have a chance to take a walk in a Suzhou garden.”
     
    “You want to go to a garden?”
     
    “I have not visited a single one yet,” she said. “If we have to wait, let us wait in a garden.”
     
    “Good idea. Let me make one more phone call.”
     
    “Fine, I’ll take a few pictures of the hotel out front.”
     
    He dialed Gu’s number. Now that they were about to leave Suzhou, it should be safe for him to make a call to Gu in Shanghai.
     
    “Where are you, Chief Inspector Chen?” Gu sounded genuinely anxious. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
     
    “I’m on my way to another city, Gu. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
     
    “Some people are after you. You have to take care.”
     
    “Who are those people?” Chen said.
     
    “An international organization.”
     
    “Tell me about them.”
     
    “Their base is Hong Kong. I have not yet found out everything. It’s not convenient for me to talk at the moment, Chief Inspector Chen. Let’s discuss it when you come back, okay?”
     
    “Okay.” At least it was not Internal Security.
     
    Catherine was waiting for him in front of the hotel. She wanted to take a picture of him standing by the burnished bronze lion, his hand on its back. It did not feel like bronze. He examined it more closely, and found it was made of plastic, covered with gold paint.

Chapter 32
     
     
    C
    hen was still in a dark mood, which soon proved to be infectious. Catherine was also subdued as they entered the Qing-style landscape of the Yi Garden.
     
    There was something on his mind, she knew. A number of unanswered questions were on hers, too. Nevertheless, they had found Wen.
     
    She did not want to raise those questions for the moment. And she felt uncomfortable for a different reason as she walked beside him in the garden. In the past few days, Chen had played the role of the cop in charge, always having something to say— about modernism, Confucianism, or communism. That afternoon, however, their roles had become reversed. She had taken the initiative. She wondered whether he resented her.
     
    The garden was quiet. There were hardly any other visitors. Their footsteps made the only sound.
     
    “Such a beautiful garden,” she said, “but it’s almost deserted.”
     
    “It’s the time of the day.”
     
    Dusk was beginning to envelop the garden path; the sun hung above the tilted eaves of the ancient stone pavilion like a stamp. They strolled through a gourd-shaped stone gate to a bamboo bridge where they saw several golden carp swimming in the clear, tranquil water.
     
    “Your heart’s not in sightseeing, Chief Inspector