Chapters 7-8 Summary and Analysis

Back in Beijing, Yue Daiyun quickly learns of the political atmosphere at Beida. There are posters denouncing Lao Tang. He is under continual interrogation at Beida. A new investigative team has arrived at Beida. Nie Yuanzi is becoming a hero of the Cultural Revolution.

The students have taken to identifying enemies among the Beida staff and students and parading them with waste baskets on their heads and posters pasted to their backs. Yue Daiyun worries about her husband figuring that he is one of the ones being rounded up for parading. That night, he says nothing and just puts his jacket in the laundry basket. The students now demand that the work team leave the university if they do not side with the students. If they side with the students however, the result will be more violence and if...