‘Yes, not just with a high price tag, but with a very evocative name as well,’ Judge Dee said, nodding. ‘So the Maiden Red as well as other special items would have been prepared for a special guest in the intimacy of the intoxicating spring night, I would like to imagine.’

‘I have no idea about the identity of the special visitor to her that night. At least, she did not mention anything about it to me. It’s a bit unusual. She used to keep nothing from me, bragging and boasting about those big-bug visitors of hers. But for the last one or two months, she appeared to be mysterious – inexplicably mysterious. For one thing, she did not talk to me at all about that special guest, and she actually made a point of coming to my place for the flowers instead of having me deliver them to the nunnery.’

‘That’s something, I see. Anything else?’

‘At times, she looked so radiant, as if with happiness pouring out from within, but the next moment, she could appear to be very pensive. It was just not like her.’

‘In addition to unusual things about her, did you notice anything out of the ordinary at the nunnery?’

‘No, I didn’t – but now you mention it, there might have been something a little bit strange. The last time I went there – it was more than half a month ago – I saw somebody – a man I had never seen before – standing outside the nunnery like a guard, who tried to bar me from entering. Then Xuanji herself hurried out, but she did not let me in, either. That’s so weird. I have seen men staying inside the nunnery before – in her bedroom, too. That’s no big deal – not something secret between us.’

‘She used to keep nothing from you, I believe.’

‘So the man she had been seeing that day must be somebody, as in an old proverb, “a divine dragon soaring in the cloud, with its head visible, but not with its tail.”’

‘A divine dragon soaring in the cloud, with its head visible, but not with its tail,’ he echoed, shocked by so many coincidences of dragons in the last few days. Was that why his nerves had been so frayed with the mysterious case? ‘Well, I’ve never heard of the proverb before.’

But it came to his realization that it was not a proverb, but more likely a quote in classical poetry criticism. Who had initially said it, however, he failed to recollect.

‘I think that’s what she once said to me about the guest. But sorry, my memories may be getting confused.’

‘A different question, Zhang.’ He could not help staring at her before he went on, abruptly changing the subject. ‘How was the relationship between Xuanji and her maid Ning?’