Hongmei imagined his daughter as a child of fourteen. She saw this long-limbed girl vanishing into the dimness of the boarding gate, and the man abruptly realizing what sort of creature he was, someone who hassled strange women over email, someone who sat alone in restaurants or coffee shops, quietly waiting for prey like Hongmei. Perhaps as he’d driven home from the airport, he’d had a change of heart, all because of his daughter.

* * *

Late that night, she and Glen made love. It was better than it had been in a long time. As if she was using Glen to express her passion for someone else, or perhaps Glen had somehow become unfamiliar, a stranger. Then she rolled over and went to sleep, though of course she was only pretending. She was afraid Glen would speak, breaking the spell.

For the next week, Hongmei didn’t check her email. The man had vanished just like that. Her bad habit of biting her nails came back. She discovered that she wasn’t doing this out of anxiety but the opposite: the calm of having nothing to hope for.

On the eighth day, she sent him a message asking him to suggest a few recent books on psychology. She avoided mentioning the unfortunate ending of their last conversation and the yearning she’d felt these last few days.

No reply.

Three days later, she sent the same message again, adding a line to explain that she was afraid the last email had gone astray and never reached him.

Still no reply. She abandoned her pride and bombarded him with messages.

Chewing her nails, Hongmei thought he must be a gentleman after all, to keep his word like this. Perhaps the soul he was so against mentioning was no longer empty, now that his long-lost daughter had resurfaced to fill it. For whatever reason, he was determined to ignore her, which left Hongmei at a loss. What was he doing now? Sitting at his computer, mockingly watching her sink into despair and disappointment. Her hair a mess and her nails ruined as she took up the banner of studying again in a bid to wrest back his attention and cling on to it. Her fake respectability and reluctance to be alone must’ve been hugely amusing to him. That’s how he wanted to write her—an easily seduced woman had to be considered on such harsh terms.

After another two days of waiting, Hongmei calmed down and felt a little ashamed of herself. She started catching up on the schoolwork she’d missed and paid close attention when Glen was talking.