Chapter 20 Summary

Winnie Plans to go to her aunts for help in leaving her husband, but she and Danru get sick. By the time she gets to Tsungming Island, it is past the New Year 1946. Winnie finds the aunts in worse circumstances than her father. The house is in disrepair and Little Gong and Little Gao have become laborers in a shipyard. Winnie decides she cannot ask them for help. She learns that Peanut has left her marriage and joined the Communists. Her aunts denounce Peanut, but each slips Winnie her address and gifts for her.

A week later in Shanghai, Winnie goes to see Peanut. The address takes her to a poor part of town where students, writers, artists and prostitutes live. A man sells magazines like the ones Winnie and Peanut used to read as girls. Winnie recalls that the romances always had...