Senior Reporter at the Qingjiang Daily, Lin Yongqing THE MOST PERPLEXING question for philosophers is this: where do we come from and where are we going? I've always felt that I come from 'nothing' and will return to 'nothing'.

Since I met Peng Guoliang through Xu Zhitai, however, I think I've gone from 'nothing' to 'something'. Not only do I have a 150-square-metre apartment, but yesterday his wife Zhang Peifen gave me thirty thousand yuan. Now I really do have 'something'.

After Zhang Peifen and I parted, on my way home I wondered what this 'something' meant, and after chewing on the problem I decided that the 'something' was a mission. Though I've come from 'nothing', I am here to complete this mission of 'something', and only once I've completed it can I return to 'nothing'. There is no doubt: my present mission is to convince Qi Xiuying to go easy on Peng Guoliang.

I accepted this mission entirely out of sympathy and in the belief that Peng Guoliang's merits outweigh his crimes. Men are not saints. Who has not sinned? But if you exaggerate that and exaggerate a person's flaws, then who among us cannot be counted a criminal?

Zhang Peifen insists her husband is innocent. She wept as she told me all that Peng Guoliang has done in the service of the people of Dongzhou. In terms of foreign investment alone, he has achieved ten times as much as Liu Yihe did when he was standing vice-mayor, and there is no end to the examples of his love for the people. I myself have been a beneficiary of Mayor Peng's 'people first' principle. Is it really necessary to be so petty and vindictive about a reformer with such a glorious political reputation and record of achievements?

So I was feeling indignant when I went to visit Qi Xiuying. I called ahead and, although she was perfectly friendly, there was a note of caution in her voice. I had intended to visit her office, but she asked me to go to her home that night. It would be more convenient to speak there. A warmth spread through my body.

I always thought the best character for a politician was no character at all, but even after she had become Secretary of the Party Committee and the Disciplinary Committee, Xiuying's unyielding character still didn't change. Back in college she hated all wrongdoing and never kept her opinions to herself. You'd think a person like that would be fundamentally unsuited to politics. I've never understood how she's got as far as she has. She has iron self-discipline, of course. She is revolted by extravagance and empty fashion, and excels at keeping her private life and emotions hidden. Perhaps her character is a help after all.

This was exactly why our relationship was a bit muddled. I knew perfectly well that she wished we could pa.s.s the rest of our lives together, but that lofty position of hers made everything difficult. It seemed to put a barrier between us.

And was that official position really so great? She's made enemies of practically everyone. In the end you retire, same as everyone else, and are forgotten. She's always had a weak heart, and the strain of researching Peng Guoliang's case over the past few days has caused her angina to return. An ambulance was even called. I can't understand why she is so dogged in pursuing these cases. Quit while you're ahead; that's what people say. In fact, that's what Lao-tzu meant by 'inaction': the avoidance of excessive or unnatural action. All things must have their 'measure'. Doing everything in the name of faith or conviction who would buy that?! Look at all the Party cadres who have become Buddhists.

Last New Year I went to the Ci'en Temple in the Western Hills to photograph the bell ringing ceremony, and was surprised to see a large red banner hanging at the gate of the Western Hills Park that read, 'The Ci'en Temple Bell Ringing Renewal Ceremony Wishes Good Fortune and Popular Support for All Leaders and Cadres'. I'd heard Xu Zhitai say that the Ci'en Temple had been taken over by Zhao Zhong, the former head of Number Two Department, and that he was raking it in by the bucketful. Obviously, the 'G.o.ds blessing the Cadres' really meant the 'Cadres blessing the temple'.

If all those leaders are ignoring the human world in favour of the spiritual world and only Qi Xiuying is left to care for the human world, what will the human world care for her efforts? When all is said and done, the 'blessings of the G.o.ds' all give way to the 'blessings of the people'.

Peng Guoliang blessed me, and if Qi Xiuying really loves me, she ought to find it in her to bless Peng Guoliang in return, and to go easy on him. Everything can be forgiven. If you couldn't even see your way to doing him this favour, then what will be left of your humanity? You go on about ideals and convictions; would you betray your kin for the sake of those convictions? What good is an ideal that demands such betrayal?

