‘His wife died of lung cancer, and people have been complaining about the polluted air as the cause of the disease. For such a long time, our weather bureau kept saying the air’s perfectly fine—’

‘Hold on, Detective Peiqin. That may really throw some light on the choice of his second victim in the People’s Square – the weather anchorman Linghu,’ Yu said, sitting up. ‘Still, what about the third and fourth victims?’

‘I don’t know, but people are angry about so many things, though the anchorman should not have been held personally responsible for it.’

‘It’s a brilliant point, I’ll discuss it with Chen. A solid connection there.’

‘So what else are you going to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, guessing Peiqin would start arguing against what he planned to do the next morning. ‘I’ve not decided yet. After such a long day, I’m really beaten. I think I’ll sleep on it.’

But he was sure he would get up early again the next morning.

DAY FIVE

FRIDAY

INSPECTOR CHEN LOOKED UP from the computer to the clock on the wall. It was already past midnight. The silence of the apartment was intense.

He had tried to doze for a while with the printout of the incomplete report lying aside on the desk, but he was unable to do so.

It would probably make more sense for him to deliver the report to Zhao in a long, detailed email, rather than in person. He was not sure whether Zhao, sitting opposite with all the political seriousness imaginable, would permit him to say what he wanted to without stopping him after a few sentences.

For a senior Party leader like Zhao, he had to make the Party’s interests his first priority. No matter how Chen might try to spin the documentary, it would be a nearly impossible mission to win Zhao over with nothing but an objective report.

Still, the inspector had to make the attempt. After all, there are interpretations and interpretations of the Party’s interests.

He forced himself to sit down and begin writing.

I’m writing this report to you because it’s been such an unusual investigation, Comrade Secretary Zhao, with the complications unexpected and some of them unimaginable to me.

As I’ve mentioned, I managed to sneak into a meeting at the New World with Yuan Jing and her associates there without being recognized. An important part of the meeting was for a preview of a documentary in the making. I wasn’t able to get a copy of it, but afterward I double-checked and researched some of the things represented in it. It took me quite a while to do so, and what I can put in the report today may still not be detailed enough. For a general impression, however, it is a well-done and researched documentary and, at the same time, with the combination of texts and images, it is also easily understandable and acceptable to the broad mass of people.

The air pollution is such a serious problem for our country, as you have told me, and we have to deal with it in different ways, at different levels. One of the effective ways is to raise people’s awareness of the environmental crisis through a basic understanding of the causes. The documentary could be truly educational and enlightening for that purpose.

I, for one, have learned such a lot from it.

At this stage, I cannot tell what the documentary will eventually look like when completed. It could take a couple of weeks for them to finish it. And then, probably an even longer process of their submitting it to the censorship office for the approval of its eventual release.

For the battle against air pollution, it is imperative for our Party to lead the people, and I believe the release of the documentary under governmental guidance will demonstrate our Party’s determination to fight on the side of the people …