At that time my feelings were somewhat as if I had been marching through the desert for so long that the blood in my body, and even the tiny bit of water in the tips of my hair, had all been parched by the hot winds. But just as our strength was exhausted – or perhaps it would be better to say, just as we felt our final hour had come – we suddenly caught sight of a deep blue spring, the bubbling waters spraying our faces, refreshing us, making us shudder with pleasure and surprise.

Our lives were trembling in the balance, our souls were trembling in the balance!

There was no advance warning that our great victory was nearly upon us: it came out of the blue, so suddenly that we really weren’t ready for it. That was why we all exploded in such delight and amazement … It was a perfectly ordinary weekly meeting, but beforehand Comrade Zha mentioned that Huang Yiyi had said that today she wanted to attend. So we all waited for her in the conference room. But she didn’t come. To cheer everyone up, I explained that she had only gone to sleep at six o’clock that morning, so I requested that everyone just wait patiently a little longer. Comrade Chen suggested that we hold our meeting now, and then reconvene when she got out of bed. Little Comrade Zha said that we should wait, because before she went off to sleep Comrade Huang had left a note specially to say that she wanted to attend this meeting, and quite possibly she had something to announce to everyone. Comrade Jin, the head of the Analysis Division, said, ‘Do you think she’s really done it?’

Comrade Jiang of the Calculations Office said, ‘Possibly. Our Comrade Huang is a strange creature, but this time I think she’s onto something.’

I laughed. ‘Chen, maybe this time your hand is for it.’

Chen said, ‘Well, if I lose it I lose it – providing we crack RECOVERY, I don’t care if you kill me.’

We all burst out laughing at that.