These thoughts rioted in my head as I pushed open the door to Qi Xiuying's home. She'd quite clearly made herself up and thrown off her usual 'Iron Maiden' image. She led me demurely into the dining room. A bottle of red wine and four dishes were on the table. Usually her maid cooked for her, but the maid wasn't there that night. She must have sent her away on purpose.

'Xiuying, these dishes look vice provincial-level,' I joked. 'You must have cooked them yourself.'

She chuckled. 'I've been so tired recently. I was mostly just hoping you'd have a gla.s.s of wine with me.'

Seeing she was in a good mood, I teased her. 'Usually your maid's here, Xiuying. Now that it's just us, it almost feels like we're having an affair!'

She gave me a playful shove. 'Listen to you! Here, let's have a drink!'

I thought of the female bureau chief Kalugina in the old Soviet movie Office Romance, and felt I was just like the male lead Novoseltsev, and Qi Xiuying was exactly like Kalugina! What I envied about that story was not only the love between Kalugina and Novoseltsev, but also the way that two lonely hearts came together. Qi Xiuying caused me no end of grief, though. Perhaps it was because her official position was so much higher than Kalugina's. Novoseltsev had to leave behind his customary cowardice before he won love. It seemed that I, too, would have to depart from my normal character.

After we'd finished a first gla.s.s of wine, Qi Xiuying said, 'Yongqing, once a woman's worked for a while in a disciplinary department, everyone starts to see her as a cold-blooded animal. Do you know how long it's been since I simply went shopping? Probably more than ten years. In the Disciplinary Committee I'm the first in the office in the morning and the last to go home. My life takes place on a line between two points: home to the office, office to home. I have barely any social interaction, not to mention dinners or parties. I know you secretly blame me, Yongqing. If it weren't for my official ident.i.ty, how I'd love to sit around in cafes and bars with you!'

It was rare for Qi Xiuying to talk like that about her feelings. I saw my opportunity and took it. 'Corrupt officials are everywhere these days. How many can you crush all by yourself? Why be so hard on yourself? People are weak. Who would want to become an official if it wasn't to profit by corruption? The people all say that they'd prefer a corrupt official who gets things done to an upright leader who only keeps his seat warm. Even during the feudal dynasties they said that officials watched out for one another. A few years from now you'll retire, Xiuying. Do you really need to make so many enemies? What good is it to cut yourself off from friends and family and the ma.s.ses? You're only as good as your official position. Why not spare a thought for what comes after, and for what will happen to your son? Take Peng Guoliang's case, for example. This is nothing but a political struggle between Liu Yihe and Peng Guoliang. I'm a journalist. I hear things from all sides. The struggle between the two of them isn't a new thing. Both have done great things for the people, haven't they? No one is perfect, Xiuying. Shouldn't we think about going easy on someone like Peng Guoliang, who has done so many great and useful things for the people? Shouldn't we leave an out for someone like that?'

Qi Xiuying's face hardened as I finished speaking, and she asked pointedly, 'Tell me the truth, Yongqing: has Peng Guoliang done anything for you personally?'

She'd struck right at the heart of the matter and my face reddened, but I steeled myself. In my whole life, no one but Peng Guoliang had ever done anything for me. They say that a drop of kindness should be repaid with a river, and for the sake of that 'room of my own', I was willing to compromise in front of Qi Xiuying.

'Xiuying,' I said, trying to keep calm, 'I'm speaking to you sincerely. Think carefully who else would say these things to you? You don't need to suspect me just because I'm telling you the truth, telling you what I feel.'

