A young guard in uniform standing by the door with his hands crossed behind his back wore no emotion. He was mooning around with cynical boredom. The quietness and the slowness and the unoccupied surroundings made him look taller than he was, and unnecessarily serious. He seemed to welcome her with a face that was less compassionate than he would use for dogs being butchered on the street. A mid-forties, fairly round woman struck her with an enormous gold pendant. Carrying a bagful of cash that seemed weightless to one of her size, she slipped away from Mei’s presence. Having observed her heavy make-up and smelled her strong perfume, Mei faintly loathed the fl aunt of her richness in almost every way. With such a growing hint of reality, her sense of alienation from the world disappeared. Like everyone else in the bank, she drew a number from a spitter and waited uneasily. Meanwhile, every now and then, she checked her handbag for her bank card and her ID card. Every time she visited a bank, there was a feeling, naturally nervous yet strangely familiar - she well knew that something was awfully wrong, but just yet she wasn’t the kind of person to admit it.