(July 1956) A month later... Quay, Chun-On, Ho-Ying, and Lan-Yee were sitting at the dinner table eating dinner. Suet had gone to get more soup for everyone to eat.
Ho-Ying excused herself from the table and walked slowly out of the family's view but once they couldn't see her, she ran to the restroom holding her mouth and stomach.
Suet was walking with a servant who was carrying the soup out when she saw Ho-Ying running by. She told the servant to take the soup out as she followed after Ho-Ying. She thought something must have been wrong. When she got to the restroom behind Ho-Ying she heard Ho-Ying vomiting.
Suet knocked on the door and asked, "Are you okay?"
Ho-Ying was startled. She didn't expect anyone outside. "I'm fine." she called out trying to wipe her mouth. "I'm just using the restroom." she said as she again had the urge to vomit. She quickly covered her mouth making her speech sound more like a mumble.
Suet didn't believe Ho-Ying was fine because she could sense something was wrong. Her first suspicion was Ho-Ying might have been pregnant because she heard the vomiting. "Okay then I'll see you at the dinner table." She said to not panic Ho-Ying.
She recalled the days on the battlefield when she was pregnant with Lan-Yee. It was very difficult hiding her pregnancy for the first two months. She did it until she was transferred to a new place as a hospital nurse, where she settled down in a convent-like home with many other nurses. At that time she had changed her name to Lan Fu Yan, so everybody thought she was married and her husband was in battle.
When she got back to the table Quay immediately asked, "Where did you go? The entrees are getting cold, hurry and eat."
"I was checking the supply of sauces we still had so if we were short I needed to tell the servants to buy more."
"Such simple things should be left to the servants." Quay responded.
"Yes but we still need to calculate how much to give them to spend."
"That's true." Quay responded putting a piece of chicken into Suet's bowl. "Here eat chicken. It's your favorite." Suet smiled, nodded her head and started eating.
Chun-On served his mother some food. Ho-Ying came back from the restroom. Lan-Yee saved Ho-Ying's favorite piece of the chicken, the wing for her. When Ho-Ying came back, she smiled and thanked Lan-Yee.
After dinner the dessert was served in the den like usual where everyone usually sat to share their day or anything that was happening with the business and even school events or such matters.
Lan-Yee immediately spit out her dessert. "This is so sour!" she exclaimed.
Chun-On took a taste and replied, "Yeah it is."
Quay frowned and smelled her bowl. It did smell sour as if too much lime and lemons were added to it.
Ho-Ying finished it and replied, "It was good no sour taste or anything."
Everyone but Suet was surprised at Ho-Ying's comment. "How could it not be?" Lan-Yee asked confused. It obviously tasted very sour to everyone.
Ho-Ying didn't know how to reply except that it wasn't sour to her then she remembered the girl at school who ate a lot of sour things when she was pregnant. "I don't know."
Then Suet said, "Actually it tastes really good not sour at all to me either." She ate a spoonful and smiled. "I can eat it just fine maybe your taste buds aren't like mine and Ho-Ying."
Lan-Ye shrugged, "I guess so." She replied and pushed away the desert. She didn't want any of it.
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Ho-Ying realized Suet helped her. That night she went to thank Suet. She nervously walked to the door because she was still very unsure of what Suet would say to her. Suet had always been a very strict and traditional woman. It was hard for her to imagine that Suet would help her. She stood timidly at Suet's door unsure if she should knock or not.
Suet had expected Ho-Ying to come look for her, so she opened the door when she heard shuffling noises outside her door. Ho-Ying gasped. Suet smiled. Ho-Ying felt a little calmer and shifted her shocked expression to a relaxed one. Suet invited her into her room. Ho-Ying came in slowly.
Lan-Yee was walking back to her room and saw Ho-Ying go in. She thought that was strange. Curiosity got to her and she came closer to eavesdrop on them.
"Thank you for helping me earlier." Ho-Ying said nervously.
"You're welcome." Suet replied with a sincere voice.
"So you know that... that... I'm... I'm..." Ho-Ying stuttered.
Suet helped her because she understood how hard it was for her to admit she was pregnant. After all it happened to Suet once too., "Yes I know you're pregnant." Suet said.
Ho-Ying nodded, "I'm very confused right now. I don't know what to do." Ho-Ying said as she sat on Suet's bed.
Lan-Yee who was still eavesdropping gasped as she leaned in closer to hear more. "Whose baby could it be?" she thought to herself. Questions flooded her mind.
Suet walked closer to Ho-Ying, "Do you want to keep the baby?"
Ho-Ying shrugged her shoulders. "I don?t know."
"Do you despise the father?"
"No." Ho-Ying replied
"What does the father of the baby think?"
"He doesn't know."
"Are you planning to tell him?"
"I don't know." Ho-Ying said shaking her head as she held it between her hands. "I don't know anything."
Suet cooed her as she wrapped her arms around Ho-Ying. "It'll be okay. You don't have to worry. If you don't want to keep the child, you can abort it. If you do, we'll find a way for you to keep the child."
"I don't want to abort the child but I don't know of any acceptable way to keep the child. I don't want people ridiculing my child."
"Why won't you tell the father of the child? Will he take responsibility?" Suet asked.
"He doesn't know and I don't want to tell him. I don't want him marrying me for the wrong reasons." She said bursting into tears again.
Suet pulled Ho-Ying closer and took a deep breath. Obviously Ho-Ying wasn't raped. She didn't seem hesitant about the boy who impregnated her. There was only one boy she could think of. It was Li-Nam. Oh no she thought to herself. The past has repeated. The same incident between her, Quay, and Phong had resurfaced on their daughters and Li Nam. The only difference was Lan-Yee did not love Li-Nam like Quay did.
"It's okay." Suet said. "We can work this out."
