“But it's special.”
“That is why I'm giving it to you.”
The girl opened the first page.
She read the sentence.
Then looked up.
“What does it mean?”
Naomi answered:
“It means you should never decide what another person is capable of before you listen.”
The girl smiled.
“I'll remember.”
Naomi nodded.
“So will you.”
Two years after the night of the hundred-thousand-dollar bet, Naomi returned to Maison Laurent.
This time, she was not carrying a tray.
She was attending a dinner as a guest.
Mr. Liang sat beside her.
Adrian sat across the table.
Several younger executives filled the room.
A new international agreement was about to be signed.
Before dinner, one of the executives made a joke.
“I've heard about you.”
Naomi smiled.
“That sounds dangerous.”
“You're the woman who embarrassed Adrian Vale.”
Adrian laughed.
“I deserved it.”
The executive looked at Naomi.
“Do you still speak Mandarin?”
“Yes.”
“Cantonese?”
“Yes.”
“French?”
“Yes.”
“Spanish?”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“I don't believe you.”
Naomi raised an eyebrow.
Adrian immediately recognized the expression.
He began laughing.
“Don't.”
The executive looked confused.
“Don't what?”
“Don't bet her.”
The room laughed.
But the executive was young.
Confident.
And unaware of history.
“I'll bet five thousand dollars.”
Naomi shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you don't need to lose five thousand dollars to learn a lesson.”
Mr. Liang smiled.
“What if he wants to learn?”
Naomi considered it.
Then she looked at the executive.
“Fine.”
He smiled.
“What are the rules?”
“No tricks.”
“Agreed.”
“You choose the language.”
“Chinese.”
“Business conversation?”
“Yes.”
Naomi nodded.
“Then ask me something difficult.”
He did.
She answered.
He asked another question.
She answered again.
Then he asked something about Chinese contract law.
Naomi corrected his assumption.
The executive's smile faded.
Five minutes later, he surrendered.
“You really know this.”
Naomi smiled.
“I told you.”
He shook his head.
“I thought the stories were exaggerated.”
Adrian leaned back.
“That is what I thought too.”
Everyone laughed.
Then Mr. Liang became serious.
“Do you know what I remember most about that night?”
Naomi looked at him.
“You were angry?”
“No.”
“You were impressed?”
“No.”
“What then?”
He smiled.
“I remember the silence.”
Naomi thought about it.
He continued.
“Everyone in that restaurant had an opinion about you before you spoke.”
He paused.
“Then you spoke.”
“And?”
“And suddenly everyone had to reconsider.”
Naomi smiled.
“That's why I learned languages.”
“Why?”
“To make people reconsider.”
Mr. Liang nodded.
“That is a worthy reason.”
Ten years after the original bet, Naomi stood before several hundred people in a university auditorium.
Behind her was a photograph of her grandmother.
Evelyn Sawyer.
Cleaner.
Mother.
Grandmother.
Teacher.
The woman who had first handed Naomi a notebook and told her to write.
Naomi had eventually completed her graduate degree.
She had become an international contract specialist.
She had helped negotiate agreements between companies in North America and Asia.
She had founded a nonprofit that provided language education to students who could not afford private lessons.
And she had never forgotten the night a millionaire offered her one hundred thousand dollars because he thought she could not speak Chinese.
People still asked her about it.
“What did you feel when he challenged you?”
Naomi usually answered honestly.
“At first?”