《On The Same Days》橄榄树

23、8th November Friday 2002 Shenyang

　　Voor ingeworteld kwaad is weinig raad
　　(Nothing can help deep rooted anger)

　　“I have enough of it!” First time ever, May didn’t even try a bite of her favorite Korean Noodle, but ferociously bit the straw for her Cola instead.

　　“But you haven’t even tried yet.” Ling wondered what kind of symptom was that.

　　“I have done my best, don’t you ever think it is my fault.” May raised her voice.
　　“Easy, easy, leave it to me then.” Ling really had no mood for another fight. She wouldn’t’ mind to have more noodles for some extra energy. It must be allergies of Christmas fear that heated May’s nerve up, big do again.

　　But May was staring at her open-mouthed.
　　“What?” Ling wiped her chin a bit, something on my face?
　　“So you do like him a bit?” May suddenly sounded very much amused, almost enthusiastic.
　　“Not as much as you do, but, I wouldn’t mind to eat some more these days. By the way, it is not a him, but an it.” Ling automatically corrected May’s grammar.
　　“Hahaha…haha...ha” May burst into hysterical laughter, waving her head, dropping the straw on the ground, coughing, wiping her eyes, holding her stomach, bending to pick up the straw, busy like hell.

　　Ling stopped eating, noticing other teachers curiously looking at their table, it seemed the whole world was getting neurotic all at once. What’s so funny about eating some more noodles?
　　Straighten up again, looked at Ling’s puzzled face, May burst yet into another earth shaking laughter, not until 5 minutes later, could May manage to talk again. “I was talking about Fan.” Explained that, with great satisfaction, she saw Ling’s cheek turning red instantly,
　　“You dirty mind. I meant the noodles.” Ling sizzled through clenched teeth, “What did he do again?”
　　“What he didn’t do is the problem.” May immediately clouded her face again, like Tina’s weather report about Amsterdam, “He forgot my brother’s birthday, he didn’t buy my mother gift at their first meeting, he didn’t pick me up for the film last week; he didn’t notice I had a hairdo… As reasonable as I am I forgive him for all that, but he didn’t defend me when his mother obviously discriminated my nationality! That is definitely unforgivable. I have enough of him, I have enough of his mother, I have enough of the whole mess!” her voice rose again.

　　“Easy, easy, when did you change your nationality? Or that mother suddenly turned into a Kui Lao when she woke up one day? Aren’t we all still Chinese?”

　　“You know what I mean, I am a half Korean. She said many Korean women only care about money and status, betray their husbands and alike, where the hell came her discrimination from? What kind of hell status does she think they have? Who the hell ever said that I’d ever marry their son? What the hell is wrong with making more money? Aren’t there a hell lot of women here betraying their husbands too?” May trembled with shear anger.

　　The fact that her own aunt, the youngster sister of her mother, did go to South Korea pursuing a so-called better living standard on her own, at least that was what she said, left her husband and an 11 years old daughter at home made May felt really sad. Not only at her aunt, but also at her uncle’s attitude, he was so angry, humiliated, told his story of having a betrayed wife over and over again, yet he accepted her annual visit and financial support. There is no black and white story. Yet if that judgmental mother of Fan would ever get to know her aunt, there would be no story anymore.

　　“How old is that mother?” Ling got really concerned, she never saw May lost in thoughts, that girl was never a thinker, rather a talker.

　　“Physically 55, looked like 85, psychologically 150, completely rotten from inside out,” May was back to her conscious again, she hated it when she was pitied.

　　“And you are crossed because of some rotten words from a rotten antique like that. She is just insecure, afraid of losing her authority over her son, afraid of her son being hurt by another woman instead of herself.”

　　“It wasn’t you; you wouldn’t understand how frustrated it feels. I just have to show her some color, definitely I will.” May searched her mind for any possible revenge.

　　“You know what, the best color would be to marry him then betray him, just as what she said.” Ling took her revenge first for May’s earlier mock. Saw May did turn pale on her words, she immediately apologized, “Sorry, May, I had a bad mood.”

　　“There must something even worse happened to you, otherwise you wouldn’t suddenly turn into such a witch. Throw it up.” May shifted topic away from herself.
　　“Don’t be so mean, just some left over noodles.” The both had to laugh again.

　　After heard the story of Tiffany, May finally felt a little bit relieved, Fan was the youngest son, there wouldn’t be the risk of another younger brother sucking money for a marriage or whatever, the old pair’s bones were still rather hard too, despite she wouldn’t mind to buy the mother some medicine just to make her mute.

