Ever since her mother recovered, Ye Pingjun had gone back to Mingde Girls' School. She had also asked Bai Liyuan to return the gold bracelet Mrs. Li had given them. Pingjun managed the Ye household's expenses herself. She figured that once autumn came, the tenant farmers would send up some rent, and with a little tutoring on the side she could repay part of the nearly four hundred yuan hospital bill owed to Yu Changxuan. Only then did she feel at ease. It was a Sunday morning and the school was closed. Her mother, just over a serious illness, wanted to climb the mountain to the Guanyin Pavilion and give thanks for her recovery. Seeing that her mother was still weak, Pingjun said she would go in her place that afternoon. She spent the morning on her schoolwork in the outer room, then took a watering can out to tend the clumps of hostas along the foot of the wall. They were in bloom, the long white flowers pure as jade and without a speck of dust. Pingjun wore a moon-white long ...
Jici Hospital had been founded by the British, and it combined medicine with religion. A church stood on one side of the hospital, the hospital director was also a pastor there, and most of the nurses were educated nuns. The medical equipment was excellent, and the surroundings were pleasant. Ever since Ye Pingjun's mother had been brought here, she had been placed in a first-class ward under the care of first-rate doctors. Mrs. Ye improved day by day. Within half a month she could get out of bed and walk about, and Pingjun finally let herself relax. Gu Ruitong came every few days with several guards to ask after the patient, and he was unfailingly respectful to mother and daughter. Pingjun asked him again and again who had arranged all this, but he would never say. That morning, Pingjun fed her mother some porridge and helped her lie back down. Her mother's color was much better than the day before, and Pingjun smiled, feeling a good deal easier in her heart. A breath of per...