A fresh wave of guests arrived overnight,

and next morning the restaurant was packed

with international businesspeople

eating breakfast over newspapers and laptop computers.

Weng left the hotel early and drove around Ningbo,

stopping to eat fish-head soup in a small park.

He decided that, since he had followed Shirley to school once,

he could follow her home once, and so arrived a full hour

before dismissal to secure a good parking spot.

As he waited, Weng smelled something

and realized the plastic container of fish-head soup

left over from lunch had split and leaked

into the Rolls-Royce’s Blenheim carpet.

He collected as many bones as he could,

and put them in the wood-grain tray.