"I mean, yes, but it's unnerving that there might be some risk we don't even know about it because nobody gets as far as telling."

"Fair enough, I just mean--the death rates are the death rates, you know, it's not like we're mundanes and you find out there's a serial killer in your town and your odds of dying have just skyrocketed."

"Weird number of muggleborns, this year."

"Ooh, did you not hear about Chicago yet?"

"...no?"

"Someone ganked the entire enclave. There are, like, a couple of survivors who were outside at the time, that's all."

"Bloody hell, how does that happen?"

"I don't know and neither do they! The entrances were just gone, apparently."

"That's terrifying!"

"I know, right, people are talking about it even over there," she says, gesturing vaguely at the Mandarin side of the room. 

"Double the languages, double the scary gossip?"

Snort. "It's not more languages, just different ones. And I'd rather hear the scary gossip than get blind-sided by it."

"You know what, that's fair."

"Speaking of gossip on the Mandarin side, do you know, we've already had a death this year? ...I mean. Besides, you know. Chicago."

"Already? Did someone trip on the stairs?"

"Not sure! But a Shanghai freshman they were expecting never showed up in the cafeteria."

"That's not a death, that's a rock in their shoe."

"Maybe. They're still abuzz with it, and nobody's identified a Mandarin mundie."

"It wouldn't have to be a mundie, half their regular kids don't get in."

"Point. Well, nobody's admitting to not having passed the exams, for sure."

"Would you?"

"Hey, my parents moved to the States for a reason."

"Good for them."

"The reason not actually being that they thought their kids wouldn't be able to pass the exams, but yeah, no, if I'd'a failed 'em I'd keep it firmly zipped."

"There's no way to know in advance your kids will be however smart you have to be to pass a Chinese test."