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Back In the Dark Save as PDF
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

I glared at her for a long time, and then finally I said through gritted teeth, ‘Fine, then go. Go every day!’

She was completely relaxed as she said, ‘Why on earth would I want to go every day? I’ll go on Sundays.’

‘Don’t you want to be together? Why not go every day?’

‘But I have a job to do. I need to crack RECOVERY. Didn’t you say that if I decrypt RECOVERY then I am a heroine and can save him? That way we can get married, we can leave this place, we can start over and never have to lead this kind of horrible life again!’

My eyes nearly fell out of my head; I had no idea that she was still so obsessed with him, that she was still thinking like that! I stamped away angrily, thinking that if I had stayed one moment longer, I would have exploded with rage …

24

There was nothing that I could do – I had to tell Unit Director Luo that Huang Yiyi was sneaking out to the farm to meet Comrade Wang. Unit Director Luo was absolutely furious and said, ‘How can you allow it? Won’t it affect her work?’ Then she decided that Deputy Director Zhong should take Comrade Wang away, back to his home town in Jiangsu.

That was another mistake I made with Huang Yiyi. If Comrade Wang hadn’t gone, when Huang Yiyi cracked RECOVERY perhaps they might have got back together. As it was he went home to his wife and children, and so there was no chance of a happy ending. This of course belongs to a later part of the story.

Comrade Wang had left, but Huang Yiyi didn’t know that. So on Sunday she bought a lot of things, put a straw hat on her head, picked up her army-issue Thermos flask and headed out for the back mountain to see him. I didn’t stop her; I didn’t tell her what had happened; I let her go. I thought: this time you’ll realize that it’s all over!

It got to four or five o’clock and she still wasn’t back. I noticed that black clouds were massing, and the trees in front of my window were being whipped back and forth by the wind. There was a big storm coming! I was worried that something might have happened to her, so I quickly called for a jeep and went to the back mountain to look for her. Just as we pulled out of the main gate of Unit 701, raindrops the size of copper coins started coming down, hammering on the roof of the car.