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It’s cold today on the road from Chaoyangmen. Xiao Zhan thinks that thinking of the cold and even going up and about in the cold weather should ease his mind off of the things he wants to desperately avoid talking about. Even the lingering seasonal pain in his knee should be enough incentive for his exhausted mind to fixate on that focal point. The car ride was bumpy after all, his knee was jostled at every turn no matter how skilled Li-er was at driving.
It had not even been a decade after when he was sent back home with the Order of Wen-Hu that he keeps somewhere inside a chest of his belongings―meagre now, he likes to keep things mobile―a healing knee that gives him a rough time during winter and alerts him from any coming monsoons, and a small fortune that helped him set up a practice and lease an adjoining space with the help of―
“Yisheng, we’re here,” said his driver from the front. “Mrs. Xu asked me to purchase some wares and stock to replace in the pantry so I’ll be back after an hour.”
“Well appreciated. I don’t think it will take me that long today but, same as always, I will be by the tea house in any case,” he said. The gate they stopped by was the lone entryway on that side of the street and the hustle and bustle of the crowd was a ways away toward the said tea house further at the end of the road.
He tucked his scarf higher up his neck and proceeded to briskly walk towards the gate that opened without even a knock, as if he was anticipated. Well he was anticipated. There were only a few people after all who were allowed inside these premises. This was one such blind spot, one could say, when he would be able to enter and exit them undetected by eyes that were virtually trained on these very gates day in and out.
“The beile will not be pleased to see Xiao-yisheng yet again adorned in western clothes,” the chief attendant said, who was himself fashioning a queue and clothes that to the trained eye will reveal his hidden imperial status. They crossed the threshold into one of the lush gardens on the property. It was no Summer Palace but it was still luxurious enough for the former Prince Rui.
“This one will have to ask for his apologies. It is after all one of the few requests I have to decline,” Xiao Zhan replied.
“No matter, Xiao-yisheng may convey your sentiments to the beile himself,” the attendant said, leading the way inside the siheyuan. The bannermen were concealed around the many pavilion passages but Xiao Zhan felt their eyes at the back of his neck. They were technically no longer supposed to be here, and so Xiao Zhan ignores them.
They find the doctor’s ward looking out at them from the veranda of his quarters, overlooking a pond in the part of the grand garden that was surrounded by a special type of colorful begonia that bloomed in winter.
“Beile, Xiao Zhan-yisheng is here for your treatment.” The attendant bows, takes his leave, and the doctor proceeds inside.
“He only sounds bitter like that when guests are around,” the beile chuckles as Xiao Zhan sets his bag down to get his pouch of prepared qinghao leaves. “Although I can understand that he only feels for me.”
They are, after all, akin to prisoners here in this vast mansion, no matter how many the gardens.
“A-ge, this one is glad that you’ve taken my advice about getting more sunlight. Should we take a walk around the gardens?” Xiao Zhan hands the pouch to an attendant who suddenly appeared to make the tea for them, as yet again anticipated.
The man smiles at him and leads their path to where the tea had been routinely served all these months. Today, he seemed to be taking Xiao Zhan through a roundabout route to the central pavilion that they had somehow never passed, even while nearing the end of his six-month prescribed treatment.
“I already told you I preferred to be called by my hao these days,” the man says glancing slightly back at Xiao Zhan.
“I don’t think this one hardly has the honor, A-ge,” Xiao Zhan says, smiling at the man’s back. Betraying how welcome he is to the idea with his slightly swaggering gait, tucking his thumbs in his slacks pockets and raising his eyes towards the man’s profile, he smirks back.
“Xiao-yisheng, you should really call me Chiyun instead, all while I’m feeling very generous today,” the man says as he turns back to admiring the begonias aligning their path.
“It would be unseemly to make you beg, not to mention how Lao-Shen would probably not let me out alive if he heard me,” Xiao Zhan begins, “So all right, for today I’m just a doctor treating his artist patient Chiyun.”
The sun was slowly rising above the hardhill roofs of the siheyuan and Xiao Zhan lets the peaceful walk soothe the bubbling sorrow he’s been tamping down all these months, thumbing at the tan line left on his fourth finger where he finally woke up one day to take the ring off.
