Huang Yiyi’s death undoubtedly put our cryptography unit under a lot of extra pressure. After her relationship with Zhang Guoqing came out, people called her Angel to her face, but behind her back they still called her ‘The Angel with Problems’. Actually, when it comes to cryptography, she didn’t have any problems: she really was an angel, a cipher-cracking angel. In my opinion, if you put all the cryptographers who ever worked for Unit 701 together, they couldn’t beat one Huang Yiyi. I am talking about ability, basic cryptographic talent and ability; because later on there were people whose achievements surpassed hers. In some ways, though, you could say she was the very best, because she only worked for us for a very short time, just a bit more than two years. However you look at it she really was the best, and because she came to our assistance, because she achieved such a signal success, she left a shining mark, so that ever after cryptographers at Unit 701 didn’t dare become arrogant or overweening, they just had to grit their teeth and get on with it. She was like a bright beacon that shone for a short time before disappearing for ever, remembered by those who came after her, talked about, commemorated, whispered about, until she became a legend towering above us, encouraging her successors to venture ever further into the dark.

Decrypting a cipher is like looking for a needle in a haystack; it is like trying to listen to the heartbeats of the dead.

The dead never come back. But once Huang Yiyi had passed away, Zhang Guoqing remarried his ex-wife. Just talking about it, I can feel all my old hatred for them revive. I really don’t want to discuss them, particularly not Zhang Guoqing’s wife. She deserved everything she got! I wish I could have killed her with my own bare hands!

She murdered Huang Yiyi.