Chapter 6 Summary

Winnie tells Pearl she missed having a mother to advise her about matters of the heart. She reminds her of a boy she brought home once. The boy asked for beer and Pearl apologized for not having any to serve him. Winnie had cautioned Pearl that this boy thought of himself first and would consider her second, third, fourth and then not at all. "If you always tell him you are sorry now, you will always be sorry later," she had told her daughter.

Later, the boy broke Pearl's heart. Winnie likened the lesson learned to her relationship with Wen Fu, the man she told Pearl would later cause her to warn her daughter about men like him. Winnie then tells Pearl about Wen Fu, who was in love with her cousin Hua-zheng, New Aunt's daughter known as "peanut."

Winnie had lived with...