Chapter Two

1

3:30pm, May 25. After sitting in the Criminal Investigation Division of the police bureau for an hour and 47 minutes, I finally get to meet Inspector Wang Xiaoshan, who is in charge of Su Ya’s suicidal case.

He tells me usually the district police station can handle such a case. However, Su Ya’s parents have refused to accept the conclusion of the police investigation and become very emotional after their daughter’s suicidal. They think it is absolutely impossible that their daughter would have committed suicide. As partner and vice president of a publishing house, she had been doing very well in her work. Right before the May Day holidays, she had made her plans for a long vacation after arranging everything properly in the office.

At 7:20am on May 16, Su Huaiyuan and Qi Xiuzhen went past their daughter’s apartment for grocery shopping at the local wet market. It was a beautiful spring morning. In this Roman-style estate in west Shanghai’s Hongqiao area, security guards wearing navy blue uniforms were having a change of guard and saluting to one another. The May breeze brushed through the palm trees on either side of the main road, which transmitted such a picturesque view of tranquility and repose.

The Rome Courtyard has 76 platoon villas, two high-rises of 33-floor serviced apartments. Su bought a villa for the parents and an apartment for herself some years ago. It only took 15 minutes to walk from her parent’s house to her apartment.

It was already 8:10am when the couple had done their shopping. Su Huaiyuan was carrying a pot of soybean milk and some youtiao in his hands and Qi Xiuzhen was walking with a chicken, 500gof shrimps and two broccolis. Arriving at the gate of the estate, Su Huaiyuan suggested they go to their daughter’s room to bring her the breakfast. They knew she had no time for breakfast at home in the past few years, and now she was finally on her holidays.

They took the elevator to the 29th floor and came to Room 29C. Su Huaiyuan put the pot with the soybean milk on the ground and took out the keys which her daughter had given them. They had rarely used it though. With some effort, Su turned the key several times before the door finally opened.

Qi Xiuzhen walked in first and Su Huaiyuan followed with the pot. She left the groceries on the porch ground as he went inside to put the pot carefully onto the table in the living room. He saw the letters piled up on the table remained unread. The fish in the water tank were swimming franticly as if startled. At this moment, Qi Xiuzhen had walked toward the bedroom door.

“Su Ya, Papa and Mama are here,” she called out twice before she turned the door knob and pushed in. When Su Huaiyuan went over, he found Qi Xiuzhen sitting on the ground, soundless and motionless.

The bed was like a tranquil surface of a water pond. The dark red blood had congealed. A spatter of red brown spots on the cream-colored bedside table and lamp cover looked like the little birds sound asleep in the nest box. The lavender silk beddings on the bed were spread out smoothly even. The south-facing room was still dim at this time in the morning. Morning rays passed through the windows into the room, giving an unrealistic coating to everything presented in front of the old couple’s eyes. Su Ya, having half of the body dipped in the dark red pond, was wearing a rose pattern silk robe. She had her head slightly tilted to one side, her hairs resting loosely on the pillow, as if she were still sleeping.

“Did she cut her wrist?” I ask Wang Xiaoshan.

He shrugs his shoulders, scratches his nose, and says uneasily: “It was the neck.”

There was a deep cut on Su Ya’s left carotid artery. A one-time cut and that’s where the blood spilled out. As the blood got drained out very fast, Su Ya shouldn't have suffered much before breathing her last. Judging from the position of her right hand, which was hanging down, and the blade, she must have put the blade on the bedside table first, flicked the lavender-colored sheet for the last time. She then lay down on to the bed, straightened her robes, took the blade from the bedside table with her right hand, and wrapped her arms round her earlobe on the left. Taking a deep breath, she thrust the blade into her own carotid artery with force and accuracy.

“OK,” I say plainly, busy taking notes on my notebook.

“Hi, aren’t you afraid? I mean the woman just cut her own throat with a blade… Errrrrr,” Inspector Wang smacks his lips. With his head tilted to one side, he looks into my eyes.

“What’s there to be afraid of? I could, too. Women do like to be cut dead that way,” I reply, deliberately striking an even sober pose while secretly laughing to myself.

Wang Xiaoshan, though in police uniform, has big smiling eyes and is moving constantly. It seems to be difficult to remove all the small wrinkles from his body despite the stiff nature of the uniform. He is trying hard to suppress his grin every time I have said something.

