Republican Era Detective: Zou Jing and Lu Yao

Shanghai's plum rain season was always so clammy it made people irritable. Lead-gray clouds hung low, as though they meant to press this bustling metropolis down into the damp earth. Rainwater trickled along the plane-tree leaves in the French Concession and dripped onto the bluestone road, spreading into dark patches like hidden wounds bleeding through the city. Lu Yao sat listlessly at his desk in the police station, tapping the tabletop with the end of his pencil and listening to the monotonous patter. His thoughts had long since wandered elsewhere, and every so often he glanced toward the doorway, hoping a familiar figure would appear. Several open detective novels were piled on the desk,