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China Elevator Stories
should you stay With Your Girlfriend Or Listen To Your Parents?
A property agent in Shenzhen asks me for advice.
20/03/2013
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
The other day I get a message on QQ from the property agent who helped me find my flat in Shenzhen. I haven’t really been speaking to him lately, except for the occasional answer to the questions: “How are you?”, and “How’s work?”.
This time is different. After he asks me these common questions, he says: “May I ask you a question?”
I answer: “Sure, go ahead.”
“Imagine you’re a guy who falls in love head over heels with a girl. She has had a tumor that has been removed in a surgery. After dating her for one month, though, you get to know that her cancer is not gone and is spreading, and her doctor says she only has a very short time left to live. You really like this girl, but your parents and your whole family are against your relationship. They want you to leave her and go back to your hometown to go on a blind date with another woman. The girl you fell in love with tells you that you should go back and not worry about her. What would you do in this situation?”
I tell him: “I would stay with the girl. She must be very lonely in this situation and needs a person to stay with her.”
He says: “That’s also what her mother said. Thanks for your advice.”
“You’re welcome.”
What advice would you give?