Knock, knock, knock!
Around the hour of the Tiger, the knocking sounded again.
Chu Yao opened the door to find Lin Feng holding a basin of hot water, her expression humble and courteous. It eased the turmoil in his heart, which had kept him wrestling with himself all night. He let out a breath, stepped aside to let her in, and said calmly, "You don't need to close the door. The things are on the table."
Though they were teacher and student, they were also a man and a woman.
Even when alone, one had to be mindful of propriety and keep to proper conduct.
Lin Feng said, "Good morning, Teacher."
She set down the hot water and helped wring out a cloth.
After washing up, his drowsiness faded. Chu Yao got up and went to the eastern kitchen to heat the food he had made the night before. Lin Feng's memory wasn't good enough to remember something at a glance. Even though the material Chu Yao had prepared wasn't especially difficult, memorizing it still proved somewhat arduous. She read it aloud several times before she had a general impression.
That wasn't a problem, though. As Heaven and Earth Qi entered her body and tempered it, every aspect of her would improve by leaps and bounds. And Lin Feng was highly perceptive, too.
It was Chu Yao's first time teaching, but he was exceptionally patient. He broke down nearly all the introductory material on Word Spirits, so Lin Feng could understand and absorb it bit by bit.
"Cultivation is like rowing upstream: if you don't advance, you fall back. Reciting aloud can stir a resonance between yourself and Heaven and Earth Qi. Different Word Spirits, different people, different states of mind and levels of understanding can all affect the resonance.