◎ Did Your Proposal Succeed? ◎

The fifth time Annie saw Luo Peiyin was in a Tiffany store, where he was buying a diamond ring — a diamond ring of only thirty points. In her view, if a proposal ring was less than three carats, the man had absolutely no sincerity. And if the one proposing with a diamond ring happened to be Luo Peiyin, she could lower that standard to one carat — but only to one carat.

Yet this man was buying a ring of only thirty points.

The first time Annie encountered Luo Peiyin was late one night, after she had left her boyfriend behind at a vacation villa — he had been flirting with other girls at a cocktail party — ending the relationship without a shred of reluctance. Annie drove alone toward the city, and passing through a stretch of road completely devoid of people, her sports car suddenly broke down. Her mobile phone had died, there was not a soul around, only a sky full of stars, and in the howling cold wind she waited until an old jeep appeared. Her instinctive wariness kept her from immediately asking for help, until the jeep driver rolled down his window and asked if she needed assistance.

Luo Peiyin lent Annie his mobile phone so she could call for roadside assistance. As she took the phone, the glow of the headlights finally let her make out the face before her, and she suddenly changed her mind — she asked the jeep driver if he could wait with her for the roadside assistance to arrive, saying she was very frightened alone. Had it been any other face, she would not have dared to deliberately emphasize that she was alone.

She flashed her practiced smile at this young driver, but did not receive the expected smile in return. Yet when Annie repeatedly stressed her fear, her words apparently stirred some compassion in the jeep driver.

He retrieved a tow rope from the back of the jeep.

Annie climbed into the back seat of the old jeep, her sports car being towed slowly along behind. She had originally intended to sit in the front passenger seat, but the driver suggested she sit in the back — in a stranger’s car, the back seat made it easier to escape. Annie had assumed this was a joke, but as the car drove through an area with no signs of human life and the driver said not a single word, she could not help thinking of the well-dressed, perfectly human-looking psychopaths in horror films. She had been waiting for him to strike up conversation, to ask where she lived, expecting him to take her home. But after the silence stretched on, she began speaking to him first — according to psychology, such conversation could awaken the good in even a disturbed person. His answers, however, were exceedingly brief.

The car stopped in front of a 24-hour fast food restaurant, and Annie heard the driver say “get out.” She reflexively said she did not feel like eating right now, and that even if she were hungry she would not eat fast food here — the calories in burgers and fries were simply alarming. Only after she finished speaking did she realize the jeep driver had no intention of treating her to fast food at all. He handed her his mobile phone, told her to call roadside assistance, got out of the car, and unhooked the tow rope connecting the two vehicles.

Annie watched the old jeep disappear into the distance, leaving her standing alone outside the fast food restaurant waiting for the rescue vehicle.

This man did not mind doing a good deed — but only took it to sixty points. This sixty-point good Samaritan did not leave his name.

But when you remember someone’s face, finding them again is not an impossible thing.

The second time Annie saw Luo Peiyin was at her uncle and aunt’s wedding anniversary. Her uncle’s anniversary gift to her aunt was an eight-carat diamond ring.

Annie quickly learned from her cousin that the old jeep’s driver had the surname Luo and was a Chinese man born and raised in China. Her cousin, who was studying at a business school, had gone into business with a Chinese student, placing newspaper advertisements to sell a risk-monitoring system designed specifically for small banks. Due to their pricing, no clients had come knocking.

Annie was not sure how her cousin had been talked into such a venture. The social skills her cousin had picked up at cocktail parties were completely useless against the owners of community banks — people acutely sensitive to money. He could not invite these shrewd small business owners to play golf or watch football to close a deal. Her instinct was that Luo had approached her cousin first, since a Chinese student on a study visa would have great difficulty registering a company in America and would need a native-born American as a partner.

The third time Annie saw Luo Peiyin, she learned he had a girlfriend back in China. Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked him what kind of girl his girlfriend was. Luo’s description of her was: someone full of curiosity about the world.

