Lily whispered a translation. “Aw, come on, boss,” Wu said. “The least you can do is buy the lady some lunch.”

Margaret didn’t need a translation. “Something fast. A burger would be fine.”

Li knew there was no way out of it, and a tiny mischievous thought formed itself in his mind. “Okay. I know a place.”

“I tell the driver to bring car round.” Lily started for the door.

“That won’t be necessary,” Li said quickly. “I’ll take a pool car. We’ll meet you back here in an hour.” He held the door open for Margaret.

Lily scowled, displeased to be excluded from this outing, but in no position to argue.

“Bye-bye,” Wu called after them, in English.

Margaret stopped by the door, struggling to recapture what seemed like a very distant memory of an hour spent with a phrase book on the plane. “Zai jian,” she said eventually, eliciting some laughter and some applause, and a chorus of “bye-byes” from the other detectives.

II

Li picked up a dark blue Beijing Jeep in the street outside and they turned south and then west along Dongzhimennei Street. They sat in silence for several minutes as he appeared to focus all concentration on negotiating the traffic. Eventually Margaret glanced at him and said, “Lily said the detectives told her it was your uncle who sent the feng shui man.”

“Yes.” Li was not inclined to talk about it, but Margaret persisted.

“So, it’s not widely practised in China now? Feng shui.”

Li shrugged. “Perhaps. But not officially. I don’t know very much about it.”

“That’s a shame. Since it was the Chinese who invented it. It was an American Chinese who took the class I attended. He told us that the whole philosophy arose from the practice of the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism.”

“What does an American Chinese know about Taoism?” Li was scathing.

“More than you, apparently.”

Li gave expression to his annoyance with a blast of his horn at a cyclist. “Taoism,” he said. “From the word tao, literally meaning ‘the way.’ It teaches us we must all find a place for ourselves in the natural way of things that does not disrupt the function of the whole. When we accept our place in the world, we become more concerned for the consequences of our actions, since for every action there is a reaction, and everything we do has a consequence for others.”

Beyond her surprise at this sudden and unexpected articulation of the centuries-old philosophy, Margaret made the connection for the first time with what Bob had been trying to tell her earlier; about Chinese society and the way it is reflected in its legal system; the sublimation of the individual in favour of the collective good; the realisation that none of us is alone in this world, that we are all interdependent.