American Fugitive, a novel, Chapter 4 Guo Jingjun

Chapter 4 Guo Jingjun

It was just after dark. Inside ShunAn’s front office, Jianyou and Little Fei stood behind a counter. There were no customers. Little Fei, twenty years old, was a chubby and short girl with short hair. She picked up a Coca-Cola bottle and found it was empty after just one sip. With pursed-up lips, she mourned “Just one sip, it’s all gone.”

Jianyou was two meters away, and a head taller than her. He turned his head away from his cellphone screen. “Want me to get you another one?” he asked.

Little Fei flashed a coy smile, with her eyes narrowed into slits. “There is no need. Thank you though!”

He walked toward her. “Can I take a look at your cellphone? I may get the same one too.” Little Fei had just bought a new cellphone. She reluctantly gave him her phone. He took the cellphone and opened a website about Lin Biao, and started browsing.

* * * * *

 

A middle aged man with a handsome and clean face walked in. Little Fei greeted him. “How are you? Want to rent a car?”

The man had big and piercing eyes. He asked “What kind of cars do you have?”

Little Fei pulled Jianyou’s hand and said “What kinds of cars do we have?”

Jianyou was looking at the cellphone screen, and didn’t want to move away from that. The man said to Little Fei “You work here. How can you not know the types of cars you have?”

Little Fei was not happy. She picked up the Coca-Cola bottle, and was about to drink from it. Oblivious to Little Fei sad face, the man continued. “You are already overweight. If you keep drinking Coca-Cola, won’t you gain more weight?”

 

Little Fei felt deeply humiliated. And it was in front of Jianyou, of all people! With tears in her eyes, she shook Jianyou’s hand and was speechless.

Jianyou was indignant. “What’s wrong with you? What does her weight have to do with you?” The man pointed at Jianyou. “Look at you. Also fat. Why don’t you control your appetite?”

Jianyou pointed his finger at the man. “You, you—”. Seeing the angry Jianyou becoming speechless, Little Fei was disappointed and cried. Covering her face with both hands, she hurried toward the break room in the back. Jianyou was about to follow her when a male voice came: “This is an SKS fully automatic rifle, made in Romania in 1960. Older than me.” The voice came from the cellphone in Jianyou’s hand. The man immediately said, “That is Ho Renyi.”

 

Little Fei hurried back, and tried to take her cellphone from Jianyou. But Jianyou held it firm. He begged “Please let me have it a little longer. I will return it shortly.” Jianyou didn’t comfort her. Furthermore, he denied her request, which made Little Fei even sadder. She covered her face, and hurried toward the break room again.

Jianyou moved two steps toward Little Fei, and then stopped. He turned around and asked the man, “Do you know the person in the video?”

Jianyou showed the cellphone screen to the man. Jianyou clicked on a flower picture on the screen. The flower turned out to be a video. As the video zoomed out, one could see the flower was in the muzzle of a pistol on a table. Other pistols and rifles were on the table as well. Ho Renyi, in his black leather jacket, appeared in the video. The man smiled.

“That was him, around ten years ago.”

“He is in the U.S. Do you know him?” Jianyou asked.

“His home is in California. But he lives in Wuhan now.”

“What’s his name?”

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he asked “What’s the website?”

“Friends of Lin Biao.”

The man laughed. “He has been trying to overturn the resolution on Lin Biao for years.”

Jianyou was overjoyed. “Where is he? Can you introduce me to him?”

* - * - * - * - *

 

The man’s name was Guo Jingjun. His given name Jingjun literally means “strong army” in Chinese. He came to rent a car for a family outing. Jingjun and Yongshi were classmates in elementary school. Jingjun’s mother was a middle school teacher before her retirement, and a good friend of Yongshi’s mother. As a result, Jingjun and Renyi were friends for many years.

Jianyou introduced himself as Lin Biao’s grandnephew. Jingjun called Renyi, who was very excited about meeting Lin Biao’s relative. Half an hour later, Renyi came to ShunAn’s front office. Jianhan also came to the front office. As longtime members of the “Friends of Lin Biao” website, they had a lot to say to one another. Jingjun left after he rented a car. Jianhan, Jianyou and Renyi walked to the manager’s office in the back.

