Chapter 15 love each other

Wang Dazhen regretted that he should not have taken Li Mei to his school before going to the cinema.He would have liked to educate her a little by showing some of what he'd learned.However, after Li Mei saw the human limbs and other organs soaked in the cabinet, she couldn't watch movies at all.Since the first film, she has been covering her mouth with a handkerchief, making the sound of teeth chattering, which disturbed Wang Da.He went out and bought a pack of gum and handed it to her. "Chew this," he advised her. "It might work." The gum didn't help at all.Before the movie was over, they left the movie theater, and Li Mei was still staggering when she walked on the street, as if she was seasick at sea.When Wang Da was helpless, he walked into a grocery store, bought a package of dried chili, tore open the package, and handed a small red pepper to Li Mei. Li Mei chewed the small red pepper, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Feel better?" "Better," she said, drawing air into her mouth to cool her burning tongue. "Then, try this again." Wang Da said, and gave her the chewing gum again. By the time they got back in the car, Li Mei was back to normal."I'm hungry," she said. "Since you didn't finish the movie well," Wang Da said, "then I'll take you to a foreign meal as compensation, and then we'll go to a foreign place to watch dancing." He drove her Came to Van Ness Avenue, wondering whether to take her to the rotisserie chicken or the steakhouse, both of which were his favorite places to eat.The thought of the bloody scene when cutting the steak might remind her of the dead body she just forgot to see at school, and he decided to take her to the roast chicken shop.

Li Mei likes eating western food, but she doesn't like ice cream.She frowned as she ate the ice cream, grimacing as she swallowed it. "What's the matter?" Wang Da asked her, "Don't you like ice cream?" "It's too cold," she said, chattering her teeth. "Oh, your tongue has suffered enough today." Wang Da stood up and said, "Come on, let's find a place to watch a live performance." "I think I should go back. Maybe your father has something for me to do." "Leave him alone, Li Mei." Wang Da said, "This is America. You only need to work eight hours a day, and there is no extra work to do after dinner. What time did you start working this morning? "

"Eight O'clock." "We came out at 4:30 in the afternoon. You have worked eight and a half hours. According to the law, you can sue my father for making you work an hour overtime and demand double pay. Come on, I will take you to the Italian expatriate area to see A nightclub show. Have you ever been to a nightclub?" "No. What's a nightclub?" "You'll see for yourself." After Wang Da paid the bill, he found that he only had two dollars left.So he didn't dare take her to the Italian expatriate district, where tipping was two dollars, but took her to the William Tell Ballroom on Clay Street.He and Zhang Lingyu had been here a few times before, and they could hardly spend two dollars each time.He liked the friendly, cosmopolitan atmosphere here, and he always danced his fill in the spacious hall.

He and Li Mei walked through the bar and into the dance hall.The ballroom always reminded him of a dry swimming pool.A waitress ushered them to a table covered with a red and white checkered tablecloth, and Wang ordered a beer and a Coca-Cola.A band with an accordion, a piano and a drum was playing some European music, louder than a ten-piece band.People speak a variety of different languages ​​or English with a strong home accent.Three couples of brightly dressed dancers were waltzing. They looked Dutch in their national costumes, but Italian in their waltzing movements.They spun swiftly and gracefully around the ballroom, their heads tilted slightly to one side.

"Is this a performance?" Li Mei looked at the dancers and asked excitedly. "No." Wang Da said, "They are consumers just like us." "They are different from the Americans we see on the street," Li Mei said. "They are foreigners in the United States." Wang Da said. At a small round table next to them sat a small, bald man with deep eye sockets.He was mopping his broad brow with a large handkerchief while he scanned the ballroom with his eyes for his next partner.Another nearby table was surrounded by a group of French people talking and laughing loudly in French; a bearded and red-faced Frenchman was eloquent, waving his hands vigorously, and rolling his beautiful eyes around. A slender young girl was watching him dreamily, her hand resting on his muscular thigh.

