The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin Read Free Book Online

bruised. Someone had ruined it forever. She would never sing again.
    “She’s dead,” he said heavily, a part of him feeling dead as well. He’d just seen her that morning.
    “You knew her?” Magistrate Li asked.
    “Everyone knew Huilan,” he replied sharply. “She was one of the Four Beauties.”
    The other two men were watching impassively by the door. Huang clenched his fists as anger heated his veins. They had known Huilan was dead and brought him there to watch his reaction. She’d been left alone all this time.
    A knot formed in his chest. He was confused and horrified and at a loss for anything intelligent to say.
    “Perhaps you should come out here,” Magistrate Li suggested quietly.
    Huang nodded. He took one final look at Huilan. She was the youngest of the Beauties. Her cheeks were gently rounded, which evoked a fresh-faced innocence. The violence was all the worse for that.
    * * *
     
    “D ID YOU SPEAK with Huilan earlier today?” Magistrate Li asked.
    They were in the sitting room just outside the courtesan’s chamber. Huang looked up from his tea, which had gone cold. “At the Grand Canal during the race.”
    Li nodded gravely. “She was so full of youth and beauty. Such a tragedy. Do you come to the Hundred Songs often?”
    “Once in a while. Huilan sang the last time I was here.”
    Huang ran a hand over his face. Huilan had been evasive that morning, but he should have insisted she explain herself. He should have never let her leave alone. He should have remembered the look of fear in her eyes when they’d first spoken.
    “Were you her lover?” Li continued.
    So this was an interrogation, then.
    Huang straightened and met Magistrate Li eye to eye. “No, I wasn’t.”
    “Well acquainted, then.”
    Li was grasping at something. The constable came forward from his station in the corner and held out a folded paper. Magistrate Li looked it over before placing it onto the table between them.
    “This was found lying beside Lady Huilan’s bed.” His finger rested over the red seal stamped onto the paper. “Is this your family’s mark?”
    Huang knew what it was without looking. The paper he’d given Huilan was an official permit used to travel outside the gated wards after curfew.
    “Did she use this to go to you at night?”
    “I told you, we were not lovers,” he said evenly.
    Magistrate Li stared him down. “How did Lady Huilan come to possess this pass?”
    “She must have taken it from me.”
    “Without your knowledge?”
    His lips lifted sardonically. “I often drink too much.”
    Huilan had asked for his help to leave the quarter. He often moved freely through the wards at night, one of the privileges of the aristocracy, and he’d assumed that was why she’d gone to him.
    “Madame Lui can speak to the extent of my association with Lady Huilan,” Huang said. “The life of a courtesan isn’t very private.”
    At that moment, the headmistress entered with Mei and a younger girl, two of Huilan’s courtesan-sisters. There were tears in the older woman’s eyes.
    “Madame Lui.”
    She clasped her hands around his. “You find who did this. She was like a daughter to me!”
    Madame Lui had been a great beauty herself in her youth and remained a handsome woman now, despite the redness around her eyes. She sniffed into a handkerchief.
    Magistrate Li came over from the sitting area and addressed Mei. “I understand that you were the first to find her.”
    The young courtesan nodded. “We were entertaining a large party in the banquet room. Huilan was acting as hostess while I was there to assist her. Everyone was in a happy mood and drinking wine for the festival. After an hour, Huilan complained of a headache. She told me to play a song and keep the party occupied while she went upstairs to rest for a little while, but she was gone for so long I finally went up to check on her. The moment I opened the door, I knew she wasn’t sleeping.” Mei’s voice cracked and she