"Yin and Yang" by Boris Akunin, summary Automatic translate

The play was written in 2005. The text is divided into two alternative versions of events — one white and one black. Both parts begin with the same plot, but then the storylines diverge dramatically, completely changing the personalities and motives of the same characters. The work depicts the development of a single initial event through two completely different detective scenarios.

The play is part of the historical detective series "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin." The events depicted in the main character’s life take place in 1882. Other well-known works in this series include "Azazel," "The Turkish Gambit," "The Death of Achilles," and "Leviathan."

Announcement of the will of the deceased

The action unfolds in the Moscow region estate of the recently deceased millionaire Sigismund Boretsky. The heirs gather in the living room for the reading of the will. Notary Stepan Slyunkov reads the document to the relatives. The vast fortune, the estate, and the bank deposits go to his young niece, Inga. Inga’s mother, Lidiya Anatolyevna, and her father, Stanislav Iosifovich, are euphoric at what they have just heard. Yan’s father, the down-and-out drunkard Kazimir Boretsky, is crushed by poverty. He had hoped to pay off his debts with the inheritance.

Inga has long been in love with her cousin Jan and dreams of marrying him. Jan himself is passionate about medicine. He works on a tetanus vaccine and constantly experiments on rabbits, ignoring his cousin’s feelings. Kazimir constantly asks his son to pour him cognac from a flat glass flask, but the student ignores his father’s requests. According to his uncle’s will, the poor student receives only an old paper fan.

Special Assignment Officer Erast Fandorin arrives at the house with his Japanese servant, Masa. The detective tells the assembled group the story of an ancient relic. Sigismund Boretsky traded this rarity with Japanese monks for a valuable scroll. The white side of the fan is inscribed with the hieroglyph "Yang," meaning light. The black side is adorned with the "Yin" symbol, symbolizing darkness.

According to ancient Chinese legend, the artifact grants the wishes of its rightful owner. This requires waving the fan eight times and chanting a Buddhist sutra. The magic requires sacrifice. If the light side is turned toward oneself, one will gain untold wealth, but destructive wars will break out in the world. If the black side of the artifact is turned toward oneself, the world will be cleansed of evil, but the owner will suffer greatly. It is also believed that a light blow with the white side heals wounds, while a touch with the black side kills instantly.

Inga jokingly touches her uncle Casimir’s shoulder with her fan, turning it black. The man suddenly collapses. The family doctor, Robert Dixon, checks his pulse and declares him dead from myocardial infarction. A severe thunderstorm causes the electric lights to go out. When the lights come back on, the fan has disappeared from the table. Fandorin forbids everyone present from leaving the estate and begins an investigation.

White version of events

Fandorin, his arm in a cast, interrogates his relatives. Many hidden details are revealed. The family doctor, Dixon, turns out to be an English antique collector. He infiltrated the house disguised as a doctor in search of a rare relic. The deceased’s personal footman, Arkady, agreed to assist the foreigner. The servant deliberately sawed off the axle of the detective’s horse-drawn carriage, causing a serious accident on a forest road. The conspirators poisoned Casimir in advance, mixing the poison into his flask of cognac. They wanted to quickly eliminate his direct guardian and buy the artifact from the inexperienced student.

Masa explores the dark basement and finds the notary, Slyunkov, hiding there. He clutches a long package containing a hidden fan to his chest. The elderly lawyer, with tears in his eyes, confesses to stealing the antique object. Slyunkov wanted to regain his youth for the sake of his charming wife. Slyunkov loudly recites a prayer and waves the fan, but the magic has no effect. Masa takes the artifact and places it in a wooden case.

The footman Arkady realizes the precariousness of his position. The Japanese man Masa has already begun asking him the right questions about the broken carriage. The servant shoots Dr. Dixon through an open window, eliminating a dangerous accomplice. Arkady then runs to the attic. There, he gets into a fight with the student Yan. During a brutal fight, the deceased’s nephew shoots the servant with a revolver. The student explains self-defense to those who came running at the gunshot.

Fandorin carefully examines the traces in the attic. The detective proves the young scientist’s guilt. Yan had originally agreed to sell a valuable antique to an English collector. The student himself brought poisoned alcohol to his father to sabotage the original deal and keep the relic for himself. Kazimir drank the cognac and died of cardiac arrest. It was Yan who killed Dixon and then cold-bloodedly shot Arkady with a revolver, feigning self-defense. Arkady’s bullet left only a scorched hole in the footman’s frock coat, as Yan had fired first. The young man wanted a million rubles to establish his own Swiss laboratory.

The exposed criminal takes Inga hostage. He presses a huge syringe filled with tetanus germs to her neck and demands she hand over the fan immediately. Masa throws him the box. Yan releases Inga and disappears into the night. Fandorin comforts the crying girl. The Japanese man reveals the real fan — a resourceful servant had swapped the ancient artifact for a simple paper dictionary just in time.

Black version of events

The alternate history changes the characters’ personalities. Fandorin uses a wheelchair due to a broken leg. Inga is portrayed as calculating and cruel, and Yan is fanatically devoted to science and completely uninterested in money.

Notary Slyunkov steals a fan from a table during a power outage. He sneaks into the estate museum, where the late Sigismund’s collection is on display. There, Slyunkov finds a special horned helmet. This ancient object protects the mind from the destructive influence of the mystical energies of Yin and Yang. Putting on the helmet, Slyunkov recites a spell. A miracle occurs — the notary actually appears to be decades younger. Freed from chronic sciatica, he runs off to his wife with cries of joy, leaving the fan on the table. Fandorin, along with his faithful Masa, retrieves the relic.

A shot rings out in the living room. An unknown man in a dark cloak kills Dr. Dixon right before the detective’s eyes. Later, Fandorin and Masa hear noises coming from Yan’s laboratory in the outbuilding. Breaking down the locked door, they discover the footman, Arkady, shot dead. Inga, her forehead bloodied, recounts the servant’s sudden attack. She claims that Yan killed the footman in a fit of passion to protect her life.

Fandorin puts together the facts, examines the weapon, and exposes Inga. The girl cold-bloodedly planned the entire chain of crimes. She easily exchanged a million-dollar inheritance for a fan, signing the necessary papers and taking advantage of Yan’s complete indifference to wealth. Inga herself planted a powerful poison on Uncle Casimir, shot the Englishman in the living room, and ruthlessly eliminated the footman Arkady with three precise shots. The heiress craved absolute power over the entire world.

Realizing the hopelessness of her situation, Inga decides to immediately use magic. She strikes Fandorin with the black side of her fan. The detective collapses into a chair, unable to move. Inga loudly recites the sutra, directing destructive energy at the world and creative energy at herself.

The old valet, Faddey, had previously been mending a worn-out fan. The old man accidentally mixed up the paper sides while gluing them together. The spell works exactly the opposite. The world instantly becomes a better place. Student Yan accidentally adds the correct reagent and successfully completes the creation of a tetanus vaccine. Fandorin’s broken bone heals completely within a second. Inga, however, suffers a powerful backlash from light magic. The criminal instantly contracts a severe case of tetanus and is permanently paralyzed.