Lian’s face transformed when Shao explained that Dr. Mao would operate on her mother. There was a small glimmer at first, like the flame from a matchstick. Then a smile that made her face glow like lamplight. She’d looked up at Shao as though he had performed a miracle. As though Shao were the one who would set her mother’s leg. For a moment, he thought she was going to fling her arms around him, and he braced himself in smiling anticipation. But instead she took a step back.

“You’re wonderful, Shao,” Lian said. “I can’t thank you enough.” Then she disappeared through the swinging doors back into the ward, leaving him alone with Sparrow.

Sparrow’s expression could only be described as appraising. “That was very kind of you, Young Master. And quick thinking.”

“Dr. Mao is the kind one,” he said. “He’s not going to charge Lian for the operation. He says his patients pay according to their means. No wonder he lives and works out of a tiny flat.”

“That will change when patients of means begin coming to him,” Sparrow said. “Why don’t you go home, Young Master? You should go see your mother. I’ll wait here in case Miss Hu or her mother needs anything.”

He nodded. “I’ll go home now. Let’s talk when you’re back home too. We haven’t spent much time together lately, have we?”

“If you have any spare time, you need to spend it with your mother, Young Master,” Sparrow said. “It matters to her and it matters to you. Once she’s gone, you’ll be sorry for every minute you weren’t by her side.”

“Sparrow, please don’t call me ‘Young Master’ anymore,” he said. “No one thinks of you as a servant. Once Second Aunt arranges a marriage for you, you’ll be mistress of your own household.”

Marriages and jobs. Gifts of money for the birth of a child and for funeral arrangements. The family servants could count on the Lius to take care of these things. But Sparrow didn’t respond. The silence between them grew.

“It seems so feudal, doesn’t it?” Shao said. Now he wished he hadn’t brought up the subject. “But Second Aunt will find a few suitable candidates. And you’ll get a good dowry.”

“I’m grateful to your father and Second Aunt,” Sparrow said. Her words were pleasant, yet unaccountably he felt reprimanded. “You should go home now.”

Chapter 36

Lian had spoken to Shao just once since West Gate Hospital. The day after her mother came home, there was a quiet knock on the apartment door, Shao and Sparrow. Lian put a finger to her lips. Her mother was sleeping.