Ten Children Mrs. Ming Never Had

A French salesman visiting China’s Guangdong province for his company’s business development accidentally meets Mrs. Ming, an elderly worker in a men’s washroom inside the “Grand Hotel.” In polite conversation, Mrs. Ming says she has ten children—something the Frenchman refuses to believe outright, since it is widely known that in China a law prohibits having a second child. Talking about ten is, of course, out of the question. However, at every new meeting Mrs. Ming tells in such detail about each of her children that the hero’s confidence gradually cracks.