Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

one Come June, Tom is prepping for summer daytime classes at the Industrial Technical School in Brooklyn.Mrs. Feng still has 1,000 yuan on hand to pay for his education.When she asked Freddy if he could return the thousand dollars, Freddy always said that his wife and baby spent four hundred dollars a month so they had nothing to spare. A Dong, you are not at all happy to marry her.Mom said. hapiness?Don't talk about it, if only I could have a moment of peace. A Dong, I think you are not good to your wife.When you get married, I don't approve of it.But now that you are married, I hope you will treat her well.Why don't you bring her back to see us by chance?After all, she is also my daughter-in-law!I don't want people to say that I don't try to get everyone in my family to get along.

Freddy didn't say a word.But he still didn't pay the thousand yuan, and he didn't bring his wife back to the restaurant. Except for weekends and holidays, there are usually no customers coming before four o'clock in the afternoon.But at lunchtime there was always someone in the restaurant to attend to, and Eva and Tom took turns serving the guests.Eva also graduated, and she plans to continue her studies at NYU. no!Mama said you had to wait until Tom's lessons were over, and when Tom stopped teaching, you could go on with your studies. Mom, it's not fair.Eva protested.

Eva!What is a girl doing reading so many books?You've finished high school, and Tom's going to junior college is already booked.You have to wait until we save enough money to go to college.Also, you can't have the stupid idea that your mother is unfair, and the college fees you save will be used in your dowry in the future. The business of the restaurant gradually improved just as Mrs. Feng planned.When they fired the chef, the saved two hundred and fifty yuan became a net profit.Mrs. Feng spends most of her time in the kitchen, and she hopes that every dish she serves is prepared with fresh and pure ingredients.She thinks that other people's material cost is 30% or 40% of the list price, so she can put 50% in the material cost, because she does not need to hire any manpower.

Chinatown has always been a society, and Mrs. Feng has now become a member of this society.Peel Street was nothing like the Uptown area they used to live in.The neighbors on this street are so close that everyone can recognize their neighbors.People know the situation of each family and the profit of each store in a month from listening to the rumors.In this environment, Mrs. Feng also got to know her neighbors.These neighbors all spoke their dialects, so when talking to them, Mrs. Feng felt as if she was back in Guangdong Province.If there is a wedding or birthday party next door, Mrs. Feng will rack her brains to think about what to give.Freddy's affairs were out of her control, but Roy did not do a bad job. The only family members who needed her to make arrangements were Tom and Eva.

When people from the women's committee came to her restaurant, Mrs. Feng felt that this was her brilliance, and she would run out of the kitchen to advise them on what to order, and then cook herself.Mrs. Yang invited her friends, or some wealthy Chinese families, from the upper city to come to Mrs. Feng's small restaurant. Even people in the Chinese consulate knew about this small shop.After the meeting of the women's committee, sometimes they would go to Mrs. Feng's shop for a dinner together.Whenever they come, the dishes they order are always very generous. Mrs. Feng has another way to save money.She joined a mutual aid meeting with some friends.We meet once a month and bring a fixed amount of money every month, and the person who pays the highest interest rate will get all the money for that month.Those who need money write down the interest that everyone is willing to pay on a small piece of paper, fold it up and put it together, then open the bid, and the person with the highest number wins the bid.This profit is sometimes as high as 100%, but this kind of situation is rare, and it happens when some of the members are in urgent need.Those who do not participate in the bid opening can wait to receive the final payment.Some of these mutual aid meetings are once a month, and some are once every two months, and the number is also different.

