Dr. X was at pains to reassure Hackworth that he understood and 
sympathized with his situation; so much so that Hackworth spent much of the 
time wondering whether Dr. X had already known about it. "Say no more, it is 
taken care of," Dr. X finally said, cutting Hackworth off in midexplanation, 
and after that Hackworth was unable to interest Dr. X in the topic anymore. 
This was reassuring but unsettling, as he could not avoid the impression that 
he had just somehow agreed to a deal whose terms had not been negotiated or 
even thought about. But Dr. X's whole affect seemed to deliver the message that 
if you were going to sign a Faustian bargain with an ancient and inscrutable 
Shanghainese organized-crime figure, you could hardly do better than the 
avuncular Dr. X, who was so generous that he would probably forget about it 
altogether, or perhaps just stow the favor away in a yellowed box in one of his 
warrens.
By the end of the lengthy meal, Hackworth was so reassured that he had almost 
forgotten about Lieutenant Chang and the Primer altogether.