Her open letter amused me: it detailed at length the challenges of toilet training her youngest. Her secret letter made my heart sink:My Dearest Sister,I don’t dare continue our secret correspondence any longer. Read the news and you’ll understand why I’m sending only government-approved newspapers and journals from now on. The secret police are far more thorough than our families when it comes to searching for hidden notes. If ours are discovered, just the fact that we write in secret will implicate us.Many of the writers and poets Father used to invite to his salons have gone over to the left. Tongyin is mixed up with the Communists in some way and I’m worried for him. Tell your husband to stay away from politics.So this would be our last secret letter. Gaoyin had her children to consider. She was a more cautious person now than the sister who had agreed to help me run away. I hadn’t felt this lonely since my first year as a wife, before Weilan was born. As for Gaoyin’s warning, there wasn’t much danger of anyone in Pinghu getting caught up in politics, I thought.