"Look." Li Mei said excitedly, pointing to the dance floor.At this time, people on the dance floor are turning around, jumping, turning, stomping, raising their hands above their heads and behind their buttocks; sometimes the girls' skirts are swirled like umbrellas, revealing their slender thighs.The sound of the music grew louder and faster with a low and cheerful rhythm.Li Mei looked fascinated. After a while, more people joined the dancing crowd, and the dance floor turned into a battlefield full of rhythmic and intense actions, with cheers one after another.After the music, the little man at the next table returned to his seat, sweating profusely, and wiped his bald forehead with a handkerchief; the French were still talking and laughing, paying no attention to the people dancing on the dance floor.The slender girl with the dreamy eyes was nestled in the arms of the bearded Frenchman, her head resting on his shoulder, and both of her hands had moved to his muscular thighs.A strong smell of perfume wafted from the neighboring table.Wang Da sniffed it and found that the little bald man was using his fingers to apply perfume from a small bottle.While he was putting the perfume behind his ears, his eyes were scanning the entire ballroom, trying to find a partner for the next song.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called Wang Da's name loudly.Wang Da looked up and saw Zhang Lingyu and a girl emerging from the crowd on the dance floor.They hurried straight to Wang Da's round table.Wang Da hurriedly stood up to greet Zhang Lingyu, almost knocking over the table. "What brought you here?" He yelled at Zhang Lingyu in Mandarin, "Why didn't you tell me you were here?" Zhang Lingyu brought the girl to their table. The girl was young and beautiful, with big piercing eyes and light black skin. "Let me introduce my wife first," he said in English. "This is my wife, Dolores. She was born in Mexico City."

Wang Da introduced Li Mei to them, asked them to sit down, and then ordered some drinks. "You just like to surprise people." Wang Da said, "Why didn't you tell me you got married?" "I just got married a week ago." Zhang Lingyu said, "I'm too busy on my honeymoon to write letters." "When did you come to San Francisco?" Wang Da asked. "This afternoon. Flying in from Reno. I've called you three times since I got here! Once at the airport, once at the hotel we were staying at, and the third time while waiting for dinner at the Far East restaurant. No one in your family knows where you disappeared to. I wanted to find you at the police station.” He glanced at Li Mei and laughed, “Now I won’t blame you for not being at home, and I also use Don't ask how your life is going, your eyes tell me everything."

"You look good too." Wang Da said, "You must be living a very good life." "It couldn't be better." Zhang Lingyu slid one hand over his wife's long black wavy hair, held the back of her neck and shook her gently, and said, "This is the proof." The Mexican girl held Zhang Lingyu's arm tightly and laughed. "You speak very well." She said to Zhang Lingyu, "Wo ai Chi." "She meant to say 'I love you', but it sounded like 'I love to eat'." Zhang Lingyu said with a smile, "She has been learning to speak Chinese. Her Spanish accent makes our language sound More like music, but harder to understand."

