My uncle is a successful businessman. One day, he invited me to have a dinner with one of his clients (客户) to discuss about future cooperation between them, during which he received a call. Then to everyone’s shock, he asked the waiter to check out and put an end to the trade with the client. I felt very confused. After all, it was a deal of one billion. When we got home together, he solved my doubt and told me a story about an expensive “school fee” he had paid for his dishonesty.

It was 15 years ago when he decided to return to his homeland to start a company after having got a PhD degree. Before leaving the country where he had studied for 5 years, he bought himself a Rolex watch with the savings made through years of part-time jobs and the scholarships he had got. At the airport, as was often the case, he had to accept the custom check. Of course, the watch on his wrist was on the list of things to be checked. Remembering that carrying things like this should pay some tax and worried about paying for his watch, he lied to the custom officer, “My watch is only a worthless fake (假货).”

“OK. I see.” said the custom officer and at the same time, in the presence of my uncle, he began to hit the watch heavily. “No!” Before my uncle woke up from his “smart”, the watch which cost nearly ￥100,000 had changed into pieces. “Why?” Shocked and not knowing the reason, my uncle was taken to the office for further examination.

Without finding any suspicious items, the officer let him go but warned, “Never use or carry the fake again, or you will be fined according to the law.”

My uncle continued, “Now, you see, my secretary called me saying the client used the fake to trade with X company one month ago. Such a dishonest man doesn’t have the qualification to cooperate with me.”

When I was four, I once heard my mother saying, “I’d give anything to have a few more hours in the day.” And I said, “Why don’t we buy a bigger clock?”

If time worked that way, I could have used an extra-big clock last week!

Last Monday, our teacher asked my classmate, Noah, and me to make an art project showing how plants eat. He said that we had to hand it in on Wednesday.

“I can’t believe we only have two nights to finish it,” Noah said with a sigh. “I have no idea how I’ll get ours done.”

I didn’t say anything because I thought two nights were more than enough. In fact, I was so confident that I didn’t work on the project at all on Monday night. I planned to start the minute I got home from my baseball practice on Tuesday.

But I forgot that the baseball practice would run later than usual because it was the day of Baseball Buddies, which happens every month, and it’s a chance for us older students to practise baseball with the younger kids. The second I got home, I threw the tools onto the kitchen table, took out my “How Plants Eat“ paper, and started to work. But just then, the telephone rang.

It was my friend Lily, who said her grandmother had just made cookies and wanted to know if I’d come help decorate them. I love decorating cookies, and I love her grandmother’s famous cookies that only happen once a year!

I had no choice. I had to go. Lily and I put all the star cookies with red jam filling in one group, and all the snowflakes with white cream-cheese filling in another. How times flew! When I finally got home, it was already 7 o’clock in the evening. I planned to work on my project right after we ate dinner. But just as I was about to start, Dad said, “It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight.”

I looked at Dad and wanted to protest.

Of course, we got a big ”F" for the project.

Many years ago, there lived a wealthy man in a big city who wanted to do something good. Raised in a small village, he made up his mind to help the people in his town. But before doing so, he wanted to do an experiment to find out who had the qualification for his help. So secretly he put a very large stone in the middle of the main road which led to the town. Then he stood behind a tree waiting and watching.

Several minutes later, an old man came along with his cow, “Who put the stone in the center of the road?” said the old man, but he didn’t try to move the stone away. He passed around the stone with some difficulties and continued on his way. Another man came along and did the same thing; then another came, and another. All of them complained about the stone in the center of the road but nobody tried to move it. Though the rich man was a little disappointed with what he had seen, he still chose to wait longer. In his heart, he wouldn’t like to believe that no one would do something with the stone. Therefore, he went on waiting and watching.

Later in the afternoon, a young man came along. He saw the stone and said, “It will be dark at night. Some people who will come along later in the dark are more likely to fall over the stone and get hurt.” Then the young man began to move the stone. Obviously, it was a big and heavy stone. In spite of this, he pushed and pulled and tried everything he could to move it out of the road. Finally, his hard work paid off. But to his surprise, under the stone, he found a bag full of money, along with a piece of paper reading, “This money is for the person who moves the stone from the road. The person deserves my help.”

The young man was surprised to see the money.

Following the young man, the rich man came into a house.