Don’t Cry, Tai Lake

gold-rimmed glasses on her round face.
    Small groups of people still lingered outside, conversing loudly. They might have come to go to the movie theater, or they might have just left church. At least some were holding tickets in their hands. The traffic rumbled on continuously along Xizhuang Road.
    “This is no place for us to talk,” Peiqin said. “Let’s go to People’s Park across the street.”
    They went through the underground tunnel to the park, which looked much smaller than Peiqin remembered. The park was built after the racetrack built by the British in the nineteenth century was torn down. Originally, the park was extraordinarily large, considering its location in the center of the city. In recent years, however, a lot of new construction had started to chip away at the park.
    They found a stone table with stools around it near the back, where they could look out onto the People’s Square.
    “I’m confused,” Bai started the moment she sat down with them. “Does Mrs. Liu know you two?”
    “No, but a friend of ours is trying to help her in Wuxi,” Yu said.
    “But what can I do to help you?” Bai said. “And to help her? Liu’s dead. No one can do anything about it.”
    “Well, some people are trying to push the investigation ahead with her as a suspect.”
    “What? That’s too much! She’s already lost her husband.”
    “The Wuxi cops must have contacted you to talk about her alibi,” Yu said. “To them, there must seem to be something inexplicable and suspicious about her. The night her husband was killed in Wuxi, she wasn’t at home but with you here in Shanghai. Could that have been a coincidence? And they’re puzzled by her frequent trips back to Shanghai, trips taken during weekdays and over weekends simply for a game of mahjong. They are also aware that their marriage had long been on the rocks.”
    “I’m lost, Mr. Yu,” she said alertly. “If that’s the case, I don’t know how you or your friend can help.”
    Yu took out his badge. This revelation couldn’t be avoided, he decided. He also produced a business card of Chen’s.
    “Wow. Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau! I think I’ve read about him in the newspapers.”
    “Yes, he’s my partner, and he’s the one who’s now in Wuxi. He’s not there on official business, but he’s trying to help Mrs. Liu in any case. That’s why he wanted me to contact you.”
    “Now I see, Detective Yu.”
    “So tell us what you know about her,” Yu said. “Right now, I’m approaching you informally, and talking to you as a friend of hers. Let me assure you that you are helping us and helping her too. It will be in everybody’s best interest. Once other officials take over, it will be a different story.”
    “Thank you for your frankness.” Bai started slowly. “I’ve been her friend since middle school. So of course I would like to help, though I may not be able to answer all of your questions. But as for her frequent trips back to Shanghai, particularly on the weekends, I can tell you why. She comes for the church service here.”
    “But aren’t there churches in Wuxi?”
    “People at a church are like brothers and sisters, having known one another well for years. Wuxi isn’t that far away now, just a little more than an hour by train. I live in Minhang, and it takes me about the same amount of time to get here. But more importantly, being the wife of an important Party cadre, she didn’t think it would be a good idea to let the local people in Wuxi know about her church attendance.”
    “No, it wouldn’t have been good for her husband’s official career if it became known that his wife went to church every week,” Peiqin said. “But what about the mahjong game?”
    “People like playing mahjong with old partners. It’s not just a game, you know. Around the mahjong table, people chatter a lot too. But for her, it was mostly because she didn’t want to stay in that big house in Wuxi, all by herself, imaging what her husband was doing with another woman.”
    “So she knew about his affair?”
    “Yes, she knew about it. She suffered so much because she was too proud to admit it, or to face it.”
    “For a Big Buck like her husband, something like a little secretary can be common nowadays,” Peiqin said.
    “But I’ve known her from the very beginning. A beauty has a thin fate, like a piece of paper. In the early years, so many young men were after her in school. But of all the