‘Well, imagine what could have happened to her then – a young, attractive woman alone in a dark, isolated prison cell, where horrible things have happened time and again – abusing, torturing, raping, and what not. Have you heard of those gruesome tortures, such as the wooden horse for a woman to ride bare-assed, riding non-stop with a hardwood wand bobbing up and down in her holes—’

‘Stop there!’ Han Shan cut in with an agitated voice. ‘But how could she have possibly killed the maid without knowing anything about it?’

‘It’s all because of the black fox spirit,’ Nameless said with a wry smile. ‘She’s fucked out of her brains!’

‘For the majority of the local folk, they could not help attributing the murder case to the curse of the black fox spirit, as if that alone could have explained all the inexplicable facts in the mystery,’ Judge Dee said, putting a steamed red date fruit of ‘soft heart’ into his mouth. The sticky rice tasted surprisingly sweet and delicious. ‘Well, tell us something more about the legend of the black fox spirit, Nameless.’

‘I’m a Buddhist monk, not a Daoist monk, Your Honor.’

‘Humor us, please.’ Judge Dee poured more water into the monk’s cup in a gesture of appreciation.

Those fox spirit stories could have had their roots in Daoism, but Judge Dee wondered at the possible existence of a clear-cut dividing line between Buddhism and Daoism in the Tang Empire, especially among those village folks.

So the Buddhist monk began to recapture a popular folk belief about the fox spirit. According to it, an extremely lucky fox, perhaps one out of ten thousand, could have managed through supernatural cultivation or meditation to assume a human appearance, usually as a bewitching girl, for whom a young man would fall headlong like a moth into the fire, have his male essence sucked up in insatiable sex with her, and meet a tragic end before his time. Naturally, there are variations of the popular folk belief. A fox spirit could also take up the shape of a handsome young man and fuck a young woman out of her mind, out of shape – finally to a disastrous end.

‘Nevertheless,’ Nameless concluded, ‘I have never heard of any tale about the fox spirit turning a pretty woman into a cold-blooded murderer.’

‘Nor have I,’ Han Shan said, echoing.

‘Well, that’s enough of the black or white fox spirits for one vegetarian meal, I think. You have told us a lot, Nameless, and I really appreciate it, but I have to discuss something with you, Han Shan,’ Judge Dee said in a suddenly serious voice, tracing his finger on the table as if in an effort to write a character understandable to Han Shan alone. ‘The murder case is so complicated because of possible involvement and pressure from above. What I’m going to tell you is supposed to be highly confidential, but I need the help of your profound wisdom, Han Shan.’