Apartment: Mingmei & Donna
Mingmei's face brightened instantly when Donna stated that she'd love to learn her languages. She had just met the best person in the world in Mingmei's opinion, something of which she didn't give out too easily, but Donna had definitely won Mingmei's respect just for her interest. "Oh, wonderful! I will happily teach you whatever you want to learn from them," she boasted lightly. "And Cantonese...mmm...it's not really a dialect. It's a completely different language. In Mandarin, there are five tones, but in Cantonese, there are nine with the neutral tone. I guess it's similar because we use the same writing mostly for both, but then there's traditional characters that are more widely recognized by Cantonese speakers and non-traditional characters that most people recognize as Mandarin when you see it written."
She knew it was confusing and complicated, but that was the best explanation that she had for the situation. "And no, don't apologize! If I don't want to answer, I won't," Mingmei assured her gently. "It's just...different cultures." She looked puzzled a moment, her brow furrowing a little as she tried to figure out the best way to explain the situation to Donna. Here, they could say whatever they wanted and not worry about getting into trouble. But in China, things worked quite differently. They had to be careful what they said and who they said it to, even how things were said as well.
She continued with the prepping of the food, then was grateful when the other woman shared information about her family. Two brothers? Mingmei smiled at her description. "Oh, that's lovely. Two brothers is very lucky," Mingmei admitted. "I have one older brother named Anguo, but he's back home now with my parents, running our store. It's a good business, but we...well, we know he isn't happy there. He knows that he must care for our parents, though." It was hard to explain the concept of familial duty to someone from the West, even now, but Mingmei wondered if Donna would understand it. "And it's good to find a place to belong. I was there for a bit, but I didn't like it much. I lived near...Metropolis, that was the name of it, and then tried Gotham for a little bit."
She looked over at Donna with her question, then shrugged. "I'm not sure how it happened, really. I was just one day able to go home. I didn't have the journal any more. And yes, I remembered what had happened here. This place is really strange though so I don't think it's something we can really understand." She finished dicing the chicken as she spoke, then started to spoon the meat and vegetables into the little dough pouches she'd prepared. "You talked to the man in your dreams?" she probed, curious herself. This place was very weird, that much was a given fact.
"And I do think it's weird. Some of us remember things from before here, to be honest, I think." Mingmei frowned. "So it made it a little easier. I remembered before. We shared mind space with someone else. That was very weird. I thought I was mad, but I was also very honored at the same time by the person who I shared it with. I think maybe that's why some people just accept this weirdness for what it is, because it's less weird than before." If that made any sense!