* * * * *

Jianhan told Renyi about the encounter with Li Wenpu. Renyi said, “Li may have only limited information. Did you approach Zeng Dequan?”

“He is under house arrest inside the Hubei Province Army Base. He lives inside a compound with its own guard post. I could not see him.”

“That means there are things which he is not allowed to say. He could be the person in Lin Biao’s inner circle who also had a secret channel to Mao.”

“Yes,” Jianyou agreed.

Jianhan said, “Maybe he was the first person in the Joint Fleet who called Mao a tyrant. Once someone said that word, everyone present would have committed the ‘current anti-revolution’ crime if he didn’t report.” Not surprisingly, “historical anti-revolution” was also a “crime” in those years.

Renyi said, “If Lin Liguo felt someone were going to report, getting out of China would be his only option.”

Renyi continued, “Maybe Zeng Dequan called Lin Liguo on September 12, informing him that Mao’s train arrived at Beijing at 2 PM from Shanghai.”

“That’s right. Maybe Ze Dequan informed Lin Liguo, that the head of the Central Guard Regiment had a battalion of troops with him on a train to BeiDaiHe, and they would arrest Lin Biao the next day,” said Jianhan.

Renyi said, “It may not be Zeng Dequan. But someone leaked Mao’s whereabouts to Lin Liguo, and made him very nervous.”

At that moment, Jianhan and Jianyou felt that they had found a kindred spirit. Renyi felt the same way.

 

Renyi said, “Jingjun’s parents live inside the Hubei Army Base. He must have ways to approach Zeng.”

Jianhan was excited. “What kind of person is his father?”

“His father was an officer handling logistics in the Army Base for many years. He is retired now.”

Jianyou said “That’s great! Let’s talk to Jingjun. This time, we must see Zeng!”

“We will combine our forces in the investigation.” said Renyi.

Jianhan stood up. “Yes! We must uncover the truth behind the tragedy.”

Renyi had plans to interview Lin Biao’s relatives. He had never expected to find Jianhan and Jianyou one week after arriving in China. It was worth the trip!

* * * * *

 

After arriving in China, Renyi first went to his hometown, and spent time with his parents. Then he went to Wuhan, and visited his in-laws. Renyi lived in an apartment owned by Song Huimin in Wuchang, one of the three boroughs of Wuhan, which was vacant before his arrival.

 

Inside his apartment, Renyi spoke to Jingjun about paying a visit to Zeng over the phone. The two discussed the details the next day. In the evening, Renyi arrived at Jianhan’s office again.

“Jingjun said Zeng lives inside a walled quarter in the base. The quarter has its own guard post. Jingjun can bring you inside the base. But he can’t get you inside that quarter.” Renyi explained carefully.

Jianhan said, “Can you ask him to come here now? There has to be a way.”

 

An hour later, Jingjun showed up in the room. Jianyou asked, “What does the quarter look like?”

Jianhan asked “Can you draw a map of the quarter?” Jianhan gave Jingjun a piece of paper and a pen.

Jingjun saw a map on the table. He picked it up, and looked at it closely. “What’s this?”

Jianhan said “It’s a diagram of the flight path of airplane 256—Lin Biao’s plane. Renyi brought it here. It shows that the plane used three minutes to make a thirty degree turn.”

 

Figure 2, Flight path of airplane 256 in the early morning of September 13, 1971

Notes from right to left: “Take off direction 244”, “Turning 30 degrees took 3 minutes”, “Flew West for 4 minutes”, “Turning 40 degrees took 3 to 4 minutes”, “Adjusted direction to 325”.

 

Jingjun asked, “What would be the normal time?”

Jianyou said, “Thirty seconds at the most.”

“Pan Jingyin, the pilot, used three minutes instead of thirty seconds, to make the turn. Why?” Jianhan raised the question to Jingjun.

Jingjun thought about it. “Lin Liguo ordered Pan to make a turn, and Pan was reluctant to do it?”

“If Pan were ordered to make the turn, he could disobey, or obey with a normal speed turn.” said Jianyou.