---
THE CHINA MAIL | EST 1845 | 1932-11-07 | Victoria, Hong Kong
TRAGIC DEATH BEFALLS FAMED SLEUTH WANG YIBO
Following a series of tragic events last night at Cili County, Dayong, Hunan, officials are still on the lookout for the body of celebrated scholar and private detective, Wang Yibo as he fell to his death while investigating the case of former imperial scholar-official Jia She who was involved in a series of crimes dating back to…(cont. p.2)
---
“Have you had any news?” Xiao Zhan ventures.
“News about what?” Chiyun feigns answering.
“It’s been half a year, but I can only hope. He’s... him after all.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?” the other replies, the smile heard without Xiao Zhan seeing it.
“You know there’s not another person in the whole of China who has so mastered the Qinqishuhua like him.”
“I guess you are right on that count, that person was so quick on his feet and was quicker in wit.”
“He was unstoppable in his own maniacal ways. Even inebriated with some or other concoction, I couldn’t tell it apart when he was actually sober,” a sigh, “Always a quick study even. Even if he did keep slashing our windows trying to practice swords inside the house.”
“You’re not so bad yourself Xiao-yisheng. I have seen you wield a knife and a gun before. We didn’t award you with a medal just so―”
“Yet he’s the one who helped you recover most of your stolen belongings from the Forbidden City―”
“Ah yes, and he did it with so much flair too. Just sitting in the middle of the armory and barking out orders to where each piece could be found. Almost all of it was eventually found, except that one diamond necklace that was a gift from a prince...”
“And that time he saved your cousin from derailing his betrothal!”
“Aiyah don’t let Lao-Shen hear you, I only permitted you to speak cordially with me, not to badmouth Prince Chun!”
“And what of the innumerable times he foiled plans to infiltrate all the imperial Palaces?”
“Well, if he hadn’t I wouldn’t have gone to great lengths to afford him his privileges in his youth, now wouldn’t I? He’s no official, he’s not of imperial blood, but he had gone in and out of the city when he so wished. He’s made a complete laughing stock of the baojia, even!”
“I’m just seeing this conversation through. This may as well be my last chance. Once we cross that last bridge to the courtyard, you will have drunk your tea and I would have pronounced you cured, A-ge. I have been patiently waiting for six months.”
“Tut, it’s Chiyun!”
“A-ge, you know what I came here for. Don’t you?”
---
1921
Xiao Zhan stands just outside the gate as the young man insisted on bringing all of his belongings inside by himself.
“Ah shuaige, thanks so much, I’ll take it from here!” Xiao Zhan exclaims.
The driver bids him goodbye good naturedly as Mrs. Xu instructs other people to bring Xiao Zhan’s belongings further into the house where he heard some peculiar noises from somewhere inside.
“Hello Xiao Zhan-yisheng. I’m Mrs. Xu, the landlady. Mr. Xu is away on business these days so I had to welcome you to your new quarters.”
“Did he say anything about my proposal to open practice here?” he said as they walked into the simple yet spacious yard. He looked around and found there to be about five doors around him, wondering where the sound was coming from.
“Why yes he did. Although he did say that he’ll have to raise your rent as your “practice” will be a type of business, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, I hope we can come to an agreement then when he comes back…” Xiao Zhan said as they came to a stop in front of one of the entryways left of the furthest one from the main gate.
“For now though, we’ve arranged your quarters with one of our other tenants while you negotiate that with Mr. Xu. I’ve informed him you were coming today but nothing else I’m afraid.”
“Ah, what kind of fellow is this one?” Xiao Zhan inquires.
“Not to bother, he seems to be a quiet, aloof type,” Mrs. Xu side eyes the entrance. “Well I must be going now, I hope they are to your liking and I’ll leave you to rest and unpack from your journey.”
Xiao Zhan thought, how odd, to be immediately startled by a window being slashed open right before his eyes.
“Oh sorry about that, did I get you?”
“I believe if you had gotten me, then that would have been the end of me,” Xiao Zhan scrambles back from the sword a mere few inches from his nose. It then falls through and a young man emerges from his supposed quarters.