"How long do you plan to stay here?" Wang Da asked. "Leave tomorrow morning. That's why I keep calling you. Fortunately, we met here." "It's purely God's will that we can meet tonight." Wang Da said happily, "If I had five dollars in my pocket, we would have missed the chance to meet. Why did you go back so soon? Why did San Francisco bother you? " "I made an appointment with someone to talk about business," Zhang Lingyu said. "I'm buying a grocery store. It's a small business, but I plan to make it bigger. It's in a good location, near the Mexican expatriate area. Don't forget , I'm a grocery expert now with a Ph.D. In ten years I'll be owning a supermarket, in twenty years I'll be a chain of stores, and in thirty years... oh thirty years from now I'll be a Seventy-five year old goat." He shook his wife's neck and laughed. The Mexican girl grabbed his arm and said, "Thirty years from now, you'll be a tired old man with a young wife, right?" "You're talking about a retired old man with a young wife." "No, I said exhaustion." "Yes, I am exhausted." Zhang Lingyu said with a smile, "If you insist on simplifying English, I will have to follow you." "wo ai chi (I love you)," his wife said, gripping his arm even tighter. The little man at the next table came over, touched his heel, nodded stiffly to Li Mei, and asked her to dance.Wang Da told Li Mei the little man's intentions and encouraged her to dance. "He's a German." After Li Mei left the round table, Zhang Lingyu said in Mandarin, "There is no danger to safety. If you are a Frenchman here, you have to hide." Not long after he finished speaking, a Frenchman from another table came over and asked his wife to dance.Wang Da had never smiled so heartily, Zhang Lingyu shrugged helplessly. "I have nothing to complain about," Zhang Lingyu said. "It also shows that our girls are in high demand here. If you sit here with your wife or girlfriend for two hours, no one is willing to look at it." One look, and your self-esteem will be hurt a little." He took a big gulp of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.Wang Da was startled when he saw Zhang Lingyu's hand, it became rougher.Zhang Lingyu said: "Why don't you start a grocery business with me? This is a commercial country. Our real future can only be built in business. I firmly believe that." "I have no capital." Wang Da said. "Your honesty is your capital. I need a partner like you." "A month ago, if I heard such an invitation from you, I would have jumped up happily." Wang Da said, "But not now. But I still thank you very much." "What? Are you determined to follow through on your medical studies?" "Yes, I'm starting to get interested in it," Wang said with a laugh. Zhang Lingyu looked at Wang Da, "You have really changed, and you know how to smile, I have never heard you laugh like that before. I must say, it is a good change, and I think I know why you have changed . . . " He bobbed his head to the dance floor, "Where did you know her?" Wang Da briefly told him how he met old man Li and his daughter. "She is the life buoy on my arm." Wang Da went on, "She seems to be a kind of stimulation, which gave me new interests in life. Recently, I am also surprised by the changes in myself, but I am surprised by my own changes. Very happy with the change, too. Tell me how you got married." "I put my marriage down to two things," Zhang Lingyu said. "First, it was the unfriendly attitude of the immigration bureau; second, it was a neighbor's bad habits. It's like a riddle, isn't it? Let me explain it to you." Explain." He took another swig of beer and lit a cigarette. "Some of the immigration investigators or reviewers," he went on, "don't pay attention to our difficulties at all. They seem to have a tendency to think that we single men over forty are homosexual. In order to make my immigration status clear Adjusting, I decided to prove to them that I was a normal person, and was as eager to get married as I was to get them to write off the word 'persona non grata'. So, I decided to marry whoever would marry me, no Any other conditions. I am totally a capitulator. You know, this matter is more and more urgent. I want to do my business and settle down sooner. In order to achieve this goal, I must first get permission from immigration officials, otherwise It's purely building buildings on the beach. For us people, they are the high lamas of the land." He stopped, took a sip of his beer and continued: "Then suddenly my neighbor's bad habits helped me. He was a carpenter, but he had a bad habit of indulgence and never talked to his wife. When it was warm, he He read newspapers or comic strips over and over again; when it was cold, he stood on the heated floor in the living room for hours at a time, with his waist bent and his hands behind his back, roasting his lower body with relish..." "He can still talk to his wife, can't he?" "No. He said talking to his wife would interfere with his feelings. I tried to talk him out of some of his hobbies and dedicate some time to his wife, but he wouldn't listen, he worked hard, and he wouldn't give up My own fun. So, his wife spends all her time on the phone to avenge herself, talking