Qinghe finished the first set of candidate readings in the infirmary annex. She made a copy of Yan’s results and handed it to him across the table. The pulse stone showed steady channels and a stronger response after the lozenge. Beside it, she had written that the improvement was specific to Yan, not a regimen for other candidates.
“You wrote ‘reported focus’ here,” he said.
“Because you described it. I measured the pulse.”
“That’s fair.”
He ran a finger down the figures. Qinghe had written the first reading before the lozenge, then the two readings after it. The numbers rose slightly and settled. Beside them, she had marked the time his eyes remained unusually sharp.
“This is more careful than the note I would have made,” he said.
“What would you have written?”
“That I took the lozenge and felt better.”
