sunday six

from Ain't No Mountain High Enough chapter 2 "close to the sun in lonely lands":

Okay, new toehold. "Shì shì shì shí shī," he sang quietly to himself, "shì shǐ shì…" Mandarin pronunciation practice, if anyone asked, to help him focus on anything but how far below his feet the ground was (at least twelve meters) and how scared he was that Marinette would fall (very), and to make sure his racing heart stayed firmly in the realm of aerobic exercise. Not Adrien shushing himself, absolutely not (and certainly nothing to do with needing lyrics for his melodic composition that weren't about a lonely little kitty on a rooftop), and he could find online the text of 'Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den' to prove it. If anyone heard him, which no one could, except maybe Athleisure, and probably not Marinette. "…shǐ shì shí shī shìshì—"

("Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den")