‘It’s a common practice for poets and poetesses to write about flowers or trees to project their own feelings, whether in terms of symbolism or objective correlative. In this piece, you compare yourself to the unappreciated peony – too expensive for those cheap customers, and too strongly fragrant for the flirting butterflies. The image of its enduring “dust and dirt by the roadside” makes a vivid description of the life, as you see it, in the midst of those depraved parties in the nunnery. But what more than shocks me is the extended metaphor of transplanting the peony into the royal garden. It’s such a daring figure of speech. So you’re moving out – into the imperial garden, which is metonymy here, mind you. In other words, you’re moving into the company of the man whose very home is the royal palace of the Tang Empire. When that happens, those short-sighted, cold-hearted dandies who have not appreciated you will surely come to regret it.

‘In short, the poem showed a so-far-unseen side of you – a secret side, and an ambitious side.’

‘Peony is just a metaphor in the poem,’ she said, without looking up to meet his eyes. ‘You know better than to make such a far-fetched interpretation of it.’

‘You don’t have to worry about my interpretation. I’m a big fan of your poetry. But what about the interpretations made by others? You must have heard of the political debate about the peony being named the national flower. Her Majesty is adamantly against it, as her new empire needs to name a different national flower. And you write not only about the peony, but in association with the royal palace as well. Absolutely a matter of political crime. The barely educated flower girl might not have grasped the political implication of the poem, but people like Minister Wu will not miss it for anything.’

‘So you’re going to show this poem to Minister Wu?’

‘I don’t think too highly of Minister Wu, as you probably know. Nor am I a judge officially assigned to the case. But I’m under a lot of pressure from Minister Wu and others.

‘So I have to be frank with you, Xuanji. As long as your account fails to convince others, and the case drags on like that with more and more collateral damage for reasons known only to those at the very top, Mayor Pei and those people high above will have to bring pressure to bear upon you with the ongoing investigation and interrogation, and the horrible tortures in prison as well. Soon another trial, and then still another. All the possible aspects of the case will be examined and re-examined.