I’ll never turn down a free lunch whether or not I deserve it.
The day before, our manager treated us to Taiwanese cuisine, KUAICHAO, a place known to put a fancy twist on the classic. On the set menu, there were crab tofu, boneless cold chicken, smoked cod, garlic sauce squash, BBQ pork ribs, and more. If I could speak for our five-person team, comprising the youngest among the company, a sit-down round table would always be appreciated, especially for being a switch from the parallel and intense work we do.
We were celebrating the team’s quick solution to an urgent risk assessment the final hours of the week. They handled the hedging strategies and margin loans to brace for if the currency’s value dropped steeper. Meanwhile, I came back fully rested, and stepped in to clean up P&L reports, yet got called in for some whipping, again.
Anyway, the big topic at lunch was the rom-com Double Happiness (2025). It brought both l and his gf to tears, though she wept out of sympathy (“awww 😅”). The protagonist’s dilemma¹ was eerily similar to what he’d expect to face in the (near) future. I’d always suspected he was a mama’s boy; not just cuz of 孝順, but out of genuine empathy for whatever his mother faced as a single mom. He even rewatched it with her, and later pressured his dad to do so too, despite the pretend reluctance in his tone. Asian men will ignore their emotions till the end of the day.
It reminded me of when I first watched Marriage Story (2019). It left me sobbing uncontrollably; the fight scenes brought back vivid memories of how my parents treated each other when I was still in elementary school. Back then, I’d also told Ma to check out the film, though I never asked how she felt about it. Thankfully, after all these years, my parents were able to cope with their differences and shed some ego.
Footnotes
- Neither parent wanted to see each other on their son’s wedding day, so the protagonist had to hold two separate ones to accommodate.