Of Pao's two newest hires, Mushi is a treasure—he laughs amiably at the night watchman's jokes, and flirts gamely along with the matrons, and offers a piece of candy to every child crying in their mothers’ lap—but his surly nephew is another matter: Regardless of how Pao coaxes and cajoles, impores and hisses Smile, Li! at him, Li just scowls harder as he passes out tea cups, until Pao throws his hands up in the air and banishes him to the kitchen, out of sight of the customers.
He'd supposed he’d never see anything but a frown on Li’s scarred face, but then—
“And then the leaf said, I'm bushed!" Mushi guffaws—and although Li ducks his head, he isn't fast enough to hide the smile that reluctantly lifts the corner of his mouth, and Pao thinks in surprise that he's not such a bad-looking boy after all.
There for an instant, and then gone, an expression so fleeting that Pao thinks he might have imagined it, if not for the way Li’s shoulders continue to shake silently as he snatches up his tray and rushes back into the kitchen.