The chapter begins with Ruth returning to Luling's place and she begins to throw away all the junk Luling has kept like used straws and packets of soya sauce. As Ruth threw away more and more things, she felt as if she was cleansing her mother's mind. Then she reacher for a pile of old towels and realized she couldn't bring herself to throw them away because they held memories of her past.
so she went into Luling's bedroom instead, to de-clutter. On the dresser were bottles of water that Luling didn't use and then she saw the presents that Gaoling gave Luling and she remember what Luling thought of them. She thought they were insults from Gaoling so she never used them but instead left them standing there.
Then soon after, she was throwing away this compact powder that Luling had kept and the moment it entered the bin, she hurried and revived it because it was her mother's life.All these things she kept had memories and they were sentimental.
After the cleaning, she started counting on her fingers to see what she needed to do to prevent accidents. Ruth then began searching for other possible hiding spots her mother might have. She found a backet of photo albums and suddenly, she realised that a twenty dollar billed wrapped around four singles was still there, a memory of her teen years. She used to borrow money once in a while from that stash when she was tight.
Then she remember her diary that her mother used to sneak-read because she always talked about the things that Ruth wrote only in her diary.Then she hurriedly rushed to the top of the cabinet in search of her diary and she found it.
Ruth was reading her diary when she remember how she and her mother were at each other's throats all the time and she was tired of her mother's threats so when she could take it no longer, she wrote in her diary that she wanted her mother to die and she knew for a fact that Luling would read it. Sure enough the next day when Ruth got back from school, she was whisked off to the hospital to see her injured mother.Luling had tried to kill herself.
When Luling returned, they never spoke about that incident ever, they just acted like things were normal but that was what caused a rift between them.
During the 16th birthday, Luling had bought her a cake filled with strawberries and they both and a mutual understanding between them. Also, Luling gave her this gold ring with jade on it that Ruth had always wanted but Luling took it back and said she'd give it to her when she was older.
However the fights between them still continued and one day Ruth wrote in her diary that she was sorry and she wished Luling said she was sorry too but Luling never read those words.
Suddenly, Ruth jolted back to the future and she remember the chinese manuscript that Luling had written. Now she wanted more than ever to know what those chinese words meant.
Character analysis:
Ruth:
Luling:
Most memorable moment:
The most memorable moment in the chapter was the ending where Ruth was so eager to find out what the manuscript said , which was something she never bothered to read until now. The way she wanted to spend so much more time with her mother and get to know Luling before she lost he memory. Maybe it was to make up for the time she spent fighting with Luling or maybe it was to get to know her mother better.
Favourite quotes:
1)'she wanted to be there....how to translate her heart'
2)'Her hands would always be full... could both stop counting'
3)she was both the girl she ...younger version of herself
Themes:
Mother daughter relationship-Ruth's teenage years and how she her relationship with Luling was.
secrecy- Ruth was about to uncover Luling's past, and all the secrets she kept with her.
