I could understand and make allowances for her, but Comrade Chen couldn’t bear it, and wasn’t about to put up with it. So the working relationship between the two of them started to go wrong, becoming increasingly awkward and acrimonious. I found out later from Comrade Zha that one day when Huang Yiyi came in to work she gave her a bunch of autopsied radio intercepts and said that they had just come from the analysis room, and that she should look at them immediately and then hand them on to Comrade Chen. Huang Yiyi just flicked through them and handed them back to Comrade Zha, telling her to give them to Comrade Chen.

Little Comrade Zha looked at her in alarm. ‘Aren’t you going to read them?’

‘There’s no point,’ she said. ‘I’m waiting until we have enough material, then I’ll look at them.’ As she spoke she picked up the newspaper beside her and started leafing through it. She wasn’t expecting that the minute the intercepts had been handed over, Comrade Chen would arrive in person. When Huang Yiyi opened the door and saw him, she refused to allow him in, saying, ‘Hey, stop right there: whatever it is, I will come to you.’ When she came out she told Chen with a laugh, ‘Only men are allowed into your cryptography room, and only women are allowed into mine. If you want to talk to me we will do so in Comrade Zha’s office.’

He was stunned and a very ugly expression came over his face, but he followed her into Comrade Zha’s office, where he waved the intercepts and said, ‘Have you looked at all of these?’

‘I leafed through them.’

‘This is primary data; you need to read through them carefully.’

‘I have looked at them.’

‘But just now didn’t you say that you had leafed through them?’

She was still smiling. ‘Bureau Chief Chen, I know you’re doing this for my own good, but you’re also showing off your power as one of the senior people here.’

‘This isn’t about power – this is about a sense of responsibility. Look, I’ll give them back to you and you can look at them properly.’

She didn’t take the documents. ‘No. Comrade Chen, if you want to read them, then read them yourself. Right now I’m looking at the papers and I really don’t have time for this.’

Chen raised his voice. ‘I insist that you read them, OK! Comrade Huang, the two of us are now in the same boat, and we sink or swim together. I hope that in future we will be able to join forces rather than fighting each other.’