The roaring train came to a halt at Longcheng Station, bearing its cargo and passengers.
A beautiful woman with golden hair and green eyes stepped down from the carriage.
"James, my love, I have come for you."
The woman and her four attendants took rooms at the Taoyuan Hotel in the city center. Though she had already seen buildings of twenty stories and more in Xinguang City, standing now in her eighteenth-floor room she still found it difficult to believe, and she lingered at the window for a long while, gazing out.
"They say London and Paris are the centers of the world — so what does that make this place, and Xinguang City besides?"
Paris was universally regarded as the world's center, a reflection of the British Empire's might. She mentioned Paris because she was French, and France naturally promoted itself accordingly.
Élodie looked out at the glittering night beyond the window, and quite suddenly the thought arose within her that she could live here — could make a life in this place.
"No," she said. "I came to find my love. James, wait for me."
The following day, Élodie went to Longcheng First Prison and applied for a visit with James.
"Which James? We have quite a few by that name."
"Your names are so limited — so many people sharing the same ones."
Élodie conferred with her hired interpreter for a while, and the interpreter explained the situation to the prison guard. A few years ago, during the bombardment of Xinguang City, a James had been captured — the commander of that fleet.
"Oh, him — yes, I remember. He was particularly cooperative, so he's already been released. He's not here anymore. If you want to find him, try the public security office in the city district."
Élodie felt at once disappointed and glad. Disappointed not to see her love; glad that he had been freed and was no longer a prisoner.
"Thank you," Élodie said, in the stiff pronunciation she had only just begun to learn, and then she left.
She went to the city's public security office, made her inquiries, and at last learned where he was.
And so she came to the university district.
After asking around, she made her way to a classroom in the foreign languages department and peered through the large glass panel beside the door at the figure standing at the lectern.
He was at once familiar and strangely changed.
The James of a few years ago had been a young man in the full flush of his confidence, commanding a fleet of several thousand men across the seas.
Now he seemed to have matured a great deal, performing on the lectern with wit and humor, drawing bursts of laughter from the students below at regular intervals.
He spoke fluent English and French, had a working knowledge of several other languages, and his Chinese had become excellent.
Élodie found herself staring, almost entranced.
The bell rang. James smiled and said in Chinese, "Much as I enjoy your company, my stomach has begun longing for the pork cutlet in the canteen — a truly agonizing choice."
He turned to go, and then he saw her — the woman gazing at him through the glass.
The two of them stood there, the glass between them, eyes locked.
They arrived at the university canteen one after the other.
"The ground floor deserves no praise whatsoever for its food — only for its prices, which are very cheap."
"That helps the students who are struggling to get by."
"James, you're not so old yourself — you're not yet thirty. Don't talk as though you've seen everything the world has to offer."
James smiled without a word and headed upstairs.
"Everything up here on the second floor is wonderful — well, everything except the prices."
"The food here is excellent. It reminds me of the buffets back home. My favorite is the grilled pork cutlet — the flavor is something special. I recommend you try it."
"All right, I'll follow your lead."
The two of them selected their dishes. James settled the bill with gentlemanly ease. The total came to nine yuan.
Quite the extravagant light lunch.
Outside, a meal of two vegetable dishes and one meat dish cost only one yuan — though naturally it came with no pork cutlet the size of a man's palm.
"Élodie, do you realize that this lunch of ours has cost what someone else earns in two full days?"
The standard first-grade wage was five yuan a day.
"I chose to come here precisely because the pay is good. As a university lecturer I earn a seventh-grade salary — eighteen yuan and fifty fen a day. That is genuinely high wages."
"There are other benefits as well — free housing, for one."
"This place is very nearly paradise."
Élodie looked at him with complicated eyes, uncertain whether to tell him that her hotel room cost a hundred yuan a night, and that its pork cutlet, while better, was considerably more expensive.
"James, let's not talk about this place. Tell me about home. You are a nobleman of the French Empire — can you truly feel no desire to return?"
The hand skillfully working the chopsticks paused.
"Élodie — do you not know? I have been cast out from the family."
"I am an ordinary man now, my fiancée."