兩天後的下午，看守突然叫「挾控」把我帶到看守辦公樓的一間屋裡。

我不知道她們準備幹什麼。

在屋裡坐了二十分鐘後，廣州海珠區610的主任、勞教所所長、三大隊的教導員和一個隊長走進來。

他們身後，是我父親和表姐夫。

「爸爸！耀天！」我驚喜的叫道。

我的腿被折磨致殘後，勞教所完全切斷了我與家人的聯繫。這是我父親第一次、也是唯一一次被允許來勞教所探視我。

父親在我身邊一坐下，我便張開雙臂擁抱他。這是我第一次擁抱父親。我想這個老式保守的男人會推開我。但他沒有，他溫和的拍拍我的背。

父親說：「海珠區610的主任今早剛在酒樓請我喝了茶。」

（後來父親告訴我：那610主任預先就叫他見到我時「不要問太多問題，不愉快的事情不要談。」）

我馬上問父親：「他們有沒有告訴您關於我的腿的事？」

「沒有。」

我立即簡潔的告訴父親那次酷刑。

整間屋子的空氣都凝固了。

講完後我問父親：「爸爸，您覺的看守這樣用酷刑來迫害我是不是以德服人、以理服人？」

父親大吼一聲：「不！」

那一刻我真為我父親自豪！

很多中國大陸人在那種情形下會不敢直言的。

在場的那些人都不敢吱聲。我們父女可能都出乎了他們的意料。

「那些施刑的人你們處理了嗎？」父親厲聲問他們。

「處理了……」三大隊教導員小聲說，她的眼睛看著地板。

我說：「你在撒謊。」

這時父親突然提出要到隔壁辦公室去靜一下。父親七十歲了，患有冠心病，聽了我的遭遇他突然感覺呼吸困難。

那610主任、勞教所所長、三大隊隊長領我父親到隔壁房間後，三大隊教導員繼續對我表姐夫撒謊：「她自己盤腿搞成的！誰叫她盤腿！」

那時我已明白了為什麼看守在我家人到達前就先安排我坐下。因為穿著長褲和襪子，我坐著時是看不到我紅腫的腳、察覺不到我腿的異樣的。

十分鐘後，父親慢慢走回來，說得走了。當我想再次擁抱父親時，他採用了另一種方式和我道別：用力和我握手，彷彿我是個大男人。

我知道他在鼓勵我堅強。

表姐夫眼睛紅紅的叫我「想開點，想開點。」

我一瘸一瘸挪回「後院」的路上，那三大隊的隊長在我旁邊大罵我。

我一回到牢房就哭，哭了很久。看守和「挾控」都顯的很吃驚，我受酷刑時她們都沒見我哭過。

一個看守試探的來問我為什麼哭，我沒答她。

我哭是因為開心和感恩。

父親在我背上那溫和的一拍是我三十六年來第一次體味到父愛的溫暖。（待續）

(英文對照)

Two days later, the guards suddenly ordered a watching-inmate to take me to a room in the guards’ office building.

I had no idea what they were going to do.

When I had sat in the room for twenty minutes, the chief of the Haizhu District 610, the Chatou chief, the Third Brigade chief, and a Third Brigade captain walked in.

Behind them were my father and my cousin’s husband, Yaotian.

“Dad! Yaotian!” I called out in happy surprise.

Chatou had utterly cut me off from my family ever since my leg was disabled. That was the first time — and the only time — my father was allowed to visit me.

I threw my arms around my father’s neck the second he sat down beside me. This was the first time I hugged my father. I assumed the old-fashioned man would push me away. But he didn’t, just patted me gently on the back.

“The chief of the Haizhu District 610 just treated me to tea this morning,” Father started talking.

(Afterward Father told me: The chief had told him before meeting me, “Don’t ask too many questions or talk about unpleasant things when you meet Yiwen Tang.”)

“Did they tell you what happened to my leg?” I asked Father immediately.

“No.”

I thereupon related to him the torture concisely.

The air of the entire room froze.

“Dad, do you think what the guards did was reasonable?” I asked Father upon relating.

Father thundered “No!” without a second of hesitation.

How proud I was of my father at the moment!

Many mainland Chinese would have not dared to speak up in the circumstances.

All those in the room dared not utter a sound. The father and daughter might both have turned out against their expectations.

“Have you penalized the torturers?” Father asked sternly.

“Yes…” the Third Brigade chief mumbled, her eyes looking down at the floor.

“You are lying,” I said.

At this moment, Father suddenly requested a break in the next room. Father was over seventy and suffered from coronary heart disease. His breathing suddenly became difficult upon hearing what I had been through.

After the other people had guided Father to the next room, the Third Brigade chief lied to Yaotian, “She disabled herself by stupidly sitting with her legs crossed!”

By the time it had dawned on me why the guards had had me sit down before my family arrived: When I was sitting, my swollen feet inside the long trousers and socks could not be seen, and my disabled leg could not be noticed.

Father walked back slowly ten minutes later, saying he had to go. When I wished to hug him again, he adopted another way to bid me goodbye: Shake hands with me with such great strength as if I were a strong man.

I knew he was encouraging me to be tough.

Yaotian quietly said to me while holding back his tears, “Stay optimistic. Just stay optimistic.”

As I limped back to Back Yard, the Third Brigade captain swore hard at me at my side.

On getting back to the cell I cried. I cried for a long while. The guards and watching-inmates all appeared astonished. They never saw me cry as I suffered torture after torture.

A guard tentatively asked me what I was crying for. I didn’t reply.

I cried because I felt so happy and grateful.

The gentle pat my father gave me on the back was the first time I felt the warmth of paternal love in thirty-six years.

(//www.dajiyuan.com)