爱思英语编者按：谷开来原总政治部副主任、新疆区委第二书记谷景生将军五女，曾用名谷开莱。现在是薄熙来的第二任妻子，也是北京开来律师事务所所长。因涉及2011年11月15日英国公民尼尔·伍德在重庆被发现死亡一案，2012年4月因涉嫌故意杀人犯罪，被经移送司法机关。2012年8月20日，安徽省合肥市中级人民法院对被告人薄谷开来、张晓军故意杀人案作出一审判决，认定薄谷开来犯故意杀人罪，判处死刑，缓期二年执行。

薄督前妻：薄谷多疑

薄督和李丹宇在一起时的合影，日期不详。两人相识的时间是1975年，文革末期。

【北京讯】失势几个月前，薄督请他前妻的哥哥李晓雪到重庆市的一个政府建筑里去见他。重庆是中国西南部的一个大城市。而薄是这个城市的共产党书记。

薄指着桌面上的一摞法医报告说，有证据显示，有人持续不断地向他第二任妻子谷开来投毒，试图谋杀谷。之后，他让李晓雪（跟他一起）到院子里去，把手机关掉。薄接着说，投毒计划的主脑很可能是他和前妻生的儿子李望知，英文名叫Brendan，毕业于哥伦比亚大学，现在北京从事金融工作。

“你看这有可能吗？”薄问道。

薄的妻舅认为这纯属无稽之谈。

薄的表情放松了一点。

62岁的李丹宇，薄的前妻（后来被“打入冷宫”），最近接受了两次采访。在采访中，她详细叙述这件事的经过。这让年初的薄氏丑闻越发显得象一出莎士比亚戏剧，这出戏剧轰动全国上下，打乱了十年一次的中央政治局的换届工作。

薄的经历显示，中国政客的起落不仅受外界政治斗争的影响，也会被“后宫”里的纷争殃及。

在皇权统治时期，宫廷变故常常是有疑心病或怀有嫉妒心的皇族成员引起的。从秦始皇到慈禧太后到毛泽东，中国的最高统治者经常怀疑有人要害他们或他们的亲人，老是担心阴暗处藏着刺客。当今的红色贵族家庭，尤其是那些想角逐大位的高官的家庭，也常有类似的恐惧。

薄倒台之前一直被视为今年秋季党中央权力交接过程中的常委人选。但这个可能性在今年春天薄被收押后就已经不存在了。

今年9月28日，中共宣布，63岁的薄被开除党籍，并将面临一系列的司法指控。另据官方报道，53岁的谷开来（稍早前）被控谋杀了她的商业合作伙伴、英国人尼尔·海伍德；她承认去年11月毒死了海伍德（这证实了人们较早前的质疑），因为她认定海伍德对她的儿子构成了威胁。

一家新闻机构采访了李丹宇。在采访中，她详细回顾了自己和薄的婚姻，其对薄、这个红色后代的早年生活和思想作了难得的披露。李丹宇认为薄是一个迷恋共产主义的理想主义者。

“我们相信自己有义务去解救生活在资本主义‘地狱’里的人们。”李回忆说。

李丹宇也是红色后代（有时称“太子党”）。李承认自己和谷开来长期处于敌对状态，但声称自己的儿子（李望知）从没有试图谋杀谷。

李的另一个家人确认，薄曾经约见李的哥哥，告诉他有人计划暗杀谷。这个家人也坚称李望知是清白的。对此，李望知和他的舅舅都拒绝回应。薄和谷仍然在押。

李丹宇怀疑，最先宣称“李望之要谋杀谷”的正是谷本人；但她没有找到证据。而那些所谓的法医报告，李怀疑是王立军炮制的。王是重庆市的公安局长，后来他被控包庇谷开来的谋杀罪行。李担心，谷开来想要陷害李望知坐牢，或让他受别的苦。

“谷开来太多疑了。”李丹宇说。至于薄，她说，他“本质是好的，不愿意相信那些指控李望知的‘证据’。”

李丹宇说，自己和薄的罗曼史开始于1975年的文革末期。他们1981年痛苦分手。从那以后，她再也没有联系过薄。

红色家族之间错综复杂的关系显示了中国的红色贵族孤芳自赏的一面。李丹宇的哥哥李晓雪（音译）娶了谷开来的姐姐。谷开来的父亲是一位将军。

薄去年10月约见李晓雪后几周，海伍德遇害。

跟谷开来有合作关系的一个律师李晓林（音译）——和李丹宇没有关系——，在接受电话采访时说，谷开来和她的家人相信，几年前有人尝试用重金属把她毒死。

李晓林律师称，他不知道谷开来的指控对象是谁。但他说，谷开来今年8月受审时手在抖动，这是中毒的表现。

李律师称，在医生的建议下，谷开来尝试用织毛线来恢复对手神经的控制。

和薄家熟识的三个人告诉记者，他们听说过谷被投毒的事，而最近几年，薄家里的怀疑气氛尤其浓厚。他们认为谷并没有捏造证据陷害李望知的企图。他们说，李丹宇一直很厌恶谷开来，因此常攻击和诋毁薄和谷。这三个人要求记者不要报道他们的名字。

