A Stressful Day

    Yesterday almost all the colleagues of mine and me underwent a very stressful day. As a matter of fact, we experienced Great Anxiety and Great Happiness in a Single day. We mus have had a strong heart to survive it. It is especially true of Miss Zhou.
    We went to the outlet by the name of Clinton Crossing Outlets.
    The trip had been decided the night before.
    We hd searched for the needed information about the trip, the trains to the outlet. And Monitor Ma had his discoveries about the departure time of diffferent trains to the outlet posted on our wechat.
    We did not want to miss the Saturday trip. We knew the commodities would be much cheaper during the Independence Day holiday.And we had been told before we came to the USA that the bags, clothes, and shoes of famous brands are much cheaper and much better in quality that those sold in the homeland.
    The monitor asked on the Wechat who would like to join him and his wife in the trip. Three of us sharing the rented apartment volunteered.
    We took it for granted that He would take us there. We had been informed that we could take a train at the New Haven Union Station at 8:05 a.m, and then take a taxi at the local train station.
    But we were wrong.
    At seven plus, he sent a message to the micro message group: We are setting off. I asked how to get there. There was no response.
    I began anxiously to wake up the other two younger colleagues,one of whom reponded quicky.
But at 7:20, we did not hear calls from outside our house.
    I woke up Yi Ming and told her Monitor Ma and the other people had already set off.
    She woke up and we were busy having a simple breakfast: milk and crackers.
    We began to search for information about how to get to the Union Sation with our mobile phones, which was made possible with the wifi in the apartment, thanks to Vincet, a friend of the tenant by the name of Hannah Sassoon, who subletted his apartment to us on the internet.
    But the internet search did not help much, as we did not know where the state street was and had no idea how to get there.
We four decided to set off when it was around 7:35. We hoped to reach the station in 20 minutes, as was informed by Monitor Ma.
    We first asked a man at the turning point of Mansfield and he told us to go along the Prospect Street and then down to Chapel Street. We knew how to get to Prospect and we went along the cemetery till we almost reached the crossroad.
We saw a group of 3 bycicle riders. I asked an elder rider about the Union and he pointed to the strret ahead and said you should walk along the street till you reach Chapel Street and turn left and see the Church Street and turn right and in about 5 miniutes, you will reach the Union Station.
    We expressed our thanks and continued our way and before we reached the Church Street, we had asked two people for the way, first a man with a poor English, then an old black woman.
    We reached the union station at 8 plus.
    But when we met the group led by Monitor Ma outside the station, one of them told us that they missed the 8 a.m.train, and they were planning to rent a van to the outlet. Several women colleagues were bargaining with a van driver. They have brought the price down to 100 for a round trip.
    I went to the Restroom, and when I cae back to the waiting hall, I met the women colleagues belonging to the Monitor Group again. I was surprised that they were still staying there.
    The slim woman by the name of Hejia said Monitor Ma still thought 100 dollars was expensive and so they had to give up and wait for the 12 oclock train. I was sorry that Mr. Ma cared too much about saving money and made the trip by van impossible. It would ruin the pleasure of the trip.
    Miss Zhou, a colleague working in the same teaching and research section with me, but shared the rented apartment with the Ma couple and and two other woemn colleague from the other section of our Foreign Language School, decided to join us in taking the taxi.
    We were glad she could join us. Our cost of the trip would be equally shared by four instead of by three.
    We went ouside the waiting hall and a taxi came up right then and there. It was a black driver.
    "Excuse me, how much does it cost to get to the Clinton Outlet?"
    "Let me see." He replied. He took out his mobile and calculated, then he said, "65 dollars even to Madison."
    We were familiar with Madison. We saw it on s green road sign as we were driving to the YaleOutdoor Education Center.
    "But the price is too much," Miss Zhou said to the driver while standing outside the right side of the taxi.
    "How much do you want, you say it."
    "Just now a driver offered to take us there and back here for 100 dollars."
    "That would be OK. I am a nice guy, I will do it. But other guys wouldn't."
    We entered the car.
    As we were driving along the highway, we asked about his phone number so that we could contact him when we wanted to come back from the utlet. He explained that his taxi couldn't stay long in Madison, as Madison belonged to a different area.
    The trip took about 30 minutes and when we reached the outlet, we became the first group of shoppers.
    The driver discussed the time and place we could meet in the afternoon. He also told us that we should give him a call at 4:30 to make sure we would take his taxi back to New Haven.We paid him hakf of the round trip price.
    Then he drove away.
    We went into the first shop on the right of the Entrance.
    Then while we were waliking into the second shop, itt suddenly stuck me that my backbag was not on myy back any more.
    I told my fellows about it, saying that the backbag was not mine, it was borrowed from my niece, and my niece's one year and nine month old son even cried at the borrowing act, fearing I might take away their bag permanently.
    One of my fellows asked: "Are you sure you have brought the bag out?"
    "Absolutely sure. I had brought it out with me and hoped it could be used to hold all the things I would buy at the outlet."
They went back to the first shop with me to look for it, but with no result.
It occured to me that I might have left it behind in the taxi, as I remembered clearly with I had carried it behind my back when I took the seat.
    Luckily, we got the telephone number.
    And the only mobile phone that could be used for international calls was put to use. Yingzi called and the driver's phone automatically replied that we should leave a message. She left a meesage.
    As we continued window-shopping, I was filled with anxiety. If I lost the bag, I might not find the same brand and the same or the same quality. The day before, when we went to a self-service restaurant for lunch, He jia showed her newly purchased green backbag, and I found out the cloth was very rough, and of course poorer in quality.
    It was a great challenge to me to buy the same quality the color the same backbag for my niece.
    Luckily, in a few minutes, the driver came up to us in a hurry in about 10 minutes and handed me the bag. All of us were very happy and full of gratitude for the driver. He again said: "I know how you feel. I tell you I'm a nice guy."
With the bag back to me, I could enjoy the shopping tour, trying this and that on.
    We bought the things we wanted or liked and felt satisfied with our purchases.
    We also met the other fellow colleagues who had either taken a taxi here or a train here. They had done many purchases, Nike shoes and Coach bags,and so on.

