M County

M County is the setting of Rong Jinzhen’s rediscovery after he disappeared while searching for his missing notebook. A report from the county brought Vasili there, but the decisive encounter took place not at the caller’s location but beside a paper mill, among piles of discarded paper. The county becomes the point at which a search conducted through fragments and uncertainty ends in recognition.

Location and Approach

The main town in M County lay about 100 kilometres north of B City. A local caller reported seeing a man who matched Rong Jinzhen’s description, prompting the Special Investigative Office to notify Vasili and ask him to go quickly. Vasili took the report as a sign that his hope of bringing Rong back to Unit 701 might be realized. Before leaving, however, the normally forceful officer broke down and cried.

During the journey, Vasili reflected on what had happened and felt a profound despondency. Rong’s having crossed such a distance in pursuit of his notebook struck those around him as especially strange. The report had set the search in motion, but it did not lead Vasili straight to the person who made the call.

The Paper Mill

On reaching M County, Vasili passed a paper mill and noticed a man among the factory’s waste paper. The man was visibly unwell and covered in dirt; he was barefoot, and his hands were bloodied. Still, he kept turning over the rubbish. Each torn, frayed book he found received careful scrutiny, as if it might contain what he had come to recover.

Vasili recognized the man as Rong Jinzhen. The discarded books give the encounter its particular shape: in a place where paper had been thrown away for pulping, Rong searched each surviving fragment with exacting attention. The paper mill was not simply a destination on the route but the setting in which his search for the notebook became visible to Vasili.

Recognition and Consequence

Vasili found Rong on 3 January 1970, at four in the afternoon, the sixteenth day after the briefcase had gone missing. The reported sighting had offered only a description; recognition came when Vasili encountered Rong for himself at the mill. The county thus marks the turn from an uncertain search to a confirmed reunion.

On 14 January, Vasili brought Rong back to the high-walled compound of Unit 701. M County’s importance in the narrative is concentrated in this brief passage: it is where Rong’s solitary search through discarded books ends and where the effort to return him to the compound can begin.