“It seems you are still refusing to confess that you need time to reconsider and remember. For us, this is understandable. We will give you ample time to prepare a thorough explanation. From today, you should see that avoiding the issue is not helpful. Now, let’s talk a little more about the female spy Austin. Give an account of your relationship with her.”
“I suppose you know that Mrs. Austin is a businesswoman’s wife, with whom I have only social intercourse. We played bridge and ate together.”
“You introduced her to a Nationalist official.”
“What? He was what?” Now I was really startled. The arraigner, however, looked at me leisurely.
“You take that Chinese doctor who holds an ancestral recipe and bring him to her residence. Before practicing medicine, that doctor was a high-ranking official of the Kuomintang.”
“I don’t know his history, I only know that he is an ancestral doctor with ability. Austen had talked to me privately about it, and she said she was very unhappy because she was suffering from sterility. She had seen many European doctors and could never find any cause. I sympathized with her, so I went to consult the Chinese doctor to find out if Chinese medicine could help her with this incurable disease. But the doctor said it was difficult to prescribe medicine without seeing the patient, so I introduced them to each other. You can find out from that doctor himself.”
“He committed suicide when the Red Guards took action against him.”
Could it be that he had been in contact with a British secret agent that the Red Guards persecuted him? God heck, why did I introduce them to each other! I was so stupid not to understand the complexity of society under the ultra-left line. Trying to do something good out of sympathy has led to disaster. For this reason the Chinese have a new saying for dealing with the world: “Do more, do more wrong, do less, do less, do nothing and be a model citizen.” How come I didn’t learn from the experience of others? I grieve for the poor man’s death.
“In addition to taking that doctor to see her, you traveled with her to Beijing. What did you do there? Who did you meet?”
“In 1959, the tomb of Wanli, the Ming emperor, was opened to the public in Beijing, and in 1960 we went there to visit. When you travel with foreigners, you can stay in a hotel, but if you travel as a Chinese, you can only stay in a third-class guest house. So I went with Mrs. Austin and another British girlfriend. It was easier for them to go with me because I knew Beijing well, I had grown up in Beijing and I could translate for them.”
“Did you introduce her to anyone else in Beijing?”
“No. I don’t know many people in Beijing myself.”
“How about your brother? We know he came to see you at the hotel.”
“The day my brother came, the two foreign women happened to be visiting the Wolverine Temple, and I didn’t go with them. My brother didn’t want to meet them.”
At that moment, there was a slight sound behind me. The arraigner looked behind my shoulder, looked at his watch, and after a few words with the recorder, he got up and said.
“You can go back to your cell. Next time we want you to talk about your work for Asia and why you hired that Soviet spy White Russian woman as a secretary. I don’t suppose you would deny the fact that you worked for Asia, would you?”
He paused briefly and then continued, “And think carefully about your relationship with Sigurd. Remember, we already have the material that he used you to gather information, and we know very well what you have said to them.”
“I don’t tell people what I don’t know myself. How can I possibly give him access to anything I don’t know myself?”
“All right. However, I think he came to Shanghai to see you for a purpose. Once before you left for Hong Kong, and again after you returned to Shanghai. He wouldn’t have done this if he hadn’t had another agenda.”
A guard opened the door, and the arraigner told me to go back. I knew that after the man behind the small window had left, he was unwilling to delay the interrogation any longer.
Back in my cell, I continued under the guards’ covert surveillance. A sharp pain gnawed at my heart, and I felt that I was responsible for the poor old man’s death. Alas, how much better it would have been if I had never met Scout or Austin or whatever! Could they really have been British spies? Even if they were all spies, there was no reason to put me in jail. Expatriates and senior employees of foreign companies in Shanghai are constantly under surveillance by their nannies and other Chinese agents. In public places, such as offices, there are not only public security officers or armed soldiers on duty, but also plainclothes and far-left elements who like to snitch. Unlike cities around the world, there is no freedom of privacy in Shanghai. If the government really had any suspicions about my relationship with Scott or Austin, they could have started doing something years ago. Indeed, I didn’t know much about it either. The arraigner could have reviewed the list of my foreign friends and identified them as secret agents. Scout and Austin were just two of the leading figures who offered to intimidate me. I was already in the mud, and I had to be careful not to get deeper into it.
Since I was put in the First Detention Center, I’ve been racking my brain wondering why I was arrested. Who was behind this action? Did they really suspect me of committing a crime, or were they just threatening to force me to give a false account in order to provide them with material to fight against me? Winnie seemed to think that I had to be punished because Asean had stopped doing business in Shanghai. Was her analysis correct?
As I recalled the scenes of the war of words with the investigator, I couldn’t help but think of all the stories I had heard about the innocent victims. They were either sentenced to prison or hard labor, and my courage faltered at the thought. I felt very frightened. Not only because I was afraid of what I would be charged with, but also because I was afraid that I would no longer be able to argue with the arraigner.
At night, in the silence of the hour, I said my daily prayers. But the voice of the investigator always seemed to interfere with my ears. I only felt disappointed and sad, as if even God had abandoned me.
That night, I had a nightmare. It was the first time I had a nightmare since I was imprisoned. I dreamed that I was standing on a steep cliff by the sea, and the waves were coming at me, one after another, trying to sweep me away. The sky, was dark, and I stood there alone, like a rock, motionless ……
I pulled the covers up to cover my face and cried in fear. When I reopened my eyes afterwards, I saw the light bulb, staring at me like eyes from above, and the piece of cloth used to cover my eyes, fell to the ground. Suddenly, I remembered that the guards would always look into the peephole to examine me, and I immediately controlled my fears. At this time, I heard the sound of moving pins upstairs, and I realized that the guards were escorting the prisoners elsewhere.
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