FICTION- SHORT STORY

The Bottom-line of Trust

People’s minds are unpredictable.

1

It was a quiet autumn morning. I was reading newspapers in the study at home. Suddenly, there was a loud crackle of something falling in the living room. I hurried there and saw Feifei crunching on the ground and collecting porcelain fragments. As she heard me, she quickly stood up, with a look of panic on her face.

“Uncle Ma, I accidentally knocked over this piece when I was wiping the furniture.”

Feifei is the cleaner I hired. She is a middle-aged woman. In China, people are used to calling others who are elder than themselves as uncles and aunts, or grandparents, as a kind of politeness.

When I was about to say something, the door opened, my wife Lin came in with two bags. She just returned from the market. She called loudly, “old man, come and help me!”

As she glanced at the ground, she put the two bags down and went straight to us.

“Oh, my goodness, is this not my favorite milk jug?”

The milk jug with a cow is a souvenir. Three years ago, we visited our son Junjun in Zurich. He took us to Engelberg, a beautiful small town. We bought a coffee set in a shop, including a cup with a heart, a sugar bowl with the flag of Switzerland, and a milk jug with a cow.

Now the milk jug had shattered into several pieces and it was laying on the ground.

Feifei’s face turned red, her voice was quiet as a mosquito.

“I am sorry, it was my fault, I was too careless.”

“It is not a big deal. Collect the pieces and go on with cleaning!”

To avoid a conflict, I didn’t blame her. Lin wasn’t happy, but she controlled herself and didn’t say anything.

When Feifei finished her work, I paid her 150 Yuan (about 20 Dollars). But she insisted on taking only half of her salary, and the remaining half was supposed to compensate for the broken milk jug.

I was a little surprised because I knew that Feifei came from a poor peasant family. She came to the city to earn more money. Well, she did break the milk jug, but it was an accident. Plus, I didn’t have any change for her.

At this moment, Lin came over. She took her iPhone out and said to Feifei, “Tell me your Alipay account!”

They quickly scrolled their phones, I heard a pipe, both seemed to be content, then Feifei left.

Lin deals with the internet much better than I do.

Her phone rang suddenly, it was a call from WeChat (a popular social media used by Chinese people). After talking on the phone, she went to the kitchen and cooked lunch.

“This afternoon I will go to Lao Wang’s house. Lao Li and Lao Zhang will be there too. We play Mahjong.”

Lao Wang, Lao Li, and Lao Zhang are all former colleagues of me and Lin. We have worked at a local branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for more than 30 years. Most of us are now retired. And many of our children are living abroad. People call us “Empty nester”.

“Bring up children for being looked after in old age” is an old saying in China, and it is still true today.

The older I grew, the more I became worried. As older people in our seventies, Lin and I still could manage our daily life, but if we got seriously ill, we would have trouble.

When we go to the hospital, we must bring a bank card, ID, and social insurance card with us. We can’t see a doctor before we pay. And if we got an operation, hospitals demand our relatives to take care of us.

Last year, I couldn’t catch my breath after climbing a few stairs and must go to the hospital immediately. Due to the capacity bottleneck, it took Lin lots of effort to find a hospital to accept me. She ran up and down in the hospital building to manage payments and bringing me to different departments for various checks. After I got my operation, she shuttled between home and hospital. At last, we hired a care worker to replace Lin, so she could get rest at home overnight.

After I recovered and left the hospital, we realized that we were not able to do everything by ourselves like before, so we hired Feifei to clean the house. With her help the daily routine was getting easier.

However, the experience with the hospital was still lingering like a nightmare. And we were aware, that this would happen again. But we didn’t have any relatives in this city. Our only son Junjun was living in Switzerland. Even if we could call him back, he wouldn’t be able to get back in 24 hours from Switzerland to China.

Well, we thought of going to a care house, but I knew that was expensive. Our pension may only be enough for renting a small apartment there.

An idea came into my mind when the red face of Feifei appeared in front of my face. She seemed to be an honest woman. If she were reliable, we would hire her as a full-time nanny. Then we could still stay at home when we get that old.

After Lin came back from playing Mahjong, I talked to her about my idea. But Lin just shook her head.

“Don’t be silly! She was just pretending to be honest. You never know what is going on in her head.”

