The Mao Case

would have sold it much earlier.”
    “Shang must have left something, I know.”
    “How?”
    “You’re a clever man,” Peng said with a mysterious air, poking out the steamed carp’s eye and rolling it on his tongue. “Shang
     danced with Mao, who came from the Forbidden City, with the treasury of the ancient dynasties at his disposal.”
    “That’s just your imagination, Peng.”
    “No. I’ve done my research. Only recently has the antique market become so hot. Two or three years ago, there was no way to
     find a buyer for the stuff from the Forbidden City. Not at a good price anyway. This explains why she suddenly became rich
     about a year ago. Besides, I can tell you something that will prove it,” Peng added, trying to pick up a
soy-sauce-stewed pig tail with his chopsticks. “But you have asked your question, and I have given my answer.”
    “Really?” Yu produced his wallet again, in which there was about two hundred yuan left. “That’s all I have here. One hundred
     more. And I have to pay for the meal. Tell me how you can prove it.”
    “You’ll have your money’s worth, Mr. Journalist,” Peng said, pocketing the bill while taking another big draught of beer.
     “I’ve been shadowing Jiao for quite a while. As I suspected, she has been selling the antiques — piece by piece. No one could
     have afforded the whole set. So one day I followed her to the Joy Gate.”
    “Joy Gate?” It was a dance hall where Shang had once shone like the moon, as Peiqin had told him. Then he remembered another
     case with a sudden ache in his heart. Not too long ago, one of his colleagues had been murdered there while he was stationed
     outside. “That’s nothing too suspicious, I think.”
    “But the way she went there was. She kept looking over her shoulder, like she was worried that she was being followed. Then
     she slipped into a hair salon and, instead of having her hair done, she left through the back door, putting on a pair of sunglasses
     before she emerged out of a side lane. I happened to be buying a pack of cigarettes nearby, so I didn’t lose sight of her.
     To follow her into the Joy Gate, I spent all the money in my pocket for an entrance ticket. Sure enough, she was there, dancing
     with a tall, robust man who had a round face like a full moon.”
    “Do you mean that she’s a ‘dancing girl’?”
    “No, I don’t think so. Those dancing girls don’t make a lot of money. And that was the only time I saw her go there. Most
     of the time, she goes to Xie Mansion. There are dancing parties there every week.”
    “So the man is someone she knows from Xie Mansion?”
    “That I don’t know. I will never be admitted there and I know better than to try. But that same evening, I think I saw him
     at her place.”
    “You tailed her from the dance hall back to her home?”
    “No, not exactly. She danced only a couple of dances and then she left. I was curious, so I followed her out. She hailed a
     taxi and I squeezed into a bus. It took me much longer to get to her apartment complex.
There’s no way I could get in, of course, so I walked around, hoping to confront her if she came out. Then looking up, I saw
     someone standing by the window of her room — the man from the dance hall. For a short moment, she was leaning against him, in
     a most intimate manner.”
    “When was this?”
    “About a couple of months ago.”
    That was before Chen’s investigation started, possibly before Internal Security’s too, Yu reflected. Apparently, no one had
     been seen at her place since.
    “Anything after that?”
    “The light went out and I saw nothing more.”
    “That could have been a neighbor of hers.”
    “It was the man she had danced with, I’m positive. That round-moon-like face of his was unmistakable. I followed her for several
     more days, but without ever seeing him again. I wasn’t able to watch her all the time. I had to work, carrying frozen pigs
     on my back at the food market. Then I was fired and yesterday I confronted her.”
    “What did you say to her?”
    “When I told her that I’d seen the man in her room, all the blood went out of her face. She kept saying it was none of my
     business. I told her I’d been fired and that she could help me a little. So she took the money from her purse, about two hundred
     and fifty. She said she’d call the police if I ever tried to approach her again.”
    “Are you going to contact her again?”
    “I haven’t made up my