After a Chinese New Year's dinner, Jing-mei's mother gave her a jade pendant which she said was her "life's importance." At first, Jing-mei did not like the pendant; it seemed too big and ornate. After her mother's death, however, the pendant will begin to assume great importance to her — even though she does not really understand the meaning that her mother assigned to it. Later, Jing-mei will notice other Chinese wearing similar pendants and will ask one of them what the pendant signifies. He won't know either.
Jing-mei had helped her mother shop for the crabs that she served at the New Year's dinner. That day, her mother was annoyed about the tenants living in the second-floor apartment of a six-unit building that she owns. She was especially bothered by their cat, which Jing-mei and the tenants suspect that she poisoned. Jing-mei listened patiently to her mother as she poked the crabs to find the liveliest ones. As she was spearing the live crabs from the tank, one of them lost a limb. Mrs. Woo refused to accept it because a maimed crab is bad luck for the New Year. After a lengthy discussion, the fishmonger threw it in for free. When they return home, Jing-mei watches her mother cook, but she leaves the room when Mrs. Woo begins to boil the crabs; she cannot bear to see them die.
There are eleven people at the New Year's celebration. Mrs. Woo hadn't counted Waverly's daughter, Shoshana, and so she purchased only ten whole crabs. When she sees the extra person, she decides to cook the eleventh crab, the one missing a limb. At dinner, Waverly takes the best crab for her child, and Mrs. Woo ends up with the maimed one, which she doesn't eat.