Because of that description, Annie’s own curiosity grew another layer deeper.

By the time Annie saw Luo Peiyin in Tiffany, she guessed their business venture with her cousin had not made much progress. If things had been going well, Luo Peiyin would probably not be buying a thirty-point diamond ring to propose to his girlfriend. Of course, it was also possible he was simply a frugal man, who no matter how much he earned, only admired thirty-point stones.

The sixth time Annie saw Luo Peiyin was at a hospital. She went to visit with her cousin, having carefully chosen from among her many lipsticks a shade appropriate for a hospital visit. As for Luo Peiyin’s car accident, Annie was not terribly surprised. Based on the schedule her cousin had described, a long-term, severely fatigued driver getting into an accident was hardly a low-probability event. She had guessed half right — Luo Peiyin had indeed reacted slowly from extended sleeplessness, and when a black cat suddenly darted from the roadside, his hard braking sent the old jeep rolling onto its side.

She did not find an invalid languishing in bed. Luo Peiyin appeared to be in good spirits, aside from being temporarily unable to walk. Unable to move freely, he had not managed to shave in time, and stubble had pushed through his skin, making him look somewhat more mature. Annie had long noticed how sharply defined his lips were, and now Luo Peiyin used that mouth to thank her for coming to see him. Though Annie suspected he was not particularly grateful in his heart — the thanks were really a way of establishing distance. A yellow pages directory sat beside him; before she had arrived, he had been circling phone numbers in it with a pen. He had called her cousin and asked him to bring a laptop to the hospital.

It was only when Annie attempted her imperfect Chinese that she noticed Luo finally had a flicker of genuine curiosity about her. Her first thought was that this man was nothing like his girlfriend — he was remarkably incurious about other people. Annie’s father was Jewish and her mother was Chinese; she knew a little Chinese, though her grammar was entirely shaped by English.

When Annie came to visit again, she came alone, and Luo Peiyin was alone in the ward as well. Annie could not suppress her curiosity: “Did your proposal succeed?” A thirty-point diamond ring was worth weighing in terms of the man’s sincerity — though perhaps his girlfriend thought it showed sincerity enough.

—

Gu Qiao had expected to see Luo Peiyin in early July, but July passed without her catching a single glimpse of his face.

Though he had only mentioned a small accident over the phone, and though she had managed to reach him the day it happened, her instinct told her the accident was not as minor as he made it sound.

But Gu Qiao could only hear Luo Peiyin’s voice through the phone. Even if she had been willing to sacrifice earning money to go to him, there was no way she could actually go see him. The moment she learned he was in the hospital, she had impulsively blurted out over the phone, “Then I’ll come see you,” and Luo Peiyin’s tone — rare for him — had lost its usual composure as he asked her when she had managed to get her visa sorted out without telling him.

Luo Peiyin’s surprise brought Gu Qiao back to reality. She could not simply act on impulse and go see him — she did not even have a passport, let alone a visa for America. Even though Luo Peiyin had long since mentioned getting a passport, she had been too busy — too busy making money — and had never gone to take care of it.

She had business every single day. The factory owners preferred cash over checks. Gu Qiao not only paid in cash each time, she had also signed contracts before the leather jackets were even produced. She rented a separate space to use as a warehouse, stockpiling inventory in advance — unlike the other traders at the hotel who only scrambled for supply once orders came in. Because she could ship fast — five thousand leather jackets could be packed up in a single day — she had a dedicated packing crew that handled her business exclusively. Orders found their way to her door one after another, and though she knew some Russian, she hired a dedicated Russian interpreter for the sake of business. Still, certain work could not be delegated. Every contract negotiation had to be conducted by Gu Qiao herself.

Going to get a passport would cost her at minimum several thousand yuan. She truly could not bring herself to give that up.

This was a somewhat difficult thing to say out loud. Gu Qiao was silent for who knows how many eggs’ worth of money before she finally managed to tell him she had not gotten a passport yet.

—