Yuan looks expectantly toward the approaching holidays in hopes of spending time with Mei-ling. Meng plans to go home too, and is filled with new anger, this time directed at the common people who have decided they no longer need to honor the great feast day marking the New Year. The new government changes things, and now the calendar follows the sun instead of the moon, and Meng takes their indifference as a personal affront. "So whether they will or not the people must be taught and forced out of the old superstitious ways!" (p. 313). Yet Yuan is not as bothered by his cousin's words because his thoughts are on Mei-ling. He answers Meng, "Nothing will please you, Meng, not the rich because they are rich, and not the poor because.....
