Second, Nien Cheng has received letters from readers who wrote that her book "reads like a detective novel," that they couldn't put it down, and that they couldn't relax until they had seen her safely leave Shanghai. On this point, Nien Cheng thinks that ﹘ except that she doesn't like to preach ﹘ there is really no trick; the experience in itself was dramatic enough.
像看偵探小說第二、鄭念曾經收到分別來自荷蘭及愛丁堡的來信，這些讀者不約而同地指出，這本書讀起來像「偵探小說」，讓人一開始看就不能釋手，直到眼見主人翁平安離開上海，才能安心。