Due to the persistence of Su Huaiyuan and Qi Xiuzhen, the case has been forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Division from the district police station. That’s how Xiaoshan gets involved in the case. Site investigation, fingerprints, building entry records, call logs, computer data…he is yet to look into them all. However, there he has found Su Ya’s last words before her death.

Xiaoshan goes to sit in front of the computer and beckons me over. As he types in a very long domain name in the search engine with his nimble fingers, the website wuya.com pops up. He clicks the icon bearing the dark angel, and there it is: JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW, the hottest and one of the most “in” BBS from the online communities these days. When I was obsessed with this Bulletin Board System three years ago, it was a very small online commune with very few registered members.

I have long stopped browsing through it for some time because I don’t have the time. It is surprising for me to see so many new posts on the bulletin’s first page. Officer Wang makes a half circle with the mouse pointer over the upper page and chooses a post which has already attracted 1,943 follow-ups. The ID name of the original post is Hard Candy.

～～

Y, I just want you to know that…while I may seem apathetic, I am actually not.

I know she has a boyfriend. I know she is young, so when she is confused she needs to consult you, her big brother, on a few questions. You told me you are just net pals and you have only met for a few times.

However, I just can’t bear you chatting with her on the computer whenever you are free. I can’t bear you sending messages to her every day and you saying “nite” to her before you go to bed. When she is suffering pimples on her face, she tells you. When she has a fight with her boyfriend, she complains to you. She even asks for your opinion on her new hair style.

You keep telling me that I am indeed a very considerate woman. You keep saying that there’s such an understanding between us that can’t be compared with any other relations. It’s weird, you know, I don’t remember you complimenting me that way before you knew her. I wonder why are you doing this, and for whom?

If only I didn’t know what is happening between you and her. You see, Shanghai is such a big city and there are fresh interns looking for opportunities everywhere. However, she chose to come to the publishing house where I work, and especially in my department. Eight hours a day, we are together. I hear her phone buzzing from time to time. I see her texting messages all the time. She told me that all were yours, she showed me how many messages there had been in her phone from you, and she let me guess how many messages you would have kept in your phone from her. Everyday she calls me her saozi, as if she doesn’t know saozi's phone is lying deep in her handbag, quiet like a spider, and wanting to cry.

～～

It was posted at 11:58pm, August 11, 2003. Many people viewed the post and left heaps of messages of comfort and condolence.

Ignoring the comments, this Hard Candy put up another post at 0:22am, December 24, the same year.

～～

You said, OK if you wish.

When I wanted to break up with you, you answered so quickly as if you had been waiting for this moment for ages.

It’s Christmas Eve. Do you remember? We started hanging out after the Christmas Eve Party held at the campus ballroom in 1994. Now, we are going to finish everything on the same night after nine years. At the beginning of this year, when we had a get-together among old college pals, they were saying: It took the nation eight years to fight a war against the Japanese aggression. You two have been through almost nine years, what’s left to wait for? And so, we were planning for a wedding in the Spring Festival of next year.

And, it’s all over now, sooner than the blink of an eye.

This nine-year relationship really mean nothing to you? Or has your heart left me already?

You said you didn’t expect me to be so narrow minded. Y, I just want you to know, that in the past half year, how much I have suffered. For God’s sake, I pretended as if nothing had happened and I was also talking and joking with both of you. Perhaps, by the time I turn around and left, you would be sending messages to her and ask her out for a happy Christmas Eve… And I wish you both happiness.

～～

The post went silent for three years. It wasn’t until 22:32pm, April 9, 2006, Hard Candy dug out her previous post and resumed:

～～

I’m lying if I say I like working.

I’m lying if I say I don’t miss you. Y, every inch of my bone aches for you.

I had quit my former job and started my own business. It’s been almost a year now. Business is doing well. I am busy, very busy, which is good for me because I don’t want to give myself time to think about you.

However, I can’t stop thinking of you no matter how I try.

～～

Then, another post at 11:05am, May 2.

～～

It seems that I have died already.

The heart doesn’t know how to laugh. There’s nothing special to expect every day. There’s even no difference between this day and the next day.

If only I could return to you, Y, just for one more month.

～～

I think I have seen the post, whose title was #Actually…I do care#. I remember digging it out somewhere when I was bored some day, and soon lost interest after reading it and realizing what it was about. This April, I saw it floating up to the front page twice and there were new updates of over 15 pages and more. However, I didn’t bother to pick up the post and read on because I was up to my neck in work at that time.