This kind of meeting is usually composed of people who know each other well, or is composed of people whom the leader invites him to know.The head of the club must be responsible for urging the members who have already tendered to pay the money of the dead club every month.In addition to regular meetings, some will exist in other ways, and their meeting money and interest rates are predetermined in advance.The person who bids money first will pay more interest, and the interest rate will gradually decrease every month, and the interest rate paid by the person who bids money later will be a little lower. The winner is determined by rolling the dice.They put the money together every month, and then everyone rolls the dice, and the person who rolls the highest number wins the bid.Their consent form reads:

If two people roll the same number, the one who rolls first wins the bid.If the dice are not resting smoothly after being cast, they must be re-rolled.If two dice overlap exactly, they must be counted with the sides facing up.The Association is not responsible for the transactions of members outside the Association. two Ace.Tsai is one of the few girls who is still sane in a relationship.There are pictures of her parents on her desk, and if she has any savings, she sends money home.But there are very few letters from the family, and sometimes not one is received for a whole month.Her happiest moment was when she received a letter from her mother or a friend. She had selected several letters written by her mother to show Tom.Ai Si put all her mother's letters in a locked jewelry box, which was her most precious thing, and she wrote a label in Chinese on it, which was her mother's calligraphy.

From the beautiful handwriting of Essie's mother, Tom can see that this family is really a scholarly family.He even felt it was unfair that Ace could grow up in this environment, but he couldn't.The letters from Essie's mother were two or three sheets long, and her words were simple, clear, and kind.Frost has fallen, and the pear trees in the west yard have begun to lose their leaves.In winter, I sat alone at the table during the long nights, with only the dim oil lamp for company.In spring, it is full of colors and reds, which makes me dizzy.In every letter there were some classical sentences which Tom was unable to understand.

Ace, you love your mother very much, don't you! I couldn't sleep thinking about her all week.Alice said. Miss me? No comments, Tom! If you love me, do you think your mother will object to your association with me? Can you write a letter to her in Chinese? Don't play tricks on me, you know I'll be embarrassed.And I have a hunch that if your mother reads what I wrote, everything will be over for us. Tom, I'm kidding you!I have written to her about you. Tom was instantly refreshed. Tom!Let's be serious!I thought and thought, this war has separated us, mother and daughter.My father passed away, and my mother was very lonely, she now lives with a Mrs. Li, they have been good friends since childhood.

Does she want you back? No, she wants me to stay here because it's safer.But you know I hope to be with my mother as long as she lives, that's my only hope.She can't come to America, and you have to study here, and you and your family won't leave here.And me, if I have enough money, I will fly back to my mother very quickly. Ace, I know what you mean.However, you can contribute more to the war here.If you go back to China, what can you do for China?Only to endure everything and wait anxiously.And you haven't learned English very well yet! I know I can't speak English as well as Eva.Ace said modestly, but, Tom, the current situation is very bad, and there will be war in Europe at any time.Who knows how long the war will last?

That's it.Maybe you never come back here again, and how beautiful our days will be if you will marry me while you are still here. Tom, you still don't understand.Your family is with you, but mine is far away across the sea.And we are still young, how long before you graduate? Three or four years!I just want you to wait until I can afford to marry you. Can't we wait and see?We don't have to decide so quickly.Tom, don't be impatient. Ace, I beg you, I beg you again now.Why don't you decide quickly and make me happy? I can't make up my mind. Ace, can you answer a question for me?Your mother is more important than anything, is it? Ace nodded cautiously. After Tom came home that day, Eva said: I can see from your face that you proposed to Ais again, and Ais refused. She didn't accept, Tom replied, but she didn't refuse either. Mom listened, then looked at her son piercingly and said: Tom, I really want you and Ace to get engaged first.I don't want you to think that I am against your union.But if she can't decide, there must be her reasons, maybe our family isn't good enough for her, we're just a laundryman's family, you know. Do you really think so? I don't know, anyway, she always comes from a scholarly family. But she denied that their family would care that their father was a washerman, I asked her. Would such a nice girl admit this in front of you? The idea took root in Tom's mind.After Ai Si came from a scholarly family, can he be worthy of her?Tom kept asking himself, but couldn't find the answer. When Ace's class was over, she joined a seven-day summer camp for Chinese students.After the summer camp, many students came to New York City to play, and found out that Ace lived in New York, so they often invited Ace to go out to play.Jealousy and worried, Tom re-reads Lao Tzu.Inaction, and all things become?He didn't believe this anymore, but he decided to back out and stop forcing her to make a decision.