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Dr Lee brought the eggs into the hut and then joined the noisy throng rushing to the field Excited villagers, including many who had never seen an aircraft up close, cooverne and wondered who froe

The helicopter door opened and a short, portlya business suit and tie stepped out He took one look at the chattering crowd of villagers and an expression of terror crossed his broad face He would have retreated into the helicopter if Lee had not eased her way through the reet him

“Good afternoon, Dr Huang,” she called out in a strong enough voice to be heard above the babble “This is quite the surprise”

The man cast a wary eye over the crowd “I hadn’t expected such a large reception”

Dr Lee laughed “Don’t worry, Doctor Most of these people are related to me” She pointed to a couple whose weathered brown faces reathed in smiles “Those are my parents As you can see, they’re quite harmless”

She took Dr Huang by the hand and led hiers started to follow, but she waved theentleman alone

Back at her hut, she offered her visitor the battered folding chair she sat in to treat patients Huang mopped the sweat off his bald pate with a handkerchief and scraped the mud from his polished leather shoes She boiled water for tea on a ca took a tentative sip, as if he were unsure it was sanitary

Lee sat down in the patched-up old dining-room chair that the patients used “How do you like my open-air treatment room? I see my more modest patients inside the hut Farm animals, I treat on their own territory”

“This is a far cry fro in fascination at the hut, with its walls of mud and thatched roof

“This is a far cry froes My patients pay ry The traffic is not as bad as in Harvard Square, but it’s next to iood caramel caffe latte”

Huang and Lee had met years before at a mixer for Asian students and faculty at Harvard University He was a visiting professor froy She was finishing her graduate studies in virology The young wo immediately, and they had continued their friendship after returning to China, where he had risen to a high position in the ministry

“It has been a long ti why

I’ said

Dr Lee liked and respected Huang, but he had been aues ere conspicuously absent when she needed someone to speak out on her behalf

“Not at all,” Lee said with a note of haughtiness “I expect that you are probably carrying the apology of the authorities for their heavy-handed treatment of me”