Progress on The Red Pavilion. Judge Dee meets Magistrate Lo, of the neighboring district Chin-hwa, on Paradise Island. Magistrate Lo is in a hurry to attend to an emergency in his district, and asks Judge Dee to pick up the investigation he has begun, regarding a young man who allegedly committed suicide after being rejected by the Queen Flower, the most beautiful courtesan on the island. Judge Dee attends a formal dinner originally intended in honor of Magistrate Lo. He learns that the young man died inside the locked bedroom of the Red Pavilion, where Judge Dee himself is staying, three days ago. Ma Joong mingles with townsfolk and conducts his own investigation on the matter.