‘Panic-stricken, Xuanji dragged the body out into the backyard and buried her under the cover of night. She thought that no one would notice a missing maid like Ning, and then she could make up a story of the maid quitting her service, and no one would have suspected any foul play in the nunnery. Little did she think that the flies circling above the corner of the backyard would give her away the very next day.’

‘The body was not properly buried – not deep enough. A courtesan might not have had enough strength to do a good job of digging deep enough for the burial,’ Yang said, nodding. ‘Those blue-headed flies must have smelled the blood oozing underneath the surface soil.’

‘In her statement made in prison, she provided some new details about the burial, saying she had a hard time finding the right tool for it, and that she was too frail a woman to have done the job properly in the dark of night.’

‘That makes sense,’ Yang said, ‘but why has the murder case not yet been concluded even though she made the confession in prison?’

‘I don’t really know,’ Judge Dee said, shaking his head. ‘Perhaps the confession does not sound so convincing. And the mayor needs to look further into it. Anyway, a very strange case indeed.’

‘But there must be something else in the case. For a special messenger to come overnight to you from Minister Wu, it’s more than strange. It’s like the old proverb about a skunk sneaking over to say “Happy New Year” to a rooster. It was definitely not done with good intentions. We cannot be too careful, Master.’

‘Don’t worry too much about it, Yang. It’s not our case, nor am I intrigued by it.’

That was not exactly true, though. Judge Dee was intrigued. For a murder case involving the number-one poetess of the Tang Empire, it actually presented a personal challenge to him as well.

Not to mention the knife note and the message from Minister Wu.

Outside, the night watchman was making another round, beating the wooden knocker in a monotonous pattern against the night as it retreated further into the darkness.

Judge Dee knew he would have to do such a lot of work before he could get anywhere in the investigation, for which he had neither the time nor the authority.

‘What are you thinking about, Master?’

‘No, it does not have to be our case. And it is not our case. Now you go back to sleep in your room. I, too, have to doze for a little while if I want to get up in a decent condition in the morning.’

‘It soon will be morning anyway, Master.’