I was at the small dumpling vendor at the eastern end of the small awning at 7:14 PM IRL.
The vendor was a small wiry woman in her late forties in a small clean white apron. She was at the small folding table behind the small steamer-stack with a small careful long-handled wooden ladle and the small careful three baskets of small careful pre-folded dumplings — pork-and-cabbage, pork-and-chive, and the small careful Sunday-only mushroom-and-celery. She gave me the small pork-and-cabbage, eight to the small careful paper plate, with the small dish of vinegar and the small saucer of chili oil. I paid. I sat at the small folding stool at the eastern end of the small awning with the small paper plate on the small folding table and the small dish of vinegar at my left.
I did not, when Wanqing came down the western boulevard at 7:22 PM IRL in the dark green sweater under the dark coat, look up.
She walked across the small lower-city night-market square at the small steady walk that did not change for the small Sunday-evening foot traffic. She bought a small bowl of beef-noodle soup at the small noodle stall at the western end of the same small awning — three meters west of where I was. She sat at the small folding stool the small older man in the grey jacket — Old Wolf — sat at on Sundays.
Old Wolf was not, this evening, at the noodle stall.
He was, by the small careful in-game clock, at the in-game western fountain bench at the in-game lower-city night-market square — except that he had told us last night that the small careful Sunday-evening conversation would be at the IRL western fountain bench, and the IRL western fountain bench was at thirty meters from the small noodle stall, across the small open western edge of the small lower-city night-market square.
Old Wolf walked into the IRL square at 7:33 PM IRL.
He had on a small grey jacket. He had at his right hand a small folded square of green paper. He walked across the small square at the small careful walk of an older man who had been walking across small squares his whole life. He sat down on the carved-stone bench at the western fountain rim — the same bench Wanqing and I had sat on two weeks ago tonight — at the small left side. The bench was empty otherwise.
The third-party observer came down the western boulevard at 7:35 PM IRL exactly.
She was a small careful woman in her late thirties IRL, in a small careful navy-blue cardigan over a small careful black turtleneck and small careful charcoal trousers and small careful flat-soled shoes. She had her hair in a small careful low bun at the nape. She carried a small canvas tote of the small careful Hangzhou-municipal-public-library kind. She did not, walking across the small square, look at anyone.
She sat down on the carved-stone bench at the western fountain rim at the small right side, at the eight-centimeter mark from Old Wolf's small left elbow.
She set the small canvas tote at her feet.
She said, in a small careful even voice that carried — through the small careful three meters of the small awning over the small steady ambient noise of the small Sunday-evening night market — clearly to the small dumpling vendor at the eastern end of the small awning:
"Old man."
Old Wolf, looking at the small western fountain basin at the small reflection of the small yellow lamps in the small dry leaves: "Zhao Yiwen."
"You knew."
"I have known, since the small careful third-month-patch's small careful relocation of the Hangzhou-9 internal-roster file to the small careful Brigade-residual archive at the cairn at the southern Cinnabar rim, that the small careful third-cycle adjunct who took the small careful Coalition-quiet-section retainer was named Zhao Yiwen. I have not, until tonight, been able to confirm that Zhao Yiwen was the woman at this small careful bench on Sundays."
"And tonight you can confirm."
"Sun Xiulan said the small careful copper coin is still in her left pocket."
There was the small two-second pause the small careful recognition took.
Then Zhao Yiwen said: "It is."
She said: "May I ask you the small careful question you came to ask, Old Wolf."
He said: "May I ask which line you are serving by sitting at this bench on Sundays."
She held that for the small careful four seconds the holding took.
She said: "Old Wolf. The Coalition's quiet section pays my small careful retainer at twenty-thousand yuan IRL-equivalent monthly. I have, since the third-month-patch, taken the small careful retainer. I have taken the small careful retainer for two reasons. The first is — by the small careful Hangzhou-9 first-cycle convention I came up under — I would never refuse a small careful retainer that put me in the small careful position to keep my eyes on the small careful side that watches the small careful Hangzhou-9 residual line. The second is — by my own small careful December-2013 family decision — my mother needs the small careful surgery on her small careful right hip, and the small careful surgery's small careful eight-month-out-of-pocket schedule has been, since January, the small careful schedule the retainer pays. The retainer pays the surgery. The surgery is the small careful immediate. The small careful primary loyalty is — by the small careful first-cycle convention I came up under — the small careful Hangzhou-9 residual line. The small careful retainer is the small careful instrument."
Old Wolf nodded once.
He said: "Thank you, Zhao Yiwen."
