She laughed heartily. ‘Do you think that just because I took the test it means that I want to join your unit? I don’t even know what kind of unit it is, so why would I want to do a stupid thing like that?’ Having finished laughing, she said seriously, ‘To tell you the truth, I came to take the test because I wanted to meet you. For the last couple of days my colleagues have done nothing but gossip about you, and I was curious, that’s all.’

I was furious, but I was also secretly pleased. The fury was because I felt she was being silly and disrespectful, but I was pleased because I was sure that I was getting the truth, and because no one could have helped her get the answer. She hadn’t intended to take the test, I hadn’t meant to give it to her: put the two together and what you end up with is the truth, something that will stand up to scrutiny.

Earlier that afternoon I had spoken to Captain Hu on the phone, because I hoped that he would have a look at Xie Xingguo and Xu Guping’s answer papers and help me to decide which of them I should employ (at that time I didn’t think Huang Yiyi was going to finish). He arrived just at that moment. When he came through the door, he looked at Huang Yiyi a couple of times, and then rushed forward and grabbed her hand. He seemed very pleased, and said: ‘Huang Qian! Don’t you remember me? I’m Hu Haibo!’ Then he turned round and said happily to me, ‘This is the woman I told you to find: Huang Qian!’

Later on I found out that she had become suicidal after the painful split from the cameraman. Because of this the Party arranged for her to go as a visiting scholar to the Soviet Union for a year, in the hope that she would cheer up away from home. Perhaps it was in the hope of making a fresh start that she changed her name during her stay in Russia. And again perhaps it was to draw a line under the past that when she finished her time abroad she didn’t go back to Harbin Military Engineering University but came here, to Beijing.

In short, she was Huang Qian.

What else was there to say? I wanted her!

So I told Huang Yiyi: ‘I can announce officially that you are now working for us, and we will begin the formalities for your transfer immediately.’

‘Is this some kind of joke?’ she asked with a laugh.

‘No joke,’ I said. ‘We need someone like you.’

‘No,’ she said, raising her voice. ‘You need me but I don’t need you!’