In the short story “Flame,” Nimei asks her husband, Jiang Bing, to buy and cook fish for Director Liao who is in the hospital. In China, fish represents and is considered to bring wealth and prosperity. This came to be because the Chinese word for fish is “魚 yú” which also means “abundance” or “affluence” (裕). Sometimes certain Chinese restaurants or other Chinese buildings and organizations would have something like a koi pond in them, usually at the entrance.
In the short story, Nimei was forced to marry Jiang Bing because of the money and even though she was in love with someone else. Throughout the story, you can see the loyalty and respect Jiang Bing has for Nimei based on how he treats their children so well and is willing to do what Nimei asks of him to do, like buying and cooking the fish for Directer Liao. Nimei on the other hand does not show the loyalty or respect to Jiang Bing. She not only doesn’t truthfully tell Jiang Bing about the whole meeting up with Hsu Peng situation, but she even goes behind his back and convinces Director Liao to promote Jiang Bing just to make her and her family seem more respectable and in a strong and properous position for when Hsu Peng visits.