Although Brave Orchid, in her anger, threatens to kick Kingston out of the house, we are unsure if Kingston moves out immediately following the fight or later. However, while neither woman seems to win the argument, their relationship changes forever because each reveals closely held secrets. For example, when Kingston accuses Brave Orchid of always calling her ugly, Brave Orchid explains that the phrase is meant to protect Kingston, not harm her: "I didn't say you were ugly. . . . That's what we're supposed to say. That's what Chinese say. We like to say the opposite." Although Kingston does not fully understand that it is customary for Chinese parents to deny compliments paid to their children out of fear that vengeful gods might harm the children if the compliments are received vainly, she perceives that Brave Orchid is hurt by having to acknowledge her secret: "It seemed to hurt her to tell me that." She also discovers that Brave Orchid "cut" Kingston's frenum because Brave Orchid intended her daughter to "talk more, not less." And when Kingston accuses her mother of wanting to sell her as a slave, Brave Orchid, who argues that Kingston has misunderstand her all these years, retorts, "Who said we could sell you? We can't sell people. Can't you take a joke? You can't even tell a joke from real life."
Kingston's difficulty sorting what is factual in her life and what is imaginary continues even after she and Brave Orchid have their shouting match. For example, the phrase "Ho Chi Kuei" haunts her still, but she cannot ask anyone what this expression means: "I don't know any Chinese I can ask without getting myself scolded or teased, so I've been looking in books." However, she finds no definitive definition for the phrase, although she cynically remarks that one possible meaning is "dustpan-and-broom" — "a synonym for 'wife.'" Fearful of being ridiculed by Chinese people were she to ask them about Chinese customs she doesn't understand, Kingston searches for answers on her own but is unsuccessful. Consequently, she still cannot understand many of the things that Brave Orchid does — for example, placing drinks on the supper table for invisible ancestors. "I continue to sort out what's just my childhood, just my imagination, just my family, just the village, just movies, just living," she writes. "I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing. . . . I enjoy the simplicity."