Her gaze swept me like a hawk, and there was disappointment in her voice. 'I wouldn't have thought it of you, Yongqing. Was it Zhang Peifen who sent you? She's a vice bureau-level cadre, yet not only does she ignore national law and Party discipline, but she even interferes in criminal cases, in some insane hope of restoring her husband's position . . . What a joke. You say the connection between Liu Yihe and Peng Guoliang is unusual, Yongqing, and that may be true. But LiuYihe is a straightforward and upright man, while Peng Guoliang is a devious snake. When I first came to Qingjiang Province, I began receiving notes written in Liu Yihe's voice and hand. They were t.i.tled The Civil Servant's Notebook, and they were filled with fabrications and slander. We investigated and discovered that their true author was Hu Zhanfa, Peng Guoliang's former secretary. You could say he is really stopping at nothing to get rid of Liu Yihe, including using some truly underhanded tricks. How could a person so cunning and deceitful really be thinking of the common people? The national Public Security Bureau has already taped him gambling thousands at casinos in Macau. In the face of cold, hard facts he's still acting the loyal minister and dreaming of overturning the charges. Yongqing, you mustn't let yourself be used!'

To be honest, I'd come with high hopes. I thought that the depth of feeling between the two of us would oblige her to give some ground, and couldn't have guessed she would still be the 'Female Bao Gong'. It looked as though she wouldn't take it seriously unless I hit her where it hurt.

'I'm not a three-year-old child who can't tell the difference between right and wrong,' I said. 'Look at everything that reform and opening up has brought. What you're doing isn't serving reform, it's just disturbing stability and harmony. Xiuying, so long as your feet are on the ground, you're bound to step in the mud. Even the hands of a tough anti-corruption crusader like you might not be quite as clean as they say in the papers.'

Qi Xiuying's gaze crackled with electricity. 'What do you mean by that?'

I replied darkly, 'I heard your son has started a real estate company. Never mind that children of officials at your level are not allowed to run companies, but even if they were, the bit of land he's working with is at the disposal of Peng Guoliang. Why would Peng Guoliang hand over the best bit of land to your son? Even an idiot could see the answer.'

This bit of information had come from Zhang Peifen. I didn't really believe her at first, but the arrow was on the bowstring and I didn't have time for scruples. To my shock, the words were hardly out of my mouth when she pounded the table and shouted, 'Lin Yongqing you despicable b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Get out of my sight this instant!'

I'd gone too far. I'd only make it worse if I kept talking, so I stormed out, slamming the door behind me.

For a full week following that, I was in a desperately bad mood. I didn't know how I could face Zhang Peifen. I'd promised her the sky, but not only had I not improved Peng Guoliang's chances, I'd made the situation worse.

Former Standing Vice-Mayor of Dongzhou, Peng Guoliang AFTER A MONTH-LONG battle of wills, I still hadn't made a peep to the investigation team. If that idiot Wen Huajian hadn't had the two hundred thousand dollars in his car the day he was detained, our mutual pact of silence would have denied the investigators even a sc.r.a.p of evidence. But that ill-gotten cash was a break in our defensive line.

Then I was brought from the guesthouse of the Provincial Military Headquarters where I'd been originally detained to an interrogation room at the Provincial Procuratorate. There I was interrogated simultaneously with Wen Huajian, Chen Shi and Hu Zhanfa. Those three idiots were completely cowed by the severity of the questions. Their fingers fidgeted on their knees and they practically quaked in their boots. Wen Huajian and Chen Shi immediately owned up to taking fifty thousand each. Hu Zhanfa instantly gave me up as the instigator of the The Civil Servant's Notebook.

They say real friendship is proved in adversity. Well, I wasn't seeing an ounce of friendship. We were turning on each other like dogs.

I'll admit that when I saw our defences break down I began to sweat, but I didn't lose my head. I was able to keep calm because I knew I was the mainstay of foreign investment in Dongzhou. Never mind about 'embezzling' a hundred thousand dollars. Giving me that as a reward would have been entirely within reason. Then I had the inspired idea to blame the fifty thousand on the Old Leader, who had actually come to me to ask for it when he was planning to hold the seminar in Hong Kong about the health benefits of the urine cure for retired cadres. When he didn't need the money, I'd pa.s.sed it to Huang Xiaoming the day they came for me. Greatness demands ruthlessness, and in the interest of my future restoration to power, I was willing to risk everything. I'd let them take me for now. I doubted they would go head to head with the Old Leader.

