people's republic of desire

After Lulu leaves the magazine, the realisation that she has no job, husband or home of her own, hits her hard. All she has is her Chinese-made SUV. Actually, she also has great looks, a wonderful figure and a fine mind, but for the moment, she can't acknowledge that.

She drives out to an area near the Great Wall. She climbs a hill, and looking out on the grand vista of the Great Wall, sits pondering. She thinks about Jenny, the woman nobody likes in her office because she is lazy and arrogant. But by seducing the magazine's owner and becoming his mistress, Jenny got the editor-in-chief position, when everyone else assumed Lulu had it in the bag.

Jenny hasn't even tried hiding her affair from her husband or her colleagues. She wants people to know she has the boss wrapped around her little finger.

There are so many Jennys around. Colourful Cloud, who was Niuniu's acquaintance in Missouri, used her teacher to get her out of a poor Guangxi village. By sleeping with her college room-mate's father, she was able to come to Beijing. She chased after an old American man in Beijing who later married her, and off they went to the United States.

Once she had some roots in the US, it wasn't long before she dumped the old man and married his young and virile grandson.

Little Fang, the vixen who stole CC's English boyfriend Nick, is the next character who springs to Lulu's mind. With the help of Nick, she got into Oxford where she met Sir William, who was referred to by the locals as 'Old-Money and Plenty Of It'. Nick was immediately dumped, and Little Fang made Sir William divorce his wife and abandon his kids to marry her.