But for Rong Jinzhen, his notebook was most certainly not an overlooked needle — there was no reason for him to think of it as being something worthless. No doubt his original intention was to remember it, to think much about it, to ensure that it was not forgotten, to enshrine it within his very being itself. This was because for Rong Jinzhen, his notebook was his most important and most valuable possession. To use his own words: his notebook was the vessel for his soul.
If this was the case, how is it that he had neglected to put away his most precious possession?
That is a most impenetrable riddle. .
[To be continued]
Rong Jinzhen felt a profound sense of remorse about what had happened, and as though he had stumbled into a mysterious labyrinth, vainly searching for an answer to the riddle as to why he neglected to put his notebook away. At first, the darkness that lay within his mind was nearly impenetrable and brought about an acute feeling of vertigo, but gradually he adapted to it, and the darkness became his means of discovering the light. In this fashion he brought himself towards a most important thought: ‘Perhaps it was because I had prized it too much, had hidden it too deeply in the heart of my heart, that I had failed to see. . Perhaps I had subconsciously come to understand that my notebook was no longer my solitary companion, no longer a real concrete thing, just like my glasses. . Something so necessary can so easily be lost! For so long my notebooks had been part of my life, they had become part of my blood, a bodily organ. . I never felt them, just like a person is never truly aware of his heart or his blood. . It is only when sick that a person becomes cognisant of his physical body; only when your glasses go missing that you discover that you need them: that’s what happened with my notebook. . ’
Rong Jinzhen leapt from his bed as though he had been electrocuted. He got dressed and made haste to leave the hospital. He was like a fire consuming its fuel, a man desperately trying to flee. His wife, this young women who stood a half a head taller than him, had never before seen her husband act like this: she was shocked, stupefied; all she could do was chase after him.
Because his eyes were not accustomed to the darkness of the staircase, he stumbled quickly down the steps, finally tumbling out onto the ground floor. His glasses fell with him, and although they didn’t break, the delay allowed his wife to catch him up. She had just hurried over to the hospital from Unit 701 because she had been informed that due to the stresses of travel, her husband had taken ill and had been sent to hospital, and was in need of care. This was her reason for hurrying over, but she had no idea as to what had really happened. She urged her husband to return to his bed to rest but he resolutely refused.
Outside, he was pleasantly surprised to see his jeep parked in the courtyard. Rushing over to it he saw the driver hunched over the steering wheel taking a nap. The jeep seemed to have been brought for him to use. Lying by telling the truth, he told his wife that he had left his briefcase at the station and had to go and retrieve it. But he never went to the station, going directly to B City instead.
Rong Jinzhen understood that the thief could be either on the train or in B City — there were no other possibilities. If he was still on the train, then there was nowhere for him to run. That meant that Rong Jinzhen had to make great haste to B City. A City didn’t need him, but B City — B City might yet need its entire population!
Three hours later, Rong Jinzhen pulled into the courtyard of the city garrison. From there he learnt that he had to go the Special Incidents Task Force, located within the garrison guest house. The man in charge was a Deputy Minister dispatched from General Headquarters; but he had yet to arrive. Below him were five deputy heads whose responsibilities had been divided up between the relevant departments of the military in A City and B City. This group included one deputy head who would later become Director of Unit 701: Zheng the Gimp. Upon reaching the guest house, Assistant Director Zheng gave Rong Jinzhen some bad news: the train had been searched from top to bottom and the thief was nowhere to be found.
This could only mean that the thief had alighted in B City! Without delay, everyone involved was dispatched to B City. In the evening, Vasili himself arrived, initially under orders from Director Feng to escort Rong Jinzhen back to the hospital; but sensing that Rong Jinzhen would most likely refuse to return, Director Feng had included supplementary instructions: if he would not relent in his desire to remain in B City, then Vasili had to accompany him everywhere and ensure his safety.
This is more or less what transpired.
No one knew that Vasili would potentially compromise the very security of Unit 701 and nearly bring ruin upon them all.
6
Over the course of the next few days, Rong Jinzhen drifted through the streets and alleys of B City much like a wandering, displaced soul. During the long endless nights — nights that would have driven the most resolute person insane — he whiled away the hours contemplating the most far-off things. He had passed through hope and now felt the most extreme despair; the night had become torture. Every evening, his most pitiable fate nagged at him, tortured him and stole away his sleep, and yet the mornings only served to pressure him even more, like burning moxa on his body. He delved deep down into his mind in an effort to recall that day and evening, to censure himself, and to try and understand how he had committed such a terrible mistake. But in truth, it seemed as though everything he had done had been a mistake, and yet free of mistakes: it was all a dream, a fantasy. Tangled up in this bewildering, agitating and yet shameless predicament, miserably hot tears scorched his eyes, drowning him within this torture. Rong Jinzhen felt he was a withered flower, his petals in the process of falling off. He was like a lamb that had lost its way, whose mournful calls grew weaker and weaker, ever more heartwrenching.
It was now the evening of the sixth day since the incident had occurred. This most important and yet most hurtful evening began with a torrential downpour. The rain drenched Rong Jinzhen and Vasili to the bone, giving rise to a ceaseless cough in the former, and causing them to return early from their search. Stretched out on beds that had been provided for them, the weariness in their bones was not entirely unbearable, but the endless rain outside was tormenting.The rain made Rong Jinzhen think of a dreadful quandary. . [Transcript of the interview with Director Zheng]
As someone intimately involved in the situation, Rong Jinzhen had a unique point of view when compared to the other investigators assigned to this case. For instance, he believed that the main motive for the theft had to have been money, and that once the thief had taken what was financially valuable, he would dispose of the rest, including Rong Jinzhen’s most precious notebook. This perspective was not without reason, and so once Rong Jinzhen set it out, everyone working on the case paid it special attention. Consequently, men were sent out to search all the city’s dustbins and landfills. Of course, Rong Jinzhen himself went out to scour through the city’s rubbish, taking the lead in many instances, putting his energy into being especially meticulous, even going over the same places that someone else had already looked through.