by Mai Jia
Secretary Bai: Why do you say that Chief of Staff Wu didn’t commit suicide?
Gu Xiaomeng: Didn’t you hear him screaming?
Secretary Bai: You mean…?
Gu Xiaomeng: He was beaten to death.
Secretary Bai: Surely not.
Gu Xiaomeng: That just shows you don’t know anything about our wonderful Police Chief Wang and his men. They are happiest when beating people up. It’s normal for them to kill people – the amazing thing would be if you survived.
When Wang Tianxiang heard that, he ground his teeth in fury.
As for the question of whether Li Ningyu was Ghost or not, Gu Xiaomeng had some very odd things to say.
Gu Xiaomeng: I don’t know whether she’s a Communist or not, but I hope she isn’t.
Secretary Bai: And why is that?
Gu Xiaomeng: Because I love her.
Secretary Bai: What do you mean, you love her?
Gu Xiaomeng: That’s none of your business.
Secretary Bai: Whether it’s my business or not depends on quite how much you love her. If you love her to the point where you’re passing top-secret information to the enemy, then it absolutely is my business.
Gu Xiaomeng: You aren’t going to be able to interfere, for one, because your own position is pretty damn dicey. What a joke! You still think you’re in charge round here!
Secretary Bai: I am in charge here. When I summon you, you come.
Gu Xiaomeng: And when I want to leave, I go.
Secretary Bai: Don’t you dare!
Gu Xiaomeng: And why shouldn’t I?
As she said this, she got up, ready to walk. Secretary Bai moved to stop her, but she pushed him away.
‘Get out of my way! Who do you think you are? You’re as much under suspicion for being Ghost as the rest of us.’
Secretary Bai laughed dismissively.
‘It really is quite hilarious,’ Gu Xiaomeng said. ‘You carry on as if you’re important, when you’re nothing but a clown.’
‘I don’t care what you say about me,’ Secretary Bai said, ‘but I demand that you tell me about Li Ningyu.’
‘Right now I want to talk about you,’ Gu Xiaomeng said. ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that you’re much more likely to be Ghost than Li Ningyu is.’
‘You lying little bitch!’
‘Bastard!’
At the sound of the two of them shouting, the sentries burst in and intervened before they could start hitting each other. Gu Xiaomeng then demanded to see Colonel Hihara. Once he arrived, she made a bald claim, right there in front of Secretary Bai.
‘Colonel Hihara, I think Secretary Bai Xiaonian is Ghost.’
5
Gu Xiaomeng wasn’t joking.
‘Why are we under suspicion?’ she asked Hihara rhetorically. ‘It’s because we knew what was in the telegram. But Secretary Bai knew it too, so why isn’t he a suspect as well? In what way is he more important than me?’
‘Okay, there’s no need to go on about it,’ Hihara said. ‘He isn’t more important than you. You see this…?’ He gestured at the walls and told her about the room being bugged and how he’d been listening in on their interviews with Secretary Bai from the other building. ‘Didn’t Li Ningyu tell you that we’ve had you all under surveillance?’
Gu Xiaomeng shook her head, clearly confused and shocked.
Hihara carried on. ‘Right now, my main concern is how to get Li Ningyu to tell the truth. You’ve always been so close to her, have you really never noticed anything? Something that didn’t strike you at the time but now seems odd, perhaps?’
Gu Xiaomeng did think about it, but all that happened was that she kept shaking her head. ‘Either she’s covered her tracks too well for me, or… I simply cannot believe that Li Ningyu is Ghost.’ She paused and studied her expensively manicured fingernails for a moment. ‘I can’t help feeling there’s something fishy about Wu Zhiguo’s death. I don’t think he died by his own hand.’
‘So how did he die?’
Her theory was that Police Chief Wang had tortured Wu Zhiguo so badly that he died, and then, afraid that Colonel Hihara and Commander Zhang would punish him, he’d come up with this dumb suicide-letter idea. ‘Which makes me even more suspicious of Secretary Bai,’ she said.
‘Because…?’
