The Rent Collector: Chapter Fourteen Summary & Analysis

Sang Ly finds an instructional pamphlet called Sy Mao’s Advice for Growing Rice. Someone has handwritten “and children” alongside the pamphlet’s title. Sang Ly is delighted as to how two simple words can change the instruction’s meaning from agricultural advice to child-rearing wisdom, and she shares it with Lena, who also marvels at it. When Sang Ly shows Sopeap her discovery, Sopeap tells her that words are both more valuable than gold and powerful enough to start and end wars, but one should be careful with them since they can alternately pull one up or hold them down.

That evening, Sang Ly tells Ki that Sopeap spoke about him during their lesson that day. Ki is unhappy, assuming it was somehow critical, but Sang Ly assures him that she affirmed his desire to fight back against the gangs. However, Sang Ly makes Ki promise not to “be Captain Ahab,” since Ahab perishes for the sake of his revenge.