After browsing through six pages, Officer Wang figures that I have got the general picture of the story and doesn’t want to waste time turning pages for me. Impatiently, he jumps to the end page and clicks Page 15.

At 16:07pm, April 25, 2010, somehow, Hardy Candy suddenly made up her mind to meet her ex-boyfriend. Perhaps after seven years of separation, she was still not able to erase him out of her mind completely.

～～

Y, I called you today. You didn’t even change your number. Nice of you!

I said I wanted to meet you.

You seemed be embarrassed. You hesitated and paused for a while before you said: OK then. How about after the May Day holidays?

OK then,…after the holidays… such a businesslike answer as if I were a client. Of course, I know the week-long holiday should be saved for the families or lovers.

Sure, I said. You can come on your own or you may come with her, I added.

～～

“Look, here,” Xiaoshan points out his left index finger to where the mouse pointer has stopped on the screen.

Right beneath the sixth follow-up post, there is a posting from someone called Su Ya, dated 6:32pm, May 15.

～～

Y, I saw you both today. You looked so intimate with her that it looked like you were just sitting on each other. You didn’t even consider how I would feel about it, or you did that intentionally just wanting me to know how happy you are with her, while how stupid, how ridiculous, and how pathetic I am!

So, I made up my mind to take my revenge with blade and blood. Let you remember me forever. Let me haunting you every minute of your life.

I have decided to end my own life, too. You broke my heart and it’s all your fault.

Actually what happened shouldn’t have happened. Y, had you felt the least for me, you would have come to see me by yourself. Had you and she felt the least guilty, you wouldn’t have acted so insolently at a public café, disregarding my feelings. You two have had enough time to change words and fluids at home, didn’t you? You care for nothing but your own happiness. Do you know how much my heart aches? It’s so painful, and I just can’t speak about it!

～～

When I read the bit about “blade and blood”, I stick out my tongue and make a face.

“Did you see that? Those are her last words!” says Xiaoshan.

“Do you mean this Hard Candy online is Su Ya who committed suicide?” I ask.

He throws me a funny glance, as if pondering in his mind whether I am too stupid or too smart to ask such a question. To play it safe, he thinks it better to explain to me the details:

“We found this post from the online records of Su Ya’s computer. Every page of the post was logged. As we understand, Su Ya and her ex-boyfriend were in college together. They hadn’t seen each other for almost seven years after an intimate nine-year relationship broke down. We have confirmed these with Su Ya’s parents. Their accounts corroborated the dates of her story. The most important is when Su Ya uploaded her last post, she used her real name ID, which means she had decided to let everybody know before committing suicide that she was the one who wrote the post.”

2

If I had a razor blade!

Would I pick it up with my right hand? With due precision, would I thrust it into my left carotid artery without a shivering? If I had a razor blade, if I had an option, I think I would hold the blade towards someone else. How about using it to cut the other’s face? It should be a perfect cut, delicately done without a moment of hesitation, similar to the one made by the mysterious Barber at the Huiyang Department Store. It should create a gruesome scene...a horror...like in a thriller mystery, so that none of the ladies between the ages of 15 to 45 in Shanghai would dare go to the café ever. Ten days after the incident, people would still be talking about it, savoring every fragment of the details! That’s something!

According to the web report that I read this morning, police have for the moment categorized the disfigurement case at Huiyang store as “an act of assault on non-specific target.” “The Barber,” so to speak, must have been well prepared with an intension to harm. He was just waiting for the right person to show up at the right place.

Thanks to the online statement, business at the café of the Huiyang Department Store has fallen to less than 10 percent. There are even enthusiasts who go to take pictures of the near-empty café, except for two men each with a tough beard. One sits facing south and the other north.

Had I had a razor blade. Had I been “The Killer.”

Walking past the atrium of the ground lobby flooded in sunshine and then, without being noticed, swiping the blade over the face of the woman sitting right at the edge table of the central café. Both could have been done so easily, no?

Zhang Yue thought he was being a gentleman to sit on the outside, the right side of Mingzhi, which was the side facing the café. Actually, Mingzhi was sitting on the real outside, considering there was only a 15cm wide flower stand between her and the lobby. Anyone who walked past close enough, the corner of his coat would have grazed her left cheek.

