Yang followed his master in dogged silence, as if Judge Dee’s mood had somehow proved to be contagious. It was not too surprising a decision for them to leave the temple that morning, but it took Yang quite a while to have the carriage set up for the long trip.

Before getting into the carriage, Judge Dee looked over his shoulder again. A solitary old dog loitered out into a patch of the shade near the temple gate, staring up as if in wonder at the hustle and bustle of the travelers in the mundane world. A curl of smoke rose in leisure from the red and gray roofs scattered at the foot of the hills. The morning seemed to present a peaceful panorama that the morning itself did not understand.

‘You may take a short nap in the carriage, Master. The candlelight in your room kept on flickering long after midnight, I noticed. You have to take good care of yourself. After all, Xuanji’s is not our case. You have done everything possible about it, but there’s only so much you can do. In the meantime, there’s such a lot of work waiting for you at the new post.’

Judge Dee, too, tried to tell himself that he had done all he possibly could have for the Xuanji case, but he decided not to say anything to Yang about his talk with Xuanji in the prison cell the day before.

Nor about the possible result of it, which Judge Dee himself did not yet know.

But it was time to get ready for the new job as an imperial circuit supervisor, even though he found himself not in any mood for it. He had had a bad taste in his mouth when he woke up, and he still failed to get rid of the lingering tang.

Hardly had Judge Dee squeezed himself inside the carriage, pulling down the curtain and half-closing his eyes, when he heard a horse galloping over from the ancient path in front of the temple and to a sudden stop by the carriage.

He lifted up the curtain in a hurry.

It was a messenger from Mayor Pei, a black-attired man dismounting from the horse, still panting breathlessly from the ride over at full speed.

‘His Excellency wanted me to hurry over and give this letter to you before you leave.’

Taking the envelope, Judge Dee said, ‘Tell Mayor Pei that I will read the letter during the journey.’

Sitting in the front, Yang appeared to be shaking his head in silent resignation and cracking his whip loudly. It would be useless, he knew, to try to dissuade Judge Dee from reading the letter instead of taking a much-needed nap in the carriage.

Judge Dee pulled out the letter, as he had promised the messenger, the moment the carriage started rolling along the bumpy road.