    It was about four when we decided to call the driver to take us back.
    At around 5:30, while we were waiting for the taxi at the place where we were supposed to be picked up, I discussed with Zhou about the payment.

    The trip to the outlet had been paid by Yingzi and they two shared the payment, and for the trip back home, we two shared the 50 dollar payment. She agreed and she said she could give me 25 dollars for the pay. I said I could give her 25 yuan and she was to do the paying. I gave her on e 20 dollar bill and five one dollar bill.

    The driver was about 10 minutes late; "Too much traffic."
    We could understand. The parking lot on both sides of the drveway were full.

    As soon as we got into the car, Yingzi told the driver that the other fellows who came to the outlet by train could not find a taxi to get home. She asked him to get two additional taxis to get them back to New Haven.
    He agreed to ask his firend to get them back but he couldn't promise us that his friend would agree to 50 dollars for the service.

    When we were about to reach our apartment building, I urged Zhou to give the driver the pay. But she rpelied taht there was no hurry about that.
    Even when we reached our apartment, Miss Zhou talked a lot with the driver about how to get the colleagues back home from the outlet.
    I was the first one to get out of the taxi.
 
    The driver said repeatedly: "I can not give your colleagues international phone calls, 'cause this is a company's phone, so they should give me calls first."
    All of us agreed. "We shall tell our colleagues to give you calls."

    I was concerned about the colleagues's safety.
    I came to the left side of the taxi and asked the black driver about his name so that our colleagues wouldn't make a mistake about the taxi driver.
    "Chris," the thin big-eyed black driver answered without hesitation.
    I also went to the front of the car and try to remind my colleague that we should write down the taxi's car number--T5257T, and tell the colleagues, so that our colleagues wouldn't be mistaken, and took wrong taxis.
    But we did not take any picture of the taxi driver or his car number.
 
    I urged Zhou to pay the money. I don't want to waste the taxi driver's fuel, as he still kept the engine working. She eventually took out her wallet and opened it. I saw her take out a bill and handed it to the black driver.
    I thought she had given him a 100-dollar bill, but the black man did not give her any changes.
    I saw her close her wallet.
    She continued to talk with Chris even after she got out of the taxi, holding her newly purchased shoes in one of her hands.
    The car had stopped in the middle of the street outside our apartment.
    I did not think it was safe for her and for the taxi. I urged her to come to stay with us until all the other fellows who were sharing the same apartment with her came back from the outlet, though she had a key to the rented apartment.
     But that would take at least one hour. The taxi driver had to go to the outlet first and then get them back.
  