‘Because if Police Chief Wang had to torture Wu Zhiguo so severely that it killed him, it must mean that Wu Zhiguo refused to confess, right to the last. Might he therefore have been innocent? In which case, who set him up? The only person who could have done that is Secretary Bai. He could have messed up the writing samples.’
‘How so?’
‘By swapping Wu Zhiguo’s sample for someone else’s.’
‘And that someone else was…?’
‘Secretary Bai himself.’
‘But he didn’t give a writing sample.’
‘He could have prepared one in advance.’ She gave Hihara one of her most winning smiles. ‘As I recall, he collected all the samples himself that evening and then handed them over to you. That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, you are right about that,’ Hihara conceded. ‘However, the fact is that before he died, Wu Zhiguo admitted to it being his handwriting, so your theory is actually quite wrong.’
Gu Xiaomeng wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘If anyone succeeded in secretly practising Chief of Staff Wu’s handwriting to the point of achieving a passable forgery, it wasn’t Li Ningyu.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because she’s a woman. It’s really difficult for a woman to learn to write like a man.’
In the end, Gu Xiaomeng said quite frankly to Colonel Hihara, ‘You must have noticed how, whenever Secretary Bai called me in for questioning, I talked all kinds of rubbish. Why was that? Because I don’t trust him, and I wasn’t going to be helpful. To tell you the truth, if Ghost really is right here in this building, I’m sure it’s him. But I don’t think Ghost is here with us.’
So where did she think Ghost was?
Colonel Hihara was not expecting that Gu Xiaomeng had now turned her sights on her ECCC boss, Commander Zhang!
Her tone was more aggressive now. ‘As the saying goes: you should never drop your guard. Logically, anyone and everyone who knew the contents of that telegram is a suspect. Why is Commander Zhang being excluded? Is it just because he’s a commander? People of much higher rank than his have proved to be traitors to the Imperial Japanese Army.’
Hihara was now distinctly uncomfortable; he was cursing inwardly as he got up to walk away. His anger wasn’t directed at Gu Xiaomeng but at the facts. After all the trouble he’d gone to, Li Ningyu was still Li Ningyu, and Ghost was still hiding in the shadows. Gu Xiaomeng’s comments had rendered Ghost’s identity even more of a mystery. Although he felt that he could trust the Commander, logically what she’d said was quite right. It was this that infuriated him. He could no longer ignore how desperately he wanted Li Ningyu to be Ghost. For all that this was merely a suspicion, he had to face up to how unhappy he was, how furious, how abandoned and betrayed he felt when any evidence emerged that served to disprove the accusations made against her.
In truth, Colonel Hihara was very dissatisfied with his own performance with respect to Ghost. He’d set out thinking he’d be able to close down this investigation pretty quickly, but not only had he failed to do that, he was actually in a much worse position than before. It was as if they were right back at the start again, back at the afternoon three days ago when he’d only just arrived and was noting down their names for the first time in his little black book. But this time round he had virtually no cards left to play.
NINE
1
The situation was becoming ever more complex, and Hihara couldn’t stop himself from wondering: have I been on the wrong track all along? You can know someone without ever understanding them, he reminded himself. Did that apply to Commander Zhang? For example, on the evening of the handwriting tests, the Commander had arrived
apparently by chance and it was he who had then discovered Wu Zhiguo’s guilt. And then, yesterday evening, Commander Zhang had phoned up to assert that Wu Zhiguo had to be their man.
After so many days of secret investigations and overt interrogations, the only person he believed to be innocent was Gu Xiaomeng. She was the one person he trusted, but she didn’t agree with his analysis. In fact, she would rather accuse Commander Zhang than consider the possibility that Li Ningyu was guilty.
Thinking about it some more, Hihara remembered that Commander Zhang was a noted calligrapher, so if someone had forged Wu Zhiguo’s handwriting, then – unfortunate as it was to have to admit this – he would be the obvious candidate. The more he mulled this over, the more uncomfortable Hihara became.
And so, just before lunch, he grabbed Police Chief Wang and together they paid an unannounced visit to Commander Zhang. First they sat and chatted in his office, and then Hihara insisted on going home with the Commander to meet his wife and join them for a family meal. Actually, of course, he wanted to see if he was spending time on regular calligraphy practice.
