Ms. Golden Branch (05)

Edited by Adela Karliner(2020-03-04)

- 1980

        "Excuse me, do you have an old gentleman name Mr. Li Xubai here?" The telephone operator asked very clearly in Chinese.

        "Yes, what is it about?"

        "This is Taipei. There is a Ms Golden Branch Xu making a collect call to Mr. Li Xubai in America. Is Mr. Li willing to pay for the cost of this international long distance call?" The same operator asked again. International long-distance calls at that time were quite expensive.

        "Hello, I'm Li Xubai currently in America, and I am willing to pay for the phone bill; that is, you can sent Ms Xu's phone bill to me." Mr. Li answered without any hesitation.

       "Hey, Ahgi, hello, oh! don't cry ... Golden Branch, don't cry, speak slowly, speak..." Elder Mr. Li shouted into the telephone.

        "Police station? What did  the policemen lock him up for?" The old man asked loudly.

        "What! Killed someone?" The old man's face paled with fright.

        Killed someone? Weng and Lily also looked at each other in shock.

        "What? Has Wencun Xu been arrested? ... Well! Don't cry, okay, I'll come back immediately!" The old gentleman shouted nervously into the telephone.

        "Eh! Eh! I came abroad for a little over one month, something already happened, I have to go back to take care of this emergency!" Mr. Li put down the phone and sighed again and again.

        The old gentleman boarded the plane nervously and left the United States in a hurry.

        After a while, there finally came a thick air-mail letter, using several pages of stationery to explain the ins and outs of the whole incident.

        All in all, it was nothing more than two factions of street brawls. Unfortunately, an "enemy party" was wounded and died. Of course, Wencun Xu and his friends were responsible for the consequences. Wencun argued that he was absent on the night of the fight, because he took his twin sister, Wenting, who failed in her original examination, to do her make-up test. During Wenting's test, his original desire was to sit in the test room and read a rented comic book for teenagers. Due to the proctor teacher Mr. Lu’s "advice", he had to sit on the ground floor of the corridor and read under the street light. After his twin sister Wenting finished the exam, he went with her to return the rented comic book, and after returning the book, the twins rode the motorcycle home. Both Mr. Lu, the teacher who proctored the make-up test, and Mr. Huang, the store manager who rented the comic book to Wencun, were willing to testify in court. Mr. Li was busy handing over the bond to bail the youngster out. The defense lawyer Mr. Li hired was Wang Mingbian, a friend of Mr. Li’s for years. The problem probably was not very big.

         “I have already made up my mind to strengthen the discipline of the twins’ behaviors from now on, and we must urge them to study harder in school. After Wenting’s graduation from business school, I will go to the bank manager Mr. Zhang to find a trainee’s job for her. Probably not a big problem;  because I had done big favors for Mr. Zhang before. After Wencun graduates from high school, if he can be admitted to the military academy with my recommendation and the academy will supervise his behavior, everything will be fine!” The letter which our old gentleman Mr. Li wrote to his son and daughter-in-law made the conclusion that it was a success!

        "What's the success? Whose success? Is it their mother, Ms Golden Branch’s success? Or Ms. Golden Branch’s employer, Mr. Li ‘s success?" After reading his old father’s letter, the son Weng asked unjustly.

     The results of strict discipline of the twins’ seemed to be satisfactory. Later, Wencun actually entered the military academy. After graduating from business school, Wenting really worked as a trainee in Manager Zhang's bank for three months. With a vacancy and a formal education, it was not long before the Weng and Lily in the United States received a red wedding invitation.

        The wedding invitation was attached with a letter hand written by Mr. Li, telling his son Weng that he and Lily ‘must’ attend the wedding ceremony. Ms Golden Branch was the hostess of this wedding. The bride Miss Wenting Xu was just like their own step-sister. The bride's dowry was completely prepared by him.

        "Sure! Hmm, why ‘must’ we attend this step-sister Wenting Xu's wedding! Lily, don't you feel strange? Even though they both have the ‘Wen’ as their middle name as I do, How can I be completely impressed by these three relatives of the Li family? Didn't you say that you can't remember what Wenting look like, not even what their mother Golden Branch looks like? Isn't this Ms Golden Branch Xu the confidante of my dad, Mr. Li Xubai?” Mr. Li’s biological son Weng asked his wife Lily very unhappily.

        Lily thought about the whole thing carefully. It did turn out that they only heard about the Xu family from the mother’s employer Mr. Li, that is, Weng ’s father. They had never seen the three Xu’s officially, not even the photos. As for Ms Golden Branch, although they seemed have drunk the tea she poured, but, they only drank the tea she poured when she was a wax-skinned little girl. They didn't even really see each other face-to-face. What did they remember and what impression can they have remembered?

 (To be continued)