use to bid on taxis. Everyone uses it, and the highest bidder ends up getting the taxi.”
Peik Lin laughed. “Free-market enterprise at its best!”
A server entered the room and lifted the lid off the first course with a flourish. It was a heaping plate of tiny shrimp that glistened like pearls. “These are the famous Hangzhou freshwater shrimp flash fried in garlic. You don’t find them anywhere else on the planet. I’ve been craving this dish since we first talked about meeting up here,” Peik Lin said, scooping a generous portion onto Rachel’s plate.
Rachel tried a mouthful and smiled at her friend in surprise. “Wow…they’re sweet!
“Pretty amazing, right?”
“I haven’t had seafood this good since Paris,” Rachel said.
“I always say that only the French can compete with the Chinese when it comes to preparing seafood. I’m sure you guys ate your way through Paris.”
“Nick and I did, but food wasn’t really the focus for Colette and her friends. Remember how I used to accuse you of ‘irrational exuberance’ whenever Neiman Marcus invited you to a trunk show? Well, these girls went completely batshit insane in Paris! They hit the shops from morning till night, and we had three extra Range Rovers tailing us everywhere we went just to carry the shopping bags alone!”
Peik Lin smiled. “Sounds familiar. These PRCs* come to Singapore on crazy shopping sprees too. You know, for many of them, shopping on a massive scale is how they validate their success. It’s a way to make up for all the suffering their families had to endure in the past.”
“Look, I get it. I come from an immigrant family that’s done well, and I married a guy who’s well-off. But I feel that there’s a certain limit I would never go over when it comes to shopping,” Rachel said. “I mean, when you’re spending more money on a couture dress than it takes to vaccinate a thousand children against measles or provide clean water to an entire town, that’s just unconscionable.”
Peik Lin gave Rachel a thoughtful look. “Isn’t it all relative though? To someone living in a mud hut somewhere, isn’t the $200 you paid for those Rag & Bone jeans you’re wearing considered obscene? The woman buying that couture dress could argue it took a team of twelve seamstresses three months to create the garment, and they are all supporting their families by doing this. My mother wanted an exact re-creation on her bedroom ceiling of a Baroque fresco she saw at some palace in Germany. It cost her half a million dollars, but two artists from the Czech Republic worked on it every day for three months. One guy was able to buy and furnish a new house in Prague, while the other one sent his kid to Penn State. We all choose to spend our money in different ways, but at least we get to make that choice. Just think—twenty years ago, these girls you went to Paris with would only have two choices: Do you want your Mao jacket in shit brown or shit gray?”
Rachel laughed. “Okay, point taken, but I still wouldn’t spend that kind of money. Now I don’t think I can eat any of these braised meatballs. They’re reminding me too much of a steaming pile of Mao.”
After lunch, Rachel and Peik Lin decided to do some exploring around the resort, which was set on seventeen acres of landscaped grounds designed to resemble the gardens of an imperial summer palace from the Qing dynasty. As they meandered along the covered walkways, inhaling the fragrant cherry blossoms and admiring interconnected lily ponds, Rachel started to feel a little queasy. When they reached a garden filled with carved scholar’s rocks, she took a seat on one of the benches.
“Are you okay?” Peik Lin asked, noticing how pale Rachel suddenly looked.
“I’m going to head back to my room. I think it’s getting a little too humid for me.”
“You’re not used to this. This is paradise compared to Singapore this time of the year. Wanna cool down in that infinity pool by the lake?” Peik Lin suggested.
“I think I just need to lie down for a while.”
“Okay, let’s go back.”
“No, no, you should stay and enjoy the gardens,” Rachel insisted.
“Shall we meet for afternoon tea on the terrace around four?”
“That sounds perfect.”
Peik Lin lingered in the gardens a while longer, discovering a tranquil little grotto that sheltered a large stone carving of a very fat laughing Buddha. She decided to burn a few of the joss