Xiao did not want to open the emotional floodgates in front of her colleagues, so she asked Kan to go home with her during her lunch break. They talked cordially, almost as strangers. She showed him pictures of her husband and young son. He kissed her gently on the cheek; she didn't resist. He kept telling her how sorry he was. She kept saying, don't blame yourself.
Before the hour was up, he stepped out into the pouring rain.
Eventually, she would send him a letter telling him that the day he finally came to her, she had wanted to break down in his arms. She would tell him that she had waited for him for 17 years. When her minders told her to find another man, she replied, "If I can't be with Kan, let me stay in prison."
