Chapter 15 The decisive battle is decided, but the defeat is the victory

Election polling days in the United States are all set on Tuesdays. This probably takes into account that citizens can have time to think seriously on weekends and Sundays, and they can finish the work at hand on Mondays and go to a solemn and sacred vote.Li Wanruo and her partners, including her husband and Smilax Yu, as well as many volunteers, have been busy for four or five months from applying to the government election agency to voting officially.As the polling date approached, the atmosphere of the campaign became more tense. What Li Wanruo cared most about was whether the voters would do what they said they would do when they called for votes.

Westerners value their reputation and commitment relatively more, but new immigrants are different.They are not used to voting, and this makes elections often turn out unexpectedly.Therefore, Li Wanruo is also worried about the performance of Chinese voters in the end.From Monterey Park until Li Huruo announced his candidacy, there was no Chinese-American in any parliament or government. Today, Asian-American compatriots have accounted for one-third of the city’s population, but Chinese-American participation in politics is still blank. .This is what Li Wanruo wanted to say, but she couldn't predict whether her compatriots would come out to vote for her at the last moment, and she even thought this way: You are Chinese, so you don't need to vote for Li Wanruo, but you just need to get out of the house You are doing well at the polling station, because as a Chinese in the United States, you already know the importance of participating in politics and have exercised the rights you should enjoy.

Mr. Wang, do you know the polling day on June 2? Hello Mr. Li, please remember to vote at the polling place on the 2nd. Are you busy with work and can't leave your post?Then let me tell you a good way: Our California law stipulates that voters can apply for communication voting, that is, Voteby Mail, that is, you don’t have to leave your job, you can send your votes by mail within the specified time. You don't quite understand the situation of mail voting?Well, if it's convenient, can I go to your place right away? In order to ensure that the final sprint was effective, Li Wanruo mobilized her whole family and the volunteers who helped her campaign to call as much as possible those Chinese compatriots who they thought would vote, as a last reminder before the battle.

What is political participation?Participating in politics is responsibility and striving. What are rights?Right is should and must. Since we are all compatriots of Chinese descent, and we are all willing to live together in the ten countries of the United States for a long time, then no matter who we are, we should have a sacred responsibility to ourselves and this country, and since we have this sacred responsibility, we will We should fight for everything that can be won, including legislative power and leadership, including our present and future protection rights, and so on and so on.Are you willing to give up this right?Don't want to give up?Well then, you should know what should and must be done.Participating in voting now is a kind of should and must, understand?Brothers and sisters!

Li Wanruo made a final call for help to his compatriots with a tearful tone. On June 2, the election voting for a seat among seven candidates in Montenegro began.What makes this vote unique is that a yellow-skinned Chinese has ever appeared among the candidates, standing in front of the majority of voters. On that day, most of the city's residents walked out of their homes and workplaces in twos and threes to the polling stations located at various points, as if they were celebrating a festival.Among the residents who participated in the voting, the most striking thing was that the ethnic Chinese who had never cared much about politics appeared at the polling station with confident and proud expressions.Most of them participated in American-style voting for the first time, and they were very curious and new, so they paid great attention to their appearance and behavior, and put the ballot papers into the ballot box with a rare solemnity... …the citywide voting process took a full day, and the counting of votes began immediately after.

At this moment, the most excited and nervous people are the people waiting in the campaign headquarters of each candidate.Of course, Li Wanruo at this moment is undoubtedly the most uncontrollable among all the excited people.She, her family and all members of the campaign team stayed at the campaign site all night.And there were two special people on the scene at that time, they were Li Wanruo's father and father-in-law. There is a good story about two old people who came to the United States together. When Li Wanruo left Taiwan for the United States alone, her older sister brought her younger sister to Japan, and her old father, Li Yaolin, stayed in Taiwan alone.That day when his father sent the second child Li Wanruo who was with him to the Heming Ferry bound for the United States, that desolate scene kept flashing before Li Wanruo's eyes. The 14-day sea journey made Wan Ruo calm down and think about her father and mother. The bad side of her father towards her mother was completely faded in her thinking, and she thought more about the desolation of her father staying in Taiwan alone. Life.Originally, the father entrusted the captain of Haiming Ship to take care of Li Wanruo, but Li Wanruo became a matchmaker for his father because he was worried about his father.The love of the pavilion is like this: after Wan Ruo boarded the ship, she naturally got the care of the captain entrusted by her father all the way.The captain is a warm-hearted person with a good heart. Seeing Miss Wanruo locked in the cabin sullenly, he invited her to the deck to enjoy the scenery of the sea, then led her to the captain’s cabin, and finally let Wanruo move out of the cabin to sleep in a special way. The room next to the captain's cabin.After getting acquainted, Wanruo explained the affairs of her family to the captain's uncle.