    I asked Zhou to stay with us instead of riding home alone in the taxi. Being alone in the taxi or in the rented apartment is not safe, I said. Weshall see you back to you apartment with the three colleagues when we had finished our dinner.
    She readily agreed, saying "you are very considerate indeed".

    We entered the apartment with the help of Doctor Zhang, who took all the keys the night before, because she had decided not to go to the outlet with us but to go to the school library, which had given me allot of anxieties too.
    I had beeb worried that she might meet bad guys when she came back alone too late, and she might be sleeping soundly and could not hear our callings outside the house when we came back and we couldn't get in. She had slept very early for several nights, at about seven or eight, and got up very early in the morning, whether when I woke up at five or at six.

    As soon as we came up to the third floor, Doctor Zhang asked us to show her the commodities we had bought.
    Miss Zhou and the other two showed her their "trophies" to satisfy her curiosity. I was in no mood to show off my things. I kept myself busy cooking dinner for all of us, having invited Miss Zhou to dinner with us.
    It took me quite a long time to make the preparation and do the cooking.
    Finally, we were ready for dinner.
    The three colleagues praised me for the delicious food.
    After dinner, we talke about the trip and about the virtue of the colleagues from the Railway   Institute, of their unitedness in doing anything and our own fellows' failure to be as united as one in doing anything.
    Doctor Zhang had much to say about our own Campus Proper professors. She told us especially about the reluctance of the two male professors to sign their names o the petition paper. Miss Zhou, whose mobile phone was useable, gave her apartment sharers a phone call. Then she said to us: "If we had never protested against the previous leadership, we would never have had the opportunity to come to Yale. The leaders woul would have chosen some other people, as had been done before."
    I agreed no more. I had been ignored or neglected for so many years just because I had never made any attempts to bribe them or flatter them.
 
