As far as I was concerned, the most worrying thing was that he might have lost his amazing ability to hear, especially now that he was far away from home. With these fears plaguing me on the journey back to Unit 701, I had repeatedly explained to Abing that as soon as we arrived – when we would meet the Chief Director – he had to be sure to show off his abilities. Afterwards, my instructions came back to bite me. Since Abing was certain that I was a good person, he followed my advice to the letter, making sure to ‘show off his abilities’. The result was that it didn’t matter who the person was, nor even whether or not they were actually speaking to him: he considered everything at this first meeting as a ‘test’. It was impossible to have any kind of normal conversation, since he would immediately jump in.

‘You’re an old-timer, about sixty years old; it’s possible that you’ve just drunk some alcohol …’

‘You’re a heavy smoker; your voice has been blackened by the smoke …’

‘You’re that old-timer that …’

‘Oh, you’re rather young, just thirty I imagine, but your tongue is rather short …’

‘Oh, you’ve had voice training, your voice can fly like a kite …’

‘Aha, you’re that heavy smoker again …’

As he was speaking, suddenly the sound of two dogs barking echoed in the courtyard and Abing fell completely silent. He seemed to be concentrating all his efforts on listening to the sound. At the same time, his ears seemed to twitch. A moment later, he let out a foolish laugh and said, ‘I dare say those two dogs outside are females. One of them is quite old, about seven or eight; the other is its offspring, perhaps not yet two.’

The two dogs were being looked after by the attendant at the guest house. This man happened to be standing next to the Director when Abing made his pronouncement. Naturally, the Director asked, ‘Is he right?’

‘Well, he’s right and he’s wrong,’ the attendant answered. ‘The older one is indeed the mother, but the younger one is a male.’

Abing’s face flared red as he shouted with uncontrollable rage: ‘Impossible! Absolutely impossible! You – you’re a liar! You’re – a wicked man, you’re – mocking me, a blind man, you … What kind of person are you? You – you, you’re evil, wicked …’

The same terrible scene that I had seen in Lujiayan once again played itself out.