‘Do you think that he loves you?’

She went as white as a sheet, and with a bitter smile she said, ‘Love … What love? … Love always turns to hate … I don’t want people to think that I’m completely heartless … If he leaves like this he’ll think that I … betrayed him. Please tell me where he is!’

I said nastily, ‘He’s where he deserves to be!’ Then I turned my back on her and wouldn’t say any more. She stood there and glared at me, her eyes filling with tears, then she left.

Just after Huang Yiyi had gone, Comrade Fei brought a letter, and said that when Comrade Wang had been taken under guard to the farm on the back mountain, he had given it to Bureau Chief Yuan at the guards’ barracks, and asked him to give it to me. When I heard that the letter came from him, I felt a stabbing pain in my heart. I quickly waved at Comrade Fei to leave, and then I opened the letter. Guess what the letter said? This is what he wrote:

An Zaitian, I know that you hate me, because I slept with your woman. But guess what? I hate you even more, because as far as she was concerned, I was nothing but a substitute for you. I am paying for having loved a woman that I shouldn’t have, but I hope and believe that in the end you will pay for not having loved the woman that you should have!

I was so furious that I ground my teeth, and having read the letter I ripped it into pieces and threw them into the rubbish bin.

I thought the thing with Wang was all over. I had said everything that needed to be said, and everything was perfectly clear. Whatever happened Huang Yiyi couldn’t come back begging for mercy for him again. I didn’t realize that she hadn’t given up, and that she was about to play her trump card and blackmail me by threatening to throw up her job!

One evening just after I got home she was there banging on my door, shouting, ‘Open up, An Zaitian – I’m not here to try and seduce you! I need to talk to you.’

I opened the door and invited her in. She walked straight up to the sofa and plunked herself down, looking neither left nor right. I could see that she had recently been crying, and that she was struggling to control her emotions. It looked as though she could break down at any moment. To try and calm her down, I said, ‘Let me get you a glass of water.’

She said coldly, ‘It’s not necessary. Sit down. I’ve got a couple of things to say to you, then I’ll leave you in peace.’