    Time passed quickly. It was almost 8. Miss Zhou gave her apartment mates a phone call and was assured that they had already got back.
    We four apartment mates went out together to see her off and pay them a visit. They had paid us a visit the second night we moved in and invited us to visit them as neighbors.
    The colleagues there were quite pleased to see us visit them, and expressed their sincere gratitude to Yingzi for getting them taxis to take them back to New Haven. "Without your help, we would not have been able to get back here now. God knows where we shall be staying for the night?" He Jia said with a smile, which made her  wrinkle at the corner of her eyes and in the cheeks.
    Miss Zuo brought bowls of noodles with green vegetable at the top onto the table from the kitchen. We moved into the sitting-room to make room for them to have supper.
    They brought out the glasses of orange juice from their dining room and put them in front of us again.
    But it was getting dark and one of us suggested going back. We did not want to invite danger, so we said good-bye even when they were having dinner.
   But soon after we came back to our apartment, and began doing what we felt like doing, Yingzi came out of her room and announced to each of us a bad news, "Zhou Juezhi just found out that she had lost her wallet."
   "Oh no. It couldn't have been. She must have made a mistake. Ask her to search her bag carefully and thoroughly," I said to Yingzi.
    "She said on the Wechat that she had done the search thoroughly and yet she just couldn't find it. She asked us to searchin our room and find out if it was left in our apartment. "
    Yingzi began the search. The other three also joinedin the search, but with no avail.
    "She has the credit card and 1600 dollars in the wallet."
    "That was about 10,000 yuan or so. A quite big amount of money for us," Doctor Zhang said to us all.
    "I did not know she had brought so much money here," I said surprisedly.
    "She was to visit her younger brother after the study. It was reasonable for her to take so much money."
    "If someone had picked up the credit card and used it, that would be a great financial loss," I said to my mates. "Ask her to call her bank to suspend the use of the credit card," I suggested.
    I went to the wechat and read Xiaoye's suggestion--"put in a different number three times and the card use will be suspended automatically, so other people who have picked up the money couldn'y use her credit card to make purchases."
    Immediately, there came a reply, "we called the bank to suspend the use of the credit card already."
    Soon Yingzi came to us again from her room to inform that Zhou was on the way to our apartment with Monitor Ma, to make sure her wallet was in our apartment.
    I did not think so. I suggested, "she might have lost it in the Taxi or in the street. If she had lost it in the street, it had been picked up by someone and  perhapsthere was no chance of getting it back. But if she had losted it in the taxi, the driver would return it to her. the back driver is a good guy."
    Soon, Zhou came and called outside our house. We went down to open the door. She came up stairs with Monitor Ma and set to searching in the sitting-room. "I had put my bag onto the sofa as soon as I entered your flat," She said anxiously.
    But the sofa was empty. Nothing remained.
    The sitting-room served as my temporary bedroom.
    "I began cooking as soon as I entered the the apartment,"  I said honestly.
    "If your wallet has been put into your bag, it should not have disappeared. All the four of us wouldn't have taken your wallet, " I explain. "And I didn't think it likely that a thief had slipped into our flat while we were busy with cooking or chatting in the diningroom. We saw to it that the two doors had been locked the moment we came upstairs.
    "I have not only the cash, the credit card put into the wallet, but also the passport," Miss Zhou explained, with anxiety written on her face.
     "It is true that you won't be allowed to get aboard a plane if you fail to show your passport," I said with anxiety.
    "You could get another one if you go to the Chinese consulate in New York and give them an electronic photo, that is not a problem." Ma explained.
     "Losing money doesn't matter, it is nothing compared with the security of your life. So long as you are safe, that's OK." Ma comforted her.
     I thought what Ma said was true. The loss of money was nothing compared with the safety of our lives.
    "If you do lose the money, just think that you have owed someone mmoney in yur previous life," I consoled her, from the Buddhist point of view, "and then you wouldn't feel so bad."
    "Let's get out to see outside again," Ma suggested.
    They two went down at once.
    I went down together to lock the door the moment they left the house.
    But when I came upstairs again, I couldn't concentrate on doing anything. I suggested the four of us going outside to help them find the wallet.
    But when we reached the ground floor and looked outside, we could not see Zhou and Ma. It was dim and it was impossible for us to see anything on the ground. I looked toward the way they two came from, and saw their backs nd their hurried steps. The sight of their backs and hurried steps touched my heart all of a sudden. I began to have favorable opinions about Ma. I began to feel that he was a real man, who came to the colleague's help when he was needed.
 
    We came uptairs.
    We all felt distressed and sorry for Zhou Juezhi.
    "Yingzi, you have the taxi driver's telephone number, call him again," I suggested.
     Yingzi found out the number and called him, but it was reminded too leave him a message instead.
     Yingzi said with helplessness.
     "Then leave him a mesage," I suggested again.
    She did.

    I set to thinking about possible ways to help Zhou Juezhi find her wallet, as I felt guilty. I should have been the one to collcet her 25 dollars and pay the money, so that she wouldn't have lost the wallet and the passport.
    "How about calling 911 and asking the local police for help?"
    Soon Yingzi spoke to the Group and made the suggestion.
    And she got the reply. "They have already called 911 and reported the loss to the police.
     "Read santras as soon as possible, Liying," Yongling suggetsed.
     I took out the Buddhist snatras book and began to read Lengyan Santras three times, and prayed to the Buddhas in the universe to help Zhou find her wallet.
     I felt my reading was good. While I was reading, Amanda(Yi Ming) came to check about the charging of mobile batteries. She saw me read santras for Zhou, and pray to Buddhas.
     In less than five minutes, Yingzi came ut from her room to inform that the Wechat message said the police had informed them that the police had told them they had found the wallet.
     We felt relieved and checked the message personally.
     I saw Feng Tong make a remark, "Thank God."
     Qiu Xiangling used pictures of hands together, palms against each other, to show her gratitude.
     Yi Ming replied, "Teacher Fu had just read Buddhist santras for her. "
     Whether it was God or Buddhas who had helped with the finding, it was not important, the important thing was the problem was solved.
     Then Miss Qiu sent a new message that sent us all gettinganxious again, "Teacher Xia hasn't come back from her walking, and she was alone".
     We had been warned by the teacher and by the subtenant's friend Vincet, a college junior, that it was unsafe to walk alone, let alone a woman.
     Our teacher commented to Yingzi when we told her about our living in Mansfield street, "You are very brave."
     Even at the outlet, a white man in his late fifties or early sixties warned us repeatedly that New Haven was not safe. It was a good place to study and to work, but not a place to live.
       
