Wu Dawang’s final farewell to Liu Lian

Wu Dawang’s final farewell to Liu Lian comes at the point when his military career and their concealed relationship are both being brought to an abrupt close. On the night he is due to leave, a light in Liu Lian’s bedroom draws him back from the barracks road. Their brief meeting gives him a final personal exchange with her, but also reveals that she is pregnant and that the army’s impending dissolution leaves no easy path to a shared future.

Departure and the last-minute return

Wu Dawang is travelling out of the barracks by jeep with the Captain and Political Instructor. As the vehicle passes Compound Number One, he notices a light come on in Liu Lian’s bedroom. He looks back, then calls for the driver to stop and gets out with something from one of his bags. The Captain warns that Wu Dawang is still in the army and that his personnel dossier will not be sent out until the next day. The Political Instructor, however, allows the visit, observing that the Division Commander is still at the office and that Wu Dawang should be permitted to say goodbye. He accompanies him on the final walk to the house.

The return is a personal choice made in the shadow of official procedure. Wu Dawang’s discharge is close, but not yet complete; the Captain’s warning makes clear that the army still has authority over him. The Political Instructor’s permission creates a narrow opening for a farewell, rather than removing the uncertainty surrounding Wu Dawang’s departure.

The threshold and the pregnancy

Liu Lian opens the door in a red knitted nightgown. She looks tired, and her stomach protrudes distinctly beneath the garment. Wu Dawang is struck by the visible sign of her pregnancy and struggles to respond. He tells her softly that he is leaving; she already knows, including the time of his 12:30 train.

He holds out a paper bag of pine kernels, a present brought from home. Liu Lian accepts it, examines it, and tries one before going upstairs without speaking. The modest gift breaks the awkward pause between them. While she is away, Wu Dawang steps into the sitting room, where a new framed print has replaced the revolutionary quotation that he and Liu Lian had destroyed. He also wants to see the kitchen and dining room again, and to ask for the slogan sign as a keepsake. The domestic rooms connect his departure to the months he spent working in the house, while the replacement print marks how the household has returned to its official appearance.

Liu Lian comes back carrying a long, narrow object wrapped in red silk. She gives it to Wu Dawang without explanation; when he asks what it is, she says it is what he had been about to request. He peels back one corner, recognizes the object, and quickly covers it again. The handover answers his unspoken wish for a souvenir and makes the sign part of their private leave-taking.

A request he cannot fulfill

After handing over the wrapped object, Liu Lian strokes Wu Dawang’s face and asks whether the Political Instructor sent him to ask her to speak to the Division Commander on the Instructor’s behalf. Wu Dawang nods. The request places their intimate connection inside the same military hierarchy that has shaped his career: a personal appeal to the Commander might once have seemed capable of changing an official outcome.

Liu Lian says she cannot help. The authorities have already approved the Commander’s final report, and all troops remaining in the barracks are to be sent home. She tells Wu Dawang that she is sorry they have suffered because of her and promises to do what she can for the Captain and Political Instructor after they have left the army. Her response makes the limits of personal influence explicit: the decision has passed beyond the household and has been confirmed by the authorities.

Separation and its unresolved consequence

Liu Lian urges Wu Dawang to go before the Division Commander returns. He remains where he is, pale and unable to take in what she has told him. She takes his hand and guides it over her swelling stomach, then repeats her instruction and calls to the Political Instructor to make sure he does not miss his train. The gesture confirms the pregnancy without resolving what it means for Wu Dawang or for their future. His departure proceeds, while the child’s relation to him and the consequences of the affair remain unstated in this farewell.

Three days later, the Division’s final demobilization is officially announced. Those who knew of Wu Dawang and Liu Lian’s affair and those who did not are dispersed, and the secret disappears with them. The farewell thus closes on two kinds of separation at once: Wu Dawang leaves Liu Lian, and the military community that contained their story is itself scattered. The pregnancy, the exchanged keepsake, and Liu Lian’s promise to help the officers after demobilization remain as the scene’s unsettled residue.