‘Well, it’s just like The Thirty-Seven Stratagems. That’s no solution, I cannot agree more with you.’

Zhao was referring to a classic work titled The Thirty-Six Stratagems, about the art of war in ancient China, discussing each stratagem based on a real, well-known battle in the earlier history. Chen had played with the idea of translating it into English. The stratagems were supposed to be helpful not just in war.

At least they had proven to be helpful to him in a number of difficult police investigations.

But the thirty-seventh stratagem was non-existent, which could be meant only as a joke from Zhao.

‘People are trying to deal with the problem,’ Zhao went on, with a sudden serious edge to his voice. ‘In fact, a group of activists are secretly gathering in Shanghai, I’ve heard, trying to do something about it. So that will be a job for you, Comrade Chief Inspector Chen. An important job, but quite a simple one to you. To find out as much as you can about what they are trying to do in secret.’

‘No, I’m no environmental expert. It’s a job beyond me, I’m sorry about it, Comrade Secretary Zhao.’

It came out as an instinctive no. For one thing, an ‘important job’ from Zhao had never been simple. What’s more, Chen could not conscientiously bring himself to spy on the people who were trying to tackle air pollution – whether in secret or not.

Taking a deep breath to make a more elaborate argument about his inadequacy for this clandestine assignment, Chen ended up, to his embarrassment, breaking into a fit of uncontrollable coughing.

‘Sorry, some throat problem because of the irritation of the polluted air, I believe.’

‘That’s the very reason you should take the job, Chief Inspector Chen. Now, the leader of the group I’ve just mentioned is an attractive woman named Yuan Jing, who has recently come back from a visit to the United States.’

A visit to the United States sounded even more portentous to Chen. Whatever she was doing in Shanghai could be easily interpreted as her working in the American interest. Chen had had his share of ‘sensitive details’ in such political cases.

To be fair to Zhao and the people like him in Beijing, the environmental crisis was not what they would have liked to see. Whatever official propagandas or interpretations, it was happening under the rule of the ‘great and glorious Chinese Communist Party’. They, too, were anxious to solve the problem.

But at the same time, it was inconceivable and intolerable for any anti-pollution attempt to be made at the possible expense of economic development, which turned out to be the one and only legitimacy for the one-Party regime. As Comrade Deng Xiaoping had put it at the very beginning of China’s reform, ‘The development is the one and only true argument’ – the unquestionable meta-narrative for China.

‘When you called into the bureau, Comrade Secretary Zhao, I was in the middle of a case discussion with my colleagues. Possibly a serial murder case, something urgent for us with the opening session of the People’s Congress drawing nearer. Party Secretary Li of our bureau insists on solving the case as quickly as possible – before the grand event in Beijing. Otherwise people would be talking about the case rather than anything else. Since I have done similar investigations before, Li would probably not let me get away for anything else at this moment.’