She said: "Old Wolf. I am — by the small careful Hangzhou-9 first-cycle convention you and I both serve — required, having confirmed my answer to your question, to give you the small careful Sunday-bench piece I have been carrying for the four IRL months you have been at the bench-watching post for me to give. The piece is: the Coalition's quiet section, by the small careful November fourth quiet-section partner-meeting, has — at the small careful direction of the small careful continental committee chair — opened the small careful pre-Continental-One civic-historical-context-vendor selection. The vendor selection's small careful three-vendor short list — Hengtai Cheng, Qing River Strategic, and Quiet Section Limited — does not, by the small careful inner-circle decision the partner-meeting actually made, contain the small careful three vendors that will be selected. The small careful three-vendor short list is the small careful public list. The small careful inner-circle decision selected one vendor: Quiet Section Limited. The small careful selection is the small careful self-deal. The small careful Coalition's continental committee chair has, by the self-deal, just consolidated the small careful pre-Continental-One civic-historical-context-vendor pipeline under his own roof."
Old Wolf was quiet a long moment.
He said: "The continental committee chair is."
Zhao Yiwen said: "Wang Jingxun's father."
"The TT founder."
"The TT founder. The small careful Coalition continental committee chair is, since 2011, the small careful TT founder. The small careful self-deal opens the small careful pre-Continental-One pipeline to the small careful TT-founder-and-son consolidation that Bai Tianyu has, by the small careful pattern of his abstentions on the Hangzhou cell question, been quietly preparing his small careful 12.4% block to oppose."
Old Wolf nodded once.
He said: "Thank you, Zhao Yiwen."
She said: "There is one more piece. The small careful Brigade-leadership inner circle has — by the small careful November fifth meeting — decided to send their small careful Mei-Tiezhu envoy in a small careful Lower-City Merchants' Guild cover to *Severing Light*'s south-gate step. The visit was last night. The decline at the door was clean. The Brigade-leadership inner circle has, by the small careful Sunday-morning meeting earlier today, decided to come to the south-gate step in their own colors within nine IRL days. The envoy will be Mei Qing's surviving widow — Mei Yulan. She will come at 7 PM IRL on Tuesday the eighteenth. She will offer a small careful one-line proposition: a small careful permanent civic-affiliate arrangement preserving *Severing Light*'s small careful tactical autonomy and the Brigade-leadership-residual line's small careful corridor protection through the small careful Continental One campaign. The small careful arrangement is — by the small careful inner-circle proposal — the small careful kind of arrangement the Brigade leadership has not, in three IRL years, proposed to anyone. They are proposing it to *Severing Light* because the small careful Hangzhou-9 residual line — which Mei Yulan has, since 2009, been the small careful inner-circle protector of — is at *Severing Light*. They are protecting the line by binding to the line."
Old Wolf was quiet a longer moment.
He said: "Mei Yulan was Sun Xiulan's flatmate at the small careful Hangzhou apartment in 2008."
Zhao Yiwen said: "She was. They are still."
Old Wolf said: "All right."
Wanqing — at the small noodle stall, at three meters from the small dumpling vendor — said:
"Zhao Yiwen."
Zhao Yiwen turned her head, the small fraction the turning took, toward the noodle stall.
She said: "Wanqing-of-the-Pingjiang-Road."
Wanqing said: "My aunt asked me to ask you, when Old Wolf had finished his question: my aunt taught me the cadence at the kitchen table for twelve years. Did she ever, in those twelve years, knew Su Lan to teach the cadence to anyone else."
Zhao Yiwen said: "She taught it to me, in the same small careful Pingjiang Road kitchen, on the Sundays I went home from the small careful Hangzhou-9 third-cycle adjunct training in 2009. She taught me at the table opposite where she taught you. She did not, in those twelve years, teach it to a third. The cadence is, in the small careful living version, in three pairs of hands: yours, mine, and the small careful pair my mother does not, by the small careful Pingjiang Road auntie-network protection-protocol, name. Your aunt — Su Lan — knows where the third pair is. She has not, by the small careful protocol, named it to me. She has, by the small careful protocol, named it to your mother. Your mother has, by the small careful protocol, not named it to you."
Wanqing said: "Will the third pair come."
Zhao Yiwen said: "The third pair has been at the small careful Sunday-evening corner table at the small careful Pingjiang Road tea-shop two doors east of your aunt's flat for the eleven Sundays since the launch-week of this game. The third pair is reading the small careful Pingjiang Road auntie-network ledger as it accumulates. The third pair will, by my count, decide whether to come within the small careful four IRL weeks following the small careful November-eighteenth Mei Yulan visit. The deciding is — by the small careful protocol — not mine to predict. It is the small careful third pair's."
