Every few weeks， I take the plane from China to Germany， work there for two or three weeks at the headquarters of the company， guide everyone “back on track”， motivate them， listen to their concerns and ideas， discuss projects， do that tedious administrative work， and then I return by plane to China. Sometime in the early months of this way of working and travelling when SunLi accompanied me to the ferry， the worst case happens. Just before I check in， there is a sizzling flash in my mind： My laptop is still lying on the living room table！ This means disaster for my working schedule of the next two weeks.
Quickly we make up our minds： I will tell at the ticket check， above at passport control and on the pier at the ferry that there is something to be replenished. SunLi will as quickly as possible try to take a taxi to my apartment and retrieve the laptop. I give her the key， she knows where the apartment is because she has helped me to find and rent it.
Outside， in front of the ferry terminal， there are regular taxis – the drivers refuse the drive， in particular they do not want to wait in front of the house until she gets down again. Precious minutes elapse. But there are also other fellows hanging around， white card drivers who offer passengers to take them to their destination off the clock. Only the third driver asked is willing to drive the ten minutes distance， wait outside the house， and return SunLi with the laptop to the ferry terminal.
These and other details I find out later by telephone， in the meantime I am discussing with the ferry personnel and the passport inspectors， for if SunLi is able to retrieve the laptop she has to pass the first ticket check but has no ticket， then she has to get upstairs to passport control and handle me the laptop “across the border”， but in-between the ferry must not leave， for it is the last one for today， otherwise I would miss my plane. All of this has to be accounted for.
Speaking with the tongues of angels， at that time without any word of Chinese， I at last persuade them all： the ferry will be waiting for the laptop， the ticket check will allow SunLi to pass， passport control will allow that I get the laptop handed over.
At the same time in SheKou (蛇口)， that suburb of ShenZhen which accommodates the ferry terminal， an obviously insane driver rushes with 80 or 100 kilometres per hour in wavy lines， overtaking all the other cars even on the opposite lane， along the roads， across red semaphores. He tries to comfort SunLi， who is close to breakdown， telling her： “Don’t worry， I was a racer once.” Does that really comfort？
In less than twenty minutes SunLi is back， hands me the laptop across the border， the passport control officers smile， they have helped with their flexible approach (and they all like to help)， the ferry departs less than ten minutes late， the passengers did not even notice. If later the ferry is late at times I send an SMS to SunLi， telling： “Once again someone has forgotten his laptop！” For a while， this is our running gag.
Ever since the racer has been our driver on all client appointments in GuangDong， he demands a fair price， he is incredibly flexible and has， I think， a GPS wired in the brain， for he finds every way without GPS or map， sometimes he asks locals if we cannot find the road to our customers in the maze of industrial areas， but never he has lost his way. He is a genius， and he became our friend and is helping us wherever he may. The first few years we call him simply The Racer， although he has practised the sport only at a very young age. Later， when still a young man， he was a forklift driver for many years (for containers， i. e. very large forklifts， matter of fact he was a helmsman of container bridges) and lorry driver. He is still proud of that and tells of his outstanding abilities. A 40-ton lorry he can drive backwards to the loading point at a single sweep， as a container lorry driver he was able to place his container right under the container crane at once and not only after several attempts of going back and forth. He also took part in competitions for lorry drivers and has collected awards. All of this I learn after my Chinese has improved in later years.
Occasionally I visit his family. He has a 20-year-old daughter with his first wife from whom he is divorced， and a two and a half year old son with his second wife. I like to talk to his son. He does not use so many different Chinese words， and he understands me ... Fang ShiFu (方师傅， Master Fang)， as we call him， is now working just for us (or for me， on my private expeditions) and appears to have sufficient reserves； even if he does not drive us a whole week because I am for example in East China or Japan or Korea， it does not matter to him.
He has reserves and other revenue： His former boss for whom he had worked as a driver was once offering a very risky and difficult task， and our driver came forward. A customer who had not paid for a long time， was not to be moved by friendly means to pay at least a part of the supplies， was now to be persuaded in a “somewhat less friendly” manner， because the boss did not want to get involved with the courts. A lot of money was in the game， very much now. Fang Shifu was free to choose the means， but he was expected to return with the money， at least a significant part of it. The boss had every confidence in him， he knew him from work in previous years to be absolutely reliable. Fang Shifu accomplished the mission flawlessly， the customer suddenly enjoyed to pay for whatever reason， his boss was very grateful and very generous： He entrusted him with two apartments， that Fang ShiFu is now renting. This revenue is sufficient to support his anyway modest way of living.