‘I don’t know too much about Wen. They wrote passionate love poems for each other, some of which she showed me. Indeed, she’s very proud of his poems to her. Had Wen cared that much for her, however, he would not have pushed her into the arms of another man. At least that’s what I think.’

‘It’s true,’ Judge Dee agreed.

‘As for Zi’an, he’s simply a hen-pecked, false-hearted coward. I saw him just once in the neighborhood of the nunnery. It was at the time she first moved over here. She had since become so disappointed with him. As far as I know, he has hardly written to her since his departure for his official position in another province in the company of his wife.’

Judge Dee had not expected too much new information from that direction, so he shifted to questioning about what Xuanji did on the day of the murder.

‘No, I did not see Xuanji the day that one of her guests discovered the body in the nunnery backyard. The third day of the month, I remember. If anything, I don’t think they were important guests to her. She usually did not have lunch parties except for those who happened to drop in. Those visitors came on the pretext of sightseeing around the nunnery. Xuanji did not order any flowers from me that day.’

‘No, I mean the day before. The maid was killed the previous day. The second day of the month.’

‘Oh, that day, I did see Xuanji. Around noon-time, I think, she came over to pick up some flowers. Expensive bouquets of peonies, her favorite flower, most likely for a special guest in the evening—’

‘Hold on, Zhang. You mentioned that she once wrote a poem about the peony. I don’t think I have read that poem.’

‘It’s little wonder. She composed it only about two months ago. That day, after buying a large pot of pink peonies, she talked to me for quite a while, and then dashed off these lines in praise of the peony.’

‘What did she talk about to you on that occasion?’

‘Mostly about the peony. She told me that it’s the national flower of the Tang Empire, but the empress would have chosen another flower because of her uncontrollable ambition. Another empire and another national flower. Sometimes Xuanji said things I don’t really understand.’

That went beyond the flower because of the politics involved in the background. The empress wanted to have another flower named as the national flower. Her suggestion came as a test of people’s reaction to her plan to change the Tang Empire to the Zhou Empire. A number of high-ranking officials opposed the idea, including Judge Dee. So the empress gave a different imperial order instead, declaring that the peony be exiled from the capital. It was nothing but political symbolism, and people saw no point in openly confronting the empress.