Of course, this phone call did not just spare me a potentially very worrying wait; it also allowed me to enjoy a comfortable and safe journey. I had travelled by soft-sleeper before, but always with lots of other people around. This was the very first time I got a whole compartment without any strangers. Given that there were just myself and Huang Yiyi there, it felt like part of Unit 701, so we could discuss things openly, without having to worry and hide. But it was those special circumstances that allowed Huang Yiyi to start to unburden herself to me without restraint.

She said, ‘You dragging me to your work unit kicking and screaming – is this because you fancy me and are looking for a relationship?’

In the previous few days I had become very used to her way of speaking, and had come to know a lot about the sort of thing that she was likely to do, so now I wasn’t in the least bit surprised. I said calmly, ‘What kind of person do you take me for? I have children, a boy and a girl.’

‘You may be married with a family, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have other relationships.’

‘That’s bourgeois corruption.’

‘It’s not bourgeois corruption, it’s romantic. Don’t tell me you’ve never had a romantic relationship?’

‘During all these years of warfare, we relied on the romantic fervour of our revolutionary spirit to bring us victory over every danger.’

‘And in the end brought about the liberation of the whole of China,’ she continued where I had left off, ‘allowing patriotic intellectuals such as myself who had been forced into exile overseas to have their own country and their own home.’

‘Yeah,’ I said.

‘But I still don’t have a home.’

‘You will.’

‘Are you trying to cheer me up?’

‘No.’

‘But I feel really depressed.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the person I love doesn’t love me.’

‘Who?’

‘You!’

It was then that she told me that the reason she had come to see me in the guest house was that the afternoon of my arrival, as she walked across the playing field, she had glanced up and caught sight of me standing at the window, staring out. Although I was a long way away, she had been deeply attracted by my handsome and thoughtful appearance.

‘I was sure you were looking at me,’ she said.

‘I was not,’ I said quickly. ‘The first time I saw you was the day that you came looking for me.’

‘Oh. Well, what did you feel when you saw me? Your first impression.’

‘Unusual.’

‘You didn’t fancy me?’

‘No.’

‘You don’t love me?’

‘Right.’

‘You don’t dare to love me.’

‘Perhaps.’

‘You’re a coward, for all that you look like a real man.’

‘Perhaps.’

‘But I still love you. Please can you take my hand?’

Of course, I refused.