The Veiled Mirror

> Yuyang County Office, Taiyuan Prefecture. Case file.

> Matter: Death of Wang, a licentiate of Taiyuan.

> Case number: Kangxi Guihai year, Criminal, No. 17.

> Deposition IV: continued testimony of the servant Afu; fourth supplementary statement of Wang; deposition of Old Madam Chen's maid. A page of the inspection excerpt is appended.

> — Liu, chief clerk, respectfully noted.

**【Deposition · the servant · Afu · continued, 2nd】**

Your honor asks about the mirror in the study. I answer: that mirror I remember exactly.

The young master's study had a bronze mirror, for looking into when he was tired of reading; its face was polished bright. From the day the lady Zhang lodged there, the mirror was covered with a cloth—blue cloth, old blue cloth, its four corners tucked behind the frame, tucked in even rows.

I asked the young master: "Why cover the mirror?" He said: "She is afraid of draughts." I thought to myself: afraid of draughts—paste the window paper, then. What has a mirror to fear from a draught?

When I carried tea to the lady Zhang, I studied that mirror on the sly. The blue cloth was tucked tight; no glass showed. Once, when the young master was away, I carried tea in. The lady Zhang sat by the window doing needlework. I set the tea down and turned—and saw the mirror: the blue cloth tucked as always, but at one corner a thread had lifted, and a bright edge showed.

I did not know what came over me. I reached out, lifted the cloth corner, and looked, quick.

The mirror gave back half the room: the window, the table, the wall. It gave back me—half my face, the back of my head, my back. All clear. But in the mirror, the chair where the lady Zhang sat—was empty.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The chair, still empty. The mirror gave back the corner of the table, the window-lattice, me—only not the person sitting in the chair.

My hand shook. The cloth fell and tucked itself back. The lady Zhang had not turned; she went on with her needlework. My throat tightened. I said "The tea is on the table," and turned to go. At the door I heard her voice behind me: "Afu. Don't touch the things in my room."

My legs went weak. I answered "Yes, lady," and fled.

I never touched that mirror again. But I could not stop thinking: the mirror is covered—for fear it will show something? Or for fear something will see it?

**【Marginal note】** Read with his earlier testimony of "no shadow at dawn," this account may corroborate it. Asked whether the mirror had given back the pattern carved on the back of the lady's chair, Afu answered "I do not remember." Noted.

**【Inspection excerpt · appended】**

(A page of the inspecting officer's hand-copy is appended, originally noted "for the later inquest report"; what concerns the mirror is excerpted here:)

On the east wall of the study hung a bronze mirror, eight inches across. Its face was covered with a square of old blue cloth, the corners tucked into the frame. Dust lay on the cloth, grey; yet the frame's lower edge and the visible back of the mirror were clean. The cloth lifted, the mirror-face was clean—no dust, no fingerprints, bright as new.

**【Marginal note】** The record says "dust on the cloth, none on the mirror-face." A mirror covered for months: dust gathers on the cloth—how should its face stay bright? This is one. The corners tucked into the frame "in even rows": had it lain unmoved, the corners would hang loose; tucked even, it looks exactly as if someone had retucked it again and again. This is two. Noted, to be rechecked at the later inquest.

**【Deposition · Wang · fourth supplementary statement】**

Your honor asks about the mirror in the study. I… I knew she did not use mirrors.

The day after she moved in, I saw her comb her hair with her fingers only, no comb of horn. I asked her: "Why don't you comb before a mirror, lady?" She paused, then said: "I don't like mirrors. I have looked into them twenty years. I am tired of them."

I laughed at her: "What woman in the world does not love her mirror?" She said: "I do not." Then she added: "That mirror—it throws back the light. It dazzles. At night I am afraid of it."

I said: "Then let it be covered." She found an old blue cloth and covered the mirror. When it was done she turned and asked me: "Is it straight?" I looked and said: "Straight." She smiled.

Your honor asks whether the cloth was ever lifted again after that. I answer: no. Afterward, when I went into the study, I walked around that mirror. I cannot say why. I simply… did not want to see it.

(At this the deponent suddenly asked the clerk: "Where is that mirror now?" The clerk answered that it was in the evidence store. The deponent was silent a long while, then continued:) Your honor, if I had only asked one more question that day—if she did not like mirrors, why did she retuck those cloth corners with her own hands, day after day?

**【Marginal note】** This testimony agrees in secret with Afu's "corners tucked even, as if retucked again and again." Asked whether Zhang ever combed before the mirror, Wang answered "never," his look gone grey. Noted.

**【Deposition · the maid Chen Ma】**

Your honor asks me? I am Chen Ma, from the lady's—from the young mistress's rooms. I have served the young mistress of the Wang house eight years.

In those first days of the ninth month, the young mistress told me to carry a cup of bird's-nest soup to the back-garden study, saying: "The young lady is frail. Carry it over to warm her stomach." I carried it to the gate of the study and was about to knock when I heard the young master's voice inside: "The mirror is covered. Why are you lifting it?"

A woman's voice answered: "I was looking at the dust."

The young master said: "Leave it covered. It keeps the dust off."

The woman said: "Very well."

I did not dare enter. I carried the soup back. I told the young mistress. She asked: "Delivered?" I said: "Not delivered. They were talking." She said: "Then don't deliver it." I saw the young mistress's face go white as paper, her lips trembling. In eight years of service I had never seen her like that. She said again: "From now on, nothing for the study."

I said yes. Being a fool, I asked one thing more: "Young mistress, this young lady…"

She cut me off: "There is no young lady." Having said it, she went. Two steps on, she stopped and stood a long while at the window. I did not dare leave; I did not dare speak. She spoke again, at last, low: "Chen Ma, have you ever seen a thing that a mirror cannot show?" I said: "Never." She said nothing more.

**【Marginal note】** This deposition recorded; the interrogating official, taking Chen Ma for the young mistress's personal maid, asked whether the mistress had ever entered the study. Chen Ma answered: "Never. The young mistress has not set one foot in that study." Asked how the mistress knew, Chen Ma shook her head and would say no more. Noted, to be set against the deposition of "Chen Shi," ch. 6, Vol I.