by Mai Jia
Of course, Hihara provided them with an explanation. ‘Do not be so surprised,’ he said rather solemnly. ‘Chief of Staff Wu has not died and come back to life. He tried to kill himself but failed. In a moment of suicidal despair, he cut his wrists and used his blood to write the letter. He was determined to die to prove his innocence. However, he made an elementary mistake.’ He gave a thin, wry smile.
What the others thought of this explanation was hard to gauge. There was no visible reaction; they continued to study the tabletop and kept their thoughts to themselves.
‘It’s not so easy to die by cutting your wrists,’ Hihara said. ‘You need to slash them and then put them in water – warm water, ideally. That way the blood will continue to flow and you’ll bleed to death. Chief of Staff Wu cut his wrists and then lay down on his bed. He watched the blood dripping and shut his eyes, imagining that he was going to die. But once he’d shut his eyes, the wounds started to close up. Blood coagulates automatically – I’m sure that’s something we’ve all experienced. If you are not destined to die, your attempts to kill yourself will fail.’
He turned to the Chief of Staff and nodded thoughtfully. ‘You’re a lucky man, Chief of Staff Wu. Anyone who survives something like that will enjoy good fortune in the future. Your good fortune will be seeing Ghost carried off in chains to face a firing squad.’
Having waxed eloquent on this subject for some time, Hihara informed them that they were also waiting for someone else to arrive.
Who could that be?
Commander Zhang.
‘Our investigations here are coming to an end,’ Hihara said. ‘We have a mere twenty-four hours left. It is my fault that Ghost has still not been unmasked. However, this is a gamble that we were always going to win. Tomorrow night we’re going to arrest K and the others, after which it will be impossible for Ghost, whichever one of you that is, to continue hiding from us.’ Here he did a slow gaze around the room, lingering on each face as he went. ‘I’m going to put it to you straight: when the time comes, I will have every member of your family killed – that’s the price you’ll pay for having refused to confess. I’m going to set a final time limit for this: midnight tonight. Until then, you’ll be given every opportunity to turn yourself in, but after that, to use Commander Zhang’s expression, you’ll have only yourselves to blame for what happens next.’
At the mention of his name, Commander Zhang appeared. He had arrived under cover of darkness, which served to make the shadows in his face even deeper; he looked depressed and old, and he wore a cruel expression. He circled them slowly, eventually pausing to glare at Wu Zhiguo. It looked as if he was about to say something, but Hihara stepped in. Hihara was worried that the Commander didn’t know what was really going on and might therefore get something wrong, so he jumped in to announce that he would now like to invite the Commander to open their meeting. He then proceeded to recount everything that had happened over the last few days.
It really was a comprehensive report, covering every twist so far: Section Chief Jin’s baseless accusations of Gu Xiaomeng at the outset and his attacks on Li Ningyu afterwards; Li Ningyu’s suspicions of Secretary Bai and her defence against the allegations made in Wu Zhiguo’s blood letter; Wu Zhiguo’s oath that he and his entire family would die if Li Ningyu turned out to be innocent; Gu Xiaomeng’s continued defence of Li Ningyu; his own secret investigations into Secretary Bai, and so on. Everything that had been said in private, the group’s secret denunciations, the details of their investigations, it all came out.
No, that’s not quite right. Some things were still held back: their surveillance of Gu Xiaomeng’s actor friend Mr Jian, Gu Xiaomeng’s suspicions of Commander Zhang, and their secret search of the Commander’s study – these, Colonel Hihara did not mention. This was quite understandable, because it was dangerous to suspect the Commander, and Gu Xiaomeng needed to be protected, since Hihara was now quite sure she had nothing to do with his case.
With their dirty secrets now out in the open, Gu Xiaomeng was the first to go on the attack. She cursed Section Chief Jin in the most vile terms. Secretary Bai wasn’t far behind her. Although he didn’t dare direct his anger at Commander Zhang or Colonel Hihara, he was quite happy to focus on Police Chief Wang, saying the most horrible things he could think of, threatening him at the top of his voice.
