Yongli was almost beside himself with anger and self-recrimination. “It’s hopeless, it’s completely hopeless,” he kept saying. “It’s all my fault.” Margaret was beginning to tire of him.

Li had instituted an exhaustive search of the vehicle—beneath the seats, under the bonnet in case the jack was strapped to the inside of the engine compartment, beneath the tailgate in case there was some hidden storage area. But they found nothing. And the back of the vehicle was empty. Nothing that might be of any use in improvising a jack. Li sat pensive and smoking at the roadside now, staring off into the distance. He had said almost nothing since the puncture.

Margaret had an idea. “Where’s the railway line?” she asked suddenly. “We’ve been following it most of the way.”

“Over there.” Li pointed off to their right, but she couldn’t see it.

“There might be old sleepers—you know, railroad ties—or bits of track lying around that we could use to lever up the truck.”

Li was on his feet in an instant. “You’re right,” he said. And he turned to Yongli. “You head south, I’ll go north. If you don’t find anything within an hour, come back.” Yongli nodded and set off immediately at a jog for the railway line. Li said to Margaret, “Will you be all right here on your own?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m coming with you.”

At first they jogged up the line, but their pace very quickly reduced to a fast walk, Margaret struggling to keep up with Li over the uneven ground. They did not talk much, conserving their breath. Li reckoned they covered maybe seven miles in the hour, and they found nothing. The futility of that wasted time, and the further hour they would waste going back, was demoralising. It remained unspoken, but they both knew that if the truck was still there by morning, they were bound to be seen and reported. And it would only be a matter of time before they were picked up by the police.

Li turned, disheartened, in the direction they had come. Margaret caught his arm. He stopped, and for a moment they stood looking into each other’s eyes, sharing their despair. Then he drew her to him and held her, feeling the contours of her body moulded into his. And they kissed. A long, hungry kiss filled with both passion and pain that left each of them aching with a desire they knew they could not fulfil. Not here. Not now.

By the time they got back to the pick-up, Yongli was there in a state of anger and frustration. “Where the hell have you been?” he shouted at Li. “I found a whole fucking pile of railroad ties about a mile down the track. I came running back screaming my lungs out trying to stop you.”

Li shook his head. “We didn’t hear you.”