Mr. Wu's Imaginary Career

Sun Mei and Mr. Wu spent half an hour adding details to this ridiculous imaginary book. She tried to convince him that he really had a wild imagination and maybe should actually give writing romance a try.

Mr. Wu resisted. "Who would read a romance written by a male author?"

"Trust me, a lot of women would. But if you think that's a problem, we could fix it by giving you a female pseudonym."

"So I would basically be a ghost writer."

"What is a ghost writer?"

"Someone who writes books for other people but never takes credit for them. Famous people usually hire ghost writers to write their autobiographies."

"Well, you would technically be writing for yourself. You just wouldn't have to be anxious about whether you succeeded or not. If the book failed, no one would know that it was yours."

"If the book failed? I thought that you believed in me," Mr. Wu said with a pout.

"Whole-heartedly." Sun Mei reassured him. "Your book would become a bestseller. I just thought you were the kind of person who would want success sans the glory."

Mr. Wu raised his eyebrows. "I want glory! Glory is not beneath me."

"What if you became so famous that the publishing company wanted to put you on every book cover for marketing purposes?" Sun Mei asked.

"You make a good point. I can live without glory."

"Dinner is ready, everyone!" Linda shouted merrily as she and Vivian carried the last few serving platters to the dining table.

Everyone quickly gathered around the table and sat down. Linda made sure to sit as far away from Mr. Wu as possible to avoid any more questions about the book she had supposedly read.

However, it was her husband who had some questions this time.

"How did you two meet?" asked Paul as everyone started helping themselves to the food.

Sun Mei and Mr. Wu looked at each other uncertainly.

"Maybe we should have spent more time discussing this ridiculous plan instead of talking about a hypothetical book," Sun Mei thought regretfully.

Mr. Wu shot her a reassuring look and took the lead.

"I met Sun Mei during my trip to Beijing last year. One of my cousins was getting married."

"She was a guest at the wedding?" Linda said with shiny eyes.

"Yes, that's exactly what I said," replied Mr. Wu.

"That is so romantic!"

"I guess it is," Mr. Wu said uncertainly.

"Sun Mei what did you think when you first met him?" one of Vivian's daughters asked with a dreamy expression.

"That his Chinese was really bad," Sun Mei said honestly.

"Hey!" Mr. Wu protested.

"Sorry, Mr. Wu, but it's true."

Linda frowned. "Wait, why do you call him Mr. Wu?"

Sun Mei paused momentarily. "Because I like teasing him. This was how he introduced himself when we met."

"I remember saying that my name was Charles Wu."

"I like to remember things differently."

"That's what Lily does all the time."

Everyone froze when Mr. Wu said this.

As soon as he realized his mistake, he added solemnly, "I mean, she used to do that all the time."

"Why aren't you eating?" Vivian asked loudly. "I went to a lot of trouble to prepare this food. You better start gorging yourselves!"