What I am most worried about now is my father. On the surface, he is very strong, but in fact he is very lonely in his heart.After his mother passed away, he lived alone with no one to take care of him, and he could see a lot of unhappiness in his heart.But he never said it... Wan Ruo lowered her head and said sadly.I hope to find him a wife. Upon hearing this, the captain said, "Okay, I have a distant relative who lives in France. She is now a teacher in Taiwan. She is nearly forty years old and has no boyfriend. I think it would be appropriate to introduce her to your father." real?Then when you return to Taiwan, you must help arrange this matter!Wan Ruo was overjoyed when she heard what the captain said.

I will handle it. The captain is a cheerful person. After returning to Taiwan, he immediately got in touch with his relative named Luo Xiaojin, and introduced Wanruo's father to her.Ms. Luo Xiaojin, who knows French, is indeed different from ordinary women. She has an elegant temperament and a high level of cultural accomplishment.This matter came and went, and slowly there were clues. One day, the father suddenly wrote a letter to his daughter Wan Ruo who was far away in Los Angeles, clarifying his relationship with Ms. Luo Xiaojin, and with his usual rigorous style, he listed Ms. Luo's one, two, three, four strengths, intending to listen to his daughters. Views.At that time, Wanruo had already brought her younger sister from Japan to the United States.When the younger sister heard that her father was going to find her a stepmother, she cried very sadly.On the contrary, Wan Ruo was very happy about this happy event for her father, because she was half a month old who made it happen.Obviously, the relationship between the father and Ms. Luo was established, and the father wrote to his daughters only to hope that they would support and understand his actions.

This is of course a matter of course.Soon, Li Wanruo's old father had a new partner by his side.When her father held a wedding ceremony, Liu Ruo rushed back from the United States to Taiwan to attend her father's wedding on behalf of the three sisters. Ms. Luo's white wedding dress was purchased by Wan Ruo alone.When she saw that there was another person who could accompany her lonely father, Wan Ruo finally let go of a stone in her heart.After that, my father and Ms. Luo spent a very happy life together.However, due to Li Wanruo's father's temper, the two quarreled over some trivial matters from time to time.At this time, Ms. Luo (Li Wanruo said that although she very much agreed with her father Yun's marriage, she never called Ms. Luo her mother, because she said that she had only one mother in her life, and she could not give this name to another person) Wanruo called to tell about this and that about her father.Wanruo became the mediator between father and stepmother.Unfortunately, Ms. Luo later suffered from a terminal illness, and her life could not be saved.At this time, Wan Ruo was busy trying to do everything possible for the patient to make the last effort, and on the other hand, he persuaded his father, who was emotionally hit again, to leave Taiwan and go to the American daughter.The old father was 80 years old at the time, and he made the choice to leave Taiwan in desperation. This was not easy for the stubborn old man, but after he settled down in the United States, he slowly lamented that his daughter's doing so was indeed all right. For his good.

While Li Wanruo was going through the formalities for his old father to go to the United States, he was also running around for his stepmother who was seriously ill.Helpless, Ms. Luo was finally killed by ruthless cancer.Wanruo and her younger sister Guijun went to Taiwan to attend to Ms. Luo's funeral on behalf of their father.On the day of the funeral, they wore sackcloth and filial piety and fulfilled all the responsibilities of the younger generation. The respected old father was taken care of by the third sister and brother-in-law. He lived to be 96 years old and was buried in the beautiful Washington State of the United States.During his lifetime, he had a belief that has never changed, that is, he can come to the United States to live, but he will never become a U.S. citizen.I am a dignified Chinese, and no one has the right to change this.He said so himself.

