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Back In the Dark
Chapters (90)
  1. Cover
  2. IN THE DARK
  3. PRELUDE
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. WIND LISTENERS
  11. Blind Abing
  12. 1
  13. 2
  14. 3
  15. 4
  16. 5
  17. 6
  18. 7
  19. 8
  20. 9
  21. 10
  22. 11
  23. 12
  24. 13
  25. 14
  26. 15
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. 20
  32. 21
  33. WIND READERS
  34. An Angel with Problems
  35. 1
  36. 2
  37. 3
  38. 4
  39. 5
  40. 6
  41. 7
  42. 8
  43. 9
  44. 10
  45. 11
  46. 12
  47. 13
  48. 14
  49. 15
  50. 16
  51. 17
  52. 18
  53. 19
  54. 20
  55. 21
  56. 22
  57. 23
  58. 24
  59. 25
  60. 26
  61. 27
  62. 28
  63. 29
  64. 30
  65. THE SHADOW OF CHEN ERHU
  66. Diary Excerpts: 25 March 1987
  67. 26 March
  68. 27 March
  69. 28 March
  70. 2 April
  71. The Letter: Day One
  72. Day Two
  73. Day Three
  74. Day Four
  75. Day Five
  76. Day Six
  77. Day Seven
  78. Two Old Letters
  79. WIND-CATCHERS
  80. A Vietnamese Ghost Story
  81. 1
  82. 2
  83. 3
  84. 4
  85. 5
  86. 6
  87. 7
  88. 8
  89. 9
  90. THE BEGINNING

Originally I had imagined that once Huang Yiyi had grasped what Sivincy was up to, plagiarizing ULTRA, she would be buoyed up by this success to carry on devoting her time and attention to RECOVERY. I was not expecting her to go back to her old ways, running crazy. One day she was in the woods feeding biscuits to the squirrels, the next she had run round to the guards’ compound to play chess – and she even found something to amuse her at the carpenters’ workshop, because she seemed to be there every five minutes. When she was in her office she kept the door shut and wouldn’t talk to anyone. She also wouldn’t read reports. She clearly didn’t care if she put everyone’s backs up. Chen complained all the time to me about her insouciance: ‘Look! Look at her! Is that acceptable?’

It really was not acceptable.

That evening I went to her house for a serious talk. The moment I got through the door I just stopped dead. Do you know what she was doing? She was telling her own fortune with a pack of cards, and as far as I could make out she wanted to know if she would be lucky in love, because she was roaring with laughter when it came out. I asked her what on earth she was doing and she asked me seriously, ‘Hey, I’ve heard that your wife is dead. Is that right?’

‘It has nothing to do with you,’ I said crossly.

‘Of course it does,’ she said confidently. ‘Can’t you see what I’m doing? I’m telling fortunes. I want to know if you and I are destined to be together.’

‘The only thing I want you to do is concentrate on the cipher!’ I shouted.

She smiled at me. ‘All love is a kind of cipher which two people have to decrypt together. I’ve already decrypted your cipher, and the answer is me.’

That evening when I got home I took the little altar that I had set up to Xiaoyu in the library, with the casket containing her ashes, an incense burner and some candles, and moved it into the living room. I wanted Xiaoyu to tell Huang Yiyi that any relationship between us was impossible. Although Xiaoyu was dead there was no room in my heart for any other woman.