Chapter 2—Pages 184-199 Summary

Yuan returns to his room after tending his field and finds a letter from Mary waiting for him. Letters are rare. He gets one from his father once every three months, and a couple of times from Ai-lan or her mother. This is how he keeps up with news from home. Through one such letter he learns his lady mother has taken the girl Mei-ling into her home as a daughter. However, this letter from Mary invites him to come to their home for "a special purpose" at a time convenient for him. He prepares to go to see her and on his way out the landlady calls out for everyone to hear that she put a letter in Yuan's room from a lady and he must be off to see her. Everyone in the house laughs...