However, I was deeply depressed by what Chen and Comrade Zha told me about Huang Yiyi … Early one Sunday morning I was eating breakfast in the canteen, when suddenly Comrade Zha came running in and told me that someone had seen Huang Yiyi leave early that morning, dressed in long trousers, a big overcoat and galoshes, a straw hat on her head, and with an army-issue rucksack and Thermos flask strapped to her back. It looked as if she would be going quite a distance. Where could she be going? I didn’t have time to think about it, but rushed straight to the main gate, with Comrade Zha at my heels, to ask the sentry. The sentry said he hadn’t seen her all day, so we ran to the back gate, and the sentry there told us that Huang Yiyi had left about an hour earlier. Comrade Zha asked where she was going, but the sentry said he didn’t know. I asked the sentry which direction she’d gone in, and he pointed to one of the mountain paths, and said, ‘She went that way, that path.’

I raised my head to look at the winding mountain path, and sighed deeply. I’m sure that at that moment I had a very grim expression on my face. That path went to Lingshan farm on the back mountain. I knew exactly where Huang Yiyi had gone, and why. I looked at that narrow path snaking into the woods and suddenly felt as if everything had been ruined.

I was in a really bad mood all day, and I couldn’t settle to anything, so I just sat around at home. In the end I couldn’t stand it one moment longer, and went for a walk round the mountain. On my wanderings, I caught sight of the lunatic Jiang Nan. He was holding an injured pigeon, and looking up into the sky he said, ‘Hello. I know you’re bringing me another cipher … They all say I’m mad, that I can’t crack ciphers … They wouldn’t know, I help them crack ciphers every day, one cipher in the morning, another during the night … hee, hee, I’m a cryptographic genius. When other experts hear my name, they’re all panic-stricken …’

I listened to him in silence, and suddenly the image of Huang Yiyi came to my mind, bringing me to the verge of tears.