Imagine how I would have implemented the plan. All I needed was to wear a thin jacket with two side pockets. I would have hidden my hands in the pockets, three fingers of my right hand holding a flake-thin razor blade firmly whose cutting edge stuck out from a small seam of the right side pocket.

Now, let me put on an innocent face, elbows loose with hands casually inside the side pockets. Make sure that all the muscles of the body are completely relaxed, except for the three fingers. Walk in a steady pace, but not too slowly, because the acceleration of my walk will contribute to the speed of my blade. Get her located from the corner of my eye and slightly adjust the path under my feet. Pretending to give way to two other people, I successfully ended up walking past very close to her.

At the time, my right wrist, inside the pocket, twisted a little. With the sudden spurt of pace in my walk, the razor blade sticking out from the small seam of the pocket was good enough to slice a banana. For any passer-by, it was just the corner of my jacket that had brushed over her hair. Then, I just needed to release my three fingers gently and let go off the blade. By the mere impact of fraction when the blade touched against the face, it should have fallen naturally off the pocket.

In such a large space, nobody would have noticed the trajectory of such a tiny fall, nor heard it drop on the floor. Even the video camera might not be able to catch such a detail; not to mention, it’d all been done and gone in the shade that was partly covered by my body.

This was just way too easy. Even to steal a wallet would have required a far more skillful hand.

Sorry, I forgot something. I should have had a pair of gloves. Best to have the surgical gloves because they fit well and non-slippery. Other kinds of gloves would also do as long as they are not too thick. Otherwise, they would be bulky if I put them in the pocket. I could have put on and taken off the gloves in the pocket, thus none of my finger prints would be left on the blade.

As I sit there thinking to myself, it becomes all too natural for me to drag the mouse from under Xiaoshan’s hand and click the news channel on wuya.com. I soon get so absorbed in reading the morning news that I can’t recall how I got the mouse for myself. Have I unknowingly touched Wang’s hand and pulled the mouse away from his palm? Or have I just pushed away his fingers and snatched the mouse from him? It is a bit of a surprise that the special report on the website released this morning cited police investigations, which is said to be tipped off by an insider.

It is said the police quickly rushed to the scene after receiving the emergency call. They found a double-edged razor blade among the white, pink and red Chinese Pink flowers in the flower stand on the left side of the sofa where Mingzhi had sat. It was a Dorco razor blade, covered in blood stains, the report says. Following the text, there is a picture of the blade in large size. Of course, it can’t be the one from the actual crime scene. The editor must have used an online advertisement of Dorco, because there is also a box of 5pcs Dorco Stainless Blades by the side of the singled-out piece.

The Huiyang Department Store has video cameras installed everywhere. To give the case a thorough investigation, the police have been trying very hard. They first acquired 82 images from the video clips. Most were blurred silhouettes of shoppers exiting the store, with more than half wearing sun-hats or sun-glasses due to the strong afternoon sunshine on that day.

After some eyewitness identification, suspects were finally narrowed down to 51 — all those who walked past the site by the time the incident happened. The police approached Zhang Yue again with the suspect pictures, hoping he would be able to point out someone familiar.

His Adam’s apple moving up and down twice, Zhang Yue shook his head and pushed the pictures back to the other side of the table.

3

5:30pm, May 25. Wang Xiaoshan and I arrive at the Roman Courtyard. From the security guard, we get the keys to Su Ya’s apartment and Xioashan open the door.

A strong rusty smell bars me at the door. Though Xiaoshan says he doesn't smell anything, he adds it could be the smell of blood. The apartment has already been washed clean where some 4 liters of blood once reigned in the room and remained there for more than 20 hours. So, by the time the door opens, I have regretted following him this far.

Why the hell bother? I have already taken painstaking efforts to my work, haven’t I? Why do I voluntarily come with Xiaoshan to check the criminal scene? Perhaps, I don’t know, but somehow my heart goes with Su Ya and my curiosity urges me to know more about her.

The 35-year-old baiquannv enjoyed a successful career and had accumulated quite a lot of asset under her name. Her picture on the bedside table shows her in soft flowing hair, about shoulder length. She has got round eyes, the same as those you may see from any young maiden. Even if she doesn’t smile, there is always an adorable expression of surprise on her face. Thick eyebrows, heart-shaped face, and deep smile lines around the mouth. She looks as beautiful as a green fruit in spring. No doubt, she belongs to the kind of women I adore: beautiful, intelligent, and independent, like Lu Tianlan.

