Margaret’s eyes flickered up from the board to look at Old Yifu, his attention still focused, apparently, on the game. What horrors must he have endured? And yet he had chosen to take the positive view. Tales of torture and persecution would, perhaps, have been too painful, or too easy. Instead he chose to remember the escape he had made each day, sustaining hope and spirit.

“My only regret,” he said, “is that I was separated from my wife for that period. We had so little time together afterwards.”

And she saw a moistness in his eyes, and a colour rising on his cheeks. My uncle has never really got over the loss of her, Li had told her. She swooped quickly to eat another of his Soldiers with her Horse, changing the pace of the game and the mood of their conversation. “So you were brought up in Hong Kong?” she said.

“The family was originally from Canton. But we had been in Hong Kong for nearly two generations, a wealthy family by Chinese standards. Li Yan’s father and myself were in middle school when the Japanese invaded and we fled to China as refugees. We ended up in Sichuan, and I finished middle school there before going on to the American University in Beijing.”

He took the bait and made the mistake of eating her Horse. She slid her Castle two-thirds of the way down the board. “Check.”

“Good God!” Old Yifu seemed genuinely taken aback, then he looked up at her, smiling shrewdly. “Now I see,” he said. “All these questions. You were hoping to distract me.”

“Me?” said Margaret innocently, and feigning shock.

Old Yifu brought his remaining Horse into play, blocking her route to the King. It was his only real option, but it left his other Castle exposed and unprotected. He shook his head sadly. “I can see my demise.”

Margaret ate his Castle quite ruthlessly. “You must have seen a lot of changes in your lifetime.”

But his concentration was on his move, and he did not reply until he had moved a Bishop to threaten a Soldier. “Everything has changed,” he said, “except the character of the Chinese people. I think, maybe, that will remain the one great constant.”

“So what do you think of China today?”

“She is changing again. More rapidly this time. For better or worse I do not know. But people have more money in their pockets and food in their bellies and clothes on their backs. And everyone has a roof over his head. I remember when it was not so.”