Then she asked me how long I was planning to spend in Moscow. I said I was desperate to get there, see Anderov, get the information that I needed and come back, and if possible I would like to do it all the same day.

‘You seem to be in a real hurry.’

‘Well, I am in a hurry, but if you think I shouldn’t be, then I’m not.’

‘Thanks for informing me. I won’t see you off tomorrow, but I hope you have a good journey.’ She then walked further into the wood.

Seeing her solitary, lonely shadow, I felt a sadness, disappointment, desolation and pain that is impossible to describe. It was as if I was never going to see her again.

The next day Bureau Chief Yuan of the guards unit accompanied me to the nearest town, where I got on board a whistling train and began my journey to Moscow. This was my third visit to Moscow, but it seemed that every time I went there dreadful, unexpected things happened. Moscow has been an unlucky place for me. I had made a big decision in going there, but I did not even get to hear Anderov’s voice, let alone actually see him. Every day I roamed through the streets of Moscow like a detective, trying to find out what had happened to Anderov, and everyone told me a different story. One person told me that he was being held under house arrest by the KGB, someone else told me that he had claimed asylum in France, a third person said that he was dead … and so on and so forth, no two stories the same. It was as if Anderov had been carried away by the icy blast of the Siberian winds, never to return …

It was more than a month before I returned, defeated, to Unit 701.

I handed out souvenirs from Russia to all the members of the team, and then – following closely on each other’s heels – Huang Yiyi and Comrade Chen both came to my office to ask how it had gone and whether I had got anything out of it. I shook my head and said that I hadn’t been able to see Anderov. I explained the problem and as Huang Yiyi listened she became more and more anxious, and asked, ‘So you came back empty-handed?’