“Hey, don’t touch anything!” Wang yells at me as I am studying the picture of her. Jesus Christ! He nearly scares me out of my grips of the frame.

So, it seems the I am not the only one who the hell has bothered. It is said that orders have been given by the police head to end the case. However, Xiaoshan has kept coming back to the apartment every day once he is off work. According to him, “there’s just something that isn’t right? But what is it? What?”

Except for the body, the bloody mattress and a number of exhibits, the crime scene is more or less the same as it was when Su Ya lived. There is no sign of a break-in: the locks are fine, the cash and the jewelry are left intact in the drawers of the study. The laptop on the desk remains in sleep mode while various images from the screensaver go sliding by silently every few seconds. The curtain in the bedroom remains open. Some skincare products on the dressing table look a bit messy, but that's normal for women. Other than one master bathroom, there is also one cloakroom inside the master bedroom. And the door to the cloakroom stands ajar.

According to the forensic report, the victim died on the evening of May 15.

An investigation report of the apartment security guards showed that about 11:50am on May 15, a delivery man from Pizza Hut with a 9-inch Seafood Supreme went to the 29th floor and knocked door of Su Ya’s. Five minutes later he came down and left. Police questioned the nearest Pizza Hut and confirmed the delivery.

Because most apartments in the 29-story building at the Roman Courtyard were bought as investment by businessmen from Wenzhou in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province, very few actually live here. So other than the delivery man, no other strangers went in and out of the building on that day. Elevator video records showed Su Ya went out at about 2:30pm and was back about 5:30pm.

It was likely that she went in for a shower shortly after she returned. Then she blew her hair dry and put on her fine silk pajamas; then she took out the blade she had already prepared and slit her own carotid artery.

Su Ya rarely used the landline phone in her apartment. She only used it to call her parents when they were home.

On the other hand, her cell phone call history revealed that she would make and receive more than 30 calls on average per day before May 1. However, right after the May Day, there were very few incoming calls. And most of the time her mobile was probably switched off. Neither were there any outgoing calls. Those who called her were mostly pals from work, a few of whom were her good friends. It was the same with her text messages. At 3:27pm on May 15, she had an incoming call from a fixed number, whose area code showed it was from the Xuhui District. The call lasted a mere 43 seconds.

So long as her last words have made it look like a suicide, police think there is no need to make any further investigation. On the one hand, it takes up too much time and work to investigate a person’s social relationships. On the other, the video clips from the elevator's surveillance camera has made it tick clear that no other person visited Su Ya’s apartment that evening. How could it be a homicide without a murderer?

I bend down and start looking for things in the trash bins in every room.

“Hey, you must have read too many whodunit series, didn't you?” Xiaoshan teases me when he sees me checking the bins. “Are you looking for evidences in the litters? How dare you think I don’t know those tricks?”

There isn’t a single piece of rubbish left. Most likely it was Su Ya who took out the garbage when she went out at 2:30pm. Moreover, there isn’t a single piece of pizza left anywhere in the apartment. Maybe she didn't eat leftovers. Or perhaps by that time, she already knew that she would need to eat another meal.

I know why people call for pizza when they are alone. Because it is convenient. It is so convenient that you don’t need any plates or dishes. It is so convenient that you don’t need to pull up a chair around the table. So you don’t have to set the table with table wares, only to realize that you are the only diner at the table. To practice the long, complicated and meaningless rituals of dinning all by myself gives me the creeps while I begin to introspect the real me during the inaudible procedures. It makes sense that there’s even no need to change the norm you chew with your back teeth and with your mouth closed. There is nothing distinguishing, nothing enjoyable, and nothing adventurous. A pizza a day keeps the strangers away! By the time you ignore all these essentials in your life, you are likely to ignore the very existence of yourself.

Thinking thus far to myself, I couldn’t but rush to the toilet, closing the door behind me.

“Don't touch. Remember that you don’t touch anything!” Xiaoshan yells from outside: “If you had to use the toilet, you could use the mobile one downstairs! Eh, woman, how about the guest toilet in the living room mah!”

“If you want to know about a woman, you need to check her bathroom. Don’t you understand?” I yell back from inside.

After a while I come out and go into the cloakroom. Xiaoshan takes off his gloves and thrusts them into my hands. “OK, OK,” he says, “Welcome on board. But please put on the gloves. I fear you, my Goddess.”