“Ah you must be my new roommate. Mrs. Xu has told me nothing at all about you. I am Wang Yibo,” he said with a curt bow. The young man was wearing his hair short like Xiao Zhan himself but while the doctor sported a tangzhuang to look inconspicuous in his new living arrangements, the former was in western style clothes, albeit dressed down to a flowing shirt and his trousers, barefoot.
“En, my name is Xiao Zhan, pleasure to meet you,” he replied.
“Ah Dr. Xiao Zhan. I believe you’ve been to Taiwan recently?”
“How―I don’t believe I’ve told Mrs. Xu that…” Xiao Zhan said, astonished and looking away to see if anyone else is here for this exchange. He turns back to Wang Yibo, “Who are you, exactly?”
“She didn’t really, but you have an exquisite walking cane and a favored right leg that told me all about your travels,” he said, neutral expression, and beckoning Xiao Zhan inside where he showed him how he had separated their quarters to give the other space for his things. He then picked up his medical bag.
“The bag they carried in confirmed that suspicion as only military surgeons are afforded these types of bags. Standard issue, you see, nothing too mysterious about that. And to have to be an army surgeon, you must have gotten a degree abroad, right Doctor?” Wang Yibo continues. “As to who I am, is also nothing mysterious. I’m simply a scholar. I specialize in the art of deduction.”
“Deduction?”
---
“Why don’t you stay for lunch?” Chiyun says from behind his teacup. Xiao Zhan has refused to sit down.
“I can’t really play this game any further A-ge,” he says, wiping his face with his hands.
“There is no game Zhan-er,” he says as he sets down the tea.
“If there is no game afoot, then tell me! Why did we never find his body? Surely somebody has reported it by now,” Xiao Zhan says.
“Did you think if Shentan Wang Yibo, whom you’ve spent a decade chronicling how he goes about demystifying mysteries, did not want to be found, then what force on earth will stop a man like that?”
“I saw him fall A-ge! I saw him at the edge and the split second decision he made to―to protect us! To protect me!”
“...”
Xiao Zhan reached into his coat―and for a millisecond it felt like the whole pavilion had moved an inch towards him before retracting―and laid a contraption harshly on the table with a clang: “This, what is this? Isn’t this proof enough, hope enough that he is alive?”
“Now Zhan-er―”
“A-ge, it was either him or you who sent this! There’s no other explanation. It’s one of da-ge’s contraptions, I’ve seen it being used the day before he fell and I know that this is proof!” The adventure he had with Wang Yibo the day before the tragedy was one where he finally got to meet his family, from Luoyang to Hunan, Liu Haikuan, Yibo's half brother, had been with them along with Xuan Lu.
“Alright, just sit down Zhan-er, they’re all about to pounce on you if you don’t stop,” Chiyun placates him.
Xiao Zhan does sit down and takes the object in his hands, a sturdy kind of gun but with no magazine. There’s a bit of cut rope from its barrel and Xiao Zhan knows that it was a kaginawa mechanically wound inside, but the hook is no longer attached when he received it. If anything, and Xiao Zhan vehemently denies this, most of all to himself, the evidence of the cut rope was more proof to the contrary of what he’s desperately hoping.
“I was not the one who sent you that,” Chiyun begins, “And I don’t even know what it was for up until a few months ago.”
Xiao Zhan slumps back into the chair.
“He once said, that when one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Chiyun says.
Defeated, Xiao Zhan pockets the device once again and bids the prince farewell.
"Li-er," he beckons the car in front of the tea house, "to the wine house please."
"Yes, yisheng."
---
Dear Ma,
I hope this letter finds you well and safe. I have settled in Beiping and left all of the chaos behind. The common people aren’t taken to my scientific methods as I expected. The local apothecary probably seems a lot more trusted than someone like me who uses unfamiliar objects to examine them. I’ve taken to writing these days, to newspapers abroad under a pseudonym of the little adventures I’ve been having here. I hear it’s gotten quite popular.
This fellow I’m rooming with seems to be quite the character. I’ve known him all of a month and yet I can only come up with the following list of things that presumably, only I, as the one sharing his intimate spaces, am privy to.
