Summary

In “Jamine Tea,” Nie Chuanqing was unhappy when Yan Danzhu, one of his classmates at South China University and the daughter Professor Yan, boarded the bus he was riding. She always liked to talk to him. Because Chuanqing was partially deaf because his father hit him in the ear so often, he had to lean too close to hear her. He was afraid people would draw the wrong conclusions. During their conversation, Chuanqing argued that Danzhu’s father did not like him because he gave him bad grades. Danzhu contended that her father did like him, just thought he was a little lazy.

When Chuanqing arrived home, his father, Nie Jiechen, and step-mother were smoking opium. They criticized the classes Chuanqing had chosen and insinuated that he would not make good grades. They called him lazy. His stepmother said that she had heard...