Ariel shook his head. "Apparently it differs. In China, no matter how well you assimilate, or how well you speak the language, you were always a 洋鬼子, a yáng guǐ zi, an outsider. Which I suppose is gaijin in Chinese; the expression is not at all polite, however." He chuckled. "I simply don't want to offend anyone. And I shudder to think of the fate of anyone who attempted to shackle you to any little world you didn't want." He kissed her, just briefly, amused that one so sure of herself would find his old-fashioned manners as appealing as she apparently did.