2

“Uncle Ma, this one I just found on the desk in your study.” Feiei handed me an envelope.

“Yes, it is mine, thank you. How could I be so careless? Ah, I am getting old.”

I sighed.

It was an envelope with 10-hundred-yuan inside. I “forgot” it and left it in the study.

Afterward, I often “forgot” something important and left them everywhere in the house, things like bank cards, saving books, or jewelry. Every time, Feifei brought them back to me or Lin.

Sometimes Feifei finished cleaning earlier, Lin asked her to help by cooking. One day, Feifei made Mapo Tofu — — a traditional Sichuan dish — — for us, because her home is in Sichuan. It was a spicy dish, and Lin got excited; she loves hot food.

Over time, Feifei took over more housework. She used to come to clean the house once a week; now she came over three times a week.

Several months passed in a blink of an eye, and Spring Festival was approaching. This is the most important festival in China because it means a family reunion. People who work and live far from home will come back to celebrate the festival with their families.

Feifei was no exception, she was going back to her hometown. Before she left, I gave her a red pocket. (A red pocket with bills inside is a traditional gift for the Chinese New Year). She promised to come back two or three weeks later.

3

Without Feifei we could manage by ourselves, but it would be better if she were here.

One afternoon after the festival, I stayed at home and Lin went to play Mahjong. As the phone rang, I picked it up and heard a stranger’s voice.

“Is this Lao Ma? Come quickly, your wife has just slipped.”

What I’ve worried about happened.

After calling the ambulance, I collected a couple of underwear and wash utensils, then I checked my wallet, bank card, IDs (mine and Lin’s), and social insurance card for Lin.

It didn’t take a long time till the ambulance came and took us to the hospital where I got operated on.

“Where are your relatives?” A nurse questioned. His voice was full of criticism and accusation. No wonder, in China it is immoral to leave elderly parents alone in the hospital.

A doctor explained to me everything for the operation, then asked me to sign a stack of paper.

I felt exhausted, but I still got to go to the cashier to fill the forms and put in a deposit (If you are kept in a hospital for an operation or something else, you need to pay a deposit).

At this moment, my phone rang. It was Feiei. She was back. Thank God! She could come over right away to my house.

The elderly people are most afraid of slipping. Fortunately, Lin only broke a few bones, and the slipping didn’t cause serious organ problems.

During her time at the hospital, Feifei came by and looked after me every day. She cleaned and cooked for me and Lin. I gave her small amounts of cash to buy groceries. Every time she returned the remaining cash to me. This made me trust her even more.

Two weeks later, Lin came home, but she still had to walk with a crutch. Mostly she stayed in bed.

A good neighbor is better than a brother far off.

Even our son wouldn’t be able to do more than Feifei. She cleaned, went to the grocery store, cooked, and helped Lin to recover by walking.

We became dependent on Feifei and hired her as a full-time nanny and increased her salary. Still, I felt a little guilty because we couldn’t pay her more.

4

One day, Feifei seemed to be distracted after she took a phone call. She put sugar instead of salt in the soup and burned meat out. In the end, she admitted that she couldn’t concentrate, because her mother was sick, but she didn’t have enough money for the hospital.

Without money means giving up medical treatment and waiting to die at home.

No wonder that Feifei got desperate. I decided to lend her 10.000 yuan to save her mother’s life. Feifei was grateful, she knelt on the ground for a long time.

I felt happy that I could help her. But Lin warned me not to do this next time.

A few weeks later, Feifei begged me to lend her 10.000 Yuan again, because her husband needed money for his business. Since then, she has used more excuses asking for money.

Every time, Feifei knelt on the ground. She won’t get up if I refused her.

Shall we fire her? But who would look after us? I asked myself.

When we were hesitating, Feifei disappeared. At the same time, Lin got a message from the bank, telling us that 30,000 Yuan were transferred. She urgently called the bank and froze the account.

Later I found out that one bank card was missing and remembered that Feifei was in the company when I went to the bank to get cash. She might have spotted the PIN.

We reported Feifei to the police immediately, and she was arrested later. Luckily, our stolen money was refunded to us.

Trust has also its bottom line. Once it is broken, the greed of others will be aroused.

And, greed has no limit!

Now Lin and I are living in an old people’s home.

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate if you leave comments.