Cai Jiayi loved Fridays nights. Her boyfriend, Wu Yongjie, picked her up after work on his flashy new e-bike and took her out for dinner somewhere special.

Sometimes it was KFC (she loved those starfish!) and sometimes it was the knock-off Taiwanese place up the road that covered everything in a heavy sweetish brown sauce.

She didn’t mind though. He had an ebike (a flashy, new one!) and could afford to take her out for meals: what more could a girl ask for?

Aside from a nice, big apartment in Shanghai, a car, an ayi, a driver, a dishwasher and monogramed furniture, that is.

Those would come soon enough. She was sure of it.