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It was an elegant exaggeration. Wang Mok could not have promised more had he been the emperor instead of only a mandarin. Nevertheless he was fabulously wealthy, so that within reason he could make good his boast.
"Up till now," the doctor went on, "I have only a theory."
"What more do you need?"
"An ear."
The mandarin leaned back and sighed. "A living ear? Where could we find one willing to part with so necessary an appendage save as the result of violence? Besides which, to make the matter more difficult, an ear would have to be found that would match in symmetry the ear I have lost."
"That should not be hard," Wen Hsi said, musingly. "Surely among the hosts of condemned murderers, waiting to have their heads ignominiously chopped off, we could find one willing to give up his ear in exchange for his head."
"Vast approval do I bestow on your plan," the mandarin commented. "Proceed at once with it. Days will drag until that hour when the symmetry of my face shall be restored."