Chief of Staff Wu had had enough of Li Ningyu a long time ago, and so he happily set about yelling at her. To begin with, she stayed calm, kept her temper well under control, but then something he said seemed to get to her and, exactly as before, she turned on him. This time it wasn’t wine that she hurled but the comb she always carried with her. It went flying through the air like a dart. Perhaps because he was already badly injured, Wu Zhiguo wasn’t fast enough to dodge it; the teeth hit his jaw, which started to bleed. He jumped up and rushed at her; he wanted to thump her, but to his surprise, Gu Xiaomeng picked up a stool to ward him off, heroically interposing herself between them.
‘If it had been the Commander or Colonel Hihara saying Li Ningyu was Ghost, I wouldn’t have interfered,’ she said. ‘But if a big guy like you thinks you’re going to get away with hitting a woman right in front of me, you can think again!’
There was more to come. The grand finale was performed by Secretary Bai and Police Chief Wang Tianxiang. For props they used guns – real guns! The two of them had begun by quarrelling loudly, hurling abuse at each other, spittle flying in all directions, but eventually they reached for their weapons. Safety catches were released, and it needed only a finger to twitch and the pair of them could have ended up dead. It was all most odd.
When everyone had been screaming and shouting at each other, the Commander and Hihara had just sat and watched, but now that there was a real chance someone might die, they both leapt into action, each one hauling their own man off to one side for a talking-to.
This was no meeting; this was yet another of Hihara’s nasty traps. Under the guise of recounting to Commander Zhang everything that had happened, he had intentionally stirred up trouble between all of them. He wanted them to turn on each other, attack each other, reveal the most unpleasant aspects of their personalities. He also wanted to include Commander Zhang in his investigations, which was why he’d asked him to come along tonight. He was keeping his eyes open and listening carefully, hoping to spot some new clue as they fought with one another.
Besides which, it was a good way to pass the time.
4
It was very late.
One after the other, the lights in the rear courtyard went out, until the only lamps still shining were the ones in the conference room in the western building.
Suddenly, there was the sound of gunfire.
The sharp crackle of shots was interspersed with screaming and the noise of fighting and running footsteps… The people in the conference room had no time to react before two masked men burst through the window, shouting, ‘Don’t move! Put your hands in the air!’
Who could have imagined that the Red Army would risk everything to try and rescue Ghost?
Police Chief Wang thought about trying to reach for his gun, but then another two masked men came crashing through the door. He put his hands in the air obediently.
Everyone else did likewise. They were staring down the barrel of a black gun, and their lives were on the line.
‘Ghost, come with us!’
‘Let’s get out of here! Tiger sent us to rescue you.’
Hihara seemed determined to find out who Ghost was before he was shot. As he raised his hands, he glanced round him to see who it would turn out to be. Most unexpectedly, everyone put their hands up as commanded – some raised them high and some kept them low, some held them up straight and some held them at an angle, but every single person obeyed. Hihara did notice, however, that only Li Ningyu seemed to be taking the whole thing as calmly as Police Chief Wang. She looked as if it had nothing to do with her, while everyone else looked terrified. Secretary Bai was so scared,
he started drooling; it was really quite shameful.
‘Ghost, you need to come with us. If you delay any longer it’ll be too late!’
‘Come away now! Enemy reinforcements will arrive at any moment.’
‘Don’t waste this opportunity – you can’t delay any longer!’
But nobody stepped forward to join them.
Hihara now happened to notice that one of the masked men was wearing the special-issue steel-capped leather boots used only by the officers and men serving at Imperial Army headquarters. Which meant it was entirely possible that Ghost had seen through his little scheme. He was immediately overcome with embarrassment and rage. Before he’d even put his hands down, he was cursing.
‘Bugger off! All of you, get the hell out of here!’
He was shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.