Worst of all was the d.a.m.ned biddy Niu Yuexian, running off with all that money. And why couldn't she have run a little farther? The investigation team, working with the Hong Kong Police, found her in Malaysia. That put me in a real bind. Luckily, I'd prepared my strategic response and blamed the entire thing on Liu Yihe, saying we'd deposited thirty million Hong Kong dollars in flexible reserve funds for when we might list H shares on the stock market in Hong Kong. At worst, that was a breach of discipline, and I really had made a report to Liu Yihe about it. He hadn't actually given me the nod, but he hadn't objected either. Then there was all the reciprocal gift-giving a.s.sociated with courting foreign investors. It all took money!

Though I had answers for every question, the Procuratorate still decided to hold me for further interrogation, so I was locked up in the Dongzhou Detention Centre. There I was questioned at irregular intervals by the investigation team. I knew Peifen was doing everything in her power to overturn my case, and after twenty years of marriage, I knew perfectly well what she was capable of. Soon the interrogations became less frequent.

After all my years in politics I know that any problem can be solved with the right skills, and I am entirely confident that so long as Peifen doesn't give up, I am sure to see the light of day again. I will not let myself fall apart.

I was lucky to be in the Dongzhou Detention Centre. When I was in office, I'd taken care to do right by the police authorities and give them regular bonuses. Now that I was in trouble, a few police officials who still had consciences felt sympathy for me. Hoping to boost Peifen's confidence, I sent a letter to her care of one of them. I'll admit that as I was putting pen to paper, my tears flowed freely, even wetting the letter. Thinking of Peifen struggling out there all alone, I began to hate Qi Xiuying, Liu Yihe and all the people who were against me, who counted the destruction of a family as a victory.

Tears in my eyes, I wrote: 'My dearest Peifen, it's been one hundred days since we were parted, but it feels like a hundred years. During these hundred days and nights you haven't once left my thoughts! After more than twenty years of marriage we've become as one, our hearts united. We've weathered countless storms, but this one came so much more suddenly and cruelly than I could ever have antic.i.p.ated. In my darkest hour, your incomparable love still supports me, consoling and strengthening me like a G.o.ddess of love. Every time I think of you, I feel power flowing into me. What moves me most is that from the very beginning, you have never uttered a word of complaint or blame, not only staying by my side, but abandoning all else in your struggle to win me justice and restore my honour! One hundred days have pa.s.sed, and your love has proven to me that you are both my most cherished wife and an angel who will deliver me from darkness into light. I am not yet going to congratulate myself on possibly turning misfortune into fortune through your unremitting efforts, but I am going to congratulate myself on having made the right choice more than twenty years ago, choosing you as the one who would accompany me through the wind and rain. I have complete faith that with you beside me, any miracle is possible . . . '

I knew that when Peifen read this letter and saw my spirits were still strong, she would feel comforted, and would continue the struggle to overturn the case at any cost.

My police officer friend soon had good news for me. Peifen's efforts had begun to bear fruit. First, she'd hired two top lawyers from Beijing with strong political backgrounds to cause trouble for the investigation team. They demanded to see the case materials. According to legal procedure, the counsel for the defence could only learn about the charges; they had no right to be shown the case materials. But in addition to getting hold of the materials, the two lawyers also discovered plenty of flaws in them. Indications were that my darkest hour was pa.s.sing and the dawn would soon break.

A few days later, however, the situation changed again. I was abruptly transferred to the detention centre in Changshan. Being transferred to another town was a bad sign. Experience told me it had to be the work of Qi Xiuying because she was infuriated by the pressure from the Beijing lawyers. I knew that Qi Xiuying was a woman of steadfast character, and she wouldn't deviate from her chosen course even if dragged by wild horses. No matter how strong her spine, though, it couldn't be stronger than my will.

