Waverly subtly insults Jing-mei during the dinner, mentioning her choice of hairdresser. Jing-mei retaliates by teasing Waverly about her firm's finances because the bill that Jing-mei submitted for her ad copy has not been paid. Waverly retorts that Jing-mei hasn't been paid because her work was not acceptable — a retort that reduces Jing-mei to tears. Auntie Lindo comes to Jing-mei's rescue, pleading with Waverly to let Jing-mei rewrite the material. Waverly ignores her. Jing-mei goes to wash the dishes; she is no longer angry at Waverly — she simply feels tired and foolish.
Later that night, after everyone has left, Jing-mei asks her mother why she did not eat her crab. Her mother tells her that it was already dead before she cooked it, and thus it was not edible. She cooked it merely because she thought that it might still be good and because she knew that only Jing-mei would pick it, because Jing-mei would never choose the "best quality." She sees this virtue as one of Jing-mei's best qualities. Then she gives to Jing-mei her "life's importance," the jade pendant necklace.
Note that the last section of this chapter is set in the present. Jing-mei is cooking dinner for her father, who has not been eating well since his wife's death. She hears the tenants upstairs and now understands her mother's former complaints. The tenant's cat appears at the window, and Jing-mei realizes that her mother did not poison it, after all.
