The noise died down an hour later. It was the middle of the night. Only a few more hours until dawn. She smiled to herself. A deep feeling of content filled her, and — as she thought of the moment when she had cut off Fang’s tongue — an excitement that she had never known until now.
Two days later, Jinshan marveled at the girl sitting on the other side of his desk. Had he known what would happen, he might not have suggested that Lieutenant Lin give Fang the keys to her room. No one would ever know the details of that particular transaction. Even Fang didn’t know of Jinshan’s role.
Jinshan had thought that Li would give Fang a black eye, or vice versa. Either would suit his purpose. The fight would be grounds for dismissal or even legal trouble for Li. Jinshan would be able to use this as cause to have her removed from the school, and she would join his own team. He would then talk to her father, the colonel, insisting that it was the only way to keep her out of trouble. Eventually, with the influence of Jinshan’s contacts in the PLA, the father would give his approval.
But all had not gone as planned. This girl was quite unpredictable.
As soon as Jinshan had become aware of what had happened to Fang that night, he’d had Lieutenant Lin transferred to another district. Anything Fang said — or wrote, since he would never speak again — would be denied by Lin. Jinshan had made sure of that.
But Fang wasn’t communicating anything. The investigative team, who were reporting through Jinshan, said that Fang didn’t write anything about the keys, or paying the girl Li a visit in the night. His story was that he didn’t know who had sliced off his tongue, or why. And he didn’t want to know.
The poor boy was a neutered animal without his tongue. He just wanted to be left alone. And Jinshan didn’t want anyone to find out that one of the instructors had a hand in this mess.
Jinshan had made sure that Li was not questioned about the incident. Fang’s roommate had said that Fang had left his room for an hour earlier that evening, but that was all he knew.
So this interview, in the office of the supervisor of the Junxun camp, would be the first time that Li was confronted about the incident. Jinshan wasn’t sure exactly what had happened that evening between Fang and Li, prior to Fang’s tongue being sliced off, but he had his suspicions.
“Are you comfortable?”
“Yes, sir, thank you,” said Li.
She looked calm. Jinshan was surprised at that. He thought she would be terrified to be in his presence.
“Do you know who I am?”
She said, “No, sir.”
“But you have some idea of my role here?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell me what you think I do.”
“I think you are evaluating us. For which role we will go on to next.”
Jinshan nodded. “This is partly true.” He looked down at his notepad. “You’ve done exceptionally well here.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He watched her eyes as he asked his next question. “What happened the night that you cut off Fang’s tongue?”
Li’s composed demeanor shattered, but only for a microsecond. She then stared at the wall and remained silent.
“You heard my question,” he persisted. “What is your answer?”
“He came to my room and…”
“And what?”
“He attacked me.”
“Did he?” Jinshan let the question hang in the air.
He expected her to fill the uncomfortable silence with an excuse, or with an apology. But she offered none.
“If he attacked you, why don’t you have any scars or bruises?”
She stopped looking at the wall and faced Jinshan. “Sometimes an attack is not easily recognized.”
Jinshan pursed his lips. “Why didn’t you bring this information to the attention of the instructors?”
“After he lost his tongue, that seemed unwise.”
His mouth formed a slight smile. “What shall we do with you now?”
She didn’t reply.
“I am of two minds. One, Fang was the aggressor and I would say that he got what he deserved. Two, you took matters into your own hands and committed an illegal act of violence.”
She said nothing.
“Punishable by prison.”
No response.
“Your father is a colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. You would bring much dishonor to your family if it were to get out that his daughter was the psychotic girl who sliced off the tongue of the university student in Guangzhou.”
At that, she looked worried.
Jinshan’s instincts were right. She was selfless. Service and sacrifice, devotion to family, to country. These were her motivations. Jinshan could work with them.
Her eyes moved as she was thinking of what to say. “I am sorry.”
Jinshan said, “Your father’s career would be over. Your family name would be associated with this violent act for decades. Instead of university, you would be behind bars. These are all things that a thoughtful person would have considered before taking such drastic action.”
Her head was down. Looking at the floor now. Shame was a powerful drug.
Jinshan held up his hand. “There is an alternative, however. Li, you have performed brilliantly here. I would hate to lose such a talented young woman to one careless act. An act that could be perceived by many as justified.”
She looked up at him, her eyes watery.
He reached down for her file, thumbing through the pages. “Like I said, you’ve done quite well here. With training and discipline, you could learn to harness your talents. You could help our nation in extraordinary ways. But the path that I am thinking of… it requires a great sacrifice.”
She nodded. “I am willing to sacrifice.”
“I am sure you are. But would you be willing to sacrifice everything you have? The life you know? Even your identity?”
She looked confused. “If it meant that I would not dishonor my family. If it meant that I could serve my country, yes. Of course. I will sacrifice anything.”
Jinshan smiled. “Then I think there is a way to remedy this unfortunate situation. I can take care of Fang and the incident here. I think you would be a valuable asset to my team.”
“Your team?”
“Yes, Li. You see, each year, I look for the best recruit at these types of camps. Some years I don’t find anyone suitable. This year, I have found you. The personnel that I select go on to serve China in ways that are dangerous but extremely crucial to our national security. We export many students to overseas assignments each year. Many of them do work for the Ministry of State Security while they are there.”
At the mention of the Ministry of State Security, Li raised her eyebrow. “The Ministry of…”
“Yes. We work with students before they travel, to ensure that they keep their eyes open while they are abroad. We use these Junxun camps to identify the best candidates for this type of work. They will go for a few years. Perhaps they will be asked to make a copy of a particular file, or sometimes to take certain pictures. Tens of thousands of these types of activities funnel in to my office each year. The Ministry of State Security is able to use all this information to improve China’s standing in the world.”
“I see.”
“But while it is very helpful to have so many temporary personnel performing these activities, we need to have a long-term presence as well. This allows us to better position ourselves for the bigger pieces of work. Long-term human resources, living and working alongside our adversaries. These are the type of people that I recruit.”