Character from remembrance-of-earths-past by
Political commissar of Red Coast Base — the ideologically vigilant bureaucrat who kept the antenna pointed at the right targets, denied Ye Wenjie permission to broadcast at the Sun, and was murdered for taking credit for the successful experiment Ye conducted behind his back.
Lei is the kind of mid-rank political officer who has confused 'careful' with 'principled'. He loves the Cultural Revolution exactly as much as it pays him to. He sincerely believes that pointing a radio telescope at the Sun is symbolically counter-revolutionary, and he says so in writing. He is murdered by Ye Wenjie via engineered accident the moment he becomes a threat to her secret. He never knows what he stumbled into.
A square-jawed man in his late forties, hair cropped to a regulation Mao-era flat-top, in olive PLA-style fatigues with no rank insignia. Heavy black-frame glasses. He carries a leather notebook everywhere and makes a small ceremonial show of writing in it during meetings.
Also known as: Commissar Lei, 雷志成