Every evening the clan aggregated for a story circle. Lin Mu reckoned Tao Yinsu might learn better with other children around and might develop some connection with them. he would read from a thin volume about virtue and patience.
Tao Yinsu would be placed between Little Shrubby and Cattaleya so the child could be entertained and restrained simultaneously. Sometimes Tao Yinsu would interrupt the story to correct the moral. Sometimes the moral was improved. Sometimes the moral became a recipe for an insult nobody wanted to make.
In all of it Lin Mu saw the progress. Small, chaotic, messy progress.
By the end of the third week the clan had new rules, three very different baby songs, and a carved wooden plaque by the gate that read WATCH YOUR STEP, EXPECT INSULTS.
Tao Yinsu had learned how to request things politely sometimes, and Lin Mu had learned the exact point at which Tao Yinsu's outrage would tip into genuine laughter.