李丹宇和薄的父母是世交。他们1975年开始交往。文革中，薄在其父亲被肃清时坐了几年牢，刚刚被释放；当时他在一家工厂工作。

李丹宇的家庭也在文革中受了冲击；她当时的工作是军医。“他当时看的最多的是马列选集，”李回忆说。“他是一个朴实、上进的年轻人。”

由于工作地不同，他们当时两地分居。他们每三天写一封信给对方。薄在一首诗的末尾展示了自己的政治热情和浪漫：

擎战旗，

更笑望丹宇，

奋力向前。

他们1976年9月结婚，第二年生下儿子李望知。

其后，薄去北京大学读书。他从图书馆里借来英文书，争取每天读8页书。他告诉她：“中国最终还是要对外开放的，所以现在就要开始学习。”

再后来，薄的父亲当了副总理。薄和李也跟着搬进了中南海大院。但薄不太屑于加入“中南海一族”。

薄一开始读历史，后来读新闻专业。

1981年6月20日，李望知4岁时，薄向李提出离婚，这让李非常诧异。“他很伤心，一边哭一边抱紧我和儿子。”她回忆说。那天晚上，他告诉她：“我对你没感觉了。”

李丹宇搬出了中南海，但拒绝离婚。最后法庭上见。1984年，法院判离。

谷开来在自己的一本书里宣称，她1984年在大连和薄相识。但李丹宇怀疑他们两个是在北大读书期间开始交往的——当时薄还没有离婚。

为避免离婚，李丹宇告诉官方：谷开来是第三者。

李丹宇在采访中称，谷开来是律师，她威胁说，如果再不离婚，她就要采取法律手段。

李丹宇说，接到这家报纸的采访请求后，自己“终于鼓足勇气说出自己的故事”。现在，她和儿子李望知静待党对薄的最终判决。

“那是真爱，”她说。“我们30年没见过面了，我现在忘记了他不好的那些，只记得好的那些。我不想恨他一辈子。”

李Mia、阎徐、秦Amy对本文亦有贡献。

Former Wife of Fallen Chinese Leader Tells of a Family’s Paranoid Side

BEIJING — Just months before his fall from power, Bo Xilai asked the brother of his first wife to meet him at a government compound in the southwest metropolis of Chongqing.

Mr. Bo, the city’s Communist Party chief, pointed to a stack of papers and said he had forensic reports that proved the existence of a continuing plot to poison his second wife, Gu Kailai. Then he asked the other man to step into the yard and turn off his cellphone. The person suspected of masterminding the scheme, Mr. Bo said, was his son from his first marriage, Li Wangzhi, also known as Brendan Li, a graduate of Columbia University who was working in finance in Beijing.

“Could this be true?” Mr. Bo asked. When the brother-in-law insisted the fears were outlandish, Mr. Bo seemed relieved.

The story, recounted in two recent interviews with Mr. Bo’s estranged first wife, Li Danyu, 62, deepens the Shakespearean dimension of a scandal that has gripped this nation and disrupted the party’s once-a-decade leadership transition.

The Bo saga has already shown that the rise and fall of a politician in China can hinge as much on family intrigue as on political battles.

In dynastic eras, palace upheavals were often catalyzed by paranoia and jealousies within the imperial family. From Qin Shihuang, the first emperor, to the Empress Dowager Cixi to Mao Zedong, China’s rulers have tended to suspect conspiracies against them and their close kin and have looked for assassins in the shadows. The same fears can arise within aristocratic Communist families today, especially among those vying for leadership positions.

Until his downfall, Mr. Bo was considered a contender for a top post during the handover of power that is taking place this autumn. But those hopes were dashed last spring when he was detained.

On Sept. 28, the party announced it was expelling Mr. Bo, 63, and would prosecute him on a range of criminal charges. Ms. Gu, 53, has been convicted of murdering a British business associate, Neil Heywood; in a twist on the earlier suspicions, Ms. Gu confessed to poisoning him last November because she thought he was a threat to her son, according to officials.

