‘How could a Party-member chief inspector choose to do that?’

‘Can you guess where I’m making the phone call to you? Bund Park. Detective Yu has joked with me about it being a feng shui place for me.’

‘I’ve just said so to him earlier this morning,’ Yu said in a hurry, though confounded.

‘Years ago, still in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, I studied English there, an experience that eventually led to my career as a cop, a career I had never dreamed about in the park at the time. All these years, whenever I had to make a difficult decision, I would go back to the park. Life is like a long chain of misplaced yin/yang causalities. So what do I have to really worry about if I am not a Party-member chief inspector but a nobody just like in the days of English study here?’

‘What are you driving at?’ Lou looked up in surprise.

‘I’m here at the park this morning because the decision about the environmental project may cost me the Party membership as well as the chief inspectorship. But it’s the right decision for me to make, I believe. And the same with the decision to write the story I have just promised.’

‘You really mean it, Inspector Chen?’

‘It may take time to have a story written, and to get it published. With the censorship in China, there’s no guarantee of a publishing date I can give you, I have to be honest about it. But I’ll have it done, I promise.’

It was something totally unexpected. The story would not appear to be politically correct, but Chen would have it written as promised, Yu knew for sure.

‘Yes, it will make a world of difference to her memory,’ Yu said in a hurry. ‘If she could have known in the nether world, it would have been a huge comfort for her to know that the message is out there.’

Lou looked confounded for a second or two, shaking his head in confusion before something changed in his expression.

‘Then what’s the second promise from you?’

‘I’ll make a seven-seven service in memory of her, and do that in a Buddhist temple. I will send pictures of the service to you afterward.’

‘A Buddhist service. You really will do that?’

‘My mother is a devoted Buddhist believer. She did that for my late father many years ago, so I know how important it is. I’m not sure if I can book it under your name, but it will be a service dedicated to her name. As a cop, I have no choice, but that’s the least—’

‘I’ve heard about you, Chief Inspector Chen. You honestly mean it?’

‘Yes, I have to consult my mother about the details, and I swear on her name I will do that.’

‘Chief Inspector Chen will do what he believes as the right thing for him to do,’ Yu chipped in, though stunned just like Lou about the unbelievable offer from the inspector, ‘in spite of all the trouble he may get into.’