Jiang Cheng takes a bite of the Brussels sprouts.

"This is the best thing I've ever tasted," he says sincerely.

(He's not self-aware enough to realize that this is because Yanli helped make them.)

She laughs. "You're going to have a great time here."

The Tianjin freshmen besides Huang are being introduced to some younger relatives of their older relatives' friends. It makes for a crowded table and nobody considered making room for Huang a priority. She looks for the nearest people who do not appear to be speaking a language she doesn't, and bows over her tray, and says, "May I join you?"

"Of course," she says. "I'm Jiang Yanli from Shanghai enclave. I'm a junior. This is my brother, Jiang Cheng."

"I am Yushi Huang, here with Tianjin."

"It's nice to meet you. Would you like some seasoning for your food? I made it myself in lab."

"I do not know when I will be able to pay you back for it."

"Oh, don't worry about it! I like making food taste better."

"A-jie--"

"If you will not miss it."

She tips some onto Yushi Huang's food.

It makes it taste not... good, but moreish, like a can of Pringles. She isn't enjoying it but it's much easier to eat.

"That is very cleverly done!" she says, going with considerable alacrity through her pile of beans. "I can tell I will miss fresh food very much but this is a tremendous help."

"Thank you!" she says. 

"Yanli is very clever."

"Is it an assignment or something you do as extra?"

"It was an assignment at first but I keep making it because it's very useful."

"Do you have advice on which things it is most important to attend classes and complete assignments for? I have been told I will not be able to go to each one while also taking on maintenance duties for Tianjin."

"In the Shanghai enclave, people go to shop and lab, but it's possible to get fast at them and to choose faster assignments. You can skip math and history if you're good at them and just show up in time to collect the assignments. Maleficaria studies is skippable for everyone as long as you get the homework and halfass it, the Shanghai maintenance track has a study group. In Shanghai enclave if you fall behind you tell Lan Xichen and he'll arrange things so you can go to the classes you have to go to, but most enclaves are not Shanghai enclave." She says this with pride.

"Thank you, that is valuable to know. I do not yet know who else is maintaining for Tianjin's other years."

"You might also be able to find someone to help you with tutoring, it's often faster to learn things one-on-one, and then you can skip class."

"My understanding is that tutoring must also be paid for."

"If you split it with someone so you go to history and they go to math that can be a good way to pay for it? Or you can try to persuade them that actually tutoring is its own reward because teaching someone else is the best way to learn. Lan Xichen tried that on Jin Zixuan."

"Did it work?"

"Yes, but then it turned out he was hopeless at tutoring because he kept implying people were stupid for not understanding things."

"Ah. I can see how that might not help very much."

"I do most of the tutoring now because my time isn't very valuable but we're worried about what's going to happen when I die."

"They should pay you for it! They shouldn't be taking advantage of you like that, having you tutor them for free."

"Well, they are doing our maintenance shifts, a-Cheng."

"What makes someone's time not very valuable?"

"My affinity isn't very useful and I'm sick," she says cheerfully.

"I had a medical exam before I was given the slot, as part of the battery of testing."

"It's not fair," she says.

"It's what it is. You were already sick when inducted, then?"

"I've been sick as far back as I can remember," she confirms.

"--Yanli deserves to have her spot."

"I did not say otherwise."

"Good," he says, settling down into a quieter form of angry defensiveness.

"I didn't know there were many illnesses that magic could not cure."

"Wen Qing has been working on it, she has a healing affinity, but we haven't found anything good. Painkilling spells are very dangerous, it turns out."

"How is that?"

"You stop being able to feel any pain and then you don't notice if you run into a desk."

"I believe that does not happen with ordinary drugs. Can spells not be made to work in that way?"

"Well, she's working on it. The milder painkilling spells don't do much for my fibro."

"I hope she is successful."

"I suppose," she says lightly, "anyone who's disabled in here is going to be someone healing magic can't touch."

"That seems likely, yes."