The meeting over, everyone went their own way. I caught up with Professor Dong Congwen and invited him to dinner the next day, and also asked if I could borrow his car again, this time to go to Nanjing. Dr. Dong's steed was a second hand Santana which looked rather like it had been last used by refugees fleeing disaster in the Congo. It was so deep in yellow dust that you couldn't tell its original colour. The driver's door wouldn't open for me; no amount of force availed.

　　Dr. Dong said, "It would seem that you have mistreated my car in the past and now she is retaliating!"

　　"Not a bit! We are intimate friends! It's just that, in your presence, she feels a bit embarrassed!"

　　Dr. Dong tried the door a few times himself, but it still wouldn't open.

　　"Just get in the passenger side and slide over. That's what I've been doing recently. She's been acting up lately." I twisted myself in through the passenger door, feeling grateful that I had not yet gone to fat and remained somewhat agile, at the same time imagining Professor Dong negotiating his beer belly past the stick shift.

　　By the time I had the key in the ignition and the engine started, Dr. Dong had ensconced himself in the rear seat.

　　"Zhu Ge, when you get back from Nanjing, will you get that door fixed? Oh, and also, here in the back seat, someone burned a hole in the seat cover, it looks pretty bad. Could you get it changed? The girls don't go for that sort of thing, you know? What little cutie wants to park her derrière on a burned seat cover?" I broke in, "Put your mind to rest! I'll get that door fixed and replace the seat covers. Consider it done. Just leave it to me!"

　　Hearing this, professor roared with laughter, "Oh, yes! The motor also sounds a bit off, too. While you're at it, do you think you could get that replaced?"

　　"The motor? That motor is an old buddy of mine, how could I go and have it replaced? But I'll certainly have it back to you in perfect shape, never fear!"

　　So, out the school portals and off to Chentai Boulevard to drop off professor Dong, who, in parting, left me with a hurriedly drawn-up list of phone numbers. "These are a few of my 'little sisters' in Nanjing; most of them are fed-up and bored. You can pop in on them, give them some consolation, tell them that their 'older brother' is missing them, O.K?" Wink, wink.

　　I took Qilian Shanlu over to Zhenbei Lu, and twenty minutes later I was speeding along the Shanghai-Nanjing motorway. The car did seem on its last legs, but once I had it wound out to 120 km/h, apart form some vibration in the motor which kept the steering wheel and dashboard shaking like a leaf, and the back end's tendency to float around a bit, everything else seemed just fine.

　　

　　

　　If you want to dig,

　　Dig in my heart,

　　You will see that change is slow there,

　　Most unlike outside,

　　Where hard rain falls,

　　Where people rush around,

　　No one stopping

　　To watch your shovel search about.

　　

　　If you want to laugh,

　　Come laugh in my dreams,

　　You can see

　　That all is soft there,

　　Most unlike without,

　　Where all about is solid rock,

　　Gestures of stone,

　　Words of granite,

　　No one softening to your

　　Subtle supplication.

　　

　　If you want to come,

　　Come early,

　　When dew yet sparkles leaves,

　　When gunfire has yet to startle birds,

　　When wind has yet to wash apples from their branches,

　　Slowly, you can unfold in youth,

　　Bloom in health,

　　Like the song of daybreak's rising sun.