Don’t Cry, Tai Lake

surprise, Wanyi, one of the top Party cadres in Wuxi, called him at the center. Wanyi was effusive about Chen’s connection to Comrade Secretary Zhao and outlined a plan to entertain Chen in two days on behalf of the city government. Chen had to stall him by claiming to be waiting on some instructions from Comrade Secretary Zhao.
    He had hardly finished speaking with Wanyi when Director Qiao burst in. His host insisted on dragging him to a celebration dinner, despite knowing little about the latest developments. Chen agreed readily, taking it as an acceptable excuse to turn off his cell phone. The people at the center had been so helpful that it was the least he could do to acknowledge it. Besides, there was nothing else for him to do. The Wuxi police took over the work, and while he was inundated with official phone calls, the one call he really wanted was the one he didn’t expect to get. Shanshan had kept her phone turned off.
    It turned out to be an enjoyable meal. For once, he let himself go and behaved like a tourist—eating, drinking, and relishing the moment. He realized it was probably the tail end of his vacation here. Qiao and his colleagues vied with one another as they toasted him at the banquet. Once again, the center was in the headlines, at least locally, for which they were grateful.
    As a result, it was quite late at night when he returned to his room, with unsteady steps and the unmistakable onslaught of a coming headache. There was still no message from Shanshan when he checked the phone for the last time before going to bed.
    Now, suffering a terrible hangover the next morning, squinting his eyes in the glaring light, he thought there wasn’t anything he could really complain about. He reminded himself, gulping strong black coffee, that it would be another busy day. He couldn’t afford to relax and recuperate like a real high-ranking cadre.
    He turned on his cell phone and checked his messages. Still nothing from Shanshan, though plenty from local cadres and several from Huang. But he decided not to return Huang’s call just yet. The sergeant was busy working on the remaining details of the case with his colleagues, and Chen, as he had said to so many, was on vacation.
    He had just finished his first cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. The unexpected visitor standing in the doorway was Tian Zhonghua, a heavily built man in his early fifties with gray eyebrows and a sturdy jaw. He was the head of the Wuxi Police Bureau, and Chen had met him before at conferences.
    “You should have told us about your vacation here, Chen,” Tian said, stepping in to the foyer without waiting for an invitation. “How could you have come here and investigated a case with Sergeant Huang in secret?”
    “Oh no, don’t be upset with me, Superintendent Tian. Huang is a friend of Detective Yu’s. That’s why we got together. I came here on a vacation that was pushed onto me, and I had nothing to do here. So I couldn’t help talking to him about the case. The credit for bringing it to a successful conclusion is really all his.”
    Huang might not have been able to take all the credit himself, so Chen decided not to say anything unnecessary.
    “I understand, Chief Inspector Chen, but Internal Security doesn’t. They are certain that I was aware of your investigation all along.”
    “Sorry, Tian. I apologize for that. But please tell me about the latest developments in the case.”
    “We’ve arrested them. It’s only a matter of time before Fu and Mi make a full confession.”
    “What about Jiang?”
    “He’s been cleared of the murder charge, but the blackmail charge is going to stick—it has to. Internal Security has made a point of it. He hadn’t been officially charged in the murder case, but it was known to a lot of people that he had been taken into custody. If we let him get away scot-free, he’ll surely blab to the Western media about being persecuted because of his fight for the environment,” Tian said, then added, as if in afterthought, “Of course, he did blackmail some people, and he should be punished for it.”
    “Frankly, I don’t think the statements made against him are that reliable. They were made by people looking to protect their own business interests. That should be taken into consideration.”
    “As the head of the Wuxi police, I looked into it. Yes, it’s his word against theirs. However, some of them did pay him a large amount as a consulting fee. We have evidence