Chapter 12: A kind of irony

The Veda Community is a small community in the northwest corner of the Brighton Fenway district, close to the Charles River. Across the river is the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After Zhou Ming and the others accompanied Huang Yi to register with the council, they immediately rushed here, because according to the unspoken rules of the campaign, they also needed to submit a sufficient number of voter signatures to the election committee, otherwise they would likely not pass the primary election.

'The Veda community is a Fenway neighbourhood with a high proportion of Chinese-American residents. Previously, many of our insurance company's clients came from this community. When Ye Ning and Huang Yi and I visited here before, many Chinese-Americans also expressed their support for the election, which is why I decided to set our constituency here. Today, let's split up and go get voter signatures, and try to get things done within the day.'

Zhou Ming said to his classmates, and at the same time took out the signature forms he had received from the election committee and distributed them to each of his classmates. Finally, with a wave of his hand, all the students in the finance class left one by one to get signatures according to the tasks assigned in advance.

As he watched his classmates leave one by one full of energy, Zhou Ming also smiled and said to Ye Ning and Huang Yi, 'Since the students have all gone to work, we can't just sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Let's go and check out our area as well.'

Ye Ning and Huang Yi both nodded in agreement, while lawyer Alan looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. Zhou Ming saw this and said, 'Lawyer Alan, I know what you want to say. I can't say you're wrong, but there are some things that you can only know after doing them yourself. Otherwise, if you can decide everything just by thinking about it, I think there would be a lot less fun in the world, wouldn't there?'

Alan sighed, 'Mr. Zhou Ming is indeed a great businessman, and his way of thinking is indeed different from ordinary people.'

Zhou Ming took Ye Ning and the others to District 1 North, which was the area divided by Zhou Ming. This area was full of high-end communities, with many single-family villas, and it was also the area with the most diverse distribution of residents.

'Teacher, when Xiaoyun and I came here before to get a feel for the situation, we knew that most Chinese people lived on the east side,'

Ye Ning took out a map of the Weida community and introduced it to Zhou Ming. Thanks to Ye Ning's introduction, Zhou Ming had no doubt in choosing his target.

Zhou Ming and the others walked eastward and saw a few young Chinese people playing skateboarding by the roadside. Zhou Ming took the initiative to approach and ask, 'Hello, we are from the Wharton Campaign Foundation. We are currently collecting voter signatures for our own Chinese councilor's campaign. Can you help?'

Hearing Zhou Ming's words, these young people's eyes immediately lit up: 'Our Chinese councilor? This is really cool, of course we want to support it, where do you want us to go to sign?'

'We have a special signature form, just write your name and social security number on it,' Ye Ning explained with a smile to the young people. The social security number Ye Ning was referring to was actually the social security number, as the United States does not have a household registration system and there is no such thing as an ID card, so generally the driver's license and social security number prevail.

As Ye Ning was speaking, she took out the form that had been distributed uniformly by the election committee. However, before that, Allen asked one more question: 'How old are you this year, are you at least 18 years old?'

Facing Allen's question, the young people looked at each other and shook their heads, saying, 'I'm sorry, we're only sixteen years old this year. Can't we help you even if we're sixteen?'

'I'm sorry, but you can't. The constitution stipulates that you must be at least eighteen years old,' said Allen.

'I see. That's a pity. I wanted to vote in an election, and I hoped that we would have our own Chinese American representative!' The young people were very disappointed.

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and then stepped forward and said, 'Actually, you don't need to be discouraged, because although you can't, your parents are eligible. If you really want to support us and see our own Chinese American council members, you can take us to your parents, okay? I think it's the weekend today, so your parents should be home, right?'

The young people suddenly realised: 'Yes, we can't, but our parents can. They're all at home right now, and I'll take you to them.'

They then led Zhou Ming and the others towards the residential area. Huang Yi then said to Alan, 'Alan, it seems you were wrong this time. Our compatriots are very supportive of the election.'

In response, Alan just laughed unnecessarily, 'I don't want to curse you, but... I hope so.'

A few minutes later, Zhou Ming and the others followed these young people to the front of a small three-story unit. They told Zhou Ming that their home was here, and they asked Zhou Ming to wait for a moment at the door, and then they went in to find their parents. A few middle-aged women came out in a short while.

These should be their mothers, but why did only they come out and the young people didn't?

This doubt made Zhou Ming subconsciously frown, and he had an ominous feeling in his heart. But no matter what, their parents came out, so let's get things done first.

Zhou Ming thought this in his heart, and he also smiled and walked up, but before he could say anything, the middle-aged women there spoke up and drove the people away: 'I know what kind of campaign you are running for. Go away, go away, we are not interested in the campaign, go promote elsewhere, and don't come looking for our children again, otherwise we will definitely call the police!'

