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    â€œWhat do you mean, what’s happened?”
    â€œWhat’s happened to your neighborhood?”
    Zhang stopped for a moment, leaned his head to one side, and looked at Paul as if he still didn’t understand what his friend was talking about.
    â€œWhat are you so surprised about? Would you like to go to the hairdresser? Should I make an appointment for you? I get a regular’s discount.”
    Paul looked at him in astonishment. Only a very slight, barely discernible twitch of a smile around his mouth betrayed the fact that Zhang had understood exactly what he was asking about. Zhang’s very subtle sense of humor was one of the qualities that Paul prized most in him. It had taken a while for Paul to discover it, and even now, after so many years, there were still times like these, moments in which he could not immediately be sure if Zhang really meant what he said.
    â€œNo thanks.”
    â€œOkay. The rumor is they’re not that good, not those in my block, anyway.” After a short pause, he added, “That’s what I hear.”
    â€œAnd where are the tailor and the dentist?”
    â€œDo I really have to explain the laws of capitalism to you?” Zhang asked by way of reply and laughed. “The rents here have tripled, no, quadrupled. The brothel-keepers can pay it, the others can’t. We’re now the last ordinary family left in our building. The whole of the first three floors is a whorehouse.”
    â€œWith Detective Zhang in the middle of it all?”
    â€œOn top, to be exact.”
    â€œWhat does Mei think about it?”
    â€œWe’ve already offered to move out. But our landlord said, ‘Certainly not, Comrade Zhang, certainly not. Please stay.’ And to make sure we did, he reduced the rent by thirty percent on the spot. To make up for any possible disruption from the noise. That convinced Mei right away. You know my wife. When he heard that I’m a Buddhist and that I meditate on the roof, he even arranged for an awning to be erected. I think they feel safer with a policeman inthe building. At any rate, everyone always greets not only Mei and me but our son very politely and treats us with great respect. If we moved, we’d have to move to the edge of the city. We can’t afford an apartment in the city center anymore. We wouldn’t want to do that, so we’re staying here.”
    â€œHow much do you get from it?” Paul asked.
    His friend gave him a long look and did not reply. Finally, he asked, “Who exactly do you mean when you say ‘you’?”
    Zhang’s tone of voice unsettled Paul. How could he have formulated his question so clumsily?
    â€œI didn’t mean you personally when I said ‘you.’ You know that,” Paul said, almost apologetically.
    Zhang smiled. It was one of those smiles that started somewhere deep inside, raised the corners of the mouth gently, and quickly reached the cheeks and the eyes, until the whole face beamed. A smile that was so calm and relaxed that Paul envied him for it.
    â€œI don’t know how much ‘we’ get from it. When I look at my fellow policemen’s and my bosses’ cell phones, wristwatches, apartments, and cars, I guess it’s not a small amount. But you know, if you’re going to drink wine, don’t forget where it comes from.”
    â€œAn old Chinese saying?”
    Zhang nodded. “A modern version. ‘Updated,’ as my son would say.”
    They walked on to the butcher and while Zhang was buying mincemeat for the mapo doufu, Paul waited in front of the door and watched a prostitute disappear into the back room of a hairdressing salon with a client. Everything that he had seen in the last few minutes was illegal. But no one made even the slightest effort to pretend to be obeying the law to save face. Why were the police doing nothing about this? Where was the party secretary for this