to anyone if someone gives her a phone number. It's killing me." "I don't see how that could upset you. Are the walls too thin?" "No, her phone happened to be on the same set of lines as mine. I never had the opportunity to make or receive calls except in the middle of the night. Finally, I begged the phone company to change the set of lines for me, and the phone company granted my request. This The new line has never been busy, I am very satisfied, wondering who is sharing this new line with me; maybe someone who has been on vacation somewhere, maybe a businessman who has been out for a long time, and in ten days Nine days away from home. One day I was talking on the phone with a friend when another voice came in and interrupted me - a sweet voice of a girl with a Spanish accent - asking politely if I could put the phone on Hang up and make her make an emergency call. Her mom is seriously ill. OK! I'm being very friendly. I make her make an emergency call and then one thing leads to another and that's it, less than one Within weeks, we became close friends, and the rest of the story, I don't think you need to tell me." "That's God's will." Wang Da said. "You can call it God's Will." Zhang Lingyu said, "There is a word in China that says it is 'Fate'. Do you remember the old saying? If you have fate, you will meet thousands of miles away, but if you don't have fate, you will not know each other across the face. But, sometimes Providence has the most bewitching and unexpected way of bringing people together. I think mine is just so weird. But it's perfect because now I realize I'm married to the best girl in the world, happy , industrious, lovely, and most importantly, she is very filial to her mother. That is a very Chinese virtue, you know, I still believe that filial piety is a basic virtue, especially in a woman. If A woman doesn't even love her mother, how can you expect her to love someone else?" He turned his head to look at the dance floor over there, "What do you think of her, do you want to marry her?" "I haven't thought about it yet." Wang Da said, "It depends on my fate." "And there's her." Zhang Lingyu said, "Take you, Tang Linda and Zhao Hailun as an example, you just don't have a relationship. Hey, by the way, do you know where Tang Linda is?" "Dunno. Never thought of her since I stopped being her 'brother.'" "She wandered off to Los Angeles," Zhang Lingyu said. "Obviously she couldn't stay in San Francisco anymore. I ran into her at a friend's house. She looked very different from before. The biggest change is that you and When she talks, she no longer stares at you, but always gives you a sideways look." "Why? Could she be shy?" "No, quite the opposite. My friend said that a painter told her that her profile looked like a Greek beauty. Ever since she heard that comment, she has been using her 'Greek' profile against people." Wang laughed. "Does she know what Greek means?" "Obviously don't. She's got to look like a Greek, she's got four ounces of less meat on her nose. Anyway, she's pretty famous now, and has some new 'brothers.'" "They are the same as me." Wang Da said while laughing. They talked and drank some beer before Zhang Lingyu's wife and Li Mei were sent back to the round table by their dance partners.Both girls were sweating profusely.Li Mei likes dancing very much, and this is an exciting experience for her. "What do you think of your partner?" Wang Da asked her. "His taste is good." Li Mei replied. "I know." Wang laughed and said, "If you were a little shorter, you could breathe behind his ears, and you would be suffocated by the smell of the perfume." "Is that Frenchman a pervert?" Zhang Lingyu asked his wife. "He's not a pervert," replied Dolores. "He's a gentleman, and he can dance well." "That's worse than a satyr." Zhang Lingyu said. They ordered more drinks, talked, laughed, and danced until late at night.When they said goodbye on the street, Zhang Lingyu pressed Wang Da's shoulder and said, "In case you change your mind, remember that my promise is still valid." "I'll remember it," said Wang Da, "but I'm afraid I'll never change my mind." "Well then, good luck." After they broke up, Wang Da took Li Mei's hand, breathed the cool morning air, and walked quietly to his car.In the car, he held Li Mei's hand again and asked, "Are you happy?" "Yes, very happy." Li Mei replied. "You know, whenever I think about how we met, I think that fate brought us together. It's a fate that began when General White died." "why?" "Well, if General White hadn't died, your dad wouldn't have thought of opening a restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. If he didn't want to open a restaurant, he wouldn't have gone to see the Consul General, and the Consul General wouldn't have written that letter of introduction to Mr. Pan from Beijing. Believe me, as a result, you will not come to our door, and we will not meet at all. So, you see, everything is arranged ingeniously by God. That is fate." Wang Da put her in his arms and kissed her. "And that's the kiss—the perfect kiss," he told her. Li Mei let out a long breath, leaned her head on Wang Da's shoulder and said, "I like a perfect kiss."