Material things decide... how you eat shrimp.
On the weekend, Bơ came over to play with Boons and Nắng. The three of them were having so much fun that I asked Bơ's mom if she could stay for dinner with us.
That day we had shrimp with salted egg sauce. I fried the shrimp until they were super crispy, so you could eat the shells too, but peeling them probably still tasted better.
Dad was busy on the phone, so I peeled a shrimp for him. Bơ saw this and jumped right in:
— Auntie, can you peel a shrimp for me? I'll eat a spoonful of rice for you.
When I was scooping rice, I didn't want to leave just a little bit in the pot, so I tried to get it all out. That meant my bowl was piled high. I offered some to everyone, but nobody wanted any more.
Hearing Bơ's offer, I was thinking, This kid really knows how to bargain, when Nắng spoke up, very firmly:
— Auntie, peel one for me too. I'll pay you five HeoCoins.
Nắng currently has 245 HeoCoins.
I looked at Nắng and couldn't help but think:
Wow, that's what being rich is like. Decisions come easy.
Then I turned to Boons. He was just starting to bite into the head of a big shrimp.
Boons has 85 HeoCoins, and he still owes Dad 200 coins for breaking the laptop cord and having to help buy a new one.
I asked:
— What about you, Boons?
Boons calmly replied:
— I can eat the shell too. The shell has lots of calcium.
I almost choked on my water from laughing.
One dinner table, three kids, three economic strategies:
The one with an opportunity trades labor for a spoonful of rice.
The rich one is happy to pay for the service.
And the one in debt... just adjusts his needs and gets some extra calcium.
Turns out, material things really do shape your thinking.
Class divisions are real—at least at our family's salted egg shrimp table.
