Shanghai concession period

The Shanghai concession period is evoked through a converted villa that became the Shanghai World Clinic, the small medical facility where Cui Feng had his office. Its significance in the passage is architectural and evidentiary: the villa’s earlier history frames Li Yan’s argument that the crimes could not have taken place at the clinic without Cui’s knowledge.

The Villa and the Clinic

Li Yan describes the Shanghai World Clinic as a villa converted from the days of the Concession. By the time of the investigation, it contained two small operating theatres and a handful of special-care beds, and it was also where Cui Feng kept his office. The reference connects a surviving building from the city’s earlier period with its later medical use, without elaborating on the history of the concession itself.

Role in Li Yan’s Argument

The villa’s size and arrangement matter to Li Yan’s challenge to the claim that Cui Feng might have been unaware of the procedures. Li argues that more than forty women could not have been surgically murdered within the modest clinic, right under Cui’s nose, without his knowledge. The building’s historical association is not evidence of the crimes; its converted form and limited facilities make the clinic’s scale central to Li’s reasoning.