Like the Father, Like the Son

In this article I am going to continue to talk on my friend and his father. By recalling, it comes to me that they have many aspects in common, which interest and impress me. Here I’ll try to narrate them down as precisely as I could.

The first thing they are in common is the interest in space and number. You may

remember earlier on I said that my friend, with the help of his family, bought an apartment in Shanghai. So this time one of the reasons my friend’s father came here is for the sake of the apartment.

I remember long before we moved into the apartment, my friend had told me all about the house, such as how long, how wide, and how high it is. For helping me pick out the exact shape of the apartment, he actually drew it to me by means of

a computer software. Moreover, he even held out a tapeline, and by its assistance he actually showed me the exact length, width, and height of the apartment.

While I was still bewildered by his enthusiasm, his father came. Do you know the

first thing his father did after he stepped into our apartment? “Son, fetch me

a tapeline.” Then, the father and the son, gathering together, measured and comment on and valued the apartment, while I was left alone and puzzling about how

come number captivated them so much.

The second thing I find they are alike is their enthusiasm about food. Long before we came to so close as we are now, I found my friend drew much attention to diet, and cooking stuff. He would say KFC is no good, fried food is no good, and

all fast-food is junk food, and so on and so forth.

To say the truth, at the beginning I was quite pissed off by him, as he always criticized my food, and meantime forced me to drink milk daily, or had fishonce a week. But later on as I found I felt better than before, I came to understand that his wont of paying heed to diet was necessary.

Now talk back to his father. I mentioned that day when his father came in, he carried a big handbag under his arm. Later on as it turned out there was mostly all food in it. Leek, wild bamboo shoot, lettuce, green onions, and cherry!

He said that leek, lettuce, green onions, and cherry were all picked up from the

vegetable yard at home without being splashed insecticide. And the wild bamboo

shoot was newly picked out from the hill behind his house. It’s grown naturally, hence should be more nutritious than home-made ones. So with all that I have said, you must have easily pictured out how come my friend had the wont of taking notice of nutrition stuff, right?

The third thing that they are similar to each other is the personality. They all

belong to the stubborn type. By saying stubborn here, I don’t mean it’s not nice. Rather, somewhat, it seems lovely and valuable. Let me name an example here

to better show you how precious it may look.

Last year, one day I, with him, went to a bookstore. After we picked up several

books in it and paid them at the cashier’s. The cashier took the some two hundred RMB and returned my friend a receipt. At this point, my friend didn’t agree

and insisted that the cashier should return him an invoice rather than a receipt

. They had words for a while and I felt quite embarrassed, for others around were staring at us.

I didn’t understand how my friend was so fussy about it. A receipt or an invoice, what matters? Only later on as my friend came out with his invoice and explained to me did I come to know that the fault should be at the bookstore. The bookstore was reluctant to give an invoice but a receipt is that they may want to escape from paying taxes.

So now you can understand how come my friend was insistent that time. He didn’t

want to encourage the bad behaviors to happen, like taxes escaping, if he can’

t prohibit it. “I just do my obligation as far as I could.” He said. That time

I thought he was too serious about it, but now, I think, on things like this, there never can be too serious.

So here come back to his father again. Though he didn’t stay here for a long time, and I had no time to dig out if he was the same stubborn as my friend, from

his words, I could easily see that he was also a man of principle. He holds and

defends for it, when he feels something is right.

The last thing that they are in common is their care for other people. My friend

cares for his friends, always. I still remember that every time how happy he felt and how ready he was to offer help when his friends came to him. Once he said

with a sigh that people nowadays were too busy to work on friendship, that calling each other became rare, let alone gathering.

But still, he was happy to be of help whenever and whoever of his friends needed

him. Earlier this year, as the house price in Shanghai was hiked day by day, he

decided to buy one. As he had a tight budget then, he had to borrow some money

from his friends. Surprisingly, almost every friend he called agreed to help. Later one, my friend said he was moved by his friends. But maybe he didn’t notice

that it was partly due to his care for others that made all this happen.

So did his father. My friend always told me that what a good reputation his father held in the neighborhood. In fact even my friend didn’t tell me all this, I

could sense it the moment when I met him. He had an air of geniality and kindness. When he said something, he meant it. So, who, won’t be willing to be with him, actually?

Well, this is all I have got to say. A lengthy story, isn’t it? Hope it won’t

bore you too much.:-)

Caroline