It is said that when Li Wanruo was running for office, his father, who was a politician, heard that his second son would also be in politics in the United States. He was curious and worried, so he moved from his old family to live with his second son, so that he could personally observe the whole process of his daughter's participation in politics in the United States.So at the last moment of the campaign, the old father stood up and insisted on sitting in his daughter's campaign headquarters to see the results. Besides, Mr. Chen, Li Wanruo's father-in-law, who came from mainland China, also encountered some interesting stories and twists and turns.Li Wanruo and Chen Baohe had a predestined relationship, and there were also many predestined relationships between the Li family and the previous generations of the Chen family.In fact, Li Wanruo's father and Chen Baohe's father knew each other when they were in Tianjin. One was a celebrity in the education field, and the other was a tycoon in the business world, but it was only a general friendship in social aspects at that time.When Wanruo decided to marry Chen Baohe, the old father in Taiwan did not know who Chen Baohe's father was, because Baohe was in the United States at that time, and the marriage with Wanruo was carried out in a special event. .When the son-in-law later met with the old father-in-law to reveal his father's true identity, Mr. Li raised his head and sighed happily, and said happily: "Your father and I are old acquaintances!" This is how the Li family and the Chen family formed a multi-layered relationship. Due to man-made reasons, the mainland and Taiwan have not been in contact with each other for decades, so that the in-laws, Mr. Li and Mr. Chen, cannot meet. This cruelty is something that Li Wanruo and Chen Baohe have long thought about.But it was easier said than done before the 1980s. Nixon's visit to China opened the iron door between China and the United States, and also provided a curved channel for relatives on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.There are also flights between China and the United States.Chen Baohe couldn't hold back his desire to meet his family.He had a much worse fate than Wan Ruo. After leaving Tianjin, he came to Taiwan alone without any background. He was also designated as a dangerous person related to the Communist Party by the secret service agency of the Kuomintang government, and he could not meet his family in the mainland.Although the communication was never interrupted, at that time it took several places to send a letter, and both Taiwan and the mainland had to go through strict inspections, so in fact, nothing could be said in the letter.Although China and the United States established diplomatic relations later, personnel exchanges were still strictly controlled. Chen Baohe applied to return to China many times and was approved. Finally, in 1978, he borrowed a group quota from the Southern California Chinese Science and Technology Association to visit China, and then got a chance to return to the mainland. The plane departed from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, from Guangzhou to Beijing, and was not allowed to return to Tianjin to visit my father in Beijing.On the contrary, someone made a special arrangement and notified his father in advance to rush from Tianjin to a certain place in Beijing.Because that happened to be where Chen Bao and his team were going to park their cars, and everything was going on in an atmosphere like underground work. It has been 30 years since Chen Baohe left Tianjin and his father and family for 30 years.When the car carrying the American delegation slowly drove into that place, Chen Baohe suddenly shouted: I saw my father!Saw daddy!At this time, Chen Baohe was nearly fifty years old, but he jumped up excitedly like a child. Everyone in the car knew that he and his father hadn't seen each other for 30 years, and everyone couldn't help applauding and cheering. dad-- boa - The moment when the elderly father and his gray-haired son ran and hugged each other, everyone who witnessed this scene burst into tears... Wan Ruo wants to run for the U.S. Congressman?This is a groundbreaking event, I have to go and cheer! Mr. Chen, who is over 80 years old, heard from his son later that when his daughter-in-law of the Chen family was running for a city councilor in the United States, she wanted to go to the United States in person. Just like that, two in-laws, Mrs. Li and Mrs. Chen, my old acquaintances in a foreign country, walked into Li Wanruo's campaign headquarters together for the sake of their children's reputation for the Chinese people in the United States regardless of their old age and frailty. One thousand votes for Lily! Iily four thousand votes! Wow, the mailing polls are all counted: Candidate Lily gets the highest number of votes ever recorded! Iily is going to win! When the statistics of the first round of mail ballots were announced, the results made the staff of Li Wanruo's campaign headquarters burst into cheers. Now we announce the high district ballots: Lily comes first. Wow--!We won again!The Shang area was where Li Wanruo lived, and this result was expected by Li Wanruo, but everyone still couldn't restrain their joy and hugged Li Wanruo again and again. Counting continues. Another candidate, Gilman, surpassed Li Wanruo in other districts.Even so, Li Wanruo's supporters are still confidently waiting for the final result one after another. The arrows in the counting results represent the number of votes won by different candidates, and those arrows therefore touch the heartstrings of the people in the whole city of Mengcheng. Different supporters are cheering or mourning for their representatives. As time went on, the votes became more and more concentrated between Li Wanruo and Gilman, another candidate.Sometimes you are more and sometimes I am less, showing an extremely intense see-saw fluctuation, and this adds to the atmosphere of gunpowder in this evenly matched election. At 10:30 p.m., the counting of votes in the city ended.Result: Li Wanruo won 25.3% of the votes and Gilman 25.7% of the votes.Li Wanruo lost to his opponent by only 28 votes, and lost the member's election seat. That's horrible!Only 28 votes short! No, no, we don't believe in this kind of result, humming... we absolutely don't believe it... When the silence at the last moment of vote counting was broken by someone's cry, Li Wanruo's campaign headquarters immediately fell into grief.Many female staff members burst into tears, and the men stood there dumbfounded in disbelief of this cruel result.However, the election is so cruel.According to American law, if you lose one vote, you can only be a loser. If we had made