Chapter 14: The Girl Who Listened
Wei Bolin sat cross-legged on the training ground with his palms pressed together and his eyes closed, and nothing happened.
The boy was trying. His breathing was steady, his posture correct, and when I softened my attention and reached for his qi signature I could feel the dense, slow energy I'd noticed during the wellness checks. It was there. Substantial, even. A foundation that most people would never develop naturally.
But he couldn't feel it himself.
"Anything?" I asked.
Bolin opened his eyes. Frustration sat on his face. "I feel my heartbeat. That's it."
"That's not nothing. Your heartbeat is the first layer. The qi moves underneath it."
"Underneath it." He looked at his hands. "How far underneath?"
"Close. Closer than you think. The problem isn't talent. It's the flinch response I mentioned. Your body doesn't recognize what it's looking for yet, so it filters the sensation out the same way you stop hearing the river after living beside it long enough."
Hao, who was running meridian drills on the far side of the field, called over without stopping. "Took Liang three weeks before he felt anything. He sat in the dirt every morning looking constipated."