Hainan Dao

Book I Chapter 12

“Needless to say,” the mayor said in Cantonese, “your father had been a great benefactor of ours. He supported us in ways that we could never have hoped to repay him.”

“I’m sure he never had repayment in mind,” I replied.

“Of course, of course.” He smiled. “I wonder, though, if you intend to carry on his grand tradition and extend your hand in support of us?”

“Well…”

“Think of it as an investment.”

“Ah, investments! If you are speaking of money and investments, perhaps it would be much better to talk to my brother about it.”

“Your brother?” He nodded his head and smiled. “I have already spoken to your brother. The other night when we went out to dinner together, as a matter of fact.” He shook his head. “Your brother is an amazing individual.”

“Thank-you. I know he is.”

“He is quite the entrepreneur, is he not?”

“He has a good business sense.” I was working hard not to glance over in Cece’s direction. I picked up my teacup and took a sip.

“He was certainly curious about us, anyway.”

“Oh?” I turned toward him slightly. “In what way?”

“He wanted to know everything about us. The projections for the new building ideas, how much everything was going to cost…”

I frowned. “Did he mention why he wanted to know all these things?”

“No.” He shrugged. “I had thought that he must have been seriously interested in backing us, but when I asked him out right concerning future investments, he said he would have to think about it and get back to me. Has he told you anything?”

“No.”

The mayor nodded. “I sincerely hope, though, that you will give it some thought. After all, this is your homeland, where you are truly rooted.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Roots go deep.” He smiled just then, and the gleam of his golden teeth outshone all the other lights in the room.

I smiled back, as I chewed over and over again on my food.

Homeland. Right. Like that’s all he was really thinking about. I thought I looked a little less naïve than that. Come on, let’s face it. We both knew what he was talking about. Money. That’s all. That’s what this whole evening had been about from the very first.

But what I didn’t understand was, it wasn’t just him. It wasn’t just the mayor. It was everybody. And not just everybody in Hainan, or China. It seemed that everyone in the whole world thought about this in the same way. I mean, what was up with this making as much money as you possibly could thing, anyway?

Sometimes, I felt that my father had been like that too. After all, wasn’t that what he had pushed me into medicine for? Sure, he had made it sound very noble, that I would be helping the sick and doing good for my fellow man, but behind all of that, behind all of the talk, hadn’t he really only wanted that one thing for me as well? Money? Hadn’t that been all he had thought about, at the end of it all?

Me, I happened to think that I was doing just fine. I didn’t need a truckload of money to keep me happy. I would like to have thought that life was more than that. I would like to have thought that I was on this Earth for a cause just a little higher, a little less superficial and commercial. I didn’t need to make a lot of money. I only wanted to make something of myself, and maybe make something for my future family at the same time, if I could manage it. That was yet another way that I found I was totally different from my father.