“More intolerably, one day, a man from my village visited me just for a normal cup of tea. The moment he saw him in the house, he threw him out. Once the man was out of sight, he pushed me down on all fours and whipped me with his belt. It was his absurd jealousy and his evil possession. Without Mr Bao, I may never have had the courage to think him through. There were times I thought things couldn’t be worse as he fi nally agreed to separate. But I was wrong. He never changes. Like last year, when he was severely beaten by his fi shing business partners, I could not, in conscience, sleep here without seeing him there in hospital. Eventually I fl ew back to take care of him for a month. But when he recovered, he beat me again.