Hector and the Search for Happiness. Francois Lelord

to the men like Hector and Édouard, who also seemed to be enjoying themselves.

      Édouard ordered a bottle of white wine, which was placed in an ice bucket on the bar next to them. Almost immediately, a pretty Chinese lady came up to speak to Édouard. They must have known each other quite well because she laughed at all Édouard’s jokes and from time to time she whispered things in his ear which made him laugh, too.

      This was all very well, but Hector reminded himself that he was making this trip in order to learn about happiness, and he didn’t want to forget what he’d discovered during dinner.

      He took out his little notebook, opened it on the bar and began writing.

      He thought of all those people working very hard so that they could retire one day with six million dollars.

       Lesson no. 3: Many people see happiness only in their future.

      And then he thought of the people who decided mergers.

      Lesson no. 4: Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.

      ‘What are you doing?’

      Hector looked up and saw the prettiest Chinese girl he’d ever seen in his life smiling at him.

      Hector was quite bowled over, but managed to explain that he was taking notes in order to understand what made people happy or unhappy. The pretty Chinese girl gave a charming little laugh and Hector realised that she thought he was joking. So he began to explain a bit more about why he was taking notes and she stopped laughing and gave him a funny look, but even the funny look she gave him was charming, if you see what I mean.

      Hector and the very pretty Chinese girl introduced themselves. Her name was Ying Li and she was a student.

      ‘What are you studying?’ asked Hector.

      ‘Tourism,’ replied Ying Li.

      Hector could see why she came here; it was a very good way of getting to know the tourists who visited China. Ying Li asked Hector what he did for a living, and Hector told her about the people who were scared, unhappy or had strange thoughts. Ying Li seemed very interested and said that when she felt sad she went to see her friends and afterwards she felt better. Hector asked her if she’d always lived in this city, and Ying Li began telling him that she came from another part of China where the people were very poor and that she was very happy to be here. She had sisters, but they had stayed behind. Her sisters weren’t studying tourism. They worked in the sort of factory Charles had set up in China. Ying Li carried on talking to Hector, because Hector’s gift of being genuinely interested in people worked without him even knowing it.

      After a while, Édouard tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Is everything okay? Are you enjoying yourself?’ Hector said that he was and that everything was okay, but he thought that enjoying himself was not at all the right expression: he felt he was in love with Ying Li.

      She continued talking about her life, but Hector didn’t hear everything she said, because she was so pretty that it was hard for him to look at her and listen at the same time.

      Eventually, people began leaving and they left, too. The four of them climbed into a taxi waiting outside: Édouard and his Chinese girlfriend, Ying Li, and Hector, who sat next to the driver. Édouard told the driver where to go in Chinese. They soon arrived outside Hector’s hotel, and he realised that he hadn’t asked Ying Li for her telephone number. How in God’s name would he make sure he saw her again? But he needn’t have worried, because Ying Li followed him out of the taxi, and Édouard and his Chinese girl drove off, leaving them standing alone in front of the hotel.

      Hector felt a little awkward, but he told himself that a man, even a psychiatrist, should know how to act decisively, and so he took Ying Li by the hand and they walked across the hotel foyer without looking at the staff behind the front desk, and stepped into the lift. And there Ying Li kissed him.

      There’s no need to say what happened next because, of course, Hector and Ying Li went to Hector’s room, where they did what people do when they’re in love, and everybody knows what that is.

      When Hector woke up the next morning, he heard Ying Li singing in the bathroom. It made him very happy, despite the headache he had as a result of all the wine Édouard had ordered.

      Ying Li walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, and when she saw that Hector was awake, she gave another charming little laugh.

      Just then the phone rang and Hector answered. It was Édouard, who asked him if he’d had a good evening. Hector said that he had, but it was a little difficult to say any more with Ying Li standing there watching him.

      ‘I chose her for you,’ said Édouard, ‘I knew you’d like her. Don’t worry, it’s all taken care of.’

      And suddenly Hector understood everything. And he saw that Ying Li understood that he’d understood, and she stopped smiling and looked a little sad.

      Hector was also sad, but he was still nice to Ying Li and gave her a kiss on the cheek when she left, leaving him her telephone number.

      He climbed back into bed and after a while he picked up his notebook. He thought for a moment then wrote:

      Lesson no. 5: Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.

       HECTOR IS UNHAPPY

      HECTOR felt very out of sorts that morning. He left his hotel and decided to go and have coffee. He found a huge, very modern café where all they served was coffee, lots of different kinds of coffee. He’d already come across places like that with the same name in almost all the world’s big cities where he’d been to conferences, and so he knew how to order in that sort of café, except that this one was full of Chinese men and women talking or reading newspapers, and the waiters and waitresses were also Chinese.

      He sat near the window so that he could look out at the street (full of Chinese passers-by, as you’ve already guessed).

      He felt rather unhappy.

      But, in reality, being unhappy might also teach him something about happiness. At least it would prove useful for his trip. He began to think: why was he unhappy?

      Firstly because he had a headache due to all the wine Édouard had ordered. Hector wasn’t used to drinking so much.

      Secondly, he was unhappy because of Ying Li.

      Ying Li was a simple name, but the reasons why Hector was unhappy were quite complex. He didn’t really want to think about it, perhaps because those reasons weren’t so easy to accept. It even made him feel a little afraid. He knew this fear only too well, it was what stopped his patients from being able to really think about their problems, and it was his job to help them overcome this fear and really understand what was happening to them.

      Just then, the waitress came to ask if he wanted more coffee. She was young and quite pretty; she reminded him of Ying Li and he felt a pang.

      Hector opened his notebook and began to draw doodles. This helped him to think. (He would sometimes doodle when his patients kept him on the telephone for too long.)

      He was also unhappy because he felt bad when he thought of Clara. Of course she would never know what had happened with Ying Li, but even so he felt bad. On the other hand, if Clara had come with him to China, he would never have met Ying Li. When he was with Clara, Hector always behaved himself, and so he wouldn’t have got up to any mischief with Édouard, and so all this was partly Clara’s fault. After thinking that, he felt slightly less unhappy.

      But there was more. Hector was also unhappy because he hadn’t understood what was going on at all. He had thought that Ying Li had approached him because she’d found him interesting with his little notebook, and that later on she’d gone with him to the hotel because she’d found him more and more interesting. But of course that wasn’t the reason at all.