I arrive home, Hong is in the shower braving the cold water; I become frustrated when I think about the meaning of saving, that makes a person have a cold bath, in this weather! I feel pity for Hong. While we are having dinner, Hong told me that she did not have lunch, because there was plenty of work to do.
I look at her, thinking about the proverbial saying, "all work and no play, made Jack a dull boy".
"Bytheway there is no drinking water left", she adds, while gulping a glass of water. I nod signalling that I got it. After dinner, I quickly ran to the supermarket to buy a few bottles of water.
After coming back from the supermarket, I sat down on the sofa and watched the movie "Bourne Identity". I am a fun of films because they take the stress off me, after a busy day at work. When watching the movie, I realise what the American secret service has been doing all the time; the Chinese had done it much earlier if not longer. I remember that twenty years ago when I first came to China, all cars and hotel room would be bugged, and telephone conversations intercepted. All accommodation employees, all drivers to mention a few, were "undercover agents". That time the Chinese were more suspicious of Western foreigners than today.
Have they completely abandoned their secretive spying missions, given up, or are doing it even more than before? I have no answer for that.
It was getting cold. I decide to pour the rest of my Chinese rice wine in a saucepan and warm it a little bit. Since this wine is yellow, it is also called "Yellow Wine" in China. You can also get rice wine in Japan. It is called Sake, and in Korea, they call it Magoli, but the difference is that amongst other countries, the wine is colourless, not yellow as it is the case in China.
After warming the wine, I grabbed a glass, poured it in and headed for my private office on the third floor of our house. Before I could even warm my seat, Hong came running in the office shouting.
"The whole house is smelling of yellow wine, have you vomited?" she asked, blowing her nose with her right palm.
Still holding the glass in m hand, I answered. "No, I just warmed it because it was too cold".
"Ya right, you just warmed it because it was too cold, do you then have to suck the whole bottle?" she interjected before I even finished the sentence.
"Calm down Hong, it is not a bottle; it is only a glass" I answered, trying to calm her moods down.
"Do you know what is going to happen now?" she asked.
"No, I don't" I answered back.
"Your sperm is now going to get drunk; then it will start swimming aimlessly drunk without hitting the target, this is why children are born drunk from drunkard fathers like you," she said dejectedly.
Hong is a woman who always has something to say about everything. When it comes to having or not having children, Hong is a very fickle minded person. What does she want? Children or not? Is it because of the alcohol in the rice wine, or is it whatever she said was smelling in the house, what makes her so upset? I cannot tell. Whatever the reason could be for her mood swings, I think there is more alcohol in Brandy that than in a rice wine.
While still thinking about Hong’s behaviour, she calls me to go to her office, one floor down. My heart pumps rapidly, thinking about what she was going to complain about next. I am wrong; it is entirely about a different topic. It is about a property for sale in Taicang, very close to our neighbourhood. Like in Germany, assets whose owner become insolvent, are advertised and sold by the banks to recover part of their money, or the whole of it sometimes charging interest on them. I browse through the advert and tell her that the property is too expensive. The court and the bank want to make more money, on top of what they are supposed to. Hong is quick to add before I could even finish the sentence that from her experience, the price in the advert is negotiable. I agree and propose to go and visit the property.
I am astounded to learn that the down payment as the deposit was a whooping 300,000 RMB, the equivalent of 40,500 euros of the then exchange rate. I was, however, not too much in agreement with such craftily designed adverts only meant to lure people into spending. I showed Hong part of the advert reading as follows in small print, “getting your money back later”. I warn that paying the money is one thing and getting it back as quickly as the writing seems to suggest was another thing. If those banks and other financial institutions got the money, they would twist languages using all technical words to protect their side. Hong agreed.
“You are right; it is like giving a piece of meat to a dog and expect it to return to you easily”, she says.
It is a snowy Sunday morning; Hong is still sleeping. So, I have to go jogging alone. I call my driver to go to the nearest police station, to record a statement about the accident that Hong was involved in with a dog. That way, she could go to the insurance company to fill a claim form. The driver does exactly that. I later give him a gift to thank him. That gift had been given to me by my bank two days ago, thanking me for being a loyal customer.
Everything is running smoothly. I clean up my office, sort out the paperwork and shred the ones that I did not need. Hong is busy on her laptop sitting opposite me. She always reminds me of thoroughly checking every piece of paper before I shred them. I wondered! One time she is complaining about savings, another time about stuffing the house with smelly wines, and now I should be careful with what I do and do not shred. Is this not going too far, is she not one of those typical control freaks? I asked myself.
After dinner, I grab a phone and call Daniel in Germany, and Hong calls her mother. We go to bed early. My water bottle is already full to comfort me in bed since it is cold.
On Wednesday, Hong had to travel to Suzhou to attend a monthly DUSA meeting, to meet acquaintances and her work colleagues, and to exchange news and ideas. DUSA is European Business Association, founded twelve years ago by many Germany companies to facilitate the initiation of business in China through information, workshops, and training courses for small and medium-sized German companies.
In addition to her work at the university, Hong is a freelance lawyer in her law firm in Suzhou. One of the benefits is her membership card that allows her free parking, of which she takes advantage. Later, that day, I take a flight from Shanghai Hongqiao Inland Airport, to visit a supplier in Qingdao, in Shandong province about five hundred kilometres away. The business trip is supposed to last for two days. I promise Hong that I would be right back, after the tour.
As usual, when going on such trips, my colleague, a Chinese buyer and I, are picked up from the airport in a limousine, to be taken to the supplier’s factory outside the city. Being a Hi-Tech field, we had to do everything thing in its precise measurement and standard.
I am, however, dismayed to find out that the plate we commissioned, is much thicker than that of the competition. I also complain about the drawing, not being suitable for turning parts.
My colleagues point out that it is due to the standardisation efforts of the company. I however believe that losing material cost-share is much higher than any savings on standardisation. I also note that the rotary part produces long chips, and with the new material, a worker would be removing the waste every too often. Otherwise, they would wrap around the chisels, which would later be dangerous.
My buyer also tells me that their measurements for specifications come from the headquarters that Chinese designers have no permission to anything to change the specifications. I turned a blind eye on this type of “copy and paste” procedure. I wondered why the buyer would have an interest in protecting the supplier other than myself! I realise that he did not want to tarnish his name and the relationship of a company. He have which he
