I sat down and heard her out. The first thing was that she said she hoped whatever she’d done wrong, that I could forgive her. The second thing was that she would like us to reconsider the verdict on Comrade Wang, and reduce his punishment, not sending him to the farm. She explained, ‘I am making this request not because I love him, but because I believe you are punishing him unfairly: he’s being treated like this because of me, and I can’t stand that. I hate owing other people, and I really don’t want people thinking that I am completely heartless.’

‘That’s impossible,’ I said. ‘He has to be punished and the verdict has been given.’

‘Even people condemned to death can be reprieved on the scaffold.’

‘Other than you, no one has the least bit of sympathy for him, including me.’

She looked at me for a bit, then she suddenly said in a low voice, ‘If you want me to crack RECOVERY, I hope you will show some respect for my opinions, and give him another chance.’

‘You mean if we don’t do what you tell us, you won’t crack it?’

‘I can’t crack it.’

I was so angry I got to my feet, pointed at her, and started shouting. ‘Huang Yiyi, don’t think you can play games with me! Let me tell you, Comrade Wang is being punished because of his relationship with you. The only reason you haven’t been punished as well is because you’re working on RECOVERY. If you now decide that you don’t want to carry on trying to crack it, fine: I’ll phone Director Tie tomorrow and get headquarters to write another verdict just the same, but with the name changed. They’ll put “Huang Yiyi” instead, and then in future you’ll be raising pigs with him on the back mountain.’ The more I spoke, the more furious I became. I really wanted to rub her nose in it. ‘Who the hell do you think you are? You’ve been here for ages achieving nothing, and you still think you can waltz in here and throw your weight about! How dare you! Get out of here! Go to hell!’

She didn’t go and she also didn’t apologize; she just sat there in silence. I went for a walk outside, and when I came back she still hadn’t gone, but was sitting there in the same place – in fact it looked as if she hadn’t moved at all. I was still angry with her, and so I carried on yelling at her. ‘I’ve told you to leave! Is this a sit-in? Or are you on hunger strike?’