The Mu Family, Mu Xiangguang's courtyard.
At eight in the morning, wafts of sandalwood scent drifted through the bead curtain.
When Mu Yining arrived, a servant was carrying out a stack of meals, untouched. Seeing her, he stepped aside and bowed slightly.
Mu Yining extended her hand to part the bead curtain and entered; inside, the light was dim and smoke curled through the air.
She crossed the hall and walked into the adjoining room.
The small room had no windows, only a dim yellow lamp.
Mu Xiangguang, donned in a grey monk's robe, knelt with his back to her before a Buddha statue, murmuring, "Thirty-two features, eighty kinds of excellence, all perfectly possessed... to inspire immeasurable beings to arise..."
Mu Yining, holding an envelope, knelt quietly behind him to the right, hands joined together, gazing at the Buddha statue.
After Mu Xiangguang finished reciting that section, he gently turned a page of the scripture in front of him.