Wanqing said: "Thank you, Zhao Yiwen."
Zhao Yiwen said: "Thank you, Wanqing-of-the-Pingjiang-Road. Tell your aunt — when you next see her — that the small careful copper coin Sun Xiulan keeps in her left pocket has, on the obverse, the small careful Qing-dynasty mintmark her grandmother kept it for; on the reverse, the small careful chip the small careful 1968 kitchen knife took out; and on the small careful edge, where my own small careful eyes have been, the small careful pinprick I added with a small careful pin in 2009. Tell her the pinprick is still where I put it."
Old Wolf — looking still at the small fountain basin — said: "Zhao Yiwen."
She said: "Yes, Old Wolf."
He said: "Will you, on the small careful Tuesday the eighteenth at 7 PM IRL, be at the small careful south-gate step's small careful eastern alcove with the small careful copper coin in your hand."
She said: "I will."
She stood up.
She picked up the small canvas tote.
She walked east across the small square, past the small dumpling vendor at the eastern end of the small awning at the small careful three meters, and past me at the small folding stool with the small careful four uneaten dumplings on the small careful paper plate, and past the small east-side trolley stop at the small careful five meters further, and disappeared into the small careful November Sunday-evening Hangzhou crowd.
Old Wolf stood up.
He walked west across the small square at the small careful older-man's walk.
Wanqing came over to the small dumpling vendor's awning at three meters' delay. She did not, at the small awning, sit down. She said only: "Walk."
We walked.
We walked west out of the small lower-city night-market square at the steady walk Wanqing walked all walks. At the western boulevard's bus stop she stopped. She turned. She did not, at the bus stop, look at me. She said:
"The third pair, in my mother's hands. She did not tell me. She had, by the small careful protocol, no instruction to tell me. The decision to tell me is — by the small careful protocol — at the small careful third pair's discretion. If the small careful third pair decides to come within the small careful four IRL weeks after Mei Yulan's visit, my mother will, on the small careful Sunday after, name them to me at the small careful kitchen table."
I said: "All right."
She said: "Cangtian."
"Yes."
She said: "I had not, until the small careful witness this evening, understood that my mother — Mrs. Su, the small careful Suzhou-shopkeeper's-wife who gave you the first piece of rib without ceremony at the small careful pork-rib lunch on the small Saturday three weeks ago — was, in the small careful civic-historical context I have not yet decided whether to ask you about, a small careful active small careful protector of the small careful Hangzhou-9 residual line. I had thought she was the small careful Suzhou-shopkeeper's-wife. I am, by the small careful witness this evening, understanding that she is also that. The careful both at once."
I said: "All right."
We took the No. 7 bus to the dormitory north intersection. We walked from the intersection to the small western lane in silence. At the small western lane intersection she stopped. She put a hand briefly on the back of my left hand at the wrist.
She said: "Tomorrow at 6 AM IRL we log in. Old Wolf will be at the south-gate step. He will, after his small careful own deciding overnight, give us the small four-civic-line map he has been waiting four IRL months to draw."
"All right."
"Sleep, Cangtian."
"Sleep, Wanqing."
She walked into the dorm-corridor north entrance.
I walked west toward A-7.
In my chest the second voice — *three months and three weeks* — was quiet. The first voice — the old counter — said:
*Mei Yulan. Mei Qing's widow. Sun Xiulan's flatmate since 2008. Mei Yulan will come on Tuesday the eighteenth at 7 PM IRL with a small permanent civic-affiliate arrangement that the Brigade leadership has not in three IRL years offered to anyone. Mrs. Su is the small careful Pingjiang Road active small careful protector of the small careful third pair the small careful November-eighteenth visit will, in its careful aftermath, force into the careful open. The careful four-civic-line map Old Wolf will draw tomorrow at 6 AM is — by the small careful witness this evening — the careful map of: the original Brigade (Mei Yulan), the Coalition's quiet section (under the small careful TT founder's continental committee chair via Quiet Section Limited self-deal), the Hangzhou-9 residual (Su Lan, Sun Xiulan, Zhao Yiwen, Wanqing, the small careful third pair, and the small careful Pingjiang Road auntie-network protection layer), and the small fourth I have not, by tomorrow at 6 AM, named.*
I closed my eyes.
I did not sleep, for a long time. Then I slept.
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