CHAPTER XVI

The newspapers had stepped up the campaign for the "extermination of imperialist elements wearing the cloak of religion". The latest figure in the limelight was a Father Riberi, a native of Monaco who had just been arrested. Ko Shan was sent to the reference room to search for all available material about him, proof of his Anti-People Crimes. Where exactly was Monaco, she wondered.
As Riberi was not a well-known figure, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. The only time Ko Shan could find that his name had appeared in the newspapers was when he had been sent to China as Minister from Monaco. A blurred photo showed him presenting his papers to Chiang Baishek. The entire letter of state was quoted. Monaco hoped that the friendship between the two nations would be ever on the increase, expressed admiration for Chiang, the head. of the Chinese national government, and felt confident that China was marching toward a brilliant future under his leadership- It was a routine" letter, worded in the usual diplomatic phrasing.

But since that was all there was, she brought it to the chief's room. He had told her that it was very urgent,
that "the top level is placing great importance on the Riberi case."
She knocked on the door. "Come in," Yuin Yih¬ch'uin's voice said.
When she pushed the door open, she found that he had a guest, Sheng Kai-fu, the head of the Hsin Hua News Agency. Sheng nodded at her without rising from his .seat.
"How are you, Comrade Ko?" he said smiling, looking at her a little curiously- He must have heard that One .about her linguist eyes, she thought. His brief appraising glance cut sharply through the pale dough of his good-natured plump face, which closed up again smoothly after it- He was tall and stout, wearing a summer suit and fashionable rimmed glasses- His hair was balding at the back and worn long at the sides, probably from a sense of compensation.
"Have you been to sec Chow Yen-hsia, Comrade Ko?" he said lightly, graciously including her in the conversation but not really expecting an answer. They had apparently been discussing the Peking Opera actress who was the latest hit in town. With Chairman Mao a Peking
Opera fan, going to the opera was the thing to do among persons of rank.
"You've seen her in Yu Tang Ch'ung, haven't you? That's the limit," Yuin said chortling to Sheng. "When
she's singing about her husband being poisoned by his other wife — you know that line: 'All seven holes bleeding, he went to Hades' — she points quickly to her two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth, one after the other, quick as lightning. Then when she comes to 'he went to' Hades'
she sticks out her tongue quickly, between notes, as if he'd been strangled and his tongue left hanging out. Never a
single line without hamming it up with gestures. When she sings 'I' she must point to her nose-"
Sheng smiled- "Well, don't you think this is also one of her good points?" he said mildly, but with an unmistakable gentle firmness in his tone which showed that he was applying some principle of Marx-Leninism to the subject at hand. A short, marked silence followed, the hush that always came with the invocation of the dogma. Sheng seemed to be nodding his head inwardly over his line of reasoning, which he did not care to go into just now, perhaps because the occasion did not call for such.
sententiousness-
Yuin said quickly, collecting himself, "Of course those gestures do help to make things clear." He wondered if Sheng was having an affair with the girl. Or had she become the favorite of somebody still higher up? "The gallery like it," he said half laughing, though his eyes were watchful. "And the gallery represents the Labor Masses of the city, even if it contains many impure elements, not quite up to the kung-nung-ping, worker, farmer, soldier standard- Anyhow, this Chow Yen-hsia is on the right road."
Sheng nodded slightly. "Chow Yen-hsia is not bad," he said abstractedly- He still seemed to be teetering on the edge of some profound ideological truth which was to remain unvoiced.
Yuin decided that it was not. Sheen himself, or he would not be defending her so openly- Besides, Sheng's preference for young girls was well-known- Chow Yen¬hsia was young for an opera singer of repute but perhaps too full-blown and earthy for his taste. Then her patron must be somebody higher up. He never got to hear about anything these days, he' thought irritably, feeling as if his paper had been scooped. There was a lot of rivalry between the Party newspaper and the Hsin Hua News

