Then it was over. He nodded politely to them and walked on, bringing her with him.
“You handled that very well,” he said when they were out of earshot.
“They laughed at me.”
“They laughed because you are delightful. They are kind people or I would not have allowed them to approach.”
She fell silent. She did not like being the center of so much attention, even with his protection. She had no idea how tofunction in his world, and this felt very difficult. And yet he was smiling at her as if she had passed a great exam.
“Tell me more about your country,” he pressed. “You come from a working family, yes? Apothecaries. Did your brothers learn as well? Or did they choose something different?”
“Something different?”
“Well, yes. Perhaps the law or doctoring.”
“They will become apothecaries if they can, carrying on my father’s work. Neither of them seemed fit to take the government exam.”
“The government exam? That sounds fascinating.”
She thought of all the medicines she had brought to young men whose entire life would be determined by how they performed on one exam.
“It is a difficult test given to young men who study their entire lives for their moment. Those who pass will serve in the government. Their families will have honor, their life assured.”
“For government jobs? You mean like a barrister or a minister?”
She did not know those words. “It is a system that brings the smartest minds to serve the emperor.”
He gaped at her. “That’s extraordinary.”
“Even a shopkeeper can sire a brilliant child.”
He nodded slowly. “And all are given the opportunity?”
“Yes. Though only the wealthy can afford to teach their children what is required to pass the exam.”
“No doubt. No doubt.” He frowned at her. “But everyone may take the exam? Even a servant’s child?”
She was silent a moment, trying to judge his interest. “Doesn’t England have a way for the poor to advance? If the child is very, very smart?”
“Of course, we do. I mean, there are all sorts of ways for a child to have a better life than his parents.”
She watched his face carefully. She was in too precarious a position to argue with the man who controlled every aspect of her life. And yet, as a daughter of China, she had seen so much that she had not been allowed to say. She had slipped into sickrooms, hidden in the back counting houses, addressed the poor who could not afford a man’s services.
Her father had not wanted to spend his time on such people, so he had sent his daughter to get them away from the shop door. And she had gone to them and learned to listen. Like them, she’d had no power to change her circumstances, but they taught her how to listen.
“Tell me what you are thinking,” he commanded.
“Only that I am grateful—”
“No, don’t do that. Yihui, if I wanted flattery, I would be surrounded by very different people.”
Very well. If he wanted honesty, then she would give it to him. And if he did not like what she said, then she would judge him harsher for it. And perhaps, love him a little less.
“Why do you not teach your people to read?”
“What? We read and write.”
“Your servants do not.”