Once in the Changshan Detention Centre, I was cast into deep solitude, with no information from outside. Compared to the officers in Dongzhou, my guards here had nothing but stern looks for me. I was determined that the shift in location wouldn't cut me off from the outside world, however. I knew Peifen would find a way to breach these castle walls. In an unfamiliar place, one is obliged to make new friends. I once told Peifen that so long as she has the spirit of a spider, she'll be able to weave her web ever wider. All of China, in fact, is nothing but an enormous spider web, and all of us spiders upon it. Though I am behind impregnable walls, I am still within that web which, after five thousand years of weaving, is as unbreakable and st.u.r.dy as the Great Wall.

A philosopher once said, if you believe that no one can make absolute use of power, then you've failed to study history. I am hoping to see what absolute use Qi Xiuying will make of her power. Justice is merely a street lamp that is entirely insufficient to illuminate Dongzhou, particularly when you consider that politics is a dark and ancient world.

Moving me to Changshan is an obvious sign that they were beginning to falter. They think the detention centres of Changshan and Dongzhou belong to different worlds. Why else transfer me here? What a colossal joke, to speak of justice while lacking so deeply in confidence.

In the Changshan centre, my isolation from the outside world makes my memories seem even more real than life as I'd lived it. Of course, it is most pleasant to recall women. The tenderness of Ou Beibei, the freshness of Niu Yuexian . . . it all comes back to me. But what comes home most powerfully is that all that dallying was not star-crossed. It wasn't fate that was lacking, but love. All that is left to memory are some clouded, insipid, half-painful traces. The only woman who can give me real power now is my own wife.

She hasn't disappointed me, either. The other day a tall police officer led the other inmates on a janitorial detail to the latrines, leaving me alone in the room. Suddenly another guard pa.s.sed me a mobile phone and told me to call Peifen. I could hardly believe it was happening, and I was so thrilled my hands shook. I nearly dropped the phone.

I spent five minutes talking with my wife, but her news was not optimistic. Although she continues to give me encouragement, she hasn't made much progress in overturning my case. But at least I once again have someone inside the detention centre that I can rely on and use to get news from the outside. Even so, my spirits have sunk low.

The Old Leader I WAS TAKEN quite by surprise to hear Peng Guoliang had been detained by the Provincial Disciplinary Committee. I learned of this from my erstwhile secretary Yang Hengda. He came to my house that day all in a fl.u.s.ter, looking thoroughly distracted.

Of all my secretaries, Hengda has the strongest grounding in theory. Not only is he an excellent writer, but he's also got a top-notch brain. He was born for politics. When Peng Guoliang hired Hengda, I thought he would see to his advancement and entrust him with important tasks. I'm surprised now to discover that Peng Guoliang has done little but engage in sensual pleasures without a thought to his duties, his head stuffed with bourgeois Epicureanism. I hear he split up the prize money for foreign investment attraction amongst his cronies and they blew it all in casinos. That amounted to a betrayal of my hopes and expectations for him, and of course it slowed Hengda's advancement as well.

Above all, though, it was a neglect of study.

Hengda tells me the copy of the Philosophical Reflections on the Urine Cure that I presented to Peng Guoliang has never left the shelf. He's never read a single page, though he's claimed to me that he's read it twice. Guoliang is the son of a common labourer, and he advanced to his position one step at a time. Now he's descended, one step at a time, into criminality. There are a mult.i.tude of reasons for this, and many lessons to be learned, but there's one core reason: his modes of thought have gone astray.

Some people think reform is a means of renewing modes of thought: out with the old, in with the new. They think everything old must be bad, and everything new must be good. But they can't actually tell what is old and what is new, just as some people believe that urine is a waste product of the body.

Every time I drink my morning urine, I feel my soul is ablaze and I forget I'm an old man of more than eighty winters. Chinese medicine identifies the kidneys as the key to the body's health. Long life depends on strong kidneys, but how do we strengthen them? Urine is the best tonic, of course: it not only strengthens the kidneys, but it also improves the brain, promotes intelligence and clears away spiritual pollution. Only when the spirit is healthy can the body be healthy. Thus, I advocate dispensing with all other health trends and relying on the urine cure alone. This keeps the thoughts in line. Only with a healthy body can we resist the l.u.s.ts and temptations that besiege us and lead to spiritual pollution.

