The old man explained that Lujiayan encompassed an area of several dozen kilometres, that it had over three hundred families, with a total of almost two thousand people. No one in the village could remember every detail about every person, except for Abing. It didn’t matter if it was an adult or a child, if the person lived in the village or had moved away, all that mattered was that you were from this town, that your father lived, or had lived, here, and that you had spoken at least a few words to Abing for him to recognize which family you belonged to, to know who your parents were, how many brothers and sisters you had, who was the oldest and who the youngest, to know essentially your entire family history, the good and the bad; Abing was able to recite everything, no exceptions, and usually without error. The child had been born at a military base, and this had been the baby’s first visit to Lujiayan, yet Abing could hear and recognize his whole family history.

I was completely stunned!

I thought that this blind and imbecile Abing was truly a freak of nature. He possessed amazing perspicacity and mnemonic abilities, and of course, that was exactly the kind of person I was looking for. Now I simply had to report back to base. But the village had no telephone. Left with little choice, that evening I quickly made my way back to the city in order to call the Bureau Chief and report on my mission concerning Luo Shan, and now Abing as well. The person that I had gone to collect was now out of the picture and the person I wanted to bring back instead was blind and stupid. The Bureau Chief hesitated a moment before passing the receiver onto the Director himself. After listening to my report, he said, ‘As the proverb says, in every ten geniuses there are nine fools, and in every ten fools there is one genius. From what you say, perhaps this one is that genius. Bring him with you.’

7

Early the next morning I set off once again for Lujiayan. Thinking of the difficult passage I had made yesterday, and considering that today I would have a blind Abing in tow, I decided to rent a barge to make the round trip.

The barge was waiting for me at the dock.

This was the second time I entered the narrow, meandering streets of Lujiayan.