     At about 11:30, Xia sent a message that relieved us all of anxiety about her safety, "What is there to be worried about my safety? I went to see fireworks this evening. Two shuttle buses had been waitingfor us and only I went there. You missed the wonderful fireworks."
     We felt glad that she was safe and sound, and a bit unhappy about her failure to realize how anxious we became about her safety, and quite angry about her doing anything alone and without informing anyone of us.
     But after that, we could go to sleep with utter relief.
     We all went to sleep soon.
     In the morning, while we were having breakfast, Doctor Zhang said with a smile, "Zhou Juezhi experienced extreme sorrow and great happiness in a single day."
     Yi Ming replied immediately, "What is funny about the whole thing is that the  bag Teacher Fu had lost and found was big but had nothing inside, whereas Teacher Zhou's bag was small but has many things within."
    Both she and I were amused at the idea. We had a good laugh. It revealed some truth about life. We can not judge anything by their physical appearance. Big bags do not necessarily contain things of value, while small bag may contain things of great value. In out real life, we cn not judge a person's value by their massive build, and vise versa is true.
    I had a look at the Wechat, and saw Xiaoye's comment about last night's experience. "We have undergone great shocks and anxieties in a single night. What relieves us all is that the outcome is not bad."

    Then we read a message sent to the wechat Yale group, "We have benefitted from the bad luck(因祸得福). We told them about the auction and our rental duration, and the local police have got in touch with the daughter of the landlady, and she promised to come back tomorrow to solve this auction problem."
 
    Zhou and the other four people have paid all the rentals and even security fees which was 1200 dollars, the same amount as the monthly payment of the apartment, adding up to 2400 dollars, which was a big sum indeed. They moved into the flat on July 1st, and were quite satisfied with the living conditions there.     We moved into our apartment on the second of July, after much mental struggle. But on July the 3rd, Zhou told me that their apartment was to be sold at an auction on August 2nd. The notification was hung on the ground-floor entrance doorknob of the apartment. Zhou was thrown into great anxiety. She was afraid that they might have been cheated.
   
    The local police' interference put her heart at rest and put the other four's heart at rest, too.

Postscript:
    When we met Siggy our teacher on Monday morning, she asked how the weekend was going. I told her what had happened to Zhou's wallet, including the pleasant outcome of her wallet.Siggy immediately said: "I am proud of America."
    Before the beginningof the class, I chatted with Zhou in the classroomabout our great relief at the recovery of her wallet.
    "We all four thought you should have got a sound sleep that night."
    "I wasn't able to sleep well for two nights." Zhou said in a low voice.
     I could not understand what prevented her from getting a good sleep for two nights on the run and I spoke out my mind.
     She said to me: "You are not ther victim (the one who lost the wallet). You could never have understood the bad mood and anxiety I have undergone. For two days, I had been anxious that the police might have made a mistake and the wallet the person gave to them might not be mine. It might be someone else's. I was in such a bad mood that night, but I did not want to have all of you get anxious about me. So I had Sunny as my spokeswoman, to make announcements for me about the latest developments concerning my wallet."
    I was moved by her consideracy. If she told us that she did not get back her wallet, or was not sure if the wallet handed in to the police station was hers, we would also become anxious.

    At noon, when we met in the Classroom 301, I asked Zhou if she had  got her wallet, she said yes. I was curious whether her wallet ws dropped into the taxi told me that the taxi driver denied picking up her wallet and sent it to the Yale Police Station. She explaind in i or on to the street. She also told me that the taxi driver was very unhappy about our reporting her loss to the police. The police questioned him about the wallet. So when our colleagues called him about renting his taxi to the Clinton Outlets  a second time, he rejected it without much thinking. He had had enough of us, he did not want to have anything to do with us.
   We do not want things to go like this. He is a nice guy, just as he has repeatedly assured us of it.