During his first and last visit, Bing acted as no more than an entourage. Mei’s fear of the humiliation of being rejected was unimaginable. After all, there was no record in the history of the village that a girl would ever get pregnant without being married. And Mei broke that record, unintentionally and ignorantly.
To Mei’s amazement, mother simply welcomed them home, and father, the person she had most feared, did not reproach her either. Rather, he was glad to see her showing the predictable features of a young mother-to-be. Though he was not too pleased to accept the truth that Mei was soon to leave the family for another, which was absolutely against his expectations.