Sect Year 3 · second month · day 12 · Azure Stream Sect, the outer court yard
The outer court yard was still in shadow when the new students came out. They came in twos and threes through the low door of the bunkhouse, pulling their collars up round their ears and blowing into their hands. They stood about on the flat stone slabs in the wet grey light looking as though nobody had told them why they had been got out of bed.
There were eleven of them. Bao Tang came last, with his sleeves rolled and a ladle pushed through his belt. He took his place at the back of the line with the air of a man who had been put there for the stew.
Pei came out behind him with her notebook under her arm. She took the end of the front row without being asked. Lin noted it, and did not comment on it.
Beyond the gate the Qingliu road ran pale and empty into the morning. The Deacon’s broom leaned against the wall beside the gatepost, its head still dark from the night’s damp, and nobody had yet moved it.
Lin walked down the line. “Keep your weight where your breath is,” he said. “Not where your pride is. Most of you carry it in the chest. Put it lower, under the ribs, where nobody can see it.”