Wang Yibo―his limits
- Knowledge of Qin.–plays it rather well when he actually tries
- ” ” Qi.–I’ve never beaten him once
- ” ” Shu.–Has better calligraphy than palace maidens
- Knowledge of Hua.–Has a penchant for extremely detailed landscapes that he sometimes finishes in one sitting, usually over the course of days
- Knowledge of Literature.–Only when it suits his arguments
- ” ” Sensational Literature.–Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
- Knowledge of Astrology.–Casual.
- ” ” Politics.–Feeble.
- ” ” Botany.–Variable. Well up in juhua, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
- Knowledge of Geology.–Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his clothes, and told me by their colour and consistency in what part of Beiping he had received them.
- Knowledge of Chemistry.–Profound.
- ” ” Anatomy.–Accurate, but unsystematic.
- Is an expert in qixie, sanshou, and qi channeling meditation. Usually combined with the above, terrifying.
- Has a good practical knowledge of law.
I find that I have to accompany him on some occasions as this child ― he is two years younger, an accomplished genius, and would no doubt have gotten the Jinshi Jidi if he were born earlier ― has put himself in the service of the people and there are some things that only adults can do. I am not patronizing him in any way, it simply is a matter of fact. He’s grown well beyond his years and is even in the service of the former royal officials and that in and of itself seems a very dangerous endeavour.
Yours,
Xiao Zhan
---
"I agree it's not my best disguise," Yibo said after firing a few shots at the rail attackers. Lipstick mussed and wig askew. His arms were also somehow bare, revealing a haphazardly thrown-on corset and undershirt, his petticoat torn. “But I had to make do.”
“My god!” Xuan Lu exclaimed. “Zhanzhan close the door!”
“How many are we expecting?” he said, fending off more attackers at either end of the carriage.
Yibo sat her down, “I understand this is terribly inconvenient.”
“Do you?” she said indignant. Yibo proceeded to open the outer door to the outside air and seemed to be calculating something.
“Do you trust me?” he asked her.
“I do not,” Xuan Lu exasperated.
“Well, this one has to do something about that I suppose,” Yibo whispered to her as he promptly threw her out the carriage, her voice carried out in the night air before a splash.
Meanwhile, Xiao Zhan screamed at the concealed attackers, his temper clearly to its limit. “Which dog wants to go next!”
“Zhan-ge, shut the door,” Yibo instructed.
He turns around and notices that there is only one other occupant.
“I had to do it,” Yibo’s hands were up. “She’s safe now.”
“Did you just kill my wife?” Xiao Zhan pounced.
“In my defense, I timed it perfectly,” Yibo spat back.
“Did you just kill my new wife?” he tore at every part of Yibo he could reach, strangled him in his fit of rage.
“Of course not!” Yibo punched him backwards. “I told you I timed it perfectly!”
“What does that mean?!” Xiao Zhan asked as he gripped what’s left of Yibo’s corset in his hand, sat atop him and for a moment the incredulity of the situation let him let his guard down. “Explain yourself this instant!”
Yibo took the opportunity to kick him back and locked his neck between his legs. “Calm down, by the time it takes to explain, we’ll both be dead,” he said as he fought off Xiao Zhan’s attempt to get loose.
The door suddenly opened to the attackers pointing a gun at the both of them, momentarily startled at the two men locked in a rather compromising position. With the gun cocked at the ready, Xiao Zhan did not even get a second to feel a sense of dread before the attacker pulled the trigger and proceeded to blast all three men behind him―definitely Yibo’s doing, a lipstick cap stuck at the end of the barrel as the mechanism not only ignites the gunpowder, but as well as the phosphorus Yibo had sprinkled the men earlier with.
Yibo finally kicked a stunned Xiao Zhan back and levelled him with a glare, “That was no accident.”
Yibo lifted what’s left of his skirt to reveal a grenade with an extended trigger that he proceeded to attach to the door, “It was by design.” He then proceeded to undress himself to his trousers, his gun strapped across his chest. “Now do you need any more explanation or can we just get on with it?”
Xiao Zhan let himself be dragged out the carriage where another blast from the grenade that saved the both of them from another attacker. Yibo’s yells are loud enough outside the moving train as he says, “There’s nothing to worry about. Xuan Lu-guniang is with da-ge. She’s perfectly safe.”
