‘But how can you decrypt anything when you’re not concentrating? Do you think that RECOVERY is an ordinary mathematical puzzle? Do you think you can solve it while messing about? We went to a lot of trouble to find you, we have treated you as a treasure, you get the highest salary, the very best treatment, you can do pretty much whatever you want and we close our eyes to it, we do our very best to understand you and forgive you, we give you the best working conditions that we possibly can, in the hope that you will concentrate on the job at hand. But what do you do? Time and time again you have caused trouble – one day you’re quarrelling with someone, the next you’ve flown into a temper – either you’re kicking up a massive fuss or you’re trying to throw up your job: how do you ever think you’re going to achieve anything? You’re an adult; you ought to understand that if you want to achieve great things you have to work hard and think deeply. Our job requires you to slave away, to rack your brains. Have you slaved? Have you racked your brains? Do you think you are a magician and that by simply saying “Abracadabra!” your dreams will come true?’

She laughed. ‘What are you lecturing me for? I’m not a magician but I’m also not a small child. I know what I’m doing – what the hell gives you the right to criticize me like that? What’s wrong with going to see him? I went on a Sunday, not in office hours. On Sundays I can do what I like and you have no right to interfere!’

‘Anything which is disadvantageous to your work, I have the right to interfere in.’

‘In my opinion it will not affect my work at all, other than for the good.’

That stuck in my throat to the point where I couldn’t speak for a long time, and just glared at her.

‘Don’t look at me like that, An Zaitian. You shouldn’t use your own standards to measure other people’s actions. As the proverb says, in any group of a hundred people you will find all shapes and sizes. I am a very different kind of person from you, who can give up everything to achieve your ambitions, who can control your desires, working day and night behind closed doors. If I tried to behave like you do, I would never achieve anything, because that’s your way of working and not mine. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and everyone has their own way of doing things. You do your thing and I’ll do mine, and we leave each other alone, OK? You need to stop trying to control me.’