This connects to political truth.

In theoretical terms, the princ.i.p.al end of politics is unification. This requires politicians to have a profound understanding of how something is created from nothing. Creating something from nothing is best achieved through cycles, like the urine cure. So long as you persist in imbibing in the morning, you can achieve the virtuous cycle of water becoming blood, blood becoming urine and urine once again becoming water.

I emphasise yet again, urine is the crystallisation of the metabolic process, and if we do not drink it, it will be lost. That would be not only a material loss, but also a spiritual loss. Thus, the urine cure is paramount to our health, and we must follow its directives for the sake of our physical health. It is the quintessence of traditional thinking on health and of traditional culture in general.

Those who don't know how to use the urine cure end up like Peng Guoliang, attacked by all manner of bacteria and viruses.

No wonder he became corrupt!

So how did Yang Hengda, who serves Peng every day, avoid infection?

It's simple: he worked with me for five years, during which time my urine cure gave him a very healthy body, but more importantly gave him a strong sense of loyalty to authority. He was deeply aware of the fact that he would be nothing without the Old Leader, and so he has always taken the Old Leader's will as his will, and whether or not he was serving Peng Guoliang, or Liu Yihe, or whoever, he knows that the interests of the Old Leader are paramount, and that the meaning of the Old Leader is that the Old shall lead the Young, otherwise the Ship of State will stray from its course. He's not like Guoliang, who forgot everyone else the moment his wings were dry, with the result that he is now digging his own grave.

Most galling is how Guoliang refused to admit his crimes to his higher-ups, and even tried to dump his garbage on my doorstep. I once spoke to him about funding for a seminar on the benefits of the urine cure for retired cadres, but later the cadres raised the funds themselves and we didn't use his money at all. Yet he has slandered me, saying I'd accepted fifty thousand dollars from him, thereby agitating the investigation team so much that they arrived at my house to verify the information.

Is that the way to treat an old leader such as myself?

I was so put out I didn't even let them in the door. I raised my cane and drove them off. I wanted to teach those young hotheads not to disturb the giant's slumber. My heart started giving me trouble again that day. Luckily my wife handed me a cup of that morning's urine, which eased my chest considerably.

My wife's quite right: there's no need for me to get in a temper about a bunch of young hotheads. If I'd ended up going to meet Marx, there's no telling where this great ship of Dongzhou might have drifted off to.

As long as I'm alive, I have to keep this ship on its course. Some people think reform is nothing more than a chance for them to play some clever tricks, to throw off discipline.

So I called Liu Yihe and warned him not to play so many clever tricks, and do a little more of substance. Otherwise Dongzhou will end up with diarrhoea, or an intestinal blockage.

Yang Hengda has visited me often over the past few days, hoping that I will make some calls and get him transferred to Number One Department, under Liu Yihe.

He's not been telling me the whole truth.

Once I'd given him the silent treatment, he came out with the real situation. He's antsy about his low grade, and no wonder. Peng Guoliang has treated him as an errand boy, forgetting whose secretary Hengda used to be.

People like Peng Guoliang, who don't understand politics, are bound to come a cropper sooner or later. Hengda tells me Guoliang's wife Zhang Peifen is hoping that I will make an appearance and speak up on Guoliang's behalf.

Who do they think they are?

If they want to frame me, that's their business. If they want to make use of me, then go ahead. Where are their principles? This Zhang Peifen is even more brazen than Guoliang himself. She'll stop at nothing to save her husband she'll end up on the inside herself, sooner or later. There's only one real rule in life, universally applicable: you reap what you sow.

I gave Liu Yihe a call, telling him Yang Hengda shouldn't be left to rot in Number Two. He took my hint and said he's always had a special appreciation for Yang Hengda. The Vice-Director of the Munic.i.p.al Government just happens to be moving to a position as Director of the Munic.i.p.al Research Office, leaving his post vacant. Yang Hengda couldn't be better suited to it. When you got right down to it, the reason Liu Yihe is such a star among this crop of leaders, and the reason why he's made mayor, is that he understands politics.

