“Don’t you dare give him more money to gamble, you hear?
“If you do, go to his family. If you dare do it once again or tell Long to do the same, you are not my daughter anymore!”
The last shout of father’s anger, the highest note of his furious voice went like a sudden whistle from a train climbing a steeply terraced valley along with a fast ascent of steam. The phone was hung up abruptly. Half deafened, I was still trying to say something. But I failed, I simply failed.
Later when the depth of night was melting with the echos of father’s fury lingering in the dark, Mei called me. I picked up the phone without knowing exactly what to say, but blundered what was going on and the truth. We spoke mostly in Mandarin and rarely in our home dialect. While we talked, Mei went through the full range of emotions, laughing coldly and sadly, choking with sobs, then hardly talking at all. The conversation came to a sudden end when she hung up on me without saying her normal goodbye.