They waved their hands as they spoke, looking very impatient, which surprised Zhou Ming and the others.

'A few sisters, I think you've misunderstood something. We're from the Wharton Campaign Foundation. We're here to collect voter signatures for our own Chinese councilor's election. Or maybe you can listen to our political guidelines first...'

Zhou Ming tried to explain, but was mercilessly interrupted: 'I know what kind of election you're running for. There's no misunderstanding. We don't care about your political guidelines or policies. We're just not interested in participating in any elections. If you're looking for signatures from any council members or voters, please go somewhere else and find someone else.'

'Why is that?' Ye Ning said in surprise. 'A few sisters, is it not good to have our own Chinese council member in the Vidda community?'

'What's so good about it?' the other person quickly retorted. 'Do you think if you become a councilor we won't have to pay taxes anymore, and you can pay me $10,000 a month? If not, why would I bother? I have time to vote for you, and I might as well go out and earn some more money. Go away, don't bother us, and if you don't go, we'll really call the police!'

A few middle-aged women waved impatiently to get rid of the people, and one even came forward to push Zhou Ming, who immediately put his arms in front of his body.

The woman pushed ** hard, but she didn't push **, and she even took a few steps back, almost falling on her butt. She immediately yelled, 'Oh! You dare to hit someone, is that right? Then you come and hit me, hit me here, I'll see what you're capable of and I'll know you bully women.'

The woman yelled and rushed to **'s face. Faced with such a shrew, **, even if he were reborn as Zhao Yun, would be helpless. Zhou Ming sighed, stepped forward, pulled ** away, and then said, 'I'm sorry for the disturbance. We just want to advertise. Since you're not interested in knowing, we'll take our leave. Goodbye.'

After saying this, Zhou Ming led Ye Ning and the others away, but the middle-aged women did not intend to let them go so easily and continued to chatter behind their backs.

'Who are these people? The community should really be stricter and not allow outsiders in. What if they do something bad to our children? What's the point of running for election? They don't look like good people to me. I have to warn my children not to talk to these strangers...'

Ye Ning felt very aggrieved when she heard the nagging behind her back. After leaving, she complained, 'Teacher, how can they say such things about us? We clearly just came in to promote the campaign, and we don't have any malicious intent. In fact, if we were elected, it would even bring them great political benefits. But why won't they listen to our explanations?'

Zhou Ming shook his head: 'Maybe they're just afraid of trouble, or maybe we're not approaching them in the right way. Huang Yi, what do you think?'

Huang Yi was a little embarrassed by the question thrown at him by Zhou Ming: 'I think it's because women's political enthusiasm is not high enough, or maybe it's just our bad luck. Maybe the result will be different if we go to the next unit?'

'Huang Yi is right. Since we're here, we should always take a look around and not give up hope just because we hit a wall,'

Zhou Ming said this, and then led Ye Ning and the others to the next unit, but the result was exactly the same as the first one. Every time Zhou Ming knocked on the door, politely introducing their campaign foundation, the other party always waved impatiently to get rid of them.

I'm sorry, we don't want to participate in the campaign... We haven't registered to vote yet, can I support you after I register as a voter one day... I'm sorry, I'm still cooking, can you leave the materials and I'll decide after reading them...

These were the answers that Zhou Ming received. In the end, Ye Ning couldn't take it anymore: 'Teacher, why are they all like this? We have visited dozens of households in the past three hours, but we only have four valid signatures. Is there something wrong with the area we chose?'

Zhou Ming shook his head helplessly as he held the almost blank voter signature form in his hand. He glanced down at the time and said, 'It's hard to say. Maybe what Lawyer Allen said about the Chinese not being politically enthusiastic is true. Now it's almost time for us to gather, let's go to the door and wait and see how the other groups are doing.'

Ye Ning, Huang Yi, and Allen had no objections to this, and they quickly returned to the door. However, when they arrived, they found that the other groups had already returned and were waiting.

'Class leader, you're back so early? Things aren't going well for us. Everyone's political enthusiasm is too low. I wonder how things are going for you?'

Ye Ning approached with great expectations, but what awaited her was Chen Shu's disappointing answer. He said, 'We're in the same situation as you. We visited a total of 60 households in the past three hours, but only got six valid voter signatures.'

'How can this be? What about the others?' Ye Ning asked again.

But the answers from the others were also very disappointing, all in single digits, which was far from the 120 valid voter signatures.

At this time, Li Yang returned with his group and reported his situation: 'Teacher, I'm sorry, I've only got 20 valid signatures, but for some reason, our Chinese compatriots don't seem to be very politically enthusiastic. On the contrary, there are 18 British and Latino Americans who volunteered to sign after hearing about our political policies.'

'It's ironic that the Chinese don't support their own when running for office, but other people do,' said Zhou Ming helplessly.