This mildly reproachful comment stung Shao. The Liu clan had so many business interests. His father’s newspaper. Real estate. There was a tin mine somewhere up north. His older brother Tienming ran one of the shipping firms. But Shao had never taken an interest in any of them.

“Five minutes left!” a voice shouted from outside the bathhouse door. “And don’t use up all the hot water!”

The three finished washing and quickly got dressed. They emerged into the cold air, skin pink from hot water and scrubbing. A clothesline had been strung between two bunkhouses and they hung their towels up to dry.

“Look at the cuffs on my shirt,” Shorty remarked to Shao, “disgusting. You’ve managed to keep your clothes pretty clean.”

“What? Oh, it’s Sparrow,” Shao said. “I think she washed a few of my things.”

“As good as a personal maid, eh?” Shorty said. “I don’t suppose she’d be willing to do my laundry?”

“Ask her yourself,” he said, suddenly irritated with Shorty. “I’m going to help put away library books.”

But in the library warehouse, the shelves were already stacked, and volunteers were giving the books a final dusting. All that was left to do was put away the empty crates. Shao picked up the last two crates and carried them to the factory building. There, a dozen students had gathered, perched on empty carts and wagons, listening intently to Jenmei. He set the crates down.

“All of us come from big cities,” she said, “cities transformed by contact with the West. Foreign movies, international newspapers, schools that gave us the education needed to qualify for university. Even the poorest scholarship students among us are better off than the peasants and villagers we meet on our travels.”

From the quick turn of her head, he knew Jenmei had seen him.

“But we know nothing about the rural population. The government is counting on us to shape China’s future,” Jenmei said. “The vast majority of Chinese are rural. How can we shape China’s future, how can we help our countrymen when we’re ignorant about the lives of peasants a few miles outside our cities?”

In a rush of understanding, Shao realized Jenmei counted herself as one of the ignorant, as unprepared as the rest of them for the poverty they witnessed every day. Jenmei looked at him with a self-deprecatory smile. In the set of her shoulders Shao recognized purpose, enough to anchor a life. Resolve and determination he had yet to discover in himself.