‘Thank you so much for your trust in me, Chief Inspector Chen.’

‘You don’t have to thank me for anything. But this I do want you to know, Bian: whatever environmental project Shanshan may be engaged in, I will do whatever possible to keep any harm from happening to her. I give you my word about it.’

‘I’m so glad you tell me all that, Chief Inspector Chen. The air pollution is such a national disaster, I don’t think I need to go over that with you in detail, but not all Chinese people can afford to go abroad for fresh air, not like Mr Gu’s family. For them, masks and air purifiers may prove to be the only help available. The air purifiers manufactured by my company sell at the average price of seven or eight thousand yuan per unit, with some premium brands for more than fifteen thousand. Believe it or not, they all keep selling like hot cakes.’

‘Wow, it’s more than the monthly pay for an ordinary worker in the city.’

‘Do you think people have any choice? The lung cancer rate for the country is increasing so rapidly. The authorities will never attribute it to the contaminated air, but even the government spokesman cannot totally deny it.’

‘Yes, I’ve read about it too,’ Chen said, nodding. ‘According to the government-run China Daily, China has more lung-cancer diagnoses and fatalities than any other country in the world, with over 600,000 dying of the disease every year at the present.’

‘So you see, it’s the same deadly air people are all breathing. How can they afford not to be worried? Some wealthy parents at my son’s school wanted to install an air purifier in the classroom at their own expense. But the district authorities vetoed the idea, saying such a precedent could not be set, which would harm the image of the city. It’s such a crying shame for me to make tons of money out of the crisis, as my wife keeps harping on at me.’

‘It’s just part and parcel of the market economy, you cannot do anything about it, Bian. No need to be so hard on yourself. But how did you move from the fresh air machine to Shanshan’s project?’

‘Again, it’s because of my wife, a newly converted Buddhist believer suffering from asthma. So appalled at the idea of “cashing in on people’s miseries”, she insisted that I should do something about the terrible air quality. Redemption, you know, in accordance with the Buddhist scripture she reads every day. Then I happened to hear about Shanshan.’

‘I see, so you went out of your way to help her project.’

‘With the severe smog, and with the Party’s continuous emphasis on GDP, I don’t think an activist like Shanshan alone can make a real difference anytime soon. Not in ten or fifteen years, I’m afraid. Besides, it does not cost that much to help with her environmental documentary—’

‘Hold on, Bian. Shanshan is making a documentary?’