The Emperor's Pearl by Van Gulik Robert

Author:Van Gulik, Robert
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-03-30T12:25:50+00:00

THE JUDGE HAS TEA IN A CURIO-SHOP

'Why?'

'Because,' Yang replied with a sly smile, ' Mr Kwang also supplies Dr Pien's competitors here with drugs. Besides, Mr Kwang asked me to keep his visits to Poo-yang secret because of another reason too. He explained to me that he bought very cheaply a piece of land adjoining the Mandrake Grove some years ago-through the intermediary of Dr Pien. Mr Kwang made Dr Pien believe that he bought it just as an investment. In fact, however, Kwang has been sending his men there to gather the plant, on the edge of the grove. If Dr Pien knew that, he would of course ask Kwang to pay him a commission. As I said before, Mr Kwang is a very shrewd businessman indeed!'

'Quite,' Judge Dee said. He reflected that Kwang, without actually telling lies, had yet succeeded in giving him an entirely wrong impression of his activities. And, since that blandly courteous gentleman collected curios for gain, he might well have employed Tong or Sia to locate bargains for him-and for other purposes too, perhaps. He asked:

'Do you happen to know where Mr Kwang usually stays when he is here in Poo-yang?'

'If he doesn't stay on his junk, he rents a room in the Hostel of the Eight Immortals, sir. A very small, cheap inn,' he added with a deprecating smile.

'I know the place. Mr Kwang is certainly a parsimonious man!'

'Money means everything to him, Your Honour. He doesn't care a fig for antiques, for him it's just a side-line to make money. Mr Kou Yuan-liang-now there's a real collector for you ! Doesn't mind what he pays as long as he gets the best ! Can afford it too, the lucky fellow!' He pensively rubbed his chin, then resumed, somewhat diffidently: 'As to me, I am a mixture of both, more or less. My business is buying and selling, of course, but I fall in

'Now that I am here I may as well ask your opinion on quite another matter. You are of course familiar with the famous story about the Emperor's pearl that was stolen about a hundred years ago. Have you any theories about that old mystery? '

'The search was so thorough, sir, that I am convinced that it was the Empress herself who took the pearl and concealed it about her person. Just to have an opportunity for having a few rivals in the Emperor's love tortured to death ! That aim achieved, she threw the pearl in a deep well or somewhere. Many a tragedy takes place behind the golden gates of the Imperial Harem, Your Honour! Besides, why should somebody steal a thing that he could never sell ?'

'Suppose that the pearl was really stolen, though, Mr Yang. Would there have been absolutely no way of turning it into cash? '

'Not within our Empire, sir. But, if the thief had good relations among the Arab or Persian merchants residing in Canton, he could sell the pearl perhaps to one of them-at a fraction of the real value of course-to be re-sold in a distant barbarian country.

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