Wednesday, April 10, 1991. Moderate rain.
Li Juan was in a terrible mood today. She had bottled up a bellyful of anger at work, only for her car to break down again on the way home.
The Volga Li Juan drove had originally belonged to her eldest sister, Li Yue. It had later been passed on to Wang Jianqiang before finally ending up in Li Juan's hands.
The journey of all three of them from rookies to seasoned drivers had been nothing short of "torture" for this Volga. Besides, it was already a seven- or eight-year-old car; breaking down halfway through a trip was perfectly normal.
But no matter how battered the car was, Li Juan had never disliked it. Among classmates and coworkers her age, she was one of the very few with a car—and it was her own.
Although Li Juan repeatedly stressed that it was "a junk car her sister's work unit had disposed of, not worth much," it still drew the jealousy of some people, along with plenty of sour and snide remarks.
After hearing those sour, snide remarks, Li Juan had considered taking the work shuttle or squeezing onto buses instead, so she would not stand out so much. But Li Ye had sternly stopped her.
Given the state of public security in the nineties, and the fact that Li Juan often worked late, Li Ye had no choice but to consider more possible accidents.
A private car and a Big Brother could ward off more than ninety-five percent of danger.
She got into her car when she left in the morning and drove home after work at night, avoiding contact with strangers in between. If danger arose, she would at least have a space to fend it off.
Before mobile phones became widespread, criminals