didn’t sway my hips like a flirt, didn’t lower my eyes like a servant, didn’t smile like someone for hire. Instead, I raised my free hand, gave them a polite nod like the businesswoman I was, and said in perfect American English, “Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are you?”

He smiled, remembering that people on the ocean liner said that Jews had arrived in Shanghai to make a fortune as early as in 1843, after Britain defeated the Chinese Qing dynasty during the first Opium War.

I hope, with all my heart, that I look refined and humble, just as an easygoing billionaire ought to appear.

“A warning, Aiyi. Falling in love is like teetering on the edge of a precipice blindfolded. It’s wonderful, but it might cause life-threatening injuries.”

But who would say it was wrong to indulge in a song from your heart during the winter days of your life?

Luo Ye Gui Gen, fallen leaves long for the roots,

“Shanghai was a mess in the 1940s.

along the walls, empty tables cast shadowy figures like land mines.

Her head was hung low, her back stiff, her eyes an ocean of sadness.