Given Commander Zhang’s traditional education, it was unsurprising that in his library at home there were calligraphy brushes, ink, paper and ink stones. Hanging on the walls were works by various famous calligraphers, and a few of his own pieces that he was proud of, including a pair of couplets:
In the sky there is a constellation of stars,
while on earth men walk with upright steps.
In calligraphy there are hidden dragons,
while in paintings there are crouching tigers.
His calligraphy was most distinguished – the black strokes cut across the paper like swords. It was a style characterized by controlled energy, reminiscent of fifth-century Wei-dynasty stele texts.
In calligraphy there are hidden dragons… That was all too suggestive. Hihara gazed at that couplet until he managed to really worry himself. Of course he hoped that Commander Zhang was innocent, but, equally, the Commander often gave the impression that he was up to something that he didn’t want anyone to know about.
After lunch, he rushed straight back to the Tan Estate and went to talk to Wu Zhiguo, which cheered him up a little. Wu Zhiguo was adamant that Commander Zhang was entirely honourable. ‘Tomorrow evening, when you raid the Gathering of Heroes, everything will become clear,’ he said with certainty. ‘You will know for sure that Li Ningyu is Ghost. I swear it. I swear it not only on my life but on the lives of my family.’
Wu Zhiguo had a wife and three children as well as an elderly mother. He was prepared to risk the lives of these five family members – he was putting everything on the line. Would Li Ningyu dare do the same? With that thought in mind, Hihara prepared to cross swords with her again.
2
The rain had passed and the sky was clear, but the grass was still wet and very green. As Hihara came out of the front door of the eastern building, he looked up and saw that Li Ningyu was sitting on the balcony of Wu Zhiguo’s old room. She was cross-legged and seemed to be enjoying herself. When he went over there, he discovered that she was painting; she had a very professional-looking easel set up, with paper and brushes that looked as though someone had prepared them just for her.
In fact, they were left over from the time of Qian-the-Dog.
Later, Secretary Bai told Hihara that Qian Huyi’s daughter had studied painting and that her equipment had remained in her room (the bedroom now occupied by Jin Shenghuo) even after the whole family was murdered. At lunch, Jin Shenghuo had happened to mention this, whereupon Li Ningyu had immediately requested that he give it to her. She said that she too had studied painting when she was younger and that she’d like to take it up again now, since she was bored and had so much time to kill.
Li Ningyu’s painting depicted a mountainside with two trees. ‘That’s very good,’ Hihara told her. ‘I can tell that you’ve studied painting.’
Li Ningyu didn’t look up but carried on painting as she spoke. ‘This must give you even more reason for suspecting that I forged Wu Zhiguo’s handwriting.’
‘Why’s that?’
She painted a few blades of grass at the foot of her trees. ‘Writing and painting both require good brush control, so if I can draw mountains and rivers, it would be easy for me to forge someone’s handwriting.’
Hihara laughed. ‘And next you’re going to tell me that if you were Ghost and you had been writing your secret missives in Chief of Staff Wu’s hand, you wouldn’t now be revealing to me that you knew how to paint. Am I right? You know, I’m finding you more and more talkative – not at all how you were a day or two ago. What’s that all about?’
She put down her brush and looked at him. ‘You came to find me. If you think I’m talking too much, then I’ll stop.’ And with that, she retreated inside and lay down on the bed, where she continued with her painting.
Colonel Hihara followed her. ‘Do you have much family?’ he asked, lingering in the doorway, blocking her light. She ignored him, so he continued. ‘We’ll know for sure whether or not you are Ghost tomorrow evening, when we ambush the so-called Gathering of Heroes.’ He moved further in, and the sunlight streamed past him. ‘But if you confess now, you’ll be the only one who gets punished. Otherwise, I’ll have your entire family killed, every single one of them, including your two children.’
All Li Ningyu said to that was, ‘Tomorrow you’re going to find out that I am not Ghost.’