“We were on our honeymoon! ” Xiao Zhan said. He let the chaotic situation and the adrenaline seep into his words so that Yibo wouldn’t detect anything Xiao Zhan could possibly be hiding, even from himself. He even kicked him even as they dangled precariously. “Why are they even here? Why did you have to involve us?!”
“They’re not here for me, they’re here for you!” Yibo screamed back just as they got inside the next carriage. “And fortunately, I’m here for you too.”
He proceeded to sprawl on the floor of the empty carriage, “Lie down with me, Zhan-ge,” Yibo beckoned.
“Why would I do that?” Xiao Zhan said, scandalized at the scantily clad young man, now lighting a cigarette with both hands behind his head.
“I insist,” Yibo pulled him down against him, side by side.
“What are we doing down here?” Xiao Zhan asked, laying flat.
“We are waiting. I am simply smoking.”
A torrent of bullets proceeded to fire from the carriage they were from and Xiao Zhan automatically covers his head and throws his body towards Yibo without thinking.
“Patiently waiting,” Yibo said, clutching the other’s shoulders.
“For what?”
“For your window of opportunity,” the younger replies, handing him a small hand gun.
The bullets stopped and like clockwork Xiao Zhan understood what he needed to do.
“Make it count Yisheng,” Yibo said as he stubbed out his cigarette.
Xiao Zhan shoots up from the floor and sees through the rather large hole in the wall where one man is stationed at the high powered gun. He aims for the man behind him instead.
The shot is fired and the gunman recovers with another rain of bullets just as Xiao Zhan lies back down, “Really? Just how many windows must I provide?” Yibo said.
After a few heart-stopping seconds as the attacker fumbled with the dropped grenade after he was shot, the carriage is blown sky-high and the rest of the train moves on. Xiao Zhan smirks down at his companion before realizing where they were and smacking him upside the head at his grinning face.
They did have to talk about it eventually.
“Who’d have known that honeymooning in Hong Kong would lead to such dangerous circumstances, huh” Yibo ventured. Cleaning himself up from the rouge, finding a spare jacket that Xiao Zhan could care less where he got. One of the only few times he’s ever seen him wear anything traditional.
“I’ve never even been to Hong Kong!” he replied, feet dangling as he sat at the open outer door.
“Oh? Surely the great Xiao-laoshi is mistaken,” Yibo said.
“Oh are we starting now? Shut up, tell me she’s safe,” Xiao Zhan countered.
“Well, I can’t do both,” Yibo said petulantly. “I can’t protect her while I solve this case.”
“You know, why? Why were we targeted at all?” Xiao Zhan ignored him and proceeded to tear him a new one.
“That’s an excellent question, this one presumes―”
“Because of you!” Xiao Zhan suddenly can’t hold back all the venom in his voice as he turns back to face him.
“If you only postponed the wedding like I asked!” Yibo startled even himself by what he just said. A side of him no one has ever seen until now, until Xiao Zhan.
Silence. No more bickering. Xiao Zhan remembers it clearly. The wine had gotten to Wang Yibo one night. He always did say he did not care for it as it dulled the senses. But what about the opium then? Xiao Zhan had said every time.
He remembered that night, cherished it as the one sole thing he can have and keep before he goes back to his duty as the only son to his parents. To Xiao Zhan it was not a mistake, but a closing of a chapter he desperately wanted to continue.
In a few moments, they both recovered. They promised not to talk about it after all.
“Thus our relationship,” Yibo began again.
“Relationship?” Xiao Zhan said, he was sure, Yibo now knew. Whatever it is he had betrayed, by the word he just said and those he didn’t say, the look on his face, the watering in his eyes.
“Very well, partnership, then. It is clear to this one that it has not yet run its course.” Yibo moved toward him, both men at some time had stood up and were now face to face, “I shall never again ask you to assist me with anything.”
“This shall be the last time,” Xiao Zhan said solemnly, looking back out at the passing fields.
“I’m sorry you didn’t go to Hong Kong.”
“Me, too.”
A long while, an injured shoulder, a stare down with China’s best marksman later, in the aftermath of the chaos, Xiao Zhan had found him by the cliff edge. There was a bamboo ledge set up by the local townsfolk. Yibo was leaning on it as Jia She was momentarily stunned by the smoke the younger blew into his face.
