Rewards from headquarters were pretty quick in coming: every member of the special working group was awarded honours of the second class, while Huang Yiyi and I both received honours of the first class. Although the fact that RECOVERY had been decrypted was top secret, the unit nevertheless held a high-level celebration ceremony, and Director Tie himself came out from headquarters. We lit firecrackers, and all of us wore red ribbons – it was all most splendid. Huang Yiyi, who had played the most important role in the cracking of RECOVERY, was naturally the cynosure of all eyes, the queen of the day. When she went up to the platform to receive her reward and put on her ribbon, we all called out to her from below and clapped. She smiled as she looked out at us, and her achievements made her seem like the moon, hung high in the firmament. We felt an unparalleled respect and admiration for her.

After the ceremony Director Tie went specially to talk to Huang Yiyi, and said, ‘Comrade Huang, you really are a genius. I have an idea that I’d like to discuss with you.’

She understood immediately what he was talking about. ‘So you’re not going to keep your promise, sir?’

Director Tie nodded and said, ‘I would be delighted if you stayed and took over from Chen. He’s very hard-working, and has done some good stuff, but asking him to take charge of other people is really not appropriate. I know he wants to give up that part of his job; he would much prefer to be able to concentrate on decrypting his ciphers. Now you’ve done so well, and he seems to hate being a Bureau Chief as much as he ever did. I know exactly what he’s up to, and he doesn’t seem to care how much I yell at him. What do you think? Do you want to stay and be our youngest ever Bureau Chief?’

Huang Yiyi didn’t hesitate for a moment but shook her head. ‘No. I want to leave.’

Director Tie smiled at her. ‘And do you still want to take someone with you?’

‘I can’t,’ she muttered.

‘Why not?’

‘Because he’s married.’

‘Oh, really? Do you mind telling me who you wanted to take away?’

She hesitated for a moment then whispered the name in his ear. He started and turned to look at me. I was standing not far away, chatting to Unit Director Luo. Director Tie glared at me and then turned back to Huang Yiyi with a laugh. ‘Fine, we’ll stick with the original agreement. If he wants to go with you, then you can take him away; if he doesn’t want to, then it is not our problem.’