University N

University N serves as both a setting for acts of personal assistance and a point of connection in the recruitment of Rong Jinzhen. Its importance in the narrative comes less from a description of its formal structure than from the people who pass through it: Old Lillie, Young Lillie, and Director Zheng. Through them, the university connects family history, education, political commitment, and intelligence work.

A Route to Refuge

After the Killer’s death, a pregnant woman from outside the province sought help from the Lin family, who rejected her claim that she carried the Killer’s child. Someone in the crowd surrounding her suggested that she try University N, reasoning that the Killer’s family had ties there. She went to the university and appealed to Old John Lillie, who was known for his principled response to injustice.

The woman explained that she was unmarried, devout, and had become pregnant after a pilgrimage to Putuo Mountain. Old Lillie took her in; the following day, he directed his son, Rong Xiaolai, to take her to his hometown of Tongzhen. The university is therefore the setting for the appeal, but the evidence attributes the decision to shelter her to Old Lillie rather than to an institutional policy. That intervention led to the woman’s entry into the Rong household, where she later gave birth to a boy and died. The child was kept and raised in the Rong mansion, though the family did not at first recognize him as one of their own.

Zheng’s Early Connection to the University

Director Zheng’s association with University N began through his maternal grandfather, who became friendly with Old Lillie after meeting him at a theatre in the second year after the Xinhai Revolution. Zheng grew up in his grandfather’s residence and came to know Old Lillie early. When Old Lillie died, Zheng’s grandfather took him to the memorial service at University N, where he met Young Lillie. Zheng was fourteen and in his second year of middle school; the campus made a strong impression on him.

After finishing middle school, Zheng brought his transcripts to Young Lillie and asked to enroll in the high school attached to University N. There, a language teacher who belonged to the Chinese Communist Party later recruited him. When the war against Japan began, teacher and student left the school for Yan’an, the beginning of Zheng’s long revolutionary career. The university thus appears in his account not merely as a campus he admired, but as the place where an educational connection helped set his subsequent path in motion.

The Recruitment of Rong Jinzhen

Fifteen years after Zheng first entered University N’s orbit, he returned to recruit talent for the cryptography division of Unit 701. He was not permitted to tell Young Lillie what kind of work the candidate would do; he could only describe the abilities required. During a visit to the former chancellor, Zheng mentioned his search, and the chancellor recommended Rong Jinzhen.

Zheng later recalled that he already trusted the former chancellor’s judgment of character. When the older man joked about Jinzhen’s suitability, Zheng took the remark seriously. After meeting Jinzhen, he concluded that the young man had precisely the abilities the division needed. The details of how Zheng and Young Lillie agreed to the recruitment remained undisclosed: Zheng said he would keep that matter between them.

A Crossroads in the Narrative

The university’s significance lies in these separate connections rather than in a single continuous institutional story. Old Lillie’s willingness to receive the pregnant woman creates a passage from public rejection to private shelter; Zheng’s educational and personal ties to the Lillies later make University N the setting for a consequential recruitment. In both strands, access to the university brings people into contact with individuals whose decisions redirect another person’s life. The campus therefore functions as a recurring node linking kinship and care with education, political history, and the state’s search for cryptographic talent.