Of course I knew perfectly well that this wasn’t a long-term solution and that we would have to find Mr Right so that Huang Yiyi could get married and have a proper home. So on the one hand we were trying to keep a lid on things, while on the other we were searching high and low for someone suitable for Huang Yiyi. That was hard, but we had to carry on looking. This wasn’t Huang Yiyi’s problem any more, it was Unit 701’s problem; a government problem. Maybe you don’t believe it, but it’s true.

One afternoon the following spring, Huang Yiyi suddenly burst into my office. The second she got through the door she said, ‘I want to marry Zhang Guoqing!’

I was surprised and didn’t know what to say, so it was only after a long pause that I replied, and with a stupid question at that.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I mean what I say. I want to marry Zhang Guoqing.’

‘Is this some kind of joke?’

‘No.’

‘What on earth is going on? Why have you all of a sudden decided you want to marry him?’

‘I can’t stand seeing him go back to his wife every day.’

‘Is that the problem? I will tell Zhang Guoqing not to go home so often. You don’t have to marry him.’

‘No. I want to get married.’ She said it very calmly, very firmly, and had clearly thought it through beforehand.

I was cross with her. ‘If you wanted to marry him all along, why did we go to all the trouble of bringing his family back –’

She cut me short. ‘That was then and this is now. I want to marry him, so you tell him to get a divorce.’

She then walked out and didn’t stop, no matter how much I yelled at her.