I am old. Age has no mercy. There is much I want to do, but my strength fails me. If it wasn't for the urine cure, I'm afraid I would have gone to meet Marx long ago. My greatest hope now is to spread the word about the cure far and wide. A city has its munic.i.p.al tree, its munic.i.p.al flower I believe it should also have its 'munic.i.p.al book'. The book best suited to be the munic.i.p.al book of Dongzhou is, of course, Philosophical Reflections on the Urine Cure.

Department Head, Number Two Department, Yang Hengda WHOEVER HOLDS THE upper hand holds all.

Liu Yihe is clearly in this position. He has rammed one end of the seesaw into the earth, leaving the other high in the air. Peng Guoliang looks like he is about to fall to earth, and I can't afford to fall with him. What can I do? The only thing is to push him, give him a kick, knock him all the way down. I need to turn the seesaw into a bridge by which I can crawl across to Liu Yihe.

Why crawl? That way I'll present the smallest target, and by the time anyone notices, I'll be on the other side already. Then no one will dare curse me for a traitor; they'll be too busy praising my perspicacity in coming out of the darkness into the light, and they'll all have smiles on their masks. Why masks and not faces? Because they long ago lost their true faces. All they have are masks, or faces like masks. In an environment like this, the art of self-protection is to see the true expression behind the masks.

While serving Peng Guoliang, I studied his political skills and tactics. Though he is adept at exerting control over others, he has little in the way of self-discipline, otherwise he would never have been seduced by gambling.

But he did have one particularly clever trick: he always took care to remain in the shadows, and he was skilled at staying there. He didn't like others spying on him, discerning his motives. On the contrary, he liked to see everything from within the darkness. It's a pity he wasn't content to stay there and run things from behind the scenes, but he meant his backstage role only to be temporary preparation for his taking centre stage. This was a fatal error on his part, and in this sense Liu Yihe is his superior. As Liu Yihe sees it, there is only the solid potentiality of power, nothing else. Though he is already the Mayor of Dongzhou, he still sees all the flashy posturing a.s.sociated with power as so much worthless filth. That's precisely why Peng was never a match for Liu. Faced with a true statesman, he was nothing more than a professional gambler with some skill at political intrigue. In the course of his rivalry with Liu, Peng was defeated at every turn, and could only take out his resentment at the card table.

Everyone knows that Huang Xiaoming and I were Peng Guoliang's left and right hands. So if Huang Xiaoming goes down, what will happen to me?

The more I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to get out of Number Two. But even if Liu Yihe set me up as head of Number One Department, I still wouldn't be content. One way or another I needed to turn Peng Guoliang's case into a springboard for my career.

I'd had my eyes on the position of Vice-Director of the Munic.i.p.al Government for a while. I needed to capitalise on Peng Guoliang's troubles to get the current inc.u.mbent, one Li Yumin, out of the way and take his seat. But I had to think about how exactly to do it. Success would depend on Liu Yihe, of course, but luckily I had the backing of the Old Leader. What I needed to do now was to adopt Liu Yihe's thoughts and worries as my own, and what had to be worrying him most at the moment was that his right-hand man had been detained by the investigation team. This was nothing less than an earthquake in Dongzhou politics, and he was probably desperate to know exactly how this earthquake scored on the Richter scale.

He knew that if Qi Xiuying was running the investigation it had to be a sizeable earthquake, but if it was too big it could inflict heavy damage on Dongzhou's politics and economy, which he would hate to see. What he needed most of all now was information about Peng Guoliang and the others on the inside.

It came to me: Number Two Department was Peng Guoliang's office, and now that he was detained I might, as the director of his office, become a bridge between the investigation team and the Munic.i.p.al Government. If the team came to talk to me I'd have plenty of information to give to Liu Yihe, enough to make him sit up and take notice of me. Seen this way, Peng Guoliang's detention transformed itself into a rare opportunity.