His eyes met and Yibo’s and not a second later, his friend―most trusted confidant, best man, and for an honest moment, the love of his life―hurled both the other man and himself over the edge. There was no indecision in his eyes. Only a look of intense calculation closing in on the one possible solution to their final problem.
The doctor fell to his knees on the spot.
---
Xiao Zhan did not hold his alcohol well. He sat at one of the back tables as a singer entertained the rest of the crowd up front.
It had been two months since the former Prince Rui, Yibo’s generous benefactor, and as Xiao Zhan understood, one Yibo considered family―apart from Xiao Zhan and his older brother of course―had contacted him to cure his illness. Consumption. It was quite the trend these days. It had also been two months since―
He downed another drink against all logic.
They had signed the papers today. Xuan Lu had handed them over to him, indicating the annulment of their marriage, and left without a word, not unkind but there were only a few things one can say while being as hurt as they both were. Silence was oft preferred.
He was ogling at the ring still on his finger, putting his hand up against the lights and letting it shine. For some reason, he didn’t feel like taking it off yet. Was it a penance? Was it a reminder? His alcohol addled mind did not know.
It was as if he blinked the package onto the table. One drunken moment it was only him and his wine, the next there was a small brown box, well placed in his line if sight. He looked around for anyone who could have dropped it there before noticing that it had his name on it.
“What on earth?” he says, tearing the packaging apart.
It was the device Liu Haikuan had demonstrated to them at the farm in Luoyang before they headed to Hunan. Xiao Zhan specifically remembers him asking for it―
He sobers up pretty quickly and shoots up from the table. He ran around the room, scanning everyone’s faces. He ends up outside the wine house.
“Yisheng, are you okay?” Li-er asked, having spotted him exit the wine house.
“I―Did you?” he tried to ask, but all he could do was break down onto the pavement, clutching the device to his chest.
Somewhere concealed, a masked man takes one look at Xiao Zhan and flees.
---
Dear Ma,
I’m sure you’ve heard the news. I’m writing to let you know that I’m sorry my letters have stopped for a while. And to finally express the reasons why it did not work out between me and my wife. It was a matter of irreconcilable incompatibility. There was no amount of love between us that could have made the both of us truly happy. I have found it in someone else, who has since found it in me.
We are very happy. You can guess as to who I’m pertaining to. He’s all over the newspapers after all, resurrecting from the dead. Although I feel your disappointment from a thousand li away, I can only afford you the truth, as it is, I believe, the kinder, filial thing to do in this case. I am hoping for your understanding at least, and I can give you the time and space to process all of this.
We’re heading to Paris, city of love and lights as people call it. I might get back in touch with some of my former colleagues for work and I’ll send you some money as soon as I can. Yibo and I will also be welcome to you moving to Europe with us in the future, if you and Dié so wished.
I’ve lived a very fulfilled life Ma. I hope you can believe that I am happy.
Yours,
Xiao Zhan
Footnotes
1. Yisheng. Doctor, specifically surgeon.
2. Beile. Princely rank in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
3. Queue. Manchurian hairstyle imposed in the Qing Dynasty.
4. Prince Rui. A princely title awarded to Zaixun, of the Qing Dynasty. 1. 2.
5. Siheyuan. Traditional layout of Chinese houses.
6. Bannermen. Military personnel under the Qing Dynasty adapted from Manchuria.
7. Qinghao. Traditional Chinese medicine that's been discovered to cure Tuberculosis.
8. Hao. Art/Pen name.
10. Qingqishuhua. The four arts.
11. Order of Wen-Hu. Military decoration in the 1920s.
12. Prince Chun. Princely title of the highest rank.
13. Baojia. Law enforcement system in Chinese ancient society.
14. Shuaige. Honorific used to refer to young men who are strangers, usually to non-skilled workers you need assistance from. Literally, "handsome older brother."
15. Tangzhuang.
16. Shentan. Detective.
17. Kaginawa. Grappling hook.
18. Beiping. Old name of Beijing.
19. Qixie and Sanshou. Chinese Martial arts.
20. Jinshi Jidi. Awarded to one of the top three highest ranking passers of the Imperial Examinations.
21. Jia She. Borrowed from the main protagonist of The Dream of the Red Chamber.
22. Dayong. Old name of China's scenic Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.