This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between Ming-ling and his mother-in-law, who is in the middle of recovering her daughter's health. She apologizes for the delay in getting her daughter back on her feet, but she says that she'll do better in the coming days. She's not worried about her daughter, she says, because "every single copper coin" she stole from her family, she's going to find a way for her to "cough back out" of the family's property. She tells her daughter that if she can't get her property back within ten days, then she should not step foot in the house again. She also says that Ming's daughter is not her own daughter, and that she never thought twice about spending so much money on a b*tch like that. She says that if Ming doesn't sell the