Agency since many of their functions overlapped.
KO Shan was just about to slip away inobtrusively, but Sheng stopped her with a gesture. "I'm going," he said, heaving himself up from his seat. "I've wasted
 enough of your time, Old Yuin. Now you can attend to Comrade Ko."
"No, I can come in later. Nothing important," she said.
"What is this?" Sheng asked, reaching for the old newspaper she had in her hand. "Let's have a look." "It's about Riberi," she said.
Yuin came over at once and peered at it over Sheng's shoulder.
Sheng ran his eyes hurriedly through the item and read the letter of state twice- He gave his glasses a little upward thrust. "That's very interesting," he murmured.
"He's sure pledged his allegiance to old Chiang in no uncertain terms."
"Let me see," Yuin tried to snatch it away, smiling.
Sheng was too quick for him, having already folded up the sheet and thrust in into his breast pocket. Making a doublechin in the effort to look down while buttoning up his pocket, he said, "This is a nation-wide campaign, so this item ought to be issued by the Hsin Hua News Agency for nation-wide distribution."
"Not so fast!" Yuin protested, forcing a laugh. "At
least let us copy it down to save you the trouble of sending us a mimeograph."
"Huh, you know how Peking will scream if you print
it ahead of the People's Daily, for quotation marks" Sheng said over his shoulder.
Yuin saw him out the door into the outer office- Bo Shan tried to sneak out after him but Yuin blocked her
way. He jerked his head at her curtly and she had to follow him into his room.
He returned to his desk and sat down without speaking. Having allowed the pause to drag on to a sufficient length to get her nervous, he said loudly. "I thought you'd know enough not to intrude when I have visitors."
"Yes, I should have found out before I knocked," she smiled apologetically. "It just slipped my mind. I was half dizzy burrowing into the archives digging this up, and
Yuin looked pained and cut her short with a cold nod of dismissal.
She walked out swiftly, knowing it was no use talking when his anger was at its peak- Another unpleasant jar was due her as she went round the corner of the hall-like outer office. A new desk had been placed there and Liu Ch'uen was sitting at it reading the papers.
"The Resist-America Aid-Borea Association has sent somebody here as liaison officer. Going to be stationed here permanently," an editor told her.
"Of all people!" Bo Shan muttered to herself.
Liu never once looked in her direction. She also ignored him, though she took to strolling past him on some errand or other. Once she wrote a note to a colleague, crumpled it into a little ball and tossed it to the other man's desk but it hit Liu on his shoulder. He paid no attention.
In the next few days when all members of the staff went to movies or exhibitions together on Group Attendance tickets, Liu always managed to get out of it. On, temporary detail with Bo Shan's office, he had the ready excuse that he had already promised to go with his own. unit- On the few occasions when he had to speak to her on business he was brief and wooden while she was cold and snappish. But she did not want to be too obvious. The one inexcusable thing is to let your passions interfere with your work and make a public show of yourself. before

the Masses, which means all non-Party members,' she reminded herself. She had enemies in the office like everybody else- They could do a lot to hurt her if they were to go and tell old Yuin, especially as Yuin was angry with her just now.
One day the telephone rang on her desk. "Liberation Daily News,'' she said. "Who do you want?   What's your unit? Wen Hui Pao?" That was another newspaper. She put the receiver down on the desk and called out bad-temperedly to the room in general, "Telephone for Liu Ch'uen," as if she not quite sure who he was.
But when he came over to her desk and picked up the receiver, she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes and said softly, "Big shot now, with reporters after you! No wonder you're so stuck-up now-"
"Walt?" Liu said into the phone- "Ai, yes, I'm Liu Ch'uen . . . Why, this is very unexpected-" he said. "When did you arrive?"
He leaned on the desk with his back to Bo Shan- She sat there reading some papers- Absentmindedly she wound the telephone wire over her hand and wrist in snaky loops. The wire became shorter and shorter- He was finally forced to turn round to face her, and had to stoop slightly to keep up with the retreating mouthpiece. She smiled, up at him, one eyebrow going up a little with a questioning wistfulness.
For a moment he stared into her face. It was Su Nan on the phone- She was in Shanghai. The New Democracy Youth Corps had transferred her here to work for Wen Hui Pao, the Corps newspaper. She had not had time to write him before she arrived. Listening to her unexpected and forgotten, familiar voice, it seemed to Liu that both his past and present worlds were going on thunderously at the same time in all their complexities. He was standing nowhere, suspended in black space while the two

worlds spun toward each other ominously. Or was it his present and future worlds? It all depended-
Su Nan's excited voice was as devoid of meaning to him as Ko Shan's smile. But he was achingly aware of the slick non-committal quality of his brief polite answers, anticipating hurt when he just said, "I'm afraid I can't get away just now. I'll be there in an hour and half ... All right, see you later."
He hung up and went back to his own desk- Bo Shan. coiled the telephone wire further up her arm, straightening out the stubbornly kinky places- She turned and said something to the man at the next desk about the unit meeting the next day.