“What. And just do nothing instead?” I felt disgusted that she would even ask. It must have shown on my face, as she rose and walked away from me, standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows. I wanted her fishbowl off. I didn’t want to talk to her like this, faceless. It put me at a disadvantage.

“But everyone does. Turn their eyes away. On a daily basis.” She pivoted back to me. “It’s why I urged my father to create a more affordable suit. So not only the rich can benefit from it.” Daiyu paced the foot of my bed. “But my father . . .” She crossed her arms, shoulders tensing. “My father is always a businessman first. And before I knew it, he had doubled the price of the suit, made a deal with Prosperity Bank . . . and the raffle. That ridiculous raffle!” Daiyu’s frustration was palpable.

I should have placated her, said her intentions were good. Which was the opposite of what her father was doing to the meis. He’d see us all in graves just to make a yuan. But I felt weak, vulnerable, and angry. And I wasn’t certain in my still-hazy mind if Daiyu’s intentions had been good.

“You can’t tell me you didn’t know—that your father would make a profit on the broken backs of meis. Happily. You’re his daughter, after all.”

She spoke so low I barely caught her words. “You would think the worst of me?”

I closed my eyes, head swimming. “I don’t know, Daiyu. I don’t know you.” I winced, my swollen throat aching. “I don’t know how much you see.”

Her silhouette against the windows reminded me of another day, when she stood gazing out on the lush green of Yangmingshan from my now-abandoned home. The 101’s neon blue exterior told me it was Friday. I’d been out cold for three days.

“What have I done that makes you think I’m so horrible?” She whipped around, stalking back to the bed. Her movements were bold, but her voice betrayed her hurt. “You say you don’t know me, but you seem to have made plenty of assumptions already.”

I drew a ragged breath. She was right. I had judged her before I had ever met her, simply because she was you. But no matter how much she cared, did it matter when her perspective was from a place of distance and comfort that her tremendous wealth afforded her?

“I understand you want to help the meis, but—”

“I’m beginning to see more, Jason,” Daiyu said. “And I’m here because I was worried about you. Is that so hard to believe?”

“It’s foolish to risk getting sick.” I swallowed. “We barely met.”

“I know you better than you knew that stranger you tried to save in Liberty Square.”

I blinked, caught off guard. “That’s different.”

“How so?”