The Tuesday seminar ran from nine to ten-fifty.
Doctor Mu's small applied-coursework module on column-chromatography theory met in the small basement classroom of the Mu building, fifteen students at the small wooden tables, the small whiteboard at the front, the small Tuesday-morning rain at the small narrow window above the door. Bai Yueran was in the small front row in the same rust-colored sweater she had on at the Mu lab Wednesday. She did not, when I came in at 8:55, turn. She was at the small notebook on her desk, working a small problem.
I sat at the third table from the front. I took out my notebook. I worked the small Tuesday seminar problem set Doctor Mu had set yesterday. Doctor Mu came in at nine. He spoke for forty minutes about the small careful relationship between the small careful elution-time variance and the small careful column-bed packing density. He set us a small paired exercise. He paired me with the boy at the next table — a small specific small careful HZUT-second-year named Yu Chen who had worked the lab-volunteer slot two Wednesdays before mine. We worked the small paired exercise. We finished at ten-twenty. Doctor Mu reviewed the room's solutions for the last thirty minutes. He dismissed us at ten-fifty.
I packed the notebook.
Bai Yueran did not, leaving, look at me. She walked out the small back door of the basement classroom with the small canvas bag over her left shoulder.
In the small corridor outside the classroom, at the small drinking fountain near the stairwell, she was at the fountain bending to drink when I passed. She did not, drinking, look up. She said, in the small ordinary register the lab register used, into the basin of the fountain:
"Wednesday at four. The deposit is a small folded paper. Don't, between now and Wednesday at four, ask me anything by any channel."
I did not stop walking.
I said, into the corridor, in the same register: "All right."
I went up the stairs and out the front door of the Mu building into the small Tuesday-morning rain.
I walked back to the dorm.
I worked, the rest of the morning and the afternoon, the small set of in-house notes Wanqing had bonded-DM'd me at 6:00 AM on the *Black River Concord* envoy: Liu Bofan, twenty-eight IRL years old, MA in commercial law from the Beijing-municipal-college 2010 cohort, two IRL years at the small Tianxia-adjacent legal-services holding company *Hengtai Cheng*, in-game two IRL years on *Black River Concord*'s rolls as the small careful officer-of-record, sixty-member guild, headquartered at the small careful Black River trading hub on the southern continental quadrant, charter currently mid-tier, funding line Hengtai Cheng → *Black River Concord*'s in-game treasury at a small careful 8K-yuan IRL-equivalent monthly pass-through. Wanqing had attached, at the bottom of the in-house, a single small careful line: *He will, at the south-gate step, offer two things. He will offer a 30% revenue share for two IRL months on a small careful joint Black River Beasts farm, and he will offer the small careful Continental Qualification syndicate seat at the small careful Hengtai-Cheng-funded sponsor-tier. Decline both at the front door. He will leave without rancor. He will, after leaving, file the decline up to Hengtai Cheng. Hengtai Cheng will, by Friday, decide whether to escalate. They will not, this knock, escalate. They will note. The note is the point of the knock for Hengtai Cheng. The point of the knock for Liu Bofan is the small careful entry in his own small careful career file that he met you and was not refused by an officer below the Hengtai-Cheng line.*
I read the in-house twice.
I logged in at 6:42 PM IRL.
Wanqing was at the south-gate step at 6:44. Old Wolf was in the small eastern alcove of the south-gate gatehouse at 6:46. The bond aura at the eight-centimeter mark held its steady gold. The small wooden tankard was, this evening, full — Old Wolf had bought a fresh one at the small alcove tavern during the day.
Liu Bofan came up the south road at six-fifty exactly.
He had on the small careful crimson-and-grey cloak of *Black River Concord* — an old guild's old colors, the small careful cloak that read, at the cross-server ally distance, as *we are old enough to be taken seriously*. He carried no visible weapon. He had, at his belt, a small careful folded charter scroll in the small careful brass-cased tube the cross-server ally envoys carried scrolls in.
He stopped at three meters from the south-gate step. He did not, the small two seconds before he spoke, look at the alcove. He had, however, registered the alcove. I could tell by the small careful angle of his head at the moment he stopped.
He bowed, the small careful inclination of the head a cross-server envoy bowed at a small probationary guild's commander.
He said: "Bladeless of *Severing Light*. I am Liu Bofan, officer-of-record for *Black River Concord*. May I have a small specific brief small careful conversation."
I said: "You may have the small conversation. I will not, however, take the chair. Stand. The conversation will be brief."
He registered it. He did not, on his face, change anything.
He said: "I have come on behalf of *Black River Concord*'s seat-holders to offer a small careful two-part proposition for your guild's consideration. Part one: a 30% revenue share for two IRL months on a small careful joint Black River Beasts farm operation at the southern continental quadrant. Part two: a small careful sponsor-tier syndicate seat in the small careful Continental Qualification Round One, funded through *Hengtai Cheng* commercial-services. The syndicate seat carries twelve members in addition to your eleven. The seat is, at our offer, the small careful officer-tier sponsor seat — your guild commands the seat's tactical at the small careful operational layer; *Hengtai Cheng* funds the seat's commercial obligations at the small careful underwriting layer."
He paused.
