Sunday, 22 January

Tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yiwei year

I got up early and felt dizzy and fatigued in my hands and legs, therefore I took a rest at home.

Zhongxiong told me last night that Defeng and Ye suggested that they could manage the Hong Kong restaurant for us.  They would take forty per cent of the profit and half of the tips. We would get 20,000 francs per month and could eat at the restaurant. I told Zhongxiong that there is no such wonderful thing in the world. We now earn 2,700,000 francs in total (20,000 francs each, and it is 60,000 francs in total. Tips would be 70,000 francs, and the profit would be 150,000 francs). If we were to abandon this amount and take 150,000 francs, in other words, it would mean that we use 120,000 francs to employ someone to manage the restaurant. Even the most foolish person would not do this.

Now I am told that, for the amount of work Zhongxiong is unable to cope with, we lack the services of just one person. I would only need to spend 20,000 francs to hire one more waiter. This could solve everything. Until then Zhongxiong understands (the overall situation). Kitty came home in the evening, telling me that Shaohua had also made such a suggestion to her. His tone was one that showed he was afraid that Zhongxiong would be unable to manage the accounts, which would be worse for his grace. So he suggested that we agree to what Guo and Ye had said. Kitty firmly rejected it. I was afraid this was merely a trick of Shaohua, as he had insisted recently that Zhongxiong could not carry on. I told Kitty that I had explained to Zhongxiong that if he follows the way of Guo and Ye, he would only get 50,000 francs every month, (He would get 20,000 francs and one third of the sixty per cent of profits, which are 30,000 francs) which is absolutely not enough to cover his living expenditure. He seemed to understand. If the situation goes this way, I am afraid that we would have to manage the restaurant on our own again.