Chapter 11: The ID

The older officer had a mustache, a patient face and a notebook he did not open.

"Your name?" he asked.

"Jiang Lü," said Jiang Lü, in her robe, in the doorway of her own house.

"Date of birth?"

She stopped.

Tang Yu, standing at her shoulder with her hair in a bird's nest and a borrowed coat, felt her go still.

"I do not have one that is useful," Jiang Lü said at last, slowly. "I am older than my papers."

"Ma'am, I'm going to need an ID card."

"I do not have a card."

"A household register?"

"I do not know where it is."

"This," said Zhou Hanqing, to the younger officer, in his mildest voice, "is the person who has been inside my company's systems for two years."

"She has no identity, no employer, no number. I think that's an unusual profile."

"It is an unusual lane," said a dry voice from the gate.

Granny Bai stood on the step with a red cloth bundle in her arms.

She was tiny in her blue jacket, and her white hair stuck up at the back, and she did not look at all pleased.

"Officer Li," she said to the mustached man. "How's your mother?"

"She's well, Granny. I didn't know..."

"No. You didn't. Move over."

She came inside and set the bundle on the table and untied it.

Inside was a small battered red booklet, soft at the corners, with a gold-embossed crest.

She turned the pages with a brown finger.

"Household of Bai Yunxiang," she read.

"Registered at this address since 1962. Granddaughter, Jiang Lü."

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