His Opinion Isn’t Worth Even 1 RMB

I was a student in an international school in China when I was in grade seven. At the end of the school year, our school organized a field trip for us. This field trip was a week long, and Dragonfly, a third party that organizes outdoor experiential programs for children, was in charge of us during the trip.

For one part of the trip, we went to a place where we learned to paint Chinese fans and could buy some as souvenirs. I bought a 100-RMB fan that was almost one meter long and used for decoration. As a twelve-year-old child with not a lot of pocket money, this was a lot and a big gift for my mother.

During the trip, I lived with two of my best friends. The trip was all good and fun until the last day when we were moving out of our hotel rooms. I packed quickly and went into the lobby with some of my classmates. I noticed a member of Dragonfly, a man around twenty years old, was shouting.

Dragonfly Employee: “If you stayed in [my hotel room number], come over here!”

Me: *Walking over* “I stayed in that room.”

Dragonfly Employee: “There were bloodstains on the sheets on one of the beds. Give me 10 RMB.”

I realized that one of my friends probably had her period. Naive me just gave him the money without saying or asking anything. Naive me also thought the hotel would need to buy new sheets, so 10 RMB would not be enough, and combined with the fact he seemed to be finding all three of us, I thought he wanted 10 RMB from each of the three of us for a total of 30 RMB. 

Later, I saw one of my friends coming down to the lobby. I went up to the same employee.

Me: “My roommate is over there.”

Dragonfly Employee: *In a mocking tone* “Ten RMB is a really small amount. If it means so much to you, you should just tell your friend yourself. It’s not my job to deal with it.”

Then, he walked away before I could say anything. I was a shy person at that time and was shocked by what had happened. I realized that he just needed 10 RMB and probably thought I wanted him to ask my friend to reimburse me for the money.

If it had just ended there, it wouldn’t have been that bad.

Because the fan I’d bought earlier was so big and hard to carry, another Dragonfly employee had suggested that I leave it on a table in the lobby. The only problem was that another girl had also bought a large fan with the same packaging as mine and had also placed it on the same table later on. So, when I went to retrieve my fan, our fans were mixed up.

And guess who came to help us? The same employee who had asked me for 10 RMB. We told him the situation, and he decided we should open one of the packages to determine whose fan it was, put it back, and then label the two fans. We both agreed. By chance, the one he opened was mine.

And guess what he wrote as a label on the fan without asking me? “10 RMB”. So, now, my 100-RMB present had a label in ugly writing that said, “10 RMB” — very ideal for gifting purposes.

He asked the other girl what her name was, she told him, and he wrote her name on her fan’s packaging with much more care.

I was very upset, but at the same time, I was too shy and shocked to speak up for myself.

Later, as I was lining up to enter the bus, I looked back toward the hotel and saw the same employee coming up to me.

Dragonfly Employee: *Mockingly, with a smug smile* “Hey, 10 RMB. You know, 10 RMB is a very small amount. You shouldn’t care about it as much as you do.”

He continued to address me by the nickname “10 RMB”. I was holding back tears by then.

He finally left as I got onto the bus, and I spent my trip home in tears. 

Thinking back, I’m less upset for myself and more mad that someone like him was allowed to have a job that deals with children. A simple, “I only needed 10 RMB,” would have been fine, but no, he choose to bully someone instead.