‘I … I see, Chief Inspector Chen,’ Huang said, unable to contain his excitement as he led Chen to a black Camry in the parking lot. ‘Another big case from the Party Central Discipline Committee, I suppose.’

‘It could be really big,’ Chen said, seating himself in the front seat beside Huang. ‘At this moment, I’m the officially designated tourist guide for Comrade Secretary Zhao during his vacation in Shanghai.’

‘Wow, Comrade Secretary Zhao from Beijing. You don’t have to explain any details to me, I totally understand. Just tell me what you want me to do. My lips are sealed.’

‘You told me you have something for me – regarding Shanshan, right?’

‘Right, I’ll show them to you when we get to the hotel,’ Huang said, pulling the car out into the avenue in front of the station. ‘But let me tell you something about her first.’

‘Go ahead, Little Huang.’

‘To begin with, you remember the reason why she did not want to dump Jiang at that time, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s because of their common environmental cause, and all that idealistic stuff. To be fair to her, it’s also because of her unwillingness to throw in the rock when Jiang’s already at the bottom of the well.’

‘Yes, that part I do remember.’

‘Shortly after Jiang was thrown into jail, an article appeared in Wuxi Daily as some netizens maintained that he was innocent. In response, the article presented a long list of his wrongdoings, including his blackmail in the name of environment protection, and his extramarital affair with Shanshan, too. At the time he was seeing her, he was still not divorced from his wife. Shanshan was not named in the article, but with her factory and her position as an environmental engineer mentioned in the article, people knew it was her. I learned from my sources, however, she had no idea at the time about his marital status – not until the publication of the article. She was too upset at the discovery to go on with him.’

‘That’s really too much for her. You have uncovered the true reason. Good work.’

Ironically, it was also something that could have mattered crucially to Chen, and to Shanshan as well, at the time of the inspector’s vacation in Wuxi.

She could have made a different decision.

But not any more.

Huang might have noticed the change in his expression. For the next few minutes, Huang seemed to be concentrating on driving, saying nothing.

Chen did not speak, either.

Then the car was getting off the highway and coming into view of a new magnificent hotel at the lakeside. The hotel was appropriately named Wuxi Lakeside.

After they checked in with Chen’s ID and moved into a spacious room, Huang produced a bunch of pictures in an envelope from his jacket pocket and spread them out on the desk like a colorful mosaic, shaking his head almost imperceptibly.

The pictures were of Shanshan – and Shanshan with a man – on a white sand beach stretching out to the blue horizon: some with them wandering along hand in hand, some with them sunbathing on the beach nestling against each other. Presumably they were on a vacation somewhere, with two or three resort signs visible in the distant background – in English.