He’d intended this to be the final show of the evening, and he’d taken a lot of care over it; it was the reason he’d held such a long meeting beforehand. Once it had got late, the ‘Red Army’ could risk appearing, and Ghost was supposed to blow his or her cover by trying to leave with them. But Ghost was not misnamed: he or she remained in the shadows, too experienced and intelligent to be fooled like this. They were all wearing regular-issue boots, they were carrying standard army-issue guns – how could anyone mistake them for Ghost’s comrades? Ghost’s comrades would be drawn from all over the country, they’d have weapons picked up here and there, and they’d speak with both southern and northern accents – how could they possibly all be identically kitted out?
Hihara had miscalculated yet again. Not only that, had he not also embarrassed everyone?
As for Commander Zhang, he couldn’t remember when he’d last been so humiliated. He’d had to raise a pair of trembling hands in front of his own subordinates! Hihara had organized all this without saying a word to him. What on earth was going on? He was furious.
‘Colonel, what do you think you’re doing?’
‘Do you need to ask?’ Hihara shot back angrily. ‘I was trying to lure the snake out into the open – to dig Ghost out of the woodwork. Is our little spectre not proving very hard to trick? But if you have a better idea, please don’t hesitate to speak out!’
Seeing how livid he was, the Commander tried to mollify him. ‘If I were you, I’d just wait until we’ve done the raid. By this time tomorrow, it’s going to be obvious who K and Tiger and Ghost are.’
Hihara strode over to Li Ningyu and stood right in front of her. ‘I think it’s obvious now. What do you think, Li Ningyu? You were totally calm just now. Can you tell me why that was?’
Li Ningyu didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘I can,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s because being forced to live in such humiliating conditions, being suspected of being a Communist agent for no good reason and being continually tricked and lied to really is worse than death.’
Hihara chuckled. ‘The fact is, Li Ningyu, I know you’re Ghost.’
‘In which case, why make so much fuss about it? Just arrest me.’
‘I need evidence,’ Hihara said. ‘Of course, I could arrest you without any evidence, but I don’t want to do that. I would rather play with you.’ He clasped his hands behind his back, relishing the moment. ‘Have you ever seen a cat playing with a mouse? It never eats the mouse immediately. No, it lets it go and then it catches it again; it catches it and lets it go. That’s so much more fun than just eating it straight away. Right now I am playing with you because I want to see you caught in the traps that I’ve set. That way, you’ll be furious with yourself and I will enjoy the whole thing all the more. Do you understand?’
Li Ningyu’s scalp began to prickle and a red mist descended. Anger was forcing its way out; it was burning, it was exploding…
She lost control.
She darted forward and threw Hihara to the ground. Her hands gripped him tightly around the neck, throttling him. ‘I am not Ghost!’ she screamed. ‘I am not Ghost! What gives you the right to say that I am? I’ve had enough of being tormented like this – I’m going to kill you!’
She’d gone completely mad.
Gu Xiaomeng and Secretary Bai tried to drag her off but couldn’t. She’d thrown herself on top of Hihara and was squeezing his neck with hands that were like steel manacles. Trying to tug at her was making not the slightest difference. In the end it was Police Chief Wang who dealt with it. He quickly picked up a chair and smashed it down as hard as he could across Li Ningyu’s back. She collapsed onto the ground.
Although Hihara was a small man and had quite a high-pitched voice, he’d practised martial arts since he was a child and was very good at self-defence. The whole thing had happened too suddenly; he’d had no time to prepare, and then she’d grabbed him by the throat, which severely limited his ability to counter-attack. Once Li Ningyu let go of him, he was able to breathe again. Then, with an elegant, fluid leap, he was back on his feet and standing firm.
Li Ningyu was lying on the floor and still hadn’t fully regained consciousness. Hihara walked over, kicked her and ordered her to stand up. She staggered to her feet, and the moment she was upright, Hihara punched her full in the face. It was a fast, heavy punch, with a great deal of force behind it, and Li Ningyu immediately crumpled in a bloody heap.
‘Get up!’
‘Get up, I tell you!’
‘If you’ve got the guts, get up again.’
