The Lacquer Screen

'Four years ago I had a second attack, two years later a third. The last time I was in a violent rage, and my wife had to force a soporific down my throat to prevent a terrible accident. Her unfailing support was my only consolation. Then, four weeks ago, something happened that robbed me of that consolation also. For thereafter I could no longer share my sorrow with her. The lacquer screen took posses­sion of me.'

The magistrate paused and pointed at the high, red-lacquered screen behind Judge Dee's back. He turned and looked. The flickering light of the candles threw weird flashes on its delicately carved surface.

Magistrate Teng closed his eyes. 'Rise and observe that screen!' he said in an even voice. 'I'll describe it to you. I know it by heart, every square inch of it!'

The judge got up and walked over to the screen. It con­sisted of four panels, each bearing a beautifully executed picture, engraved in the red lacquer, and with small frag­ments of green jade, mother-of-pearl, silver and gold incrusted in its surface. It was a valuable antique; he estimated that it was at least two hundred years old. He remained standing there, listening to the now nearly impersonal voice behind him.

'The four panels of the screen symbolize, as is often the case, the four seasons.* (* The four panels are depicted on the end-papers of this book.) The scene on the first panel, on the left, denotes spring. A spring dream of a student, fallen asleep over his reading, on the porch of his house, in the shadow of a pine tree. While his page is preparing the tea, he creams of four girls. They are all beautiful, but only one has caught his fancy.'

'The second panel depicts summer, the season when ambi­tions ripen. The student has now become a full-grown man. He is travelling to the capital to pass his final examination and become an official. He rides along, followed by his page.'

'Then comes autumn, on the third panel. The season of fulfilment. He has passed the final examination, and has been appointed a ranking official. Clad in Court-dress, he passes a house in his chariot, followed by an attendant who carries the large fan indicating his high office. On the bal­cony he sees the four girls of his dream, and among them the one he hoped to make his bride.'

The magistrate fell silent. Judge Dee went to stand in front of the fourth panel, and examined it curiously.

'The fourth panel,' Teng resumed, 'is winter, the season of introspection, of quiet enjoyment, in ever deeper under­standing, of what has been acquired. It depicts the delights of matrimonial bliss.'

Judge Dee looked at the loving couple, sitting behind a table in the luxurious surroundings of an official mansion.

They were sitting very close together, the man with one arm round the woman's shoulders, and with the other raising a cup to her lips. He turned round to resume his seat, but the magistrate said quickly:

'Wait! I found this screen in a curio-shop in the capital, shortly after my marriage to Silver Lotus. I immediately purchased it, although I had to pawn some of my possessions to be able to pay the elevated price. For you must know that the four panels of this screen happen to represent the four decisive stages of my own life. When I was a student in my native place I did dream once of four girls. I did afterwards travel to the capital, and there I did see those same four girls of my dream, while passing a two-storeyed building in a chariot. It proved to be the residence of the retired Prefect Woo. And I did marry his second daughter, Silver Lotus— the girl I had singled out already in my dream! This screen was our most precious possession, we always took it with us, wherever we went. How many times we have sat together in front of it, tracing every detail, and talking about our courtship and our marriage!'

'One month ago, on an exceptionally hot afternoon, I had my steward place a bamboo couch here in my library, in front of the screen, where there was a cool breeze. The pillow faced the fourth panel, the loving couple was right in front of my eyes. Then I made a frightful discovery. The design had changed. The man was plunging a dagger in his wife's breast.'

With an exclamation of surprise Judge Dee stooped and scrutinized that part of the picture. He now saw that indeed the man held a dagger in the left hand with which he em­braced his wife, a dagger pointed at her heart. It consisted of a thin sliver of silver inlaid in the lacquer. Shaking his head in wonderment he went back to the table and sat down.

'I do not know,' the magistrate continued, 'when that change occurred. Frantically I studied that particular spot, thinking that perhaps the craftsman who made the screen had accidentally dropped a sliver of silver in the still wet lacquer, and that it had come to light in that ominous place when the surface peeled off. But I soon saw that the sliver had been added afterwards, and rather clumsily, for there were tiny bursts in the area directly surrounding it.'

Judge Dee nodded slowly. He too had noticed that.

'Therefore the only possible conclusion was that I, in a fit of insanity which I didn't even remember, had effected that change. And as obvious was the second conclusion, namely that the diseased part of my mind was planning to murder my wife.'