"How?" Ho-Ying asked confusedly.
Suet didn't want Ho-Ying and her child to live the same life as her and Lan-Yee, so she said what she could at the time. "I don't know but we'll figure something out." She said rocking Ho-Ying in her arms as if she was a baby. Ho-Ying lay comfortably in Suet's arm as the two were silence for a while.
Lan-Yee backed away from the door now after hearing as much as she did. She knew more than enough. She shook her head in confusion at such an incident. She was so deep in thought about this moment that she didn't realize she had backed into Chun-On.
He smiled as she leaned against him thinking he was a wall. She rested there not knowing what to think about Ho-Ying's pregnancy. Then she finally realized the baby must belong to Li-Nam. But she couldn't figure out how, when, and if it really was his.
Then Chun-On put his arms around her startling her. As she let out a scream he covered up her mouth and pulled her away. She kicked him until she recognized his hands but still tried to push him off her. He pulled her into his room which was two doors down from where they were standing.
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Meanwhile back in Suet's room?...
Ho-Ying sat up and looked at Suet. "I'm still a bit confused at why you helped me. I didn't imagine you of all people..." she said as she saw Suet raise her eyebrow.
She didn't want Suet misunderstanding so she continued to explain herself. "Oh... Don't misunderstand me I don't mean that in a bad or disrespectful way, its just that you've always been so strict and traditional I was very surprised you helped me."
Suet smiled and replied, "I understand, all these years I've been strict on you kids to make sure you grew up right. Quay was so easy on you and I was so harsh, its no wonder all you and Lan-Yee included think I'm such a horrible person."
"No we don't think you're horrible. None of us do, especially Lan-Yee. She always cries after an argument with you. She cries because she doesn't want to say such harsh things to you. She knows you care about her she just doesn?t know how to react towards you."
"You don't have to say such things to me. I understand how Lan-Yee feels about me." Suet replied.
"No it's true; Lan-Yee is confused uncertain and at a loss when it comes to your relationship with her. That's what she always tells me and Chun-On."
"What do you mean?" Suet asked perplexed by what Ho-Ying had to say.
"At least Brother and I can call you Auntie because you are our mommy's sister, but what are you to Lan-Yee?"
This question triggered a thought deep within Suet. She wanted to say it right then and there. She wanted to say Lan-Yee was her daughter but she couldn't she didn't know how to say that either at that time. She was filled with anguish.
Ho-Ying noticed Suet's expression of anguish. "I don't mean anything by the question. I'll be going back to my room now. Thank you auntie Suet. I feel better now."
Suet nodded as Ho-Ying left the room. She continued to think and debate about her relationship with Lan-Yee. What has it become all these years. She didn't know. She was like a three year old child, at lost when they were asked to write a 100 page essay paper on the history of China.
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Chun-On finally let Lan-Yee go after he pulled her into the room. 'Hey stop kicking." He said grinning.
"Let me go!" she shouted. "How dare you come up behind me and grab me like that!" she shouted annoyed that he had bothered her in such a deep state of thought.
"What's wrong?" he asked now noticing the expression on her face.
"I don't know exactly, but I do know that..." she started to say but stopped realizing Chun-On might go crazy and even beat up Li-Nam. She wasn't even sure if he was the father of Ho-Ying's baby.
"That... what? Come on out with it. What's wrong?" he asked shaking her playfully.
She looked around his room took a deep breath and said, "Okay promise me you will not overreact."
"I promise." He said with his right hand raise as if it was a joke.
"Seriously, Now promise that if you do go crazy or out of control that... that," she started to think about what was most important to Chun-On, "that the Kwok family business will fail and your mother's health will go down, and I will die."
Chun-On gasped, "What would make me go so crazy that you must use everything I live for to protect it?" he asked. "I mean the business is one thing but my mother's health and your life! What's that about?" he asked becoming more serious now.
"Now are you going to promise me or not?" she asked in a calmer sweeter voice trying to lower the angry reaction she knew he would definately have.
"Fine I will not overreact!" he said reluctantly knowing she wouldn't tell him unless he promised.
Lan-Yee took a deep breath and said, "Your sister is pregnant." as she was holding his hands and looking straight at him.
Chun-On's face was filled with anger. He started breathing quickly. You could tell he was outraged after hearing this news but was holding everythign in becuase of the promise. Lan-Yee squirmed and held his hand even tighter but it didn't help.
He shook his head. "I... I... I..." he said and stopped speaking to try and control his fury. "I... I heard you wrong." He finally said. He paused again and then continued. "You... her... How..." he stopped speaking again to calm down. But nothing was going to calm him down at this moment.
Lan-Yee felt the grasp of his hands tightening as he tried to calm down. Her face full of freight. She led him to sit down on his bead and poured him some water from the water pitcher in his room.
He couldn't sit down and got back up. He paced back and forth. He was trying to comprehend how his sister could have become pregnant. She wasn't even married yet. Was it rape? Was it with consent? Who was the father? When did this happen? How could it happen? His BABY SISTER!!! Was this right. He had all these questions and more. But he couldn't come out to ask.
Lan-Yee gave him the glass of water and he shook gulping it down. When finished, he threw the glass on the floor and went to punch the wall. Lan-Yee noticed and quickly ran towards the wall, grabbed a pillow and held it against the wall. Chun-On punched continuously at the pillow against the wall for a good two minutes. After he finished Lan-Yee pulled the pillow down.
"Are you feeling better now?" she asked.
He let out a deep sigh and nodded his head as he pulled her towards him, holding her close he asked all his questions. She told him everything she knew. They both suspected Li-Nam, so they decided to ask him about it. Lan-Yee made Chun-On promise to not beat Li-Nam but calmly listen to his explanation because it might not even be his. Chun-On agreed.
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