October the fifth.

A light rain came on, pattering steadily down.

He got up and pushed the window open, and there was still a chill in the wind when it blew in against his face.

Xu Ye dug a striped shirt out of the closet and pulled it on over his T-shirt, then took off the shorts he'd slept in and changed into a pair of jeans washed pale with age.

Over breakfast he called Pei Youwei.

She was already on the road when she picked up, and came straight to the point. "I'm on my way now. Roughly what time will you all get here?"

"Setting off shortly," Xu Ye said. "About an hour."

"Fine. I'll wait for you at the company."

"Let's leave it there, then. Hanging up."

Xu Ye got through breakfast in two or three mouthfuls, changed his shoes and hurried down the stairs.

Zhang Hong was mopping the floor, and she got going. "Old Xu, look at that son of yours. All these days off for National Day, and apart from sleeping here at night, in the daytime he only knows how to run over to his girlfriend's house. Would you say the two of us have been raising a son for somebody else?"

"Say that a few years back and I could have made an effort and given you a second one. These days you may as well accept your lot."

"Useless article. Get that leg up for me!"

Old Xu lifted his leg in a hurry, and once Zhang Hong had run the mop hard across the floor under his feet twice she was ordering him about again. "Hang out the laundry that's in the machine. Day in and day out, the moment you've nothing to do it's the phone. Marrying you was eight generations' worth of bad luck for me. One old bastard and one little bastard, and all either of them knows how to do is make me angry…"

…

Xu Ye drove out to Red Leaf Estate.

Jiang Meilin, Yang Lin and Chen Qingqing were already waiting at the house,…