"Do you have any particular evidence, or--?" (Oh look, a rich seam of information to mine.)

Bounce bounce. 

"Democracies don't have famines! --Well, that's not strictly true, there was one during a civil war and one time that someone failed to get food to a remote area we could only reach by flying."

"I don't see how people deciding their ruler and not having famines is connected?" (Or, well, he can, but it requires the Mandate a) not just being pretty words and b) not working at all the way anyone thought)

Bounce bounce. "It's actually really neat! The thing is that-- at least with post-Industrial-Age technology-- there's no reason to have a famine? We have enough food for everyone. If there's a famine, it's because for some reason the food isn't getting to the place where people need it. And people don't like famines so if there's a famine on your watch they'll vote you out. And the president knows this so they make sure that, if a famine is about to happen, they send in food relief right away."

"Ah, so maybe not so applicable to us."  (Which... Isn't great, but has its advantages. He likes working for this Emperor. He likes things not being in utter chaos. And he especially likes his head being attached to his shoulders, which trying to change political systems might give him difficulties with )

"Well, Haber-Bosch process, no famines. --I think ideally if you want to move more towards democracy you'd want an elected body that advises the Emperor and, mm, reminds him of facts he is of course very aware of. Like that he will be very unpopular if he doesn't deliver food aid."

"I wouldn't worry about the Emperor needed to be reminded that famines would not be did good for the nation or for him. What would you want for the Haber-Bosch process? I don't know what your people would want that we could give. Tea? Paintings?"

"Uh, I've mostly been hanging out here looking for someone with magic that will turn me into a girl."

"Ah, I'd love to help but unfortunately--" there's a vague gesture in the direction of the smart phone, and the concomitant 'Earth, no magic, etc'

(Jing Yi intends to sound very sympathetic, but while he is very good at giving the impression he wants, he's not perfect, and it maybe comes out more empathetic.)

"Yeah, well, apparently there's no shortage of people with magic gender transformation powers so if I wait around long enough..."

Lev is very bad at giving the impression he wants, and so the impression he's giving is that he's massively uncomfortable with this entire line of questioning.

Jing Yi is usually pretty good at reading people, but he is just a touch distracted. He picks up on the discomfort, and not the fact its not entirely true.

"There's certainly worse places to wait."

"I guess you could bring me books? I don't know how I'd explain where I found them."

"What books would you be looking for? Scriptures, histories, fiction--?"

"...Good question. I wish I knew more about Chinese history. Probably fiction and history? Especially obscure stuff. I bet we still have all of your scriptures."

"Fiction and history can be arranged."

"I don't want to violate some fine point of etiquette but I'm really happy to teach you as much science as you can fit in your head because... I like teaching things and don't like it when people starve?"

"I wouldn't want to leave you empty handed after your help, but I'm quite happy to learn whatever science you want to give me."

"Well, if I help you, maybe the person with gender transformation magic will help me."

"We've just got to hope someone as altruistic as you comes along."

"I'm not an altruist, I just like explaining things."

"The things you keep explaining are 'how to make smallpox less of a problem' and 'how to stop having famines'."

"I can explain useless things! Do you want to learn about Banach-Tarski."

"It's still a sign of good character that you opened with smallpox!  You still get points for that."

People should not think nice things about him. It's very uncomfortable.

"Do you wanna go up and get a hotel room? It might be easier for, like, getting you up to speed on tech."

"Sure. Though I can't stay too long. Don't want to get chewed out for 'what if you died in a ditch and no one found you.'"