Just as I'd antic.i.p.ated, Deng Hongchang, the leader of the investigation team, called Xiao Furen, the Director of the Munic.i.p.al Government, and asked the departmental Party organisation to arrange someone to contact Zhang Peifen and ask her to ready a few changes of clean clothes for Peng Guoliang. Without hesitation Xiao Furen pa.s.sed the duty to me.

After I'd made a call to Zhang Peifen, I decided to be big about the situation. I mentioned what I was doing to Song Daoming, Mayor Liu's secretary, who was in his office arranging doc.u.ments.

When Song heard I planned to meet Zhang Peifen, he said, 'Hengda, I've always thought of you as the Old Leader's man, never as Peng Guoliang's. Mayor Liu has said before that putting you in charge of Number Two is a waste of your abilities, but he needed to give Peng Guoliang face, so he couldn't shift you. Now that you've spent some time in Number Two, I'm sure Mayor Liu is prepared to do right by you and the Old Leader. As a matter of fact, after Deng Hongchang called Xiao Furen, Xiao also made a report to Mayor Liu, and it was he who decided you'd be the one to contact Zhang Peifen while Peng Guoliang is in detention. He did this for two reasons. One is that you were once Peng Guoliang's right-hand man and Zhang Peifen trusts you and two, you were once the Old Leader's secretary, and your higher-ups, particularly Mayor Liu, trust you even more. Mayor Liu is unhappy that things have gone wrong with Peng Guoliang, but what has made him even more unhappy is that Zhang Peifen is ignoring all questions of right and wrong, crime and punishment. She is running around proclaiming that he's been wronged, doing everything in her power to accuse and slander others, even hoping to bring Mayor Liu himself down. The more complex the situation, Hengda, the clearer our heads must be!'

Song Daoming's words were frank and well informed. It was a good thing I'd taken the first step in coming to talk to him. Who knew there was so much going on behind the scenes!

Zhang Peifen treated me like a long-lost brother the moment I entered her house, dragging me into the sitting room with tears running down her face. Her appearance stirred a melancholy pity in me, but the way she cursed heaven and earth and all their inhabitants, swearing she'd get justice if it meant her life, lessened my sympathy somewhat, and made me nervous on her behalf. She was clearly prepared to play with fire.

This reminded me that only if I appeared to stand with her would she be likely to reveal her next move to me. And so it was. I joined in her complaints about injustice, and slowly found that she knew everything that was going on inside the detention centre where Peng Guoliang was being held, even down to what his meals consisted of.

I couldn't help being impressed. Clearly someone on the inside was feeding her information. She wasn't revealing all this to me by accident. She was giving me a message that her husband wasn't done yet, that there were many people still prepared to stand up for justice, and the end was still in question.

'So long as you do the right thing, Yang Hengda, my husband will do right by you once he's out!'

Peng Guoliang had been in politics for years and had a broad network of dependencies. There were those who protected him as they did themselves, and they were the ones prepared to take risks. Under the present system, the outcome of the law was in the hands of individual people, not in the hands of inst.i.tutions, and the law often gave way to favours, connections and even public opinion. The 'iron fist of the law' only frightened the small fry, not the big fish.

But even if Peng Guoliang managed to escape with his life, he'd be greatly weakened. Only someone as pathetic as Xu Zhitai would believe Zhang Peifen's promises. I used to work alongside Peng Guoliang every day, and though I didn't know him as well as his personal secretary, I couldn't help but be influenced. Just take the business with Ou Beibei. He'd behaved like a beast. I didn't know what Zhang Peifen would think of that if she knew, whether she'd still rant on about heavenly justice. She had the courage to play with fire? Fine, maybe she'd burn clear my path to the future.

Zhang Peifen's maid had packed several changes of clothes. I took the bag and prepared to leave, but Peifen took my hand and begged me in confidential tones to visit the Old Leader and speak to him on Peng Guoliang's behalf. I didn't say I would and didn't say I wouldn't. I made some conciliatory noises and left.