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Hulan stood. “Thank you for your time, Vice Minister. I will keep you informed of my activities.”
Zai followed her out the door, past the cluster of chattering assistants, down the stairs, and into the parking lot. They stood in the middle of the courtyard and hoped they wouldn’t be heard.
“Are you so sure of what you said, Hulan?”
“I’m sure that David, Miss Quo, and I are innocent. I believe that Governor Sun is being set up. But why and by whom I don’t know.”
“Maybe it’s politics. He may be too popular and they want to bring him down as they have done to you.”
“Um, perhaps.”
“What is it?”
“Someone has doctored his dangan.”
Zai recoiled. “This can’t be!”
“In some sections the paper doesn’t match. In others it appears to be the same person making the report, and yet the calligraphy is subtly different. I only have my bare eyes, but I think a lab would be able to verify my conclusions.”
“They’ve put damaging information in it?”
“Just the opposite. His file reads as thought it were for Mao or Zhou. It’s perfect. Every place that you’d expect to find criticism is only praise. He was not targeted during the Cultural Revolution, yet I know that the people in and around Taiyuan were very harsh and cruel.”
“Why change his file to make him look good if they’re going to accuse him of corruption so publicly?”
“This is exactly the question I’m wondering.”
Zai contemplated Hulan. He admired her fortitude, but always worried that it would get her into trouble.
“Tell me this,” he said. “Do you still believe this has something to do with the death of your friend’s daughter?”
“Yes, and what Bi Peng wrote about the Knight factory is true. It’s all linked.”
Zai grunted. This was not what he wanted to hear.
“I think you should leave the city,” he said at last.
“I’m going back to Da Shui Village. I think the answers are there.”
“No!” he rapped out. “I was thinking you should go to Beidaihe and stay with your mother. It might remind people who you are.” He thought for a moment, then said, “Better yet, go to Los Angeles. If you remain here, I don’t know what will happen. Our anti-corruption policies are very strong now. If they demand your arrest, there’s nothing I can do. The best thing for you to do is leave. Do you have your visa ready?”
“Of course, always.” As a Red Princess she was always prepared to leave on a moment’s notice. It also went without saying that she had plenty of cash—Chinese and American—hidden at her house.
“Go with your David to the United States,” Zai said. “Take Lo with you. He’ll always be able to reach me. I’ll take care of your mother. I’ll bring her to you as soon as I can.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “You should never have come back here. Not in 1985 and not three months ago. It’s time you realized your life lies elsewhere.” He released her, looked around, and signaled for Lo and the car.
He stood on the hot asphalt and watched as the Mercedes left the compound. Then he headed back to his office, where, as soon as he had made the proper calls to ask that Sun be arrested and Miss Quo picked up, he would have to decide just how long he could wait before he ordered Hulan’s and David’s detainment.
When Hulan, hot and feeling exhausted, entered the small reception area of David’s office, she saw Miss Quo crying into her hands. Hulan put an arm around the young woman, said a few soothing words, and escorted her into David’s office. He was perched on the edge of his desk, staring at the television. Pearl Jenner, wearing a sky blue suit, was on the screen, her face twisted into a look that somehow managed to convey outrage and pleasure. She was clearly enjoying her newfound celebrity. She spoke in English while a Chinese woman’s voice translated over the broadcast.
“Pearl’s been busy this morning,” David said. “How long before we’re taken in for questioning?”
David had used tame Western words for what could be hell in Beijing, but his worried look told Hulan that he wasn’t taking this lightly. But before she could answer, she needed to know how far the story had gone. With Miss Quo still weeping, David ran through events to this point. He’d come to the office and found Miss Quo sobbing over a copy of the People’s Daily. They turned on the television and learned more. Reporters and the local police had gone to Governor Sun’s Taiyuan home and to his Beijing apartment, but he was in neither place. Between the time that Hulan had left the ministry and now, Vice Minister Zai had sent out a spokesperson to announce that the country should be on full alert for Governor Sun. He might try to leave the country, or he might try to disappear into the interior. People should report any strangers to their Neighborhood Committee or local police.
This had been followed by clips showing Sun at banquets, cutting ribbons at commercial fairs, and striding across cultivated land as peasants trailed along behind him, while the anchor discussed the acts of bribery and corruption. “This all seemed innocuous enough,” David said, “but then the stories and with them the images shifted. Suddenly there was Sun clinking glasses with a Caucasian, posing with Henry and others before the Knight compound, and moving through a crowd, shaking hands and pressing the flesh as if he were a presidential candidate working his way through New Hampshire.”
Unlike the U.S., where journalists were supposed to use the word “alleged” in connection with supposed crimes, the Chinese reporters had made no such attempt. Sun was portrayed as an enemy of the people, a man who was willing to sell China to the lowest and most corrupt bidder in the world—the United States of America. Randall Craig of Tartan Enterprises and his entourage had left the country. (That they’d gone to Singapore on a previously arranged trip was not mentioned.) The government promised a prompt inspection of the manufacturing giant’s factories in Shenzhen.
David paused in his recitation when a visa photo of Henry Knight flashed on the screen. As the television anchor spoke, Hulan translated: “We opened our doors to this man. He has paid bribes to Governor Sun Gan and who knows whom else since he has come to our country. The government suggests that he be expelled at once. The American embassy has made no official statement regarding either Knight or Tartan. America is a strong country, but we are strong too. China will not allow any bad fellows on her soil.”
