Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 8 That Winter

"signature.."

Ye Wenjie murmured.

The entourage member standing to one side said, "Ye Wenjie, Representative Cheng wants to help you. She's been very concerned about you these past few days."

Cheng Lihua waved her hand to stop him from continuing. "I can understand, this child, sigh, he's terrified. The management level of some people these days is really too low, the Production and Construction Corps, and your courts, their methods are simplistic, their style is brutal, what kind of behavior is this! Okay, Xiao Ye, come, take a look at the document, take a close look."

Ye Wenjie picked up the documents and flipped through them under the dim light of the cell.

Representative Cheng wasn't lying to her; the document was indeed unrelated to her case, but rather concerned her deceased father. It recorded her father's interactions and conversations with various individuals, and the document was provided by Ye Wenjie's sister, Ye Wenxue.

Wenjie immediately recognized that this document was not written by her sister. Ye Wenxue's document exposing her father was written in a fierce style, and reading those lines was like listening to strings of exploding firecrackers. However, this document was written calmly and skillfully, with detailed and precise content, specifying who met whom on what day, what month, and where, and what they talked about. To an outsider, it looked like a plain account of events, but the hidden malice within was far beyond what Ye Wenxue's childish tricks could ever achieve.

She didn't quite understand the contents of the material, but she vaguely sensed that it was related to a major national defense project.

As a physicist, her father did some peripheral theoretical work. Ye Wenjie inherited his keenness and guessed from the fragments of the materials that this was the two bombs project that would later shock the world.

This project is under the key protection of the state, and has been spared from the storms of the outside world.

But for conspirators, this protection makes their work extremely difficult.

Ye Wenjie had no idea whether the materials were true or false; all she knew was that every punctuation mark on them was comparable to a gun or cannon, and even to a key figure in the project.

At the end of the document was her younger sister's large signature, while Ye Wenjie was to sign as an additional witness. She noticed that three people had already signed in that spot.

"I didn't know what my father and these people were saying," Ye Wenjie said softly as she put the materials back in their place.

"How could you not know? Many of these conversations took place in your home. Your sister knew, but you didn't?"

"I really don't know."

"But these conversations are true, and you have to trust the organization."

"I didn't say it wasn't true, but I really didn't know, so I can't sign it."

"Ye Wenjie," the accompanying staff member stepped forward to speak, but was stopped by Representative Cheng. She sat closer to Wenjie, took one of her cold hands, and said:

"Xiao Ye, let me be frank with you. Your case is very flexible. At worst, it's nothing serious, you don't even need to go through legal procedures. Just attend a training course, write a few self-criticisms, and you can go back to the Production and Construction Corps. At worst, Xiao Ye, you know in your heart that a prison sentence is entirely possible. For cases like yours involving questionable ideology, the judicial system now prefers to err on the side of caution. It's a matter of method on one hand, and a matter of ideology on the other. Ultimately, the general direction will be decided by the Military Control Commission. Of course, we can only discuss this privately."

The accompanying staff said, "Representative Cheng is really looking out for you. You saw it yourself; three witnesses have already signed. What difference does it make whether you sign or not? Ye Wenjie, don't be confused for a moment."

"Yes, Xiao Ye, it breaks my heart to see such a knowledgeable child like you ruined like this! I really want to save you, you absolutely must cooperate. Look at me, would I ever harm you?"

Ye Wenjie didn't look at her; she saw her father's blood. "Representative Cheng, I don't know what's written on it. I won't sign it."

Cheng Lihua fell silent, staring at Wenjie for a long while, the air seeming to freeze. Then, she slowly put the documents back in her briefcase, stood up, her kind expression still there, but frozen, like wearing a plaster mask. She walked with that same kind expression to the corner, where a bucket of water sat. She picked up the bucket, splashing half the water on Ye Wenjie and the other half onto the bedding, her movements methodical and steady. Then she threw down the bucket, turned, and walked out the door, leaving behind a curse: "Stubborn little bastard!"

In the winter, when the temperature was minus thirty degrees Celsius, the damp and cold interrogation room without a stove gripped Ye Wenjie tightly like a giant hand.

She heard her teeth chattering, and then the sound disappeared.

The bone-chilling cold robbed the world of its color from her eyes.

This little girl, who was freezing to death, didn't even have a match in her hand.

The closer Ye Wenjie got to death, the clearer the questions in her mind became.

She desperately wanted to know the answer to this question:

What exactly is she...?

What did I do wrong?

-----

"Heh...heh..."

Ye Wenjie was jolted awake from her reverie, and anger flashed in her usually calm eyes.

It's been twelve years.

She still can't forget that desperate cold.

Cheng Lihua's bucket of water extinguished the last bit of goodwill she had for the world.

One's own life, ideals, and suffering are worthless in the face of the arbitrariness of power!

"I won't write it."

Ye Wenjie's voice trembled slightly, and a bitter feeling welled up in her heart.

I had the opportunity to change this painful world, but I missed it because of my indecisiveness.

She no longer asked Li Youyu why he knew Cheng Lihua.

She tacitly acknowledged that Li Youyu knew everything.

But he should know that Cheng Lihua, who tormented him back then, not only escaped punishment, but also went to a higher-level unit because of her outstanding performance in the struggle.

Why did Li Youyu ask her to write a letter?

Do you want to see yourself fall into pain again?

Li Youyu's thinking goes further than Ye Wenjie's.

Although Lei Zhicheng had problems with his approach to Ye Wenjie, at the national level, he symbolized the group of people who were truly getting things done.

If he, full of ambition, were to clash with Cheng Lihua, who is determined to suppress him, who would win?

The answer is obvious.

Only when Lei Zhicheng was frustrated would he listen to Li Youyu's words.

What he wanted Ye Wenjie to do was to ignite the fuse of Cheng Lihua's bomb.

"Cheng Lihua needs to pay the price for what she did."

Li Youyu said, "No matter how righteous her excuse is, she is just a villain who tramples on others for her own selfish desires. In essence, she is no different from Qin Hui."

Ye Wenjie glanced at Li Youyu. "Are you talking about me too?"

"It's fine to say this to you, but Yang Weining has been protecting you all along, yet you almost killed him with your own hands. You owe him a lot."

Ye Wenjie didn't expect Li Youyu to be so blunt in pointing it out to her.

But she wasn't annoyed at all; on the contrary, she felt a little relaxed.

These days, the events at the cliff's edge weigh on her like a stone, and her husband Yang Weining's concern feels like a dull knife cutting into her flesh.

Li Youyu's words gave her a place to vent her guilt.

She made a mistake.

Finally, someone told her that she had made a mistake.

"Tell me, what do you want me to write in the letter?"