The Water Bill Collector

At the end of last month I was sitting in the apartment and the door bell rang. I am thinking, I really do not know anybody, I am not expecting anybody, who could this be? I opened the door and a lady in a shabby looking uniform is standing there and she has several half pieces of paper in her hand. She hands me one and says something in Chinese. I turn my palms up and do the shoulder shrug thing. But I have a backup plan. I have an OP and she is on speed dial. (more about the OP, the Ayi and the driver later) I call my OP and explain to her what has happened so far and then I hand the phone over to the Chinese women. After several minutes of conversation I receive the phone back and my OP tells me this. The women is from the water department and is here to collect the unpaid balance from an outstanding water bill. I do the palms up shoulder shrug thing, not my problem, I just moved in 2 weeks ago. Then I am thinking, what if they turn off the water? This could drag out for who knows when. I motion to the lady asking how much and she points to a number at the bottom of the paper. Oh, I said, I can do that. Why escalate this into an international crisis. So I reached in my pocket and pulled out 2.80 yaun. She marked the bill paid, I think, handed me copy and off she went. That’s right folks 2.80 yaun or about .44 cents.