He said: "I am not, in the offer, asking for an answer this evening. I am asking only for the small careful permission to leave the offer in writing at the south-gate step for your guild's consideration over the small careful next forty-eight IRL hours."
I held his eyes.
I said: "Liu Bofan."
"Yes."
"I am declining both parts of the offer at the door this evening. I am declining at the door because *Severing Light*'s charter — at this stage of the small careful eleven-member probationary period — does not take cross-server revenue-sharing at any percentage and does not take Continental Qualification syndicate seats at any sponsor tier. The decline is final at the door. You will not need to leave the offer in writing. You may, with the small specific clarity of an envoy who came in good faith and was met in good faith, file the decline up your reporting line as *declined at the door, charter-stage rationale*. The rationale is precise. Hengtai Cheng will accept the rationale. The rationale will, by Friday, be on Hengtai Cheng's small careful internal note as a small careful clean line."
He held the response for the small two seconds the holding took.
He said: "I understand."
He bowed again, the same small careful inclination.
He said: "Bladeless. May I have, before I go, one small careful side question that is not part of the offer."
I considered it.
I said: "You may have one."
He said: "The Brigade splinter cell at the southern Cinnabar Marsh corridor on the Saturday a week and three days ago — the read of the small careful four-minute-forty engagement-to-clear, which has appeared on the small careful Hengtai Cheng internal monitoring as a small careful Continental qualification class read — is that read accurate from your guild's perspective."
I did not, before answering, look at the alcove. I had, however, registered Old Wolf's small careful one-syllable cough that his cough always was when an answer he wanted given was a small careful hold-the-line answer.
I said: "The read is the read. I do not, on my own behalf, qualify it. The read is the splinter cell's read. The splinter cell, by their own report, was at the corridor that evening to read, not to engage. The read is what it is."
He nodded.
He said: "Thank you, Bladeless of *Severing Light*."
He turned. He walked west down the south road toward the lower-city night market at the small careful walk of an envoy who had been received and would file the meeting up the line as a small careful clean meeting.
When his bond marker had gone off the south-gate map Wanqing turned to me.
She said, on the bonded thread: *Clean. He took the rationale. He will not, at Hengtai Cheng, dispute it. The note will be the note.*
*Yes.*
*The side question was the side question. Hengtai Cheng's internal monitoring has the splinter read.*
*Yes.*
*The splinter read got to Hengtai Cheng faster than it should have.*
*Yes.*
*Old Wolf in the alcove will know how. We will ask him after the second knock.*
*All right.*
Old Wolf came out of the small eastern alcove at 7:08. He carried the small wooden tankard, half-emptied. He did not, at the south-gate step, sit down. He stood at three meters from where Liu Bofan had stood and looked west down the south road at the small distant figure of Liu Bofan walking down it.
He said: "He is the small specific kind of envoy Hengtai Cheng sends when they want to test, not when they want to negotiate. He came tonight, by my read, primarily for the side question. The two-part offer was the small careful cover. The side question was the body of the visit. Hengtai Cheng is reading the read. They are not, by my count, the only ones."
I said: "How did the splinter read get to Hengtai Cheng."
Old Wolf considered it.
He said: "By the small careful Brigade-leadership-residual line. The Brigade leadership has, since the third-month-patch reorganization, maintained a small careful informal civic intelligence channel into Hengtai Cheng — by way of a small careful Brigade-residual figure named Mao Lianxi who is, in the IRL frame, a partner at Hengtai Cheng's small careful third-floor commercial-litigation practice. Mao Lianxi was, in month one of the launch-week, a small careful Brigade civic-affairs adjunct under founder Mei Qing. He took the third-month-patch reorganization as an opportunity to small carefully accept an IRL job offer at Hengtai Cheng and to small carefully maintain the small careful informal channel. The splinter read reached him at 11:16 PM IRL on Saturday. It reached the small careful Hengtai Cheng partner-meeting Sunday at 10 AM. Hengtai Cheng read the read at the partner-meeting. The decision to send Liu Bofan tonight was made at the partner-meeting at 10:42 AM Sunday."
He looked at me.
He said: "The Brigade-leadership-residual line is on the small list I gave Wanqing last night. Mao Lianxi is on the small list. The small list does not, however, name Hengtai Cheng as the channel terminus. I am, tonight, naming it. I will, at the IRL western fountain on Sunday at 7:35, ask the small careful third-party observer at the small noodle stall the small careful follow-up question I have been waiting four IRL months to ask."
He paused.
He said: "I am, by Sunday at 7:35, going to know who the third-party observer is."
I held that.
I said: "All right."
Old Wolf walked off west toward the lower-city night market with the small half-emptied tankard in his right hand.
Wanqing and I sat on the south-gate step until 7:18 PM IRL.
She did not, at the eight-centimeter gap, close it.
I logged out at 7:20.
In my chest the second voice — *three months* — was quiet. The first voice — the old counter — said:
*The first knock was clean. The second knock will be Old Wolf's — the splinter-affiliated. The third comes after. The four-IRL-month wait Old Wolf has been on at the south-gate step is, by Sunday at 7:35, going to end.*
I closed my eyes.
Sign in to comment
No comments yet.