The cloakroom attached to Su Ya’s bedroom is about 15 sq m, with framed wall mirrors on all four sides. In addition to the front lamps on the mirror, there are also ceiling lamps which give an ambient light. Two rows of open closet racks stand parallel to my right and my left. In the central front, there hang a squash racket and neatly stacked six sets of squash clothes of six different colors. Anyone who enjoys a racket sport must have a partner, except for playing squash. It can be played against four walls and can be played alone.

Su Ya liked warm colors. Her clothes are off-white, orange-yellow, apricot-red, lake-green, and a wide range of browns running from chocolate dark to sandy bright. The colors, like what she looked in the picture, give me a tender, warm feeling like spring. Her clothes are generally loose and soft; her shoes flats or wedges.

I also find her to be a very precise and prudent person. Her litter bins are empty, her rooms well arranged, and her things neatly put, which can’t be neater from my point of view. She has a full dressing table of Estee Lauder products ranging from skincare to all makeup styles. In her bathroom, there are also a sole collection of Estee Lauder facial treatments, except that there is a half bottle of Shisheido shampoo on the shelf above the washstand.

The cloakroom looks even more amazingly organized. Clothes for autumn and winter are hung up on the left closet racks while clothes for spring and summer piled up on the right. Shirts and skirts of the same color tone stay in groups, making the cloakroom an intricate checkerboard cake.

Only one set of the clothes has broken free from the norm. It is hung separately over the racks close to the door. The apricot-red two-piece leisure suit has wrinkles on the elbow and the hip areas. It was singled out, perhaps because it had been worn and yet to be sent to the laundry.

I take the clothes off the rack and hold it up against myself to see how it feels.

“Hey Miss, don’t be mistaken. This isn’t your specialty clothing shop!” Xiaoshan says as he stares at me, biting his nails.

I pull up the right side of the coat to show him what I have found. Under the pure white lights, there is an obvious small seam cracked open at the bottom of the right pocket. The open edge appears very neat. It must have been cut by something very sharp.

“This could be accidentally torn, no? …” Xiaoshan speaks hesitatingly. His last few words are cautious, as if he, too, has thought of something.

Actually, I didn’t find the pocket seam by chance. I first found a small empty box in the toilet of her master bedroom. It is placed on the glass shelf where the toothbrush glass cups are held. Blue and white, about the size of a match box with “DORCO” in capital letters printed on the top lid and partly open. It looks exactly like the one that I have seen from the website — a box of 5pcs Dorco Stainless Blades, double-edged and which is basically used by men for shaving. This kind of razor blade is made in Korea, and is not on the Chinese mainland's official import list. That means it won't be easily bought by anyone or kept in large stocks on the shelf of any convenience store.

Xiaoshan has told me this is the kind of blade Su Ya used and it is likely to have been pulled out from that box.

Of course, he doesn’t mean this is the kind of blade she used ONLY to kill herself.

It is almost 6:30pm and it is completely dark outside. We switch off the lights in the locker room and step back into the bedroom. Through her bedroom windows, we can see lights turned on one after another in other people's apartments. A family opposite the apartment in the other high-rise building are having dinner in their living room, while on the right, another family are just about to, with the maid busy cooking in the kitchen while their child is watching cartoon on TV.

We turn on the ceiling light and stand quietly in Su Ya’s bedroom, looking outside the window. Behind us, there is the bed without a mattress and the reddish brown spots of blood are still visible on the walls.

Suddenly Xiaoshan asks: “Just take a guess as if you were her. Do you think Zhang Yue could have seen her there?”

*

The Hongqiao area，close to the Hongqiao International Airport, is a high-end residential area coupled with some great entertainment and leisure facilities. It was one of the first areas in Shanghai where land was made available for foreigners and estate developers.

Youtiao, literally meaning "oil strip," is a pair of deep fried dough sticks. This kind of slightly salty pastry is a typical Shanghainese cuisine, usually eaten for breakfast. Three other most well-known breakfast food are cifantuan, dabing and soybean milk, mostly served fresh in the morning at the local wet market.

Saozi is a polite form of address for an elder brother's wife.

The people of Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, are equipped with business sense and a commercial culture more dominant than anywhere else in China. A popular saying calls Wenzhounese the "Jews of the Orient". They have been stereotyped by other Chinese as real estate speculators.

(Translated from the Chinese by Xu Qin)