Jianhan said, “We think Pan made the turn quietly, so that nobody onboard noticed the turn.” Jingjun could not think of a different scenario, and turned to Renyi. “What do you think?”

“I agree,” said Renyi firmly.

“It is a strange turn.” said Jingjun.

 

Jianhan pushed the blank paper toward Jingjun. Jingjun drew a diagram of the quarter and the building in which Zeng lived.

 

 

Figure, Zeng Dequan’s residence inside the quarter

The words on the left mean “On the first floor.” The word on the right means “Guard post.”

 

Jianyou told Jingjun: “Why don’t you get two sets of army uniforms? We will enter the quarter in uniform.”

Jingjun said “When the guard inquires you about your purpose, what will you say?”

Jianyou had no answer.

Jianhan said “That’s right. We have to have an answer to that question.”

 

The room was quiet. Everyone was thinking.

* - * - * - * - *

 

On Saturday, the four men gathered again inside Jianhan’s apartment, which was on the fifth floor, the top floor. All apartment buildings in the nearby area were old with five or six stories. Renyi and Jingjun sat on a sofa in the living room. Jianhan and Jianyou sat on two stools.

Jianyou said, “Among the Joint Fleet members, Zhou Yuchi, deputy chief of Air Force Headquarters Office; Yu Xinye, director of the Air Force Headquarters Office, and Liu Peifeng, director of the Air Force Party Committee Office. These three died on September 13. I don’t think any of them had a back channel to Mao.”

Jingjun said, “Li Weixin. He looked the most suspicious.”

* * * * *

 

Apartment door opened. A young pretty woman with a ponytail entered. Wearing a round-neck cashmere sweater and tight jeans, she was neatly dressed for a weekend. The four men stood up. Jianhan walked to her side, grinning cheerfully.

“This is my girlfriend, Yang Hongmei. Hongmei, this is Ho Renyi—Doctor Ho—from America. And this is Guo Jingjun.”

Jingjun said, “I heard you are an accountant in Wuhan’s Municipal Audit Bureau.”

“Yes.”

“You calculate carefully how much investment is put into and how much the return is every day. Right?”

“Yes. So what?” Hongmei smiled with her head held high. Hongmei literally means “red plum.” Her smile was as sweet as red plum.

“Jianhan is writing a Lin Biao biography. Tell me, what’s the rate of return?”

She glanced at Jianhan and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I invested two years of spare time. The return is zero,” Jianhan said in a self-deprecating tone.

Jingjun appeared very surprised. “After two years, the return is still zero?” He then turned to Hongmei and asked, “Is he value stock, or junk stock?”

Everybody laughed.

She said “Risky stock.”

Jingjun pointed at Jianhan and exclaimed, “Oh my God! You are junk stock.”

“That’s not what I said!” protested Hongmei.

 

Jianhan pulled wrapped his arm around her waist. Then she stepped forward and poked Jingjun’s nose with a finger.

“Sowing discord between us, aren’t you? What is your intention?”

Jingjun rubbed his nose and said, “Wow! This girl is violent!”

Everyone laughed again.

 

Hongmei saw a couple of books on the table. She was amazed because the books don’t look like they were published inside China. “What are these books?”

Renyi said “This is Wu Faxian’s autobiography in two volumes, published in Hong Kong.”

“You brought them here?”

Renyi nodded.

“Why do these people go to Hong Kong to publish their books?”

“Because the books contain too much ‘sensitive’ information.” Said Jingjun.

“Wu Faxian’s family members are inside China, right? Aren’t they afraid of being arrested?”

Jianhan said, “They are not arrested. Furthermore, Wu Faxian has a daughter who lives in America. Arresting someone in America? Impossible.”

“These people are fearless.” She sighed. “So, what were you guys talking about?”

Jianhan immediately said, “Just some random topics, unimportant stuff.”

“Don’t want me to know?” asked Hongmei. She obviously sensed something.

“We talked about some boring stuff. As an old saying goes, ‘stale sesame, rotten millet.’”

The other men nodded in agreement.

 

Book Site: American Fugitive, a novel