　　Later during the afternoon lecture, Ling’s mobile rang. She must have forgotten to turn it off. Those children welcomed the episode with half surprise, half gloat. They stopped reading, with nearly 20 pairs of eyes, observing Tina searching her mobile in the big canvas bag, ears all stood up too, ready to listen their teacher receive a private call in class. Tina saw the number was Lily, she received the call while talking to the children “what shall we say when we pick up a phone?” then she talked to the phone “Hello, this is Ling, who is that?” then to the children again, “Remember? Hello first, then tell the caller your name and ask who he is, now pair up and practice a telephone conversation in the next 5 minutes.” Off she went on those words, Lily was still on the line, “I know you are lecturing, I didn’t expect to reach you, but it is indeed urgent, come to Royal Seafood after lecture, about Bamboo’s job.”

　　It was an extended family dinner, a reunification of old friends and the first step of a job security plan.
　　Mr. and Mrs. G were invited for dinner, Mr. G used to be a very good friend of Ling’s mother from primary school till high school, actually they were both born in the same county and grown up more or less together, if it wasn’t Ling’s father, Ling’s mother might well be a Mrs. G. They lost contact for years after Ling’s mother married Ling’s father. What brought them back together on a same table was because of Bamboo. Mr. G was the vice bureau chief in the traffic police branch where Bamboo worked.

　　Half way through the dinner, nobody even mentioned Bamboo’s name at all. They were talking about their bad old times, Cultural Revolutions impacts on their lives, changes of their old hometown and alike. Not until 1 bottle of liquor, 3 bottles of red wine and 8 bottles of bear were all “bottomed up”, had they reached the present tense from past tense, their marriages, work, children. Strategically Ling’s father commented a lot more on Bamboo than about Tiffany and Ling, he said how rebellious a daughter she had been, yet that was a daughter who had the most characters of a son, his biggest pity of his life ever, he hadn’t a son.
　　He said Bamboo had fought in the same way a son would, she worked in the same way a boy would, she was a good traffic police but never good at playing puzzles on papers, then he sighed. Ling noticed Bamboo’s tears were dangerously on the edge of dropping, the poor girl never heard of any sentence even close to be as nice as that, never knew her father cared for her that much.

　　Mr. G said he understood it very well. Then went on explaining a whole set of principles about why were the tests necessary and how were they, as bureau chiefs were regularly evaluated also. His wife helped him to explain how difficult it was for him to get where he was so far in the bureau, how delicate his position was as he had no uncles in Beijing, he had to be watchful with every step he took, to not give other people chances to catch his tail, he played Mr. Justice in the bureau and that was all the grounds he got to hold on.

　　Both sides fell into silence after that. Then Lily proposed a toast with her experienced Lily-ish smile, one corner of her mouth slightly moved upward, half winking her eyes, Ling knew she must have a plan. Indeed she had. Through some connections she got to know a somebody in head transportation bureau, that somebody’s son might well become a new vice mayor next month, he just nodded his head once, the son’s wife got her city residence permit and a permanent job for nothing, green lights the whole way through from a little village somewhere afar. Last time Lily saw him, he said something about his grandson’s English, if Lily went to see him with Ling, offer some free English training course, ask for a note addressed to whom it might concerned, saying that Bamboo (that somebody would never care if a private teacher called Ling or Bamboo) was a nice teacher of his grandson, please consider. Then transfer the note to the General bureau chief where Mr. G and Bamboo worked, the general bureau chief never had personal contacts with somebody, yet he wouldn’t risk to work against him, automatically he’d throw the hands burning note to Mr. G, the vice bureau chief to tackle the problem.

　　Then the problem would be just solved. The note was vital, the note entitled Mr. G to perform a task from his authority, that’s what he’d do, his job. It would be totally different if Mr. G had to help Bamboo with his own initiative, it’d be corruption.

　　Ling got terrible headaches when trying to digest Lily’s plan, she wanted to try those bloody expensive seafood dishes on table, she rarely had the chance to eat here, mostly just in hot pot city, yet everything became tasteless and hard to digest, she was almost choked when a fish bone pricked her tone. At the moment, Mrs. G proposed another toast, for friendship and intelligence this time; the dinner table resumed its harmony and coziness.

　　Back home that night, Ling explained the story to Roc, who didn’t attend the dinner or mightn’t be invited by Tiffany at all, they were still in their cold war. Roc understood immediately after a few sentences of introduction, less than 10 years age distance, yet a completely different generation. Ling knew she’d never able to work in any governmental offices in a million years. She was simply born too late for that. Roc said he had been consulted very often on those topics by his patients. Ling felt totally out of the whole game, since when did psychology become social science or even politics?