thinking. When they reached Miaomiao’s house, he sat down by himself in a corner and didn’t say a word. He closed his eyes and saw his wasted life pass before him, his ruined reputation, his happiness drifting away in a mist, the impermanence of life, and himself in prison and on the execution ground. His hands were trembling and he broke out in a cold sweat, but he pulled himself back to reality and tried over and over again to calculate the possible implications of using his “live or die together” plot twist. In theory, it could just work, but in practice, he didn’t have much confidence. He kept struggling back and forth in his mind until he was exhausted. He knew time was not on his side; the moment to make a final decision was upon him, and four lives hung in the balance.
Zhang Dou and Fang Caodi had already carried He Dongsheng into the house, tied him up in a big armchair that had been bolted to the floor in one of the two rooms. A digital camera was set up so that they could watch their prisoner from the other room to check when he woke up.
Little Xi pulled a chair over in front of Lao Chen and took his hand in hers. Being close to her made him feel calm; he had been considering one particular element of the situation. His “live or die together” plot might not have any effect on an ordinary bureaucrat, but it might just have a chance with He Dongsheng. This was because He Dongsheng was no ordinary unimaginative bureaucratic official. He Dongsheng was intelligent enough and his mind was nimble enough to understand how to play this game. So Lao Chen came to his final decision to gamble everything on his idea.
“Lao Chen,” said Fang Caodi, walking over with a tense expression on his face, “whatever you decide, we’ll all do what you tell us. I have a premonition that we can turn this situation to our advantage.”
“Is he coming around?” asked Lao Chen.
“Sure is,” answered Fang.
“Is the camera connected properly to the computer, and ready to broadcast onto the Internet?” asked Lao Chen.
“A digital camera, an MP3 player, a desktop computer, and a laptop are all linked together to broadband,” said Zhang Dou, settling down beside the TV monitor. “Also, three cell phones with cameras are all aimed at Professor He and are all ready to broadcast simultaneously.”
“Perfect. You all have a lot of questions you want to ask him, right?”
They nodded.
“Good,” said Lao Chen. “When he comes to, don’t utter a sound; listen to what I say. When I tell you to start talking, you can ask him all the questions you can think of. Okay?”
“Okay, we’ll follow your lead.”
“Even if I tell you to do something you don’t want to do, you must still do it. Are we agreed on that?”
“Agreed.”
“Now let’s go in the other room and question him,” said Lao Chen.
“But we can question him from this room,” said Fang Caodi.
“We can’t communicate properly that way,” said Lao Chen. “It has to be face-to-face.”
“I’ll go in and question him for you,” offered Fang Caodi.
“I have to do it myself,” insisted Lao Chen.
“Then you better put on a mask.”
“Old Fang, will it make any difference if I wear a mask or not? The moment you kidnapped He Dongsheng, I was already in on it with all of you, past the point of no return. I’m going in there now. You can all choose to remain in this room and keep well out of it, if you want.”
Lao Chen took the lead and walked into the other room. Then Little Xi pulled off her mask and followed; Fang Caodi and Zhang Dou went in together behind her.
He Dongsheng was an extremely analytical person. As soon as he woke up, despite a raging headache, he seemed to be considering the possibilities behind what had happened to him. He soon came to the conclusion that either his secretary, or Jian Lin, or Lao Chen had kidnapped him. He remained calm and collected, without letting on to the kidnappers what his thoughts were. Otherwise they might kill him. So when he saw Lao Chen enter the room without a mask, his reaction was not surprise but despair. The worst thing had already happened. Lao Chen had not been afraid to reveal his identity. This could only mean that these kidnappers had already decided not to let him go alive. The question he could not understand was: why?
“Mr. He,” began Lao Chen, “have some water and take a couple of aspirins.” Zhang Dou brought a glass of water, but He Dongsheng didn’t respond.
“Mr. He,” said Lao Chen, “if we wanted to harm you, we wouldn’t bother to trick you into drinking poisoned water, would we?
“Do you have any imported bottled water?” asked He Dongsheng without looking up.
Lao Chen and the others shook their heads.
“Oh…” He Dongsheng heaved a long sigh and then motioned to Zhang Dou to put the glass to his mouth and let him drink. He quickly gulped down the entire glass of water.
Lao Chen waited until he’d finished drinking and then said, “Mr. He, you are an intelligent man, so let’s be perfectly frank with each other-let’s say whatever we want to say, all right?”
“Why?” asked He Dongsheng through gritted teeth.
“You mean,” said Lao Chen, “you want to know why we invited you here, or, more correctly, why we have brought you here against your will and tied you up? It’s very simple. Because we have some questions we want to ask you.”
He Dongsheng laughed sarcastically.
“Truly, it’s that simple.” Lao Chen was calm. “You can’t believe what’s happening. But just answer a few simple questions, and we’ll let you go.”
“Nonsense!” He Dongsheng was angry, but he spoke as though talking weakly to himself.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Lao Chen. “You think we will not let you go because I’ve already let you see who I am. Actually, even if I hadn’t revealed my face, I think you would have thought of a few names, including mine. Of course, you can foresee that if something happened to you, your people would definitely investigate me, and sooner or later, in order to avoid a complete mental and physical collapse, I would confess everything. Then death would be the only option for these friends of mine.”
He Dongsheng had begun to pay attention.
“We want to live, too,” Lao Chen continued, “and we can only live if you live.”
“So,” said He Dongsheng, “if you want to live, then let me go immediately.”
“Don’t be so hasty,” said Lao Chen. “If we just casually let you go, you wouldn’t just shrug your shoulders and act as though nothing had happened; you would turn around and send somebody to arrest us. So even if we let you go this very minute, we have already committed a capital offense. It would be hard for us to escape execution; and even if you spoke up for us and we avoided the death sentence, we still wouldn’t escape being punished for a major crime. No, we don’t need your forgiveness now, and we’re not asking you for an extrajudicial favor.”
“Then what the hell
“We just want you to understand that we are all now in a ‘live together or die together’ situation. Live, and we all live, or die, and we all die-and the choice is up to you. Do you want to hear my explanation?”
“Let’s hear it!”
“First, let me explain the die-together part,” said Lao Chen. “Consider for a moment that our camera and sound recorder are all set up and connected to the Internet and to our cell phones; all we have to do is press a button and they will all start broadcasting. If we do this, the whole world will know that you have been kidnapped. No doubt you would soon be rescued and we would be up shit creek, but how do you think your precious Communist Party would treat you after that? How would the Party interpret this absurd situation? No matter how any of us explained it to the Party, who among them would believe our
“You’ll definitely die if you do that,” said He Dongsheng.
“We’re done for now, with one foot in the grave already. If we die, though, we’ll have you buried with us; even
