“I understand.”
“Prove it.”
Naomi looked at him.
“Would you like me to?”
“Yes.”
Victor glanced around the dining room. Several people were now watching.
“I'll make you a deal.”
Naomi waited.
“If you can speak one complete sentence in Mandarin, I'll give you fifty thousand dollars.”
Henry Lin's expression changed.
Victor continued.
“Not three memorized words. Not something from a language app. One complete sentence.”
Naomi raised an eyebrow.
“Fifty thousand?”
Victor smiled.
“You heard me.”
“That is a lot of money for one sentence.”
“I have a lot of money.”
He said it with pride.
As though money itself were a credential.
Naomi looked at Henry.
Then she looked back at Victor.
“Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
Victor tapped the table.
“Actually, let's make it one hundred thousand.”
A murmur moved through the restaurant.
Someone near the bar whispered, “No way.”
Victor leaned back.
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
Naomi's heart beat faster.
One hundred thousand could change her life.
It could pay the medical debt remaining from her father's treatment. It could repair the roof of the little house where he lived. It could fund her graduate studies. It could give her enough freedom to stop working double shifts.