Li Ningyu crawled back to her feet and Hihara punched her again. This time it was a left hook, then came a right uppercut. He hit her straight on, and he hit her at an angle – over and over again. He seemed determined to use her as a punchbag while he showed off his technique. He beat Li Ningyu until her head was ringing, there was blood pouring down her face and she no longer had the strength even to drag herself to her feet. Since she could no longer move, Hihara ordered Wang Tianxiang to hold her up so he could hit her some more.
In the end she was beaten to such a pulp that she became like a rag in Wang Tianxiang’s arms and he could no longer hold her up. Now even Commander Zhang was appalled, and he begged Hihara to stop, which he did.
By this time, Li Ningyu’s face was appallingly swollen, and she couldn’t really speak properly, but she tried nevertheless, demanding that Hihara hit her again.
‘Hit me… Beat me to death… If you don’t kill me, I’m going to take you to a military tribunal… How can you accuse me without any evidence? You’re trying to torture me into making a confession… You’ll pay for this in court… All of you are my witnesses.’
Hihara smiled coldly. ‘You’re going to take me to court? What court? A military tribunal? Who the hell do you think you are that you imagine you can take me to court! I don’t care if you’re Ghost or not, I can beat you to death as I would a dog. Nobody will care in the slightest.’
When Li Ningyu heard him say that, it seemed to cause her far more pain than his punches had. Her eyes filled with tears and she kept repeating to herself, ‘I am nothing but a dog… I am nothing but a dog…’ It was as if nobody else were present, and she looked completely numb.
Then, as if it were all more than she could possibly bear, the wooden repetition became a scream of agony and a flood of tears. ‘If I’m a dog, then nobody cares whether I live or die. If I’m a dog, then let me die right now.’
As she said that, she wobbled to her feet and began smashing her head against the wall.
Everyone else in the room froze in horror.
5
Li Ningyu smashed her head repeatedly against the wall, but she didn’t die. She didn’t even have the energy to stand upright, so how could she kill herself that way?
Realizing this, she crawled over to Hihara and grabbed him by the legs. She spat a mouthful of blood at him. ‘You animal! If tomorrow serves to prove… that I am not Ghost… you’ll go to hell for this!’
Hihara shook himself free and walked off.
Li Ningyu now crawled towards the Commander, pleading her cause. ‘Commander Zhang, I am not Ghost… Co
mmander Zhang, I am not Ghost…’
Commander Zhang couldn’t bear to watch any more. He gestured to Secretary Bai standing next to him and then walked off in the wake of Colonel Hihara. Even when he was outside the room, he could hear Li Ningyu screaming, ‘Commander Zhang, I am not Ghost!’
*
Li Ningyu wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t far off it. There was a horrible open wound on her forehead, her nose had been broken, her teeth had been knocked out and she was bleeding from everywhere.
She had been their colleague for a long time. Even if she was Ghost, they weren’t going to just stand by and watch her die. Besides which, from everything they’d seen, it didn’t seem possible that she was Ghost. So everyone got busy: while someone went to the officers’ club to call for a nurse, the others did basic first-aid on her, bandaging her wounds to staunch the flow of blood at least temporarily, and then helped her upstairs.
A nurse arrived quite soon, and Section Chief Jin and Secretary Bai used this as an excuse to leave. Only Gu Xiaomeng stayed behind to help the nurse bandage Li properly.
When the nurse had gone, Gu Xiaomeng got some water and washed the blood off Li Ningyu. Then she sat with her for a long time. Of the group, they were by far the closest. Despite the terrible ordeal they’d both been through, the two of them had never turned on each other.
Eventually, Gu Xiaomeng got up to leave. As Li Ningyu struggled to sit up, she thanked her. ‘You are the only true friend I have,’ she said. ‘Even if I die, I will never forget you.’
The Tan Estate was pitch black and silent as the grave. Li Ningyu lay on the bed listening to the wind rustling the leaves of the trees outside the window. She couldn’t sleep, and it seemed as though she wasn’t even trying to rest – she just lay quietly on the bed with her eyes wide open, unblinking, shining, perhaps afraid that if she closed them she would never open them again. It was as if she were using her final sight of this world to pierce the layers of darkness.