a few more phone calls and run a few more streets in the end, this result would not have happened! No, Lily, with so many votes to count, 28 votes does not mean the opponent won.We can request a recount.You might still be the winner. Yes, we insist on a recount! When the results of the general election in Montenegro were announced, because Li Wanruo and Gilman got so close to each other, according to the Federal Constitution, the candidates had the right to propose a recount.The results of the general election between Bush Jr. and Al Gore and the presidential dystocia that dragged on for several months were all caused by Gore's dissatisfaction and demanded a recount.Facts have also proved that there are indeed certain problems in the current vote counting work in the United States. Not to mention that a difference of dozens of votes may turn a winner into a loser, even a difference of tens of thousands of votes may also happen. Li Wanruo, who was only 28 votes short, had every right to request a recount at that time, and it is hard to say that there will be another result after the recount. But Li Wanruo didn't do that. I thank you all, and thank you all for working hard for me these days.Let me start by bowing out and thanking you all.Facing familiar faces full of disappointment, Li Wanruo bowed deeply.Then she said firmly: Although I have the right to apply for a recount, I don't want to do it.So please forgive me for willingly accepting the result of this election, and once again express my most sincere thanks to you all. At the moment when Li Wanruo bent down and bowed, the fierce election in Meng City also came to an end.Almost everyone in the campaign headquarters felt immense regret.Only the two old men nodded knowingly at Li Wanruo's decision.They are Li Guiruo's father and father-in-law. This night was a real sleepless night for Li Liruo.At the campaign headquarters, she didn't show her true disappointment, but she couldn't help crying in pain in her husband's arms when she got home. These tears not only did not believe in the reality of failure, but also had feelings for her husband and his family for several months. I apologize for following my hard work in the campaign. It doesn't matter, the first time, there is always a winner or loser, isn't it?Her husband, Chen Baohe, was always so considerate, and this made Li Wanruo feel even more sorry for his relatives.Recalling that her husband, who has never been involved in politics, spent countless days setting up street stalls in wind and rain for her campaign, and there were so many voluntary help from relatives and friends, including Dr. Zhou who broke a leg However, Li Wanruo did not believe in this cruel defeat.More importantly, this is the first time a Chinese-American has appeared in the Mongolian political arena, and the success or failure of the result has had a great impact. Politics has always been realistic and cruel, second child, let me see that you have not lost this election.The old father with political experience called his daughter who had just experienced great joy and sorrow to his side and said this. Why? According to my opinion, you have three wins: one is that the difference of 28 votes does not represent the real public opinion, especially the non-professional white people here voted for you, so in my opinion, although you lost, you actually won; the other is that you, as a Chinese The representative got such a high number of votes when he first appeared in the Mongolian political arena, and after all, so many ethnic Chinese came out of the history that they didn't even know the right to vote, and began to exercise their rights to go to the polling station. It is you and Baohe and other Chinese Americans working together to strive for the greatest success in participating in politics.This is two wins; three wins means that you lost to your opponent by 28 votes, so that the vast number of Chinese people understand one thing from this weak disadvantage: Chinese people have great hope to participate in politics in the United States.And this is crucial to you personally and to the entire Chinese-American world.So you are glorious in defeat.In-laws, do you think my words are justified?After Li Wanruo's father finished speaking, he asked his daughter's father-in-law for advice. This statement is very true.This statement is very true.Chen Baohe's father, combing his silver-white beard, nodded frequently to his son and daughter-in-law. Papa - Papa.thank you all.When Li Wanruo held her father's arm, a smile appeared on her face. Ding Lingling——In the early morning, the phone at Li Wanruo's house rang loudly.Journalists from major media outlets asked for interviews. Lily, I'm a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and we're curious to know if you're asking the election department to recount the ballots after we saw the results of the Ving Councilor election? No.I don't think I have the support of a majority of voters yet.I trust our American political system, so I don't ask for a recount.Li Guiruo answered the reporter's question from the "Los Angeles Times" very straightforwardly, and also answered questions from many other media in the same tone. Once the election is confirmed beyond doubt, it is informed that it is valid.Then the next thing is the inauguration ceremony of the elected person.Americans are very particular about the inauguration ceremony of elected officials, so all officials elected on behalf of the public will be respected by the society, and this respect is lifelong.At the warm and solemn inauguration ceremony of the new councilor, the people of Montgomery were pleasantly surprised to see an oriental woman with an elegant figure and extraordinary temperament stepped onto the inauguration stage, walked up to the stage with a warm and sincere smile, and shook hands with the new councilor of Gilman Congratulations. She is Lily Lee Chen! A loser by just 28 votes. It is said that political opponents are either dead or alive. Look at Lily, how graceful she is.Although she is broken, she is glorious.The real winner belongs to her! When Li Wanruo held Gilman's hand, there was a long thunderous applause from the audience.Citizens said that this is rare in the history of Montenegro. The next day, almost all local newspapers published a large photo of Li Wanruo smiling and congratulating Gilman on the front page.As if the winner was really Chinese Li Hunruo, they called Li Wanruo a dark horse in the political arena of Mongolia. Yes, an emerging city in the western United States with the largest proportion of Chinese population in the total population - Monterey Park really has a dark horse in the political arena, and this is Li Wanruo - the star of hope for the city of tomorrow.