Li Ningyu had a husband and two children, a boy and a girl. Her son was seven and her daughter was five. She had also brought an elderly servant from her family home, someone who’d worked for them for many years and was obviously a devoted retainer. This was all explained to Hihara by Police Chief Wang after he got back to the eastern building.
‘Her husband’s a newspaper reporter,’ Wang Tianxiang told him, ‘a very scholarly and refined man to look at, but he’s got a dreadful temper – he often beats his wife. One day this spring, he came to her office on the base and hit her till her face was a bloody mess. Something to do with her having fallen in love with another man, apparently. After that, she moved out of their house and slept in her office; later on, a room was found for her on the base, in the quarters for unmarried members of staff.’
‘What about her children?’
‘Oh, she goes back home to them every lunchtime.’ Wang Tianxiang seemed to know an awful lot about her private affairs. ‘Her husband works in the north part of Hangzhou, so he can’t go home at lunchtime, it’s too far. She goes every day to see the children.’
Hihara was about to say something when they both heard the sound of Secretary Bai’s voice challenging someone. It was coming through loud and clear over the microphone, from the western building. He was interrogating Li Ningyu all over again, yet again trying to force her to confess.
Hihara rolled his eyes. ‘He’s far too stupid to be able to play her.’
Wang Tianxiang cursed at the microphone. ‘What does he think he’s doing?’
Hihara laughed. ‘Acting on your instructions, Police Chief Wang?’
‘Why would I ask him to do that? Colonel Hihara, I really don’t think it’s Li Ningyu. It has to be Wu Zhiguo.’
Hihara stood up and walked over to the window. ‘I know you’re afraid of what’ll happen if Wu Zhiguo is released, but there’s no need. You work for me – he wouldn’t dare cause you any problems. If you set aside your concerns, you’ll see that Wu Zhiguo really doesn’t look so guilty after all.’
Hihara thought that if Wu Zhiguo was Ghost, he would rather die than admit it. Fine. However, he would also try and produce a scapegoat, and the best person to fulfil that role for him would be Gu Xiaomeng. Her father being so close to President Wang Jingwei, that would make the Nanjing government look really bad, and it would alienate her father from the puppet regime. The next best choice would be Commander Zhang, and the third best would be Section Chief Jin Shenghuo. Both of them were much more senior than Li Ningyu, who was jus
t a unit chief, after all, so there wasn’t much point getting rid of her.
As he stared out of the window, Hihara muttered, ‘This afternoon, I tried telling Wu Zhiguo that someone had accused Commander Zhang, but he rejected that in the strongest possible terms. If he were Ghost, he shouldn’t have done that; he should either have kept completely silent or thrown his weight behind the accusation.’
Wang Tianxiang now said quietly, ‘But if Li Ningyu is Ghost, when she was told that Wu Zhiguo had died in order to prove the truth of his accusations against her, she ought to have confessed. At the very least she would have done it to save her two children.’
‘You’re right.’ Hihara turned and sighed. ‘Which is why I can’t make up my mind whether to torture her or not.’
‘Let’s do it,’ Wang Tianxiang said. ‘There are some people who don’t give up until you torture them.’
‘But it’s so much more fun if you win by outwitting them,’ Hihara said. ‘So let’s try another card.’
3
This card he played in a most odd fashion.
Just before dinnertime, Hihara informed Police Chief Wang that this evening they wouldn’t be going to the front courtyard to eat. ‘Even a cornered rat will bite you, and we only have twenty-four hours left. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so we shouldn’t let them leave the building. Turtle still hasn’t reappeared, but I imagine he’ll be back tonight. If he were able to make contact with Ghost in the dining hall without us noticing, all our hard work will have been for nothing.’
He arranged for the dining hall to send food over.
When they’d finished eating, Hihara demanded that everyone come to the conference room for a meeting. They assembled quite quickly, but Hihara wasn’t there. When he finally turned up, he’d brought someone with him.
Who?
Wu Zhiguo.
The dead had come back to life.
Everyone sat there with their eyes like saucers and their mouths hanging open. And that included Police Chief Wang, who had no idea what on earth his boss thought that he was doing.