In the interviews, the first she has given to a news organization, Ms. Li spoke in detail about her marriage to Mr. Bo, giving a rare glimpse into the early life and thoughts of the son of a revolutionary leader and someone whom Ms. Li described as an idealist enamored of communism.

“We believed we needed to save the rest of the world from the hell of capitalism,” she said.

Ms. Li, also a “princeling” child of a party official, said that although there has been a long history of enmity between her and Ms. Gu, her son never conspired to murder Ms. Gu.

Another family member confirmed that Ms. Li’s brother had met with Mr. Bo and had been told of the alleged plot. He also insisted the son was innocent. The son and his uncle both declined to comment. Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu are under detention.

Although she has no proof, Ms. Li said she suspected Ms. Gu was the one who first blamed her son for the perceived murder plot, and the so-called forensic evidence might have been provided by Wang Lijun, the former police chief convicted of helping cover up Mr. Heywood’s murder. Ms. Li said she feared Ms. Gu wanted to have her first son arrested or harmed.

“She can be that paranoid,” Ms. Li said. As for Mr. Bo, she said, he was “good in nature and didn’t want to believe this evidence.”

Ms. Li spoke with nostalgia of her romance with Mr. Bo, which began when the two met in 1975, at the end of the Cultural Revolution. Ms. Li said she did not stay in contact with Mr. Bo after their bitter breakup in 1981.

The web of entanglements among the families reflects the insular nature of China’s “red nobility.” Ms. Li’s older brother, Li Xiaoxue, is married to Ms. Gu’s older sister, the daughter of an army general.

It was this brother who met last October, weeks before Mr. Heywood’s death, with Mr. Bo in Chongqing.

Li Xiaolin, a lawyer associated with Ms. Gu and no relation to Mr. Bo’s ex-wife, said in a telephone interview that Ms. Gu and her family members believed she had been poisoned years earlier with a heavy metal substance.

He said that he did not know whom she blamed for the poisoning. Mr. Li said that Ms. Gu’s shaking hands, evident at the trial in August, were a result of the poisoning. Ms. Gu had even taken up knitting on her doctor’s advice to try to regain control of her hand muscles, he said.

Several people close to Mr. Bo’s family said they had heard Ms. Gu was poisoned at one time, and that there was extreme paranoia within the household in recent years. But three family friends who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they did not believe Ms. Gu was fabricating evidence about Ms. Li’s son. They said Ms. Li had long resented Ms. Gu and waged private attacks against Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu to discredit them.

Ms. Li and Mr. Bo, whose elite families had known each other for years, began their love affair in 1975. Mr. Bo had just endured years of prison during the Cultural Revolution, when his father was purged, and was working in a factory.

Ms. Li, whose family had also suffered, was working as a military doctor. “What he did a lot was he read the selected works of Marx and Lenin,” Ms. Li said. “He was a simple and progressive young man.”

Living in different cities because of their jobs, they wrote letters to each other every three days. In a poem, Mr. Bo ends with lines that reflect both political fervor and romantic feelings:

Raise the army banner,

And laugh still more, gazing at the red cosmos,

Spare no effort to move forward.

Ms. Li’s first name means “red cosmos.” They were married in September 1976 and had a son the next year.

Mr. Bo enrolled in Peking University. He tried to read eight pages of English each day from library books, she said. He told her, “Eventually China will open to the world, so we have to learn.”

The two moved into Zhongnanhai, the Beijing leadership compound, after Mr. Bo’s father became a vice premier. But Mr. Bo did not aspire to join those ranks, Ms. Li said. Mr. Bo switched from studying history to journalism.

The end of the relationship began on their son’s fourth birthday, June 20, 1981. Mr. Bo surprised Ms. Li by asking for a divorce. “He felt very sad and cried and hugged us,” she said. That night, he told her, “I have no feelings for you anymore.”

Ms. Li refused to grant the divorce, though she moved out of Zhongnanhai. The case went to court. The divorce was completed in 1984. Ms. Gu, in a book she wrote, said she met Mr. Bo that year in Dalian. But Ms. Li said Mr. Bo might have been secretly seeing Ms. Gu when the two were at Peking University, while Mr. Bo was still married.

To try to stop the divorce, Ms. Li told officials that Ms. Gu had destroyed the marriage. In the interviews, Ms. Li said Ms. Gu, a lawyer, had threatened legal action if Ms. Li persisted.

Ms. Li said she “finally summoned enough courage to tell my story” after being contacted by this newspaper. Now, she and her son await the party’s final verdict on Mr. Bo.

“In those early years it was pure love,” she said. “Even though he didn’t see me for 30 years, I forget the bad things and remember the good. You don’t want to live